Invaluable modeling tools. Share yours!

[FAR148]

Hello Modeler!
Title says it all. Show and tell us about a tool (or technique) you came up with or found thats makes your modeling life a little easier.

I'll start. Mine is just flat sanding area. I use it all the time. All it is a piece of 1/4 masonite (about 8X8in) with a sheet of sandpaper glued to it. It great for cleaning up resin parts, weapon halves, wheel halves. Hell, I even used it on fuselage halves. Use any grit you want. I get some 320 or 400 on mine and I used Super 77 to glue it down.




Share your invaluable modeling tools!
Steven L 

[sequoiaranger]

My modeling ability took a QUANTUM leap with the addition of this "invaluable" tool and its accessories. Especially for making clean, precise cuts, and gouging away and shaping excess plastic, I just COULD NOT make satisfactory models without it. It has burrs for indentations, gouges, round holes, etc., sanding/polishing discs, and other "wear-away" tools for removing plastic (or wood or metal) quickly and artistically (as opposed to a "hack job" that looks it).

[rickshaw]

This is my most valued tool:



I use it for stirring paint, applying putty, shaping putty, scraping putty and plastic and perhaps most usefully, cleaning my nails.   

It is a chemical laboratory spatchula.  Its only about 10 cm long and about 4 millimetres wide at the tip.  I procured my last one in high school 40 years ago.  I lost it a few years ago and I was missing it a few weeks ago when I started doing a big job which used a lot of putty.  I even did an internet search to see about purchasing a new one (amazing what laboratory equipment one can now buy online.  I'm sure the Police must find it very interesting!  ) but I found this one again when looking through a box of old modelling stuff.  Since then its been used more and more.   Its a very handy tool.

[tanktastic43]

As cheap as it gets and has many, many uses.

tt43.

[Weaver]

Don't know about most invaluable, but the one I enjoy using the most is the Archimedian Drill. I swear this thing comes with a built-in imp, Terry Pratchett style, who guides it straight, because I've never had a disaster with it yet, and given my level of ability, that's a pure miracle.

[NARSES2]

I'll second the toothpick/cocktail sticks motion 

"Quote Weaver - Don't know about most invaluable, but the one I enjoy using the most is the Archimedian Drill. I swear this thing comes with a built-in imp, Terry Pratchett style, who guides it straight, because I've never had a disaster with it yet, and given my level of ability, that's a pure miracle."

Well my Imp must be on strike then 

[beowulf]

i third the cocktail sticks....get thro loads of them  

ive got two that i find invaluble............both filler related

got a oil paint knife from Hobbycraft for the glorious sum of £2.60



they have all sorts of profiles and sizes for the blade....i got one about 20 mm long by 10 mm wide and quite pointy, great for applying filler, easy to control where you put it and easy to work into gaps without spreading it everywhere else

the other thing is baby wipes! ............i always use one or two on a kit after ive been sanding........gets rid of that slurry even if you have let it dried....picks up every speck.......and of course it evaporates very quickly so you can get on with the next round of PSR  

[Hobbes]

I've got a few improvised tools:
- cordless drill: ideal for using Dremel accessories at low speeds compatible with plastic (and essential for stirring Humbrol Mattcote)
- business cards: used as shims for aligning wings etc.
- modified clothespins:



I've sawed off a section, normally the front is rounded and they're useless for gripping small items.

[frank2056]

I use photoetched saws (like the Tamiya Tritool). They're very thin, very sharp saws that'll cut a very thin line through almost any plastic.

Another "tool" is a sharpened piece of sprue. One end has a point, the other is cut and sanded down to a chisel. They're great for removing paint from canopies, since there's less chance of the plastic scratching the clear canopy plastic.

A third tool is cyanoacrylate glue mixed with talc (gypsum, not conrstarch based). Unlike the similar mix with baking soda, the talc does not produce an exothermic chemical reaction with the CA glue. The talc + CA produces a smooth, easy to apply and shape putty that is about as hard as styrene when cured.

[Ed S]

One of my most invaluable modeling tools is a 10 inch fuzzy bunny file.  When you want to make mating surfaces flat, it's rigid and flat. When you want to remove plastic fast, nothing beats it. Got a "misalignment"; no problem, a few swipes with the file and it's fixed.  And you can find them at any hardware store.

Ed

[frank2056]

Ed, is there another name for a "bunny file"? Google doesn't come up with anything hardware related.

[sequoiaranger]

>Ed, is there another name for a "bunny file"? Google doesn't come up with anything hardware related.<

They are easy to find on the shelves of hardware stores, however. Look for the little white tuft of a tail on the end of it! 

Seriously, though, what is it?

[jcf]

It is a ba$tard file. The forum software renders the actual word as 'fuzzy bunny'.

[chrisonord]

My most valued modelling tool is my wallet, couldn't do any models without it 
Chris.

[Ed S]

Ed, is there another name for a "bunny file"? Google doesn't come up with anything hardware related.

Well, just got back to the forum this evening and that one surprised me too.  I guess the "censors" didn't like the original word "ba$tard" file.

Ed