A Day in the Life of a Model Builder
Often, we get questions from our visitors like "How does a typical working day of a model builder look like?" or "What do they even do the whole day long?".
A Day in the Life of a Model Builder
Well, first of all, every day is different so there is no such thing as a "typical day". Furthermore, every model builder is an individual. In our team, you'll find a variety of different professions, such as carpenters, dental laboratory technicians and tradesmen with a heart for model building. Nevertheless, we wanted to give you an impression of our work and thus accompanied Judith and Christian for one day and took notes for you.
In the Morning
It's 7 a.m. In order to wake up brains and eyes alike, Judith and Christian get a mug of coffee from the bistro. Okay, ready - let's start!
First task of the day: Vacuum cleaning! Every morning, before opening, the different sections of the Wunderland have to be cleaned, one section at a time, for a couple of hours. Brushes and special attachments to the vacuum cleaner help getting rid of the dust. Judith and Christian check on Wunderland's population, replace missing figures or repair any kind of damage. Just before the arrival of the first visitors, the vacuum cleaner is put away - until the next morning, when vacuuming will be resumed in another section.
Of course, it's not only the figures that need repair. Christian takes larger parts, like this fence for example, to the modelers workshop. When all repair is done, the fence is put back on the layout to the spot it came from.
Next stop: Italy. There's always lots of work here. The head of our model building team, Gerhard Dauscher, explains the next steps and tasks. No time to lose - they start working on it right away.
Judith places a bridge, which will be the connection to Rome, on the layout. It fits well - so it can be fastened.
The railroad beds are screwed together for the tracks to be laid on top later on.
At the same time Christian works on graveling the tracks for Italy. However, scattering the ballast alone won't do, as it would disappear with the next vacuum cleaning.
But Christian knows what to do: The ballast first is sprinkled with rinsing water...
... and then, water mixed with glue is dribbled over the wet gravel. When it's hard-dried, even the vacuum cleaner won't pose a risk anymore!
Lunch break. Judith and Christian get something yummy from the Bistro in order to regain some power. A nap would be really nice, but there's just too much work waiting. So they roll up their sleeves and get back to work.
Model building supplies: Judith is responsible for ordering model building kits and figures. A large box of future Wunderland inhabitants has just arrived and will be moving in to our storage. But first, they have to be sorted.
Our model builders and technicians work closely together. Christian and Kenny from the technical department have just mounted this castle on the layout, at exactly the position where it will stand later on. Of course, the proper surroundings are still missing, but with a bit of imagination...
The castle shall be illuminated. Kenny already has figured out something, so now, together they puzzle and ponder the various solutions.
This is what it might look like in the end, just more spectacular, of course. But that will still take a while and quite a bit of work.
Journalists are expected today, so this banner has to be fixed on the layout. It goes without saying that the model builders help with this task, since they are the ones who know exactly where to tread.
Done. The banner is set up.
And since it's 4 p.m. already, it's time to log off the system and go home. Have a nice evening!
