Welcome, damnyankee36! I just joined recently as well. Most of us have similar stories; built models as kids, life invaded, family and work, retired, getting back into the hobby.
Iâve seen those hobby mats in lots of YT videos and my wife has one, actually, for her crafting. Most of them seem to be in the 12" x 18" to the 18" x 24" range. Iâve seen this in all manner of model crafting videos. From model train hobbyists, terrain crafting for table top wargaming, diorama builders, miniatures painters, cars, tanks, planes and such as well.
My personal view is that any larger and youâre taking up table space for something you arenât going to be using. Your mat is really only going to be as necessary as the stuff youâre working on right in front of you. I still have an old single bed top sheet that I fold up to whatever size seems appropriate and lay that on the handy work surface Iâm using (be it the top of a table, a desk, the floor or some other space) that Iâve had since I was about 14. I just turned 66 a few days back.
Recently, the wife and I were cleaning the shed of stuff that had things stored in it when we had others living on our property. We found this fairly large 14" x 20" plastic cutting board that was really no longer useful for kitchen work for anything edible. The wife, she was like, âThrow that away.â
Me? I looked at it and said, âI could use this for my re-entry into hobby models and such.â
I gotta say, itâs larger than I really need, however it DOES make a very good lap surface where I can work. I literally sit on the couch with it on my lap and have been using it to test some materials for making wooden flight decking. I think itâs about âright sizedâ overall for a working surface for most anything I plan to work on that doesnât require itâs own table.
I say that as I am primarily interested in building fairly large dioramas, some are planned to be over three feet deep and possibly as large as six feet long (think large battle scenes or cinematic âsweepâ scenes, so the board will be for the parts being placed.
As Iâm getting back in after over a bit more than 30 years myself, I have a lot of relearning to do and some rebuilding of my skill set.
The work surface, though. Iâm thinking, no matter how large a table or desk youâll be using, the work mat shouldnât be any larger, than that cutting board I just mentioned. You really shouldnât have a work surface so large that your reach goes beyond true comfort. If youâre reaching, especially cutting with sharp bladed items, beyond a truly comfortable and in control distance, youâre asking for trouble.
If I have ever needed more than about a 12" by 18" overall area for doing the cutting and fitting portion of my modeling, I canât recall it. The rest of the mat just holds my working materials such as small parts, things Iâm getting ready to paint or parts on sprues about to be freeâd from their restraints or the actual part Iâm working at the moment. My paints and glue always sit away from that surface unless Iâm using it right now. The moment Iâm not using them, they go off to the side so I donât overly clutter my working area.
And if I need more space, I still have that sheet. Even doubled over and doubled again, it gives me about a three foot by two foot area of soft area that can hold model parts, paint bottles, brushes, thinners, glue and large pieces without me worrying about them rolling off.
Of course, everyone has differing needs, based on their perception of âwhatâs enough spaceâ for working. That said, I maintain that anything larger to use than whatâs under control and comfortable for your hands to do the work is more than you really require.
Once again, Welcome to the FSM forums.
I havenât actually cleared enough room for it yet, but once I finish this F-4 build it is going down as part of the âfinished build cleanupâ.