Building Boards By James Goss      Before you start building that wonderful model you have wanted to build for so long, you have got to have a building board of some king to work on. I am not referring to building an ARF airplane, but instead a built up kit where you start with a box full of balsa sticks and sheets. Of course for building an ARF you do need a good flat workbench to build on, but no building board is needed. We need building boards so we can pin the many different balsa parts in place over the prints while building the model. I guess I have used just about all the different materials for building boards that are commonly used by modelers. The board I like best is a cellotex board that is used as ceiling tile and comes in a two foot by four-foot sheet. I have been using this type board for over 25 years and haven't found anything that is better suited for the job. I used sheetrock for a while, but it is hard to install pins into. I also have used various woods, cork, and hard rubber, but none will work as well as the cellotex. Cellotex will hold pins well and a single piece will allow you to build up to twenty planes before you consider replacing it.     The cellotex is a building board only and not a worktable. You still must have a very sturdy worktop and it must be straight and level. A lot of modelers will use a hollow core door for this because they are very straight and lightweight and easy to come by. They can be positioned on top of sawhorses or across a 2 x 4 frame. I now use a 1½-inch thick maple hardwood tabletop for most of my building, but have used just about everything in the past. Of course everyone starts out by using the dinning room table until their wife gets tired of it and runs you out. So again you have got to have a straight and level surface that will support the building board.      You should not use the cellotex board as is, it needs to be prepared in a way that will allow it to last for years. The building is actually done on the backside of the board instead of the front that has all the designs on it. If you choose to use the board as it comes out of the box it will only be useful for building a few planes. To give it a longer life the board needs to be totally enclosed in clear packing tape. The tape is about 2 inches wide so it doesn't take long to totally enclose it. This will keep the cellotex from breaking apart and tiny pieces of the fiber from scattering. It also gives a nice slick surface for cleaning up the sawdust and cuttings. The board is not expensive and you can get it at all the big name building supply stores.      So to sum up let me say again that cellotex board will hold your pins as well as any material and it will conform to your work surface and stay flat for years. This is not a cutting board by any means, it is for holding pins and it does a great job of that and will last a long time if you take care of it.