The Ship Model Forum

As Andrew aka Ticonderoga is currently building his ideal workshop I thought it might be interesting to see what can be achieved by other modellers , especially those building or planning to build large scale models even injection moulded kits are becoming larger , such the new 1:200 Bismarck .
Building large scale models from scratch or kit comes with its own problems. For a start where do you commence the build? As Ticonderoga has said he is building in clean benches, free from clutter, IS THAT POSSIBLE? Where do you spray/paint your model, do you have the luxury of large spray booth or like me spray out of doors? The other problem is storage of equipment and that goes for plans, reference material, photos etc. Do you have built in plan draws, under bench space or some other way to store or display these items? last but not least storage of completed models .large scale models some can be huge 3 or 4m or more in length .This requires space so It would be interesting to know how other builders get over that problem. Finally what's the best part of your work shop other than the model of course?
Dave Wooley

Then I'll make a start. When you migrate across Europe and live in appartments, setting up and maintining a workshop is not so easy. This must be now the fourth incarnation of the workshop. A basically separated one corner of 2 m by 2 m from my study/home office. The furniture in that room are basically utilitarian IKEA bookcases all around the room that house my extensive library. The workshop utilises partly IKEA bookcases and partly consists of built-to-measure items using the same style of wood and construction. One day I will have a nice custom-made library and workshop .

I protect the floor with some laminate floor boards that are laid on the existing parquet (or fitted carpet in a previous rented appartement). The bookcases, work table and machine tables are arranged around this. The whole has a bit of a medieval appearance as more shelving and storage cabinets were added over time as the need arose. I tried to keep the same style of wood though. Everything is designed to be mobile, i.e. to be taken to pieces in case of a house move.


Panorama

On the back of the low book case in the foreground is the machine table for the lathe (see below). On the left is a chest of drawers with shallow trays for materials and shelves for paints and chemicals, behind the machine table for the mills, above there are storage racks for long materials. The work table (a beech kitchen-top offcut) is supported on one side by a bookcase that provides storage shelves and on the right by a chest of deep, but narrow drawers. It is surrounded by hardboard panels on which tools can be hanged using special hooks (unfortunately, IKEA discontinued both the board and the hooks).


The work table (with the common clutter )

The machine tables were made to measure with beech tops. They either suspend the storage boxes for the watchmakers lathes and their accessories. The lathe stand also has a storage cabinet with pull-out shelves for the lathe accessories.


The lathe stand (at the previous incarnation of the workshop)


The mill stand (at the previous incarnation of the workshop)

I also have a classical drawing table cum drawing machine, but since I had a desktop computer, it replaced the drawing machine.

Storing flat large folded or unfolded plans is always a problem and I wish I had the space for a drawings cabinet. They are currently stored in large, shallwo boxes in a wardrobe. Some unwieldy stock materials are also stored 'off-site' so to say in wardrobes or in the basement.

Lucky those, who have their house and can make the workshop a more permanent fixture ...

wefalck

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Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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Hi Dave great topic you open
well i need start my workshop soon
but it depend of some important things - first money.
Space i have but i am working in small space who sometimes bored me and the wish to work in the model decrease.
now as i said some light in the tunnel appear. i have economized some ammount of money to do.
i have space to build my shipyard/workshop to receive boats until 3 or3.5meters
but sincerely i don't pretend do big boats more than Bismarck i think 2.5meters is very big.
but is good have space to do. i have soing some sketches how i can do my shop
was a simple shop but my space.
i have observing some pics of modellers workshop and creating some ideas for my use.
this place i will do some great boards to use as board building and painting too.
when i do some progress or definitively start my shop i will post some pics.
tools: lathe and milling machine i don't have are expensive here and few use (for me) but sometimes you need one to do some work and if you don;t have you need pay for it. as i make few models in my case is not necessary but i have wish to have one

wish me luck

Hi Dave,
indeed an interesting topic.
Up till now I don't really have a workshop. I used to build on the attic, but even there the equipment is mostly standing on the floor and I take what I need when I need it.
For now the Chaconia is standing in the middle of my living room on a cupboard which is nearly the same size as the ship. This gives very little excess of space. I'm very lucky to be allowed to do that. I'm also using part of the table to build stuff. Due to the size of the ship however, I'm using it as a workbench itself. All kinds of things are laying on the deck. The reason why I'm allowed to do this is that the attic isn't really cosy and my better half doesn't want to miss me all the time.

I'm going to move very soon (not really planned though) and I'll have a LOT more space than I currently have. It'll also confine me to a real building room/workshop. Haven't really thought of a lay-out yet (don't even know which room/space I'll take in the house). As you mention in your book, bigger is not always better... If I do want to keep some of my models (unlike you) then I will need some additional space to store them I guess. The main reason I'm looking around the board now, is to have at least an idea on how to organise my future workshop. Currently I'm also putting plans on the floor, I guess I'll change that as well.

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The merchant shipyard

Hi Roel Wow you can build such a fine model in what is a far from perfect arrangements . Of course a purpose build work room does not guarantee better models, just improves the working environment. Even now lessons have been learned and some situations would now be done differently. What I would really love to have is a mobile bench, which I could easily move to access the entire model without actually moving the model from the bench. And more bench space so two full hull models could be laid out! Food for thought. I would like to have a virtual impression of my work space and move things around to improve the ergonomics.
Best of luck with the move.
Dave Wooley

Hi Roel I can only dream of a centre work bench that is mobile but one other feature on this "mobile" bench is a set of trays that contain all of the regular tools required thus freeing up valuable fixed bench space for other models or parts of models .
Dave Wooley

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The merchant shipyard

My appologies here Roel for some strange reason I seem to have editored your latest post re- your work room fitments . Can you reinstate your post of the 11th , my appologies once again .It must be Monday I'm not thinking straight
Dave Wooley

Oops. Looks a little strange indeed. Thought you hacked my account there

Not sure what that post was about, but I'll do my best to recall it.
It was about me thinking about having a central workbench, rotating or fixed depends on the space available. I've noticed that with my current lay-out, where I'm using a rather low cupboard which has about the same size as the Chaconia. I can walk around it, if I shift some seats, and that's been proven pretty useful up till now. In the beginning I was turning the ship around and that's not too easy, it'll only get more difficult when more details are added.

Perhaps along the length of the room I'll add fixed tables to mount the fixed tools on. But with the reply you wrote, you brought to perhaps another idea. Having the fixed workbench, but a moveable tool drawer, like dentists have.

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The merchant shipyard

Hi Roel One of the most frustrating aspects of fixed benches with large scale models is the problem of having to lift and turn the model through 190. I have to take the model outside of the shed and revolve the model then gently move the stand and model back into place .Its proving to be tiresome to the point of becoming quite irritating. It's not the model but the space I have. There is only one logical answer, build smaller models less than 1m800 in length
Dave Wooley

I work only in 1:144 scale, and do most of my work in a 4 meter x 4 meter spare bedroom, but only half of it is for my hobby. (The room is also used by my wife for some computer-related work, which means dust is to be avoided.) Luckily, we have a decent sized balcony/deck that I use for work that produces lots of dust and debris, such as building the hulls and cutting materials for the larger structures; but the prohibition against producing dust inside the room has led to quite a bit of experimentation with materials and techniques that don't produce dust (wet sanding, for example, and shaping epoxy fillers with wet fingers, instead of sanding, etc.) or fumes (using water-based finishes, including spar varnish for natural wood decks).

I know from experience that the ideal workbench is a heavy table in the center of the room. That way, you don't have to rotate the model to work on it - you simply walk around it. Of course, you have to have control of the entire floorspace of the room. In the image below, you see what I consider to be the ideal ideal situation: central island workbench, and cutting/fabricating stations against the surrounding walls. Even if your space is much smaller, the table could be made narrower, but the idea - walking around the work, instead of rotating the work - increases efficiency, and you're able to not only build more quickly, it's much more enjoyable.



Currently, my heavy bench is against one wall, because, as I mentioned, the room is also used by my wife for some computer-related work, but my goal is to take over the entire room for my hobby. The largest ship in my shipyard is a 1:144 Bismarck (approximately 2 meters long). I don't believe I could handle anything larger in the space. As I mentioned, I brush acrylics, due to a lack of a spray booth and fumes. I have found, over years of brushing acrylics, that by using the right materials and techniques, I can produce a satisfactory finish - well, satisfactory for my purposes, which are for RC warship combat in 1:144 scale. The gray in the unfinished Bismarck main hangar sub-assembly below was hand-painted acrylic, and the wooden deck is protected with water-based urethane spar varnish:



Rob

Hello,

So the move is more or less finished now. I've been trying to get a new workshop. I thought of a hybrid solution in the end. Make some fixed table for the equipment and building and a mobile one, which can be shifted from a wall position to a more central position or just turned around. After looking around for decent prices (in a crisis eh ) I figured out Ikea would have to do. Apparently you can more or less create your own tables, decide on the board size, 2m, 1.5m, 1.2m etc. and then decide on the legs. Luckily for me, they had legs with wheels (with brakes) mounted on them. So I created a 1.5m long, 75cm wide table with 5 legs. 4 on the corner, 1 in the centre, because I don't really trust the strength of these "cardboard" tables.
I made another table of same board size, but with adaptable wooden supports. These supports can also be slanted to a certain degree, so I can use it nicely for plans etc.
Now remains a position for my stash of tubes and wires and a better solution for my fixed gear like bandsaw, drill etc.
The width of the table allows for some working area next to the model, that was something that wasn't present on the old heavy wooden cupboard on which I was working previously.

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The merchant shipyard

Here are some pics of the new workshop, no tools installed yet. I guess I'll only get them out when I need them. Since I'm mainly detailing on the Chaconia, there's not much need for large tools yet.

Thought these would make some stuff clear. The plan table on the left can be put in full horizontal position as well. It can be mounted around 70cm high and go up to 90cm high with some intermediate steps. The wooden supports are birch wood and are also from Ikea, slightly more expensive than the rest of the stuff, but a lot more sturdy I guess.




The dark thing on the left is a large cupboard, where I can also store a lot of stuff. I do have to share the room with my better half, but her part includes a pc, which comes in fine for reference material etc.

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The merchant shipyard

Hi Roel all the best to you for the new year and of course a very productive "new" model ship yard
Dave Wooley

My whole basement is my "shed"...

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Pat Matthews
Get your boats wet!
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