Steven Kieler
Hohenfels, Germany
I spent about 15 years as an active U.S. Army officer before taking a government-civilian job at a U.S Army installation in Germany. I'm still a reserve officer and have served in the military for more than 23 years.
My workbench is in the basement's largest room, the majority of it dedicated to my hobby. The workbench in the corner is my space; I use the table behind it for painting and spreading out my books and resources. Lighting is important, so I use a couple photo-studio lamps and a swing arm magnifier, which has a nice, bright bulb.
I love superdetailing and try to build accurate World War II planes, which includes lots of scratchbuilding. A build takes me between 12-18 months to finish. I started the P-40 on my bench more than a year ago.
I mostly enjoy building 1/48 scale WWII aircraft - fighters and bombers, Allied and Axis. But I have a penchant for U.S. Navy planes; I'm drawn to the aircraft carriers. I also like some WWII armor, primarily tanks, and have a few 1/35 and 1/48 scale pieces on my shelf. I'm also looking forward to building a 1/350 USS
Yorktown (CV-10), though I fear the build could take a couple years.
My benches are pretty disorganized, but I know where to find everything. I've accumulated a lot of building supplies, materials, etc., many of them tips and articles read in
FSM and on the
forum.