Your Indespensible Tool

i agree with 'hicks there, it's gotta be the checkbook or cold cash. nothin' aint gona materialize without the dough bro.

My X-acto is a great little tool, but I will not touch a part with it untill I turn on my magnifying lamp. The old peepers aint what they use to be.

Sanding sticks. The way I build models there is always a need for them. Second would be surgical hemostats for gripping small parts for positioning on the model. I have several sets of them, from small needle tip to wide duckbill. I couldn't survive with out them.

Has to be my hobby knife, becasue it just seems to multiply. Every time I take one out, there seems to be more! I amy have some sort of obsession here.

Gotta go with the pack here, a trusty ol' number 11 blade x-acto knife. I would hate building without one, and it could substitute for so many other tools.

If I was dropped on a desert island with a couple of models, I could probably get them built with a minimum amount of tools. A box of single edge razor blades, a couple of sheets of 360 wet or dry sandpaper, a tube of styrene glue, some tooth picks, 3 or 4 paint brushes, some paints w/thinner, rubber bands, scotch tape, 2 or three empty baby food jars and some clean rags. You can build both plastic and wood kits with the above items. I built a lot of models back in the early to mid 50s with those items. But probably wouldn't be as much fun now as it was then.

My Magnifyin Xtra hands...of course Ive slightly modified it so it doesnt scratch or damage soft plastic....Dremel with flex shaft...and even though I have a nice drill press in the garage, I must say my dremel drill press set up works better for most modeling work....

Lets not forget the Acetone either....without it I wouldnt be typing this now!

Chris

#1. hobbie knife
#2. Tooth pick
#3. My Wife is a Quilter. She made a quilt for me10"X36" made out of flannel. I use it to rest my arms on the bench while working and, a nice soft surface to work on models. (protects painted parts well)

One tool that has become indespensible for me is an old Macintosh SE. It has FileMaker Pro installed and I have created a database for my kits with fields for type (AC, armor, cars, etc.), kit number, manufacturer, scale, options, etc. If I need a paticular kit or part, it's easy to look it up instead of searching the boxes. (600 +) I also watch eBay for some of the more rare kits I have and update the going prices.

Dust covers! My apartment tends to be very dusty as I don't do a lot of housework, and between the dust and cat hair, I have to cover freshly painted parts with something. Or I put the freshly painted parts in a closed container. I have a bag full of dust covers of various sizes and shapes, ranging from the small plastic cups that come with take-out food (you know, the ones that hold hot sauce or parmesan cheese or whatever) through clean sour cream containers to a motel room ice bucket. Believe it or not, perhaps the handiest dust cover in my arsenal is a hospital vomit tray (clean, of course) that a respiratory therapist friend of mine gave me. Its unusual kidney shape easily fits around odd-shaped parts or over multiple assemblies that were painted at the same time and set beside each other. I've used this vomit tray many times and have wished I had another.

I also agree with most in saying exacto and sand paper. The builds look a whole lot better since I figured out why they sell that stuff next to kits.
I'm suprised no one has said a candle to stretch sprue!

for me it's got to be
1. my Xacto knives
2. my assortment of dental tools
3. my lighted swingarm magnifier

Bruce

Belt sander...


Fade to Black...

I've got an assortment of hemostat clamps (surgical tools) that I use to hold parts for spray painting, gluing. Problem is, they're not very gentle. However, since X-Acto was named by most everyone else and you don't need another vote for it, then I'll go with my hemostat, just to be different.

The old thought locker!!!!!


and secondly, tweezers and sanding sticks and halogen lighting!!!!!

Beer. always beer. Takes the frustrations away.

Oh, and paint thinner, and my knife.