What Does Your Build Mat Look Like?
Via the internet we see all sorts of these very nice pristine looking build mats. They are definitely helpful. You know stuff that looks like this:
After about a dozen model builds, a few liquid cement spills and one paint spill my Hobby Town mat looks like this:
What your hobby mat look like?
Well… my old mat looks like this…
Its a really cheap mat I got at Hobby Lobby a few years back. Well used on both sides, and covered in paint, spilled Tamiya extra thin and super glue as you can see…
I haven’t seen mine for quite some time, if memory serves me right it had lots of paint stains the last time I saw it
I just did a little clean-up yesterday, so not too bad. The mat is 24"x36," but once the paint bottles go to war, there’s only about 10"x10" of workable real estate visible. 
And a new one just waiting in the wings.
I have replaced mine a few months ago. The previous one was full of glue, paint, after 10 years of service, but I could have changed it before.
@timmyp Tim,
There’s quite a few to choose from, Tiger I, Panther, Sherman,T-34 & Mustang etc. Tankraft is the supplier, I think. Andy’s Hobby HQ, Amazon sometimes and direct from Tankraft.
Thanks! I’ll check into it.
I looked at Tankraft’s website, looking for a mat with the Tiger I printed on it. One thing that sort of puts me off, is that it says to avoid having the mat in direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the room I do my modeling, faces directly east, and gets a lot of the morning sun. Sure, I can pull the blind down, or put the mat on the other side of the table, but that morning sun is nice and bright, and provides more illumination than any of my electric lights. Anyway, something to think about before I plunk my money down!
@timmyp Tim, that good info to know about the mat. Sound like UV is bad news.
I would probably have it destroyed with liquid cement drips and spills with normal use before the sunlight had too much affect.
Trivia: UV turned the unpainted “tan” deck of my Revell USS Constitution some kind of puke green.
The original “tan” colour can still be seen where the solid bulwarks shielded the plastic.
This was in Sweden, almost the same latitude as Fritz Creek in Alaska.
Window with Venetian blinds kept horizontal, model in glass cabinet by the rear wall, 4 meters from the window. It took a couple of years though …
Cover the cutting mat when not in use
