"Where I’ve Worked: The Good, the Bad, and the Wi-Fi-less"

Like many hobbyists, my journey into scale model building started in the most likely of places — a bedroom floor. I was young, eager, and a little bit cramped, but it was where I first fell in love with the hobby. The bedroom, though not the ideal place for such an intricate pursuit, provided a sense of comfort and accessibility. It was right there, among my books, posters, and distractions, that I found peace in the world of hot rods and testors glue.

Working on the floor, usually with music playing and parts spread all over, often led to a cluttered workspace. I didn’t have the luxury of specialized drawers or storage. Or any special tools. Instead, I relied on a dull x-acto knife and some plastic bristle paint brushes. Despite the limitations, the excitement of seeing a model come to life in the comfort of my own room made it all worthwhile.

Life, as it can often do got in the way for many years and I found myself a young man of 34 when I got back into the hobby. My first work space was a storage space in the parking lot of an apartment community I was managing (and also resided.) It had space, room for two tables. The issue was ventilation. I could not open any holes in the walls as I did not own the property, and if I worked with the door open, the residents of the community would peer inside when they walked by. At first, it was too far away from my place to grab the Wi-Fi signal from my router. Until a friend helped position everything so that it worked just enough to watch Netflix!

This place was short lived as after a promotion I was moved to a new community with no access to a space to build. I had a short stint of building in the guest bedroom of our 2 bedroom apartment, but it didnt last long. The smell of glue and paint, and the hum of air compressor made both my wife and my neighbors upset. After several moves, and few different jobs we moved into a house around 2017. From here the build space changed often as I got settled in and organized the garage.

We started with just a table top stuck in between my woodworking tools and other tools in the garage

This space was messy, and I didnt stay here long. I would always knock over glue, or paint. Drop parts on the garage floor. I got fed up and reorganized the entire garage. I also bought a workbench from Harbor Freight and finally, after so many years had a real work space.

I was here for a bit. Finished a few kits in this space. It changed a few times but worked well.

The issue with this spot presented itself the year after, during a heatwave. The heat radiating off the garage door made it uncomfortable. Open the door and the glare was tough to work with. So back to the drawing board. After some thinking and an argument or two with my better half, I decided to move to the other wise of the garage. Aaaaaand that brings us to today.

I have to say. Having a clean, organized and comfortable place to build makes the hobby so much more enjoyable. Ill go into more detail on the space, and stuff I built in another post. This is getting long as it is. December I'll have been here for two years, and I like it a lot. I do have some plans for some changes. But We are here for foreseeable future. It feels good to say that.

Happy building!