Post your work area!

[Jfl0]

this photo isn't in my shop, but in my room. I built the shelf in my shop though- for a nominal $10-$20 US, you can buy pine boards cut at your local hardware store with some dowel pegs. With those, you can assemble any size shelf you want; limited only by the size of the boards. I would not make the height any larger than 6-7 times the width of a board, as a general rule, to prevent tipping. No problem if you bolt it to the wall. When I get my own home, I plan on bolting shelves to the wall 5-6 inches above the floor so that I can vacuum underneath and not damage the carpet.





I flatten and save box tops for gundam boxes, and I'll either throw away the bottom or use it to store something. They come in handy.





Kits on the lower shelf. Most of them are already finished or are missing parts- I need to go down there and clean out kits that are a loss or are complete by throwing out old boxes (and saving the tops!)





Every tool has its place in my shop, and I am very annoyed when someone takes a tool and does not return it to the shop. The electronics and soldering equipment have been moved to a plastic bin I recently acquired for free.





Our shop also serves as a firearm cleaning station. In the back is a rifle on top of the fridge, unloaded and pointed in a safe direction. This is a second fridge my parents decided to keep. If it were my house, I would have this fridge and other vital equipment on solar or wind power via batteries. That's just me. I've seen $100-$200 in good meat wasted because of a power outage that lasted 4 days. Behind the snowman is my sink. I pour all toxic chemicals into a old tide detergent jug and have the chemicals properly disposed of.





Various things in storage. This shelf has been cleared now for kits waiting for assembly, paint or to dry. Under the dewalt box is where my paints are now located. I took two pieces of wood, drilled holes and stuck 5 dowels in between the wood pieces, equally spaced. This helps to organize my paint jars.





Where the Wing Gundam box is, all of that shelf was moved over to the unit to the right, and a computer placed there. I use it to keep my dinosaur running, play old games that won't work on my quad core upstairs, and to log time on kits. Above: I did not have room in my room for some kits, so they are relocated here. The smaller 1/600 Yamato is now up in my room, and was my first airbrushed ship model.





model maker air compressor. I use a Badger 200NH airbrush and I love the results.





There is something important I need to discuss. Directly behind me is the furnace to the house, and when it engages in the winter a couple of pilot flames ignite. When I am painting, I specifically request that we turn off the heat, give the shop 1-2 hours to properly vent, then turn the heat back on. So far we have had no problems. Flammable liquids are kept 10-20 feet away from that furnace in sealed containers.



What's your shop like? Chaos, an organized mess, or neat and tidy? Mine is somewhere in the middle, but is usually messy.

[Jfl0]

I listen to music when building my kits. This is how I do it. Lower left corner: NEVER go without a multitool like a Leatherman or a Swiss Army Knife.






Ends of old boxes were cut off and used as a sort of board/plate to rest parts on as they dry, or if I need to keep them in a safe location.





In 2011 I had to move about 900 miles across the country. I trusted the moving company to properly pack my models and I expected them to know what they were doing. Two 1/350 ships I owned were a loss as well as a few vehicles. About 60-70% of the collection survived the moves. My MG gundams were purchased and built here at the new house. They were very sorry for the damage, and provided the costs to rebuild the kits and a little more. I used the money to purchase other kits and equipment, but one day I will rebuild those 1/350 ships, and they will look better than the first ones I did My very first model ever, a 1/200 DD-445 fletcher, which looks like utter CRAP, survived the move because it was packed in a box to begin with.


When hours of work and large bills being spent on these kits, it would break my heart if this happened again. I set out, as an engineer to find a solution, and I found a cheap and easy one. There are small 3/4" thick boards that run 1.5" in width and 48" long. I have them cut at the hardware store to specific dimensions for each kit, then I use a strong posterboard as a wall. For moving a kit, I would saran wrap or plastic shrink wrap the boxes for extra protection. This would minimize damage to the kits. I lay gundams down as if the RX-78-2 were lying on the back of a truck. There is enough room sometimes for more than one kit in a box, so I "double deck" by adding in smaller blocks of wood and creating an additional floor to store additional kits.


To open the boxes, which are labeled with the contents, I used velcro dots I found at the hardware store and attached them to the door flap, then to the frame of the box itself. It's almost as bad as losing a pet (the pain), and I can't have people moving my kits and damaging them severely, especially when they don't know what they are doing. I understand when parts fall off or thin things snap, but I don't want to take the chance ever again. The 3rd prototype was tested on a trip 2000 miles driven to and back to a vacation destination, and Wing Gundam survived unscathed.

[Squee]

Nice space. I wish i had that much room. I generally keep my stuff on a table that i move around. Here's how it looks normally...



Here's how it looks when clean:

[Jfl0]

Good man Mr. Squee. I see Hobbico, Bandai, 3M, Tamiya and Plastruct stuff I love that plastruct bonding stuff, but I do use cement more often than not.

Did anyone spot the gag in my photo yet?

[Asterisk]

Pretty simple set up, I reckon. Nearly everything I need in arm's reach with the exception of my other kits and spare parts which are across the room.

[ChapelMkII]

So many great things in that picture, especially the Guiness! My friends would call that "talent juice" XD

Asterisk, is that a Master Grade 0080-style Zaku next to the Kampfer? And if so, when did I miss it?!

[Asterisk]

Oh, that's just the HGUC kit. Still a damn fine kit, mind you. I'd never had Guiness Extra Stout before, so how intoxicated it made me with just 2 bottles (the one pictured was #2) was a learning experience.

[ChapelMkII]

Yikes, my scaling is off something fierce today. Between finding out about the GM Sniper II and this, I might have to go against my own word and pick up some 1/144 kits again...

Yeah, the extra stout has quite a kick to it. Not a Char kick, thankfully, but it's still pretty powerful. If that's your kinda thing though, try an Abita Turbodog!

[jayhat100]

This is one-half of my work space in the garage. i haven't set my new area in the house yet.

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[V0LTES-V01]

Pretty simple set up, I reckon. Nearly everything I need in arm's reach with the exception of my other kits and spare parts which are across the room.

Diggin' that Lab comrade. Ahh Guiness... Irish Car Bombs... good times..

[Squee]

Good man Mr. Squee. I see Hobbico, Bandai, 3M, Tamiya and Plastruct stuff I love that plastruct bonding stuff, but I do use cement more often than not.

Did anyone spot the gag in my photo yet?

Honestly, that's maybe a third of my hobby tools. What i keep at my main table is mainly tools i always use.

Here's my new booth i bought about a month ago. As of now, it's covered in paint. lol


Here's my lacquer shelf



I sometimes cringe when i think of how much money is on that shelf, lol the alclad alone most of my money nowadays goes to paints and glues.

[Suzaku]

Yeah, I was trying to put together a paint order, but I was shocked at how expensive it got how quickly. That stuff really adds up--especially the Mr. Color line.

[Asterisk]

I got seriously lucky with my paint collection. As you can see in my picture, I have a carousel loaded to the gills. That's actually about 1/3 of my full stock, mainly the colors I use the most.
Some years ago, a friend of mine ran a hobby shop. When it went out of business, he told me to take whatever I wanted from his stock of paint. Ultimately, I walked away with around $500 worth of paint, completely free.

Nowadays, I only ever have to restock colors I use most, i.e. Gunship Grey, Light Grey, basically detail colors.

[thermoshok]

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heres my work bench js to many tools here.

[Squee]

Threads merged, Very cool setup thermoshok! I could have sworn i posted an update to my work area, probably in my wip. I just finished cleaning up my work area, and your post inspired me to update my pics. ^_^


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The white organizer holds most of my extra tools, some acrylic paints, plaplates, dio stuff, bottom drawer is full of electronic stuff, and also all of my decals/metal parts/builder parts/koto stuff.

Under the desk is a few containers with some scrap kits and a few resin kits i still have to prep.