The travelling workbench

[Hammers]

Friends,

I have during the last year been travelling quite a lot for work and staying in hotel rooms, believe it or not, I rather spend my time painting miniatures than watching the pay-per-view pornography channels the hotel quite unabashedly try to push. I guess it is middle age creeping up on me...

Anyhoo, I have not found the right painting kit for travelling and thinking I am not the only man here travelling for work who brings a pannier with essential tools and paints.

So, please tell me what's in them?

[Mitch K]

Hammers, I can't advise you with specifics, but I used to do something similar with flytying kit for trout flies. The trick I found was to NOT try to take every mortal thing, but to pack tools and materials for a set of particular flies, and work just on them.

The nearest I've done with modelmaking was when I went to stay at my mum's earlier in the year after she'd had an operation. I took my GB plastics, my tool roll (scalpels, files, scrapers etc), some glue and tiny bit of greenstuff, and assembled a pile of plastics.

Small, ad hoc sets of bits for specific tasks would be my best advice.

Hope this helps,

M

[warlord frod]

I have a small tackle box that I put paint, brushes, mixing plate, glue etc. in and this was my traveling paint box. When I get Miniatures I base them and prime them then store them in plastic "plaino" boxes (The kind you find in craft stores for beads) that way when I traveled I could grab one of those and tuck it into my brief case. 

[georgec]

Yup, done a bit of this...  I think Mitch K's approach is sound, try to pick a limited amount of work and concentrate on it.  I don't know what your schedule is like, but when I have been working away in the week and back at weekends I have tried to concentrate on building a set of plastic figures or preparing metals; this really needs only the figures, 'glues' and files.  As this can be more of a chore than producing the painted miniature, it can help if it is the best option when you get back to the room at night.  Then at weekends and longer periods back home you can 'play' with your full panoply of paints, basin materials etc etc...

[Dr DeAth]

I spent a couple of years working away and took the same approach as Warlord - small toolbox with essential tool/brushes and primed figures for painting.  The other thing to consider is lighting, most hotels don't cater for the modeller, so a small desk spotlight is a necessity, something like this will suffice http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20237252/

[Hammers]

I spent a couple of years working away and took the same approach as Warlord - small toolbox with essential tool/brushes and primed figures for painting.  The other thing to consider is lighting, most hotels don't cater for the modeller, so a small desk spotlight is a necessity, something like this will suffice http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20237252/

Solid advice.