Must Have Tools

[ejstubbs]

For plasticard, a metal straight edge, scalpel + blades, fine brush for applying solvent, tweezers, various files (needle, warding etc), drills and a pin-chuck, a metal square, and a pair of engineers' dividers (or an Olfa cutter) for cutting arcs, holes etc. Paint brushes, of course and a headband magnifier also necessary.

 

Since I shelled out the money and bought one, I absolutely swear by my Olfa cutter (the PC-L) - for long straight cuts as well as curved ones.  I find that I need multiple passes with a scalpel to effect a cut in anything above 10thou plastikard, and a narrow scalpel blade always seems to have something of a life of its own no matter how carefully you try to keep it against a straight edge.  I find the Olfa cutter much better behaved: it follows the ruler like a well-trained dog walking to heel, and two or three passes gives you a neat score that will snap to give a clean, straight edge.  It doesn't need a lot of pressure, either, which reduces the risk of distorting thinner card, and makes it easier to follow a line - you can concentrate on steering rather pressing.

 

You can pay less then £10 for one - and wait weeks for it to turn up from the Far East - or bite the bullet and pay up to twice that to get it from stock at a UK supplier.  Ideal for Christmas:  something really useful that you personally baulk at paying full price for but a loving relative will happily buy for you as a seasonal treat!

[CKPR]

• An Olfa / Tamiya cutter for plastic and metal.
• A pair of really good quality pliers e.g. Lindstrom if you can afford them -  my pair cost  £15  back in 1976 but they last well so there's always the S/H option.
• A pair of long nose engineers tweezers such as those used for placing small weights on laboratory scales - I'm sure there's a proper name for these but that's what mine were originally designed for
• A clamp-on mini vice
• A hand-held pin vice / pin chuck / tool clamp - you won't realise how useful these are until you use one.
• A proper engineers 1" file and handle - I mucked about with small swiss files, useful as they are, for years and then realised how useful proper files are.

To be honest, you can do no better than read the really useful pair of articles by Iain Rice in 'Model Railways' (Nov and Dec 1981) on building a basic toolkit - by chance, I'd already got the tweezers and pliers exactly as IAR suggested !

[Horsetan]

I find that the biggest must-have tool of the lot is me, the builder.   Kits don't build themselves.

[Tony_S]

A lump of Blu Tack.

[nigelb]

all of the above  but I find a good bottle opener / corkscrew  helps my modelling  sessions

[jamesg]

A lump of Blu Tack.

Always useful; along similar lines, a few carefully cut wooden cubes about 1-3cm along the edges will help to square up walls and wagon solebars while gluing.

[sharris]

• A pair of really good quality pliers e.g. Lindstrom if you can afford them -  my pair cost  £15  back in 1976 but they last well so there's always the S/H option.

 

I'm still using my pair from 1982 - I can't remember how much they cost, but they were part of the required kit when I started my Electronic Engineering degree. 

 

Being left-handed, I never really got on with the Swann Morton style of attaching the blade to the handle (it rubs on the side of my index finger), and prefer the round handle with a + shaped blade holder of the XActo style handle. 

 

The skrawker (how did it ever get to be called that, I don't even know what it's proper name is) is great for scribing planking. 

 

If you work with thick plastic, add a razor saw to the list (great for getting through Ratio embossed sheets - these are heavy going with a knife!).

 

If you're going to work in metal remember to get good files for brass, and cheap files for whitemetal  - you'll clog them up and ruin them, so keep whitemetal away from the expensive files.

[sharris]

all of the above  but I find a good bottle opener / corkscrew  helps my modelling  sessions

 

I find that brings a halt to any ideas of a modelling session! 

[BoD]

A lump of Blu Tack.

Double sided Sellotape and a box of cocktail sticks.

[Spitfire2865]

Of course everyone buys the A4 sized Humbrol cutting mat at some point, but honestly, since I bought a small 4" square mat, Ive been using it more and more. Saves someone like me from the habit of chewing up desks.

[John_Miles]

Those wooden sticks used as stirrers in coffee shops. Free and can be used for all sorts of things besides stirring, for example holding things while you solder them - much less painful and smelly than using fingers.

 

In a similar vein, wooden clothes pegs with the taper at the end removed. Very good for holding things.

[charliez43]

A good adjustable work light. Charlie

[sharris]

Of course everyone buys the A4 sized Humbrol cutting mat at some point, but honestly, since I bought a small 4" square mat, Ive been using it more and more. Saves someone like me from the habit of chewing up desks.

 

I've got an A3 sized cutting mat. 

 

Of course, I usually only use a 4" x 4" area of it, and the remaining 177 square inches mostly get used as 'storage'.    

[Glover]

Going back to the question of knives, I would suggest two: one with the new blade for precision work and the other using the somewhat blunt blade for more general "hacking".

Mark the sharp one with a red marker or tape.

 

Cheers,

 

Glover

[JeffP]

Coffee stirrer sticks glued to sheets of wet-or-dry in various grades, then cut out. Make great "files" for smoothing stuff and don't log as easily as a file.

[tractor_37260]

With Christmas coming up, are there any must have tools for a modeller?

There's the obvious ones like hammers, nails and such, but anything else you'd recommend?

 

Loads of good modelling tools etc here: 

 

http://www.micromark.com/default.aspx?ns_md=cpc&ns_sc=AdWords&ns_cn=WK_Brand&gclid=CPDyjom6stACFbYV0wod4sYNJw

 

This one in particular is very useful for cutting parts flush from plastic sprues with it's angled sharp blades.

[dhjgreen]

Coffee stirrer sticks glued to sheets of wet-or-dry in various grades, then cut out. Make great "files" for smoothing stuff and don't log as easily as a file.

In a similar vein, wax or clay carving tools can get into small spaces; good for just removing loco numbers too. I stick wet and dry to them with Roket card glue, in fact I use Roket for a good number of gluing jobs.

[ardbealach]

Good selection of thoughts and suggestions for a modeller's toolkit.  But lying in the dentist chair recently, I thought what a great piece of kit the dentist had to carry out work on my teeth.  Small high speed drill, a decent light, a compressed air gadget to bow away the swarf, even a spitoon - and couch to rest when the modelling gets a bit too tough all built into one impressive console!

[Junctionmad]

Which is why I favour the Swann Morton PM10 - Post Mortem knife. Much more robust blade.

 

Edit:

As noted below this should be a PM40 not PM10.

You can also use it as a paring chisel in woodwork.

Good to know. I'm always breaking No3s

[edcayton]

Good selection of thoughts and suggestions for a modeller's toolkit.  But lying in the dentist chair recently, I thought what a great piece of kit the dentist had to carry out work on my teeth.  Small high speed drill, a decent light, a compressed air gadget to bow away the swarf, even a spitoon - and couch to rest when the modelling gets a bit too tough all built into one impressive console!

 

and a gorgeous nurse on hand to help.

 

Ed

[edcayton]

Couple of questions. What is an Olfa cutter? I googled it and found rotary cutters like one I have for wall paper. Or do you mean the things with the snap-off blades?

 

Do you keep modelling tools totally separate from others, and duplicate as required, or keep "borrowing" tools from the main tool box?

 

Cheers

 

Ed

[stewartingram]

Going back to the question of knives, I would suggest two: one with the new blade for precision work and the other using the somewhat blunt blade for more general "hacking".

Mark the sharp one with a red marker or tape.

 

Cheers,

 

Glover

I also have a sharpening stone. After every 3-4 cuts I resharpen. The blade rarely gets changed.

 

Stewart

[CKPR]

Couple of questions. What is an Olfa cutter? I googled it and found rotary cutters like one I have for wall paper. Or do you mean the things with the snap-off blades?

 

Do you keep modelling tools totally separate from others, and duplicate as required, or keep "borrowing" tools from the main tool box?

 

Cheers

 

Ed

 

They're a cutting tool with a backwards hooked blade that is perfect for scribing and cutting plastic sheet and thin metal.  They're a proprietary version of what used to be called a 'scrawker' that involved controlled violence to a hacksaw blade -  much easier to buy the same tool as sold by Olfa or by Tamiya under their own label.

[RexAshton]

I use one of these everyday. It handles everything from 2mm scale detail bits to to 7mm scale coach solebars with ease. Good price, next day delivery - just a happy customer. The London Road Models resistance soldering kit gets a lot of use as well.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Plenty of space for a roundtuit pile.

 

Mike.