You built a model WHERE?!?!

Probably the strangest place (location)  I built up a model was while assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Dacca, Bangladesh, '72-'73. Other than work - communications - and the parties at the Marine House on Friday night there was absolutely nothing to do and I became extremely bored. In the States I'd built models for years and decided to have a cousin send me one, including paint, glue, etc. (Fire had barely been invented in Bangladesh much less a hobby shop).The package took 3-4 months to arrive - anything over 2 lbs was shipped surface - and the strain of waiting was unbearable. It finally arrived, a 1/72nd Phantom II, and I immediately spread out newspapers on the living room floor and began construction. My servant, a native Bengali, had never seen anything quite like the kit and was mesmerized. I recall him squatting on the floor next to me as I put the plane together continually asking questions. I had no airbrush and had to make do with the two brushes my cousin sent me. I took my time - 4-5 weeks - just to have something to do other than drinking at the Marine House. It kept me from losing my sanity. While the finished product wasn't in the same class as models I'd done in the States, it served its purpose and actually, considering what little I had to work with, didn't come out that badly.

In the late eighties I was working seasonally as a Wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Sevice. Our summer duty station was a remote guard station in the Abajo Mtns. in S.E. Utah. 40 miles from the nearest civilization. One season I packed up an Accurate Miniatures 1/48 P-51A Mustang and a few scant building materials to while away the time there. I worked on the kitchen table under propane lamps in the evenings.It was a rough build and I never completed it. Yet, I still have that uncompleted Mustang in my stash and pull it out every once in awhile and contemplate repairing the mistakes and finishing it.

                                                                                                                Joe

You have to love those generous supply folks...They make life good or very, very difficult.  I had a similar set up on a wide plank next to my rack that was elevated by MRE boxes until I managed to score a spare folding table on a "Midnight" supply run in Iraq.  I bet they are still looking for that table....

Heh.. I still have that field desk, lol.. 

He'd go to work and play with is train layout there, and come home and play with his train layout at home.

Ahem... One does NOT  "play with trains"... One "operates a model railroad"...

Manstein's revenge

 

VanceCrozier:

 

 

fermis:

I can't say that I have not sanded seams while "stocking the pond" with corn-eyed brown trout!

 

 

I think I just changed my mind about going fishing with fermis...

 

I just hope he doesn't fill seams in the same fashion...

 

I will never look at Squadron putty the same way ever again!

VanceCrozier

fermis:

I can't say that I have not sanded seams while "stocking the pond" with corn-eyed brown trout!

 

I think I just changed my mind about going fishing with fermis...

 all though ,, I haven't "modeled" in Fermis' fav "location",,,,

I've done MUCH research while trolling...the "pond"..

You have to love those generous supply folks...They make life good or very, very difficult.  I had a similar set up on a wide plank next to my rack that was elevated by MRE boxes until I managed to score a spare folding table on a "Midnight" supply run in Iraq.  I bet they are still looking for that table....

I would say the one that sticks out in my memory most though was when I was a kid living in an apartment that had white carpet.  I had a small desk in my room where I remember assembling a NASCAR type race car, the type and brand escape me now.  My mother threatened me not to spill paint on the carpet...which of course being 10 I did, Testors enamel no less.... Mom was not happy....

VanceCrozier

fermis:

I can't say that I have not sanded seams while "stocking the pond" with corn-eyed brown trout!

 

I think I just changed my mind about going fishing with fermis...

fermis

I can't say that I have not sanded seams while "stocking the pond" with corn-eyed brown trout!

I think I just changed my mind about going fishing with fermis...

I am fortunate though, I have no need of a 'man cave' hehe snicker.

I work essentially in the kitchen, but then the other half of the main room that houses the kitchen, which might normally be called a dining room if someone else lived in my place, functions as my hobby zone.

I don't have a problem with being in the kitchen, it's my damned kitchen eh.

Hah! totally ordinary the lot of ya :)

My dad has you all beat in spades.

He spent two years YEARS being PAID to run his trains in the office at work as well as paint or whatever.

Granted he has decades of seniority, and the CN was using dad to make a case to the CRTC that our town had no more business and they were filing to close the station. He was paid his full wage to be available to answer a phone that never rang (aside from mom calling him).

The local paper even printed a story about him. The only trains running in town belong to him :)

He'd go to work and play with is train layout there, and come home and play with his train layout at home.

I've built plenty at various jobs when I could get away with it.

So Fermis into Scupper Trout?

laying on my living room floor... no time to organize a workbench yet

While living in a tent...

My home was a GP Medium in the middle of the Saudi desert and my bench was an Army footlocker.. Scored a field desk from generous supply daddy over in Bravo Co. eventually..

I've done the kitchen table, the hotel room, and I built a few kits on the floor when I was a kid. I've even done some assembly in bed.......yes, next to the current wife, who was asleep at the time and didn't care anyway. A good way to trim up a few parts and run some glue.

The bench is in the man cave, but my satellite office is on the coffee table in the living room.

fermis

I can't say that I have not sanded seams while "stocking the pond" with corn-eyed brown trout!

It took me a second... HAHAHA...  Now that you bring that up, I can't say that I have not either.

I can't say that I have not sanded seams while "stocking the pond" with corn-eyed brown trout!

I use to have a dedicated workspace but nowadays I work at the kitchen table...

As a kid I always built in our basement or in my bedroom. Once I moved out and married I did the kitchen table, then a makeshift spot on an inclosed porch. Next apartment was a rigged area under a basement staircase (that was a wacky building spot). Following the purchase of our first home I have always been lucky enough to designate a spare bedroom for my shop.   I feel very lucky in that respect.

RedCorvette

...some just got left behind at the hotel (I gave one to a maid to take home to her son).

 

 

 I usually leave the models and take the maids with me...

I used to travel a lot on business early in my career.  If I was going to be in one place for a few days, then I'd pick up something at the local hobby shop to work on in my hotel room in the evenings (versus hanging out at the bar all night).

I had a little "traveling kit" with some basic supplies (hobby knife, some sanding sticks, glue, etc.) and would pick up a few appropriate bottles of paint and some thinner when I bought a kit. 

I can remember a few of them quite clearly:  a 1/72 Testor F/A-18 Hornet in Sarasota; a 1/72 Revell A-7A in Millville, NJ; a 1/48 Monogram AV-8A in Wilson, NC.  Unfortunately, few would survive the trip home intact, and some just got left behind at the hotel (I gave one to a maid to take home to her son).

Mark

When I was a kid, my parents were bigtime into tennis (it was the 80s...when the 90s rolled around and they got older, they transitioned right into golf). Often, they'd drag me along to their matches, many of which were more like small tournaments that would last all afternoon.

Bored to death, I would range on my own, and eventually started bringing kits with me. Set up at a table in whatever country club I was in, work out of the box top, even somehow managed to paint stuff that way (Testors enamels, no less!). 

The only kit I distinctly remember building in this fashion was Blue Thunder, but I know there were others...

You work for the State too, huh Echo?? 

As soon as I get logged into my computer at work the first place I go is the FineScale forums.  I keep it open pretty much all day!

p38jl

 

is the like being on the Forums during work ? Lunch ? breaks ?..

 

That makes no sense!  Why would anyone use their lunch or break times for the Forums?  That is what work time is for.

anthony2779

When I lived in an apartment,I would work in the kitchen on a small folding table,this would include airbrushing,which was very unpopular with my wife.Now I only work in the basement at the bench.

 

One of my co- workers actually models in his service van on lunch and breaks!!

When I lived in an apartment,I would work in the kitchen on a small folding table,this would include airbrushing,which was very unpopular with my wife.Now I only work in the basement at the bench.

One of my co- workers actually models in his service van on lunch and breaks!!

VanceCrozier

p38jl:

kitchen table at camp... miles from a LHS... lol

 

Vance.. buy one of those multi layer Lazy Suzans.. ....

 

Not allowed, my wife's name is Susan....

I have a computer desk in my home office that also functions as a workbench.  Due to my lack of space, I keep a tackle box with my tools and only the paints for the kit I am working on at the time.   I call it my WIP Box, which by the way has drawers large enough for the kit parts.  I do not work off the box, that gets put away.  Part of my routine is I read the instructions, make notes, compile research, and collect all the paints needed, prior to building. I stock my WIP box and it goes with me to where ever I go build.  Sometimes outside in the patio table, on the floor, at work, and once at a park bench.  

I be portable baby!

My WIP box looks like this one here...