I'm always surprised how rubbish I am at doing the simple, sensible things to improve my modelling.
Knife blades remain in use long after they have lost their edge. I know a sharp blade is nicer to use, but it seems such a waste to keep changing them and I've never been much good with a sharpening stone.
The jam jar of turps should be changed more often too. I'm sure brushes would last longer if not cleaning in a fluid resembling soup.
But the cutting mat. I finally got around to changing it. For a long while, I've carved glue lumps from its surface and wiped away paint spills. It's not like I didn't have a spare either - I have several as I like to keep a clean mat for photography. They aren't expensive either.
Anyway, new mat now on the board, old mat in the bin. It did me well.
3 comments:
Never mind Phil, the old mat lives on as the background image to your blog page.
Regards,
Colin Murdoch
Well, it's either that or cut into a 200mm square and used as the base for another came box diorama.
Seriously though, most of us have continued to "use" cutting mats long after they've been ruined.
This isn't quite so much of a problem for me these days - not just because I get very little model making time - but also because I don't use those green or pale grey mats very much when I actually get time.
A few years back, my local council set up a stall in the lobby of a local hypermarket. Amongst other things, they were handing out mousemats made from recycled car tyres - so I got as many as I could reasonably.
These things have turned out to be very tough - and most paint, glue etc. can be removed by wiping the things with paint thinner.
The only one I did manage to cut through still has a use - as something to drill into when I have to make holes in models.
You should have framed it, Phil!
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