Benchtime is usually pretty sedentary, right? We sit. We maybe raise or lower our seat to get a better angle on certain tasks (I frequently lower my chair as far as it’ll go when I’m dealing with landing gear alignment fun-time).
Well, last night, I found that wasn’t working.
I’ve been taking my sweet time with Trumpeter’s SBD-5 Dauntless, and last night it was time to mask off the recently-painted walkways so I can get on with the rest of the painting.
Sitting while trying to get my hands into position without bumping the horizontal stabilizers and getting the tape lined up properly just wasn’t working.
So I stood up. That small change – standing, looming over the aircraft – made the taping a total breeze.
And it got me thinking about the other times I engage in weird bench maneuvers to tackle random tasks:
- Rigging. I will frequently tackle rigging of all kinds while standing (or sometimes straddling my chair in reverse).
- Buffing. If I’m using the Dremel and a buffing wheel, I’ll usually wander away from the bench while I do. Those cloth wheels fling shit everywhere.
- Masking prop tips. I don’t know why, but I do this better on my feet.
- Fill-and-Dump Intake Painting. This necessitates standing, since I use a vise on the farthest end of my bench to hold the intakes.
What about you? Any weird bench maneuvers or habits you find yourself doing?
Not counting crawling around on the floor, swearing and looking for that tiny little part that you can swear fell right by your fucking foot but now it’s apparently vanished into another dimension…
Doogs Models 
I model on a homemade workbench that the previous own used to do woodworking on. I have my chair all the way up and still a little too low, which I like for detail work. But since losing 90 pounds a few years ago, I find it hard to sit longer then 30 minutes, so I stand about half the time. I like the freedom it give me to move around my hobby room, plus my butt does not hurt after a couple hour modeling session.
Boy, can I identify with standing Matt….all my airbrushing has to be done stood up in the utility area of my apartment….it can make freehand camo a pain….but just about doable at least in 32 scale…48 tends to be paper masks slightly raised wiv white tak…but I, ll occasionally go freehand…no excuse really wiv my Harder and Steenbeck Infinity……and I keep on practising!!!!!
Regards
Howard
Standing always, it improves muscle tremor for me.
I have a six year old with the most insane eyesight so I use him for the bits I drop.
Oh, ya, I’ve personally spent that time on blended knees and elbows,
searching and cursing!
What’s fill and dump air intake painting?
I’m in the process of building my retirement home, and will have a stand alone studio. Will probably get one of those multi level desks. The one that the yuppies crank down (to sit at) and crank up for standing, for the vetpry reasons you outline.
Cheers all
I hear IKEA is making a convertible desk nowadays that’s actually powered, so the up and down is a switch.
yeah, on my current 1/24 buils I’ve found standing has made it far easier to work on such a large subject. I also find myself wandering around my model room while sanding or cleaning parts up.