Your Favorite Tool or Technique?

Oh...yeah.....I admit.....the hardware store MEK - the primer for plumbers who mess about with PVC pipes.....that MEK stuff absolutely kicks it.....hard.  Brilliant stuff....sticks styrene together like NOTHING I've ever seen......and it cleans brushes better than anything I've ever used before.

MEK on order :-)

What is my favorite tool?

Nail Clippers.

Why?

1.  New ones are very sharp.

2.  They work fantastic for cutting parts from the sprues

3.  They are a fraction of the cost of those plastic snips.

My bottle opener.

I'll have to pick up some MEK to see how this stuff does. How does it compare to, say, Tenax or Tamiya? I saw those referred to as water-thin, but I thought MEK was thin, too?

Nathan T

Does Eduard's painting masks count as a favorite tool, or is it cheating.

Yes Nathan they count, at least the pre-cut ones....good call!  I've become lazy in the canopy masking department as of late and these are God sent.  They came with the Eduard Dora I recently built and I was so pleased with the results, I used them on my Hurricane, which took all of about 20 minutes to mask.  Normally this is process takes me hours.  Thats a worthwhile cheat all day, twice on Sunday.....

Joe

If I'm not mistaken tenax is essentially m e k. Might be some other additives but it sure behaves the same .

Raualduke

If I'm not mistaken tenax is essentially m e k. Might be some other additives but it sure behaves the same .

It is.. Tenax and Testor's pink label liquid cement are mostly MEK.. 

Those little cosmetic sponges you buy by the bag real cheap at dollar stores have become my favorite. Cut in half, they're great for wiping off the rim of the paint bottle after opening--and easier to deal with than using a piece of paper towel. They're also great for wiping up small paint and glue spills.

They make great little cushions for small parts with paint jobs you don't want damaged.

I'm even using them to silence a rattling wall register in the heating/cooling system. They don't look great, but they work, and for me, ugly but functional and practical will always beat out pretty but useless.

True, Jim....very true.

I also like the cheap fingernail files (sanding sticks) you get in the cosmetic sections of pharmacies and supermarkets....LOTS of different grits....some padded, some not....and about HALF the price of a sanding stick made for modelers.....

I'm sure it has already been mentioned but bare metal foil for masking canopies is one of my best tools.

Finn....I almost NEVER use Tamiya tape for canopies.....I ALWAYS use Bare Metal Foil for masking canopies....awesome stuff

I work wtih a guy that I think is a tool...but I wouldn't classify him as my favorite.

I think many of the 'tools' mentioned in this thread are ones which I think are necessary for use in model building, whether type of glue, sandpaper, knife, saw or whatever. Though I have and use most of those mentioned, my favorite tool is my little Unimat 3 lathe. It's great for making small parts or drilling small holes etc. I'm not as good as the individual in the following link, but have a look - he's a model builder:

Unimat in plastic model building

The link only goes to machining but have a look around some nice models.

-Tamiya acrylic paints. No nasty fumes like the testors enamels I grew up with (twitch twitch cough cough :))

-Testors dullcote to seal everything in and protect the finish

-using a sharpened brush handle for cleaning up canopy frames. Slop the paint on, then carefully scrape it clean to the edge of the framing.

-Plastruct liquid glue