My first bench top (not counting the floor or card tables when I was a kid) was a hollow core door. It warped like a potato chip after a year or two. My next bench top was a solid core door which held its shape very well.

In my opinion your bench top and your building surface should be two separate components. My current bench top is a piece of 1/2" x 4' x 8' tempered glass. I love it but it was VERY expensive. There is a lot to like about it.

As far as a building surface goes, I used ceiling tile or dry wall for years and could build very straight models on them. You just have to weight or glue the tile to your bench top so that it won't curl up or warp. I used spray glue in a light coat so that it would come off easily when it needed to be replaced.

What I didn't like about those two surfaces was that they chipped easily which meant they looked ugly and there was always drywall or ceiling tile bits that needed to be cleaned up frequently. It's not a big deal and these are both very good, inexpensive and expendable surfaces.

As RCKen mentioned, I'm now building with magnets and I think it is positively the best system for building unless you have a factory building the same models over and over which would make dedicated jigs the best choice.

One thing I'm starting to notice is that the magnets lose their strength after a while. Older magnets don't stick as well as they used to. Another thing RCKen mentioned is that it takes a while to acquire all the magnets you'll want to have.

I just ordered 500 more magnets and think I have enough now. It's taken me about 4 years to get to this point. I also have about 60 fixtures from 1-1/2" to 9-1/2" tall.

Whenever I get an order for fixtures or need a new size for myself I also make some more of the ones that I don't have enough of. I normally start out making about a half dozen of a size. Sometimes that's enough and sometimes I find I need more.

Anyway, I probably have about $400-$500 in my system now. It was money very well spent. But I think I will have to replace magnets about every 5 years or so because they break easily and become less powerful.

I called around to find out how much having the fixtures laser cut would cost. All the quotes I received were in the neighborhood of $40-$50 for a set of 22. Everyone I spoke to also told me that they can't cut them from 1/4" aircraft ply because it would burn too badly and possibly catch fire. By the time I put my work into finishing them, add magnets and hardware there was no profit at all so I still hand cut mine.

I saw a thread here at RCU not too long ago where somebody mentioned he found a place that would laser cut the fixtures for about $15.00. That would be worth doing because it would save you a lot of time.

By the way, if you decide to pin things to a board, go to a sewing shop and buy a variety of sizes of pins. If you just get one or two sizes of T-pins you'll find that they are too large in some cases. Having very small pins is nice for thinner pieces or when pinning near and edge so that the wood doesn't split.