@Hisham--it doesn't matter what room your setup is in, your main work area looks to be about the same as many of ours--desk size. As much as I think I'd like a multi-workbench/multi-station hobby room, for the amount of building I do my simple arrangement suites me fine. In my case any more would be overkill.
The swing-arm lamps are a great idea: they can be positioned high for wide area coverage or low for close-in work. They're better than my small goose neck lamp which seems to be more in the way than providing good light.
Very nice 'light box' you have for photographing your builds!
@Frederick--And here I thought I was the only one who sometimes works out of a kit lid! I've been known to throw parts and tools in a Dragon 1/35th King Tiger box lid and carry it upstairs to the living room in order to 'multi-task': cut, sand, and glue parts together; spend 'quality time' with the wife (and the dog); and halfway pay attention to our recorded TV programs so as not to get behind. I won't paint or glue major assemblies away from my workbench, but the small and simple stuff--why not?
A few weeks ago my wife gave me this lap-tray from Hobby-Lobby's kids' section as a birthday present!
@Nick--What Dave said! "It's not the quality of the tool, but the talent of the hand that wields it..." or something like that. I see the same thing in photography: people with $1,000 DSLR cameras who leave them set to 'Auto' and have little idea of what they're doing. Then there are those true talents who take amazing photos with a simple Point N Shoot, or a cellphone camera!
@Bob--I use plate glass from cheapo 5" x 7" Wal-Mart picture frames for mixing paint and puddling glue. Like you said, when done, just scrape the dried paint and glue off into a trash can with a utility razor. They also come in handy for cutting PE (as long as you don't apply too much pressure) and laying down tape to cut masks.
@Paul--I completely missed your microscope set up. That is some serious modelling!
Tidiness and storage: My pancake compressor sits on the closet floor until needed. The desk pigeonholes hold my PE bending tool, Iwata Eclipse, mini vise, Tamiya paint stand, and a clock radio. The work space itself has two office supply pen/pencil holders where I keep my Swiss files, dental tools, and paint brushes; and the gooseneck lamp has a rotating storage tray that holds my hobby knives, glue, and other tools. The desk drawers house my Badger 150, Dremel tool, and assorted hand tools and supplies. My paints sit on a wooden, expandable, stepped, kitchen spice rack. The desk sliding keyboard tray holds my Optivisor and more tools in a plastic insert designed for holding office supplies in a desk drawer. My unbuilt kits are in a plastic tub in the basement crawlspace (I only have a few on hand at any given time). And I have two cabinets where I store the boxes for the kits in-work, spare parts, and other materials I collect that may have a model building application (the one area of my life where I'm a packrat).
A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Keith
