Winter painting.

My workbench is in the garage. Has been that way for years now. I usually have the doors open to air out the place and let in more light when I paint. And I get the occasional neighbor, solicitor, or delivery person pop in to look and see when they wander on by and catch a glimpse or hear the compressor.

I spray in the same place, winter, spring, summer and fall.  That's in my study.  I have a very small fan that blows behind me to move the "fumes" away.  I use solvent-based enamel (Humbrol and Model Master mostly) 98% of the time.  The windows in there haven't been opened in 15 years!

Gary

I am fortunate now to have a basement workshop, but I spent a couple of years in an apartment and a small booth worked fine in a bedroom.

I paint and work year round in a converted spare bedroom. I have my paint booth set up and when I'm ready to paint I open the window and put a board in with the exhaust vent attached and close the window on the board. Neither rain or shine, hot or cold, deters this modeler from his hobby (only Honey-Do list).

Jim 

Winter painting is one third of the reasons that I switched to Acrylics. Sometimes it gets hot enough here that painting in a garage or shed is not feasible. Reason three is that I have to stay in contact with Anne as much as possible.

By painting inside, I have control over how much heat to use in the winter for my modeling area, or how little air conditioning to run in the summer,,,,,,,,and Anne is still in talking/visual checking distance.

Rex

ps I mention all of this because if you switch to a more "family friendly" paint system,,,,,you may end up with the ability to model inside during the winter,,,,,,,it can be surprising how grateful they are if you change away from enamels.

I have yet to do any painting  or building for that matter of any models since 1996. But when I do this winter ,  it will take place in the cellar in my recently completed hobby room. The cellar is refinished with heat for the winter and stays cool on it's own for the summer months.   I just need to  build a spray booth and then I"ll be in business.

If there is a will--there is a way.  When I lived in an apartment, I used the spare bedroom.  I located the spray-booth next to the window and outfitted a board that I could insert into the window opening.  I had foam around the edges of the board so that it kept the cold air out and warm air in.  The paint fumes were vented out of the booth via a hose/fan assembly, through a fitting on the board, and outside.  When I wasn't painting, I pulled the board out and closed the window.  It worked great.  Currently, I have a basement to work in.  I vent the fumes through a wall and into the attached garage.  I'd prefer to vent it outside but with the way the Condo is made, this is my best option.  In the end, its not a problem anyway.  

If you have indoor space--you can make it work.

Good luck!

Like Jim (fox) and Bakster, I use a paint booth all year round and vent it out a window. But instead of using a board to mount the end of the duct hose in the window, I use a portable AC window kit (for standard double-hung windows). The kit is designed for AC units that roll around on the floor and use a flexible duct hose to vent hot air out of a window. It comes with a plastic assembly that slides "open" to the width of the window, and you close the window onto it. It has a hole for the included flexible duct hose. Also included is a piece of foam to block the gab between the window halves (since the window isn't fully closed when it's dropped onto the aforementioned plastic piece).

Last winter, I had a broken leg, so I had to move my hobby desk and paint booth to a location with a window that swings open. I could no longer use my portable AC window kit on this window, so I had a friend bring home a large sheet of corrugated plastic, and I cut the plastic so that it was sized perfectly for the full size of the window opening. I also cut a hole in the plastic sheet for the duct hose. Whenever I wanted to operate my booth, all I had to do was crank the window open just a wee bit for the air from the booth to vent out of the window.