If you are intending to spray paint or airbrush your models you should consider a paint booth. I mean a small one, not a large one like you’d find in a real body shop … Anyway, it is not hard to build one. Here is how to do a very simple one.
You’ll need a large cardboard box, some hinges, some plastic sheet, a blow dryer, hose and some furnace filter. Of cause you can substitute any of these for better materials (e.g. plastic instead of the cardboard, acrylic instead of the clear plastic sheet …). The selection on materials depends on how much you want to invest and even how much space you’ve got. The minimum size requirement is that the largest model you build fits inside with enough space around it.
Second minimum consideration is the ventilation. Since the purpose of a paint booth is to suck away the paint particles ant with that also protecting you health it is quite an important consideration. Don’t design it too small. Over at Brian’s Model Cars there is a nice article posted in 2003 by a guy called Klaus (not me though). The title of this article is “Spray Booth Design And Fan Selection” and a big part is about calculating the amount of air replacement and selecting the fan for the ventilation. There is also a basic paint booth design. One finished model (made out of cardboard) you can find on the site of Steven Jones who used the standard 14 x 20 furnace filter to define the size of his booth.
Personally I currently use 2 open cardboard boxes which I do not yet have ventilated or even cut to size. The booth is positioned between 2 Windows which are both open to create some airflow. For health protection I use a respiratory mask. But the ventilated paint booth will come one day.
Tags: diy paint booth, How-To