Essential Model Making Equipment

Modelling and building toy models has been a very old hobby for young and older hobbyists for years. It's something that as a modelling enthusiast myself I have come to expect that the tools and equipment needed are truly essential to getting the best from your modelling experience and it can be said that as you build up a collection of equipment and tools your confidence in creating different types of models from kits can increase as a result of your big tool box.

There are certain things that every model tool box must have and we shall go through the essentials right now and then move on to some optional extras.

Paint Brushes And Paints

The first items that your tool kits must have is Brushes and Paints. Now Brushes you will need a range of different sizes, but generally speaking they are the smaller variety that you will need to paint your models sizes 0 -4 will do and a few old paintbrushes which you can use to Drybrush certain areas of your model kits.

Paints are either Enamel or Acrylics there are benefits to using either or both, but with Acyrlics they can be thinned with water only and with Enamels they can be thinned with Turpentine or White Spirit which you have to make sure you wash your brushes quite quickly with eithey will be harder to clean and a dirty brush is certainly a not very happy brush.

Glue is very important to fix your model kits together and there are good and bad ranges of glue out there and you need to know the right glues for the job, for instance regular PVA glue is meant for paper and shouldn't really be used for gluing plastic or resin model kits together instead you will need either Polystyrene Cement which actually melts the two plastic surfaces together or you can use specially formulated Super Glue which is ideal for resin kits.

For metal miniatures you will need something far stronger usually the two part epoxy glue is the best as you mix the two glues together, usually one is the glue resin and the other is the hardener which dries very quickly.

Modelling knives are an essential tool for cutting and shaving off excess plastic and mould lines left on certain plastic models this is needed so that you can have a top looking model or figure without any dodgy looking bits sticking out that look out of place. I recommend having a few modelling knives with spare blades.

Tweezers are another essential as you can hold pieces of your model away from your fingers whilst you either glue or paint any part of your modelling project.

Wire clippers are useful for cutting parts from their plastic frames especially if they are tough to cut through with just a regular modelling knife.

This is a great tool for hobby and model makers as you can see in greater detail the areas you are painting or working with by using the magnifying lens to see a closer up image of the working area. and they have some small clamps to hold in position areas that need gluing or painting and you can tighten these into place so that they don't move or you can simply move them around to suit. Any desk top or workstation you use needs one of these for finer and more detailed hobby work.

There are some optional extras that you may or may not need but they do help make your models better.

Acrylic Varnish - This can used mainly to protect the paintwork you have painstakingly added to your model figure or kit and if you have painted with enamel paints there are ranges of clear enamel varnish that you can use to also protect your work.

Files And Hacksaw - These are useful for cutting large pieces or trying to smooth areas as you cut parts with the hacksaw and smooth off with the metal files. More suited to the Metal miniatures.