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The
workshop I have today has been planned for many years and details and tools
added by needs and what I could afford.
Here I
have what I need. A good workbench, most of my reference, tools, paint -
everything. From the picture you can see on the top right, 20 volumes of Scale
Aircraft Modelling and below a lot of other magazines and other references books
in the next room.
40
years of modelling have resulted in a lot of experiences and experimenting
regarding my workbench. It has been everything from a cardbox on the kitchen
table at my parent's house to the nice place I have today. I have tried to
arrange my workbench to be a place where I can really have a nice time without
locking my family too much out of my modelling time. I believe that if you can
keep contact with your family while doing your hobby you are keeping family
happiness, and I would like to share my experiences with you guys. We often tend
to keep our hobby "away" from the family, due to dust and smell and
fumes and so on. I would like to share my way of doing things and to show you my
workshop.
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To the
first steps in preparing a new project, like cleaning, preparing
and dryfitting parts, I have a mobile "workbench", a 300mm x
450mm ( 12" x 18" ) plastic board of about 12mm ( 1/2" )
thickness. This board and the movable part of my toolbox is what
is required to keep my lovely wife company during long winter
evenings. We are situated in the northern part of Norway, app. 500 km
north of the Polar Circle, and during winters we have very little
daylight and no sun at all from late November to mid January. So you
see, we have to be innovative and do the best out of it. |
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Instead
of hiding in my workshop, I take the board, my toolbox and my new project into
the living room and do the preparing and some planning in company with my family
while watching the TV-shows. This way I get a lot of modelling and a wife who is
very happy to share some time with me. When parts need painting, I do that in my
workshop. Some times the TV-show steals my attention, but then again, I don't
have to watch. For me the clue is to be present to my family. And it has worked
very well.
Additional
required tool: Chargeable dustbuster ! ( Highly recommended ).
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There
is also a small display cupboard where I keep my collection of cars in
1/32 scale. On top of that you can see what I recall to be my first kit
ever, a mounted indian with a rifle. This I believe to be an old
AURORA kit, made during the Christmas days the year I was 9.
It still is as I made it and painted it and so it shall remain.
If anyone has additional info about the indian, please share. You can
mail me at bjoernar@noraas.net |
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Just
in front of where I sit I have my paint supplies. The drawer-section I
made myself to fit mainly Xtracolor and Humbrol tins, but there are also
ModelMaster and some acrylics. Each drawer is labelled according to
content and there is one drawer containing the paints I use at the
actual project. |
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At
the right of my paint supplies you can see my spares boxes for small
parts, sorted by scale and category. Bigger parts are in old boxes
elsewhere.
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my left I have the newly installed paintbox with a vent for spraying
paint. This is an ordinary kitchen vent with aluminised tubing. The
kitchen vents have electric motors of a special construction with no
brushes to avoid electrical sparks and thus cannot ignite vaporized fat
or other flammable fumes. I have covered the walls and the bench with
cardboard instead of plastic or other material that can be static
charged . And it can easily be replaced when dirty or damaged. The vent
house has light, but these are very dim so I have installed an external
spotlight to improve the light conditions. |
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old, but still working DeVillbis double action airbrush gets its air
from a small compressor and an air tank. This tank is special as it is
an oxygen bottle from an aircraft that crashed into a mountain in my
area in the early fifties. I made a stand to the airbrush from an old
soldering iron stand. |
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My
computer is moved out of my workshop as paintdust from spraying may damage it.
But it takes part in my hobby as the Internet gives me a lot of information to
take my hobby steps further. And in addition to working in plastic I also do
some drawings of aircraft, in particular Norwegian subjects. You can see some of
my work at www.noraas.net/Welcome.htm
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I
love my workshop. I have my hobby all around me, you can see that some
of my "bought-but-not-yet-made-brigade" is close by, some of
my showcases are too and the other showcases are in the next room.
I build them myself with glass shelves and light. Through the door I can
watch TV and I have a radio with a cassette player. And in another room
a lovely wife and two sons I love.
Am
I a happy man ? |
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Bjørnar Norås
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