Most helpful technique or modeling tool you've discovered

[stalal]

1. Patience

2. Knowing when to stop detailing so that the model does not look overdone.

[arnobiz]

1 - Milliput with cling film, allows almost everything in the field of scratch-building complicated shapes

2 - Needle files: I've been modeling for some time now but I just discovered the existence of these a couple of months ago and they literally changed my (modeling) life!

3 - Extra liquid plastic cement ("Plastic weld"), makes scratch-building and clean assemblies so much easier

[toniosky]

Saliva on a piece of sprue ! Very useful to hold and position tiny photoetched parts

[thegoodsgt]

Saliva on a piece of sprue !

I'm never going to handle your model at a contest!

[Miccara]

That's interesting, Patrick! Whut airbrush did ya have and whut have ya got now?

As for me:

Techniques, the Mona Lisa adhesive + custom kitchen aluminium foil, courtesy of Larry Shred. My eternal gratitude, my mate.

Tools, the RaduB Riveter Mini (I used to have Micro-Mark's pounce wheels, so ya go figure... )

Yea baby!!! RaduB Riveter Mini and his saws.

Thanks for remembering me... <_< ...it fills me with emotion to think I can change a life!

;-)

[Patrick_Nevin]

That's interesting, Patrick! Whut airbrush did ya have and whut have ya got now?

Tim:

Guillotine -

Cost me a tenner and sweetens life daily. If I want a 2 X 50mm strip of card, it takes a couple of seconds to produce. For hacking right angles that look square (and I'm rubbish at doing these by eye) it just eats 'em up without drama.

Related matter: I'd suggest the True Sander that I bought after reading the ChukW thread, it seems to have great potential but haven't used it that much yet, so the jury's out on whether it lives at the near or far end of the bench

Uncle:

I started off with a siphon feed job a couple of years ago and am very glad I did as it taught me much. Still have it, but also now own an SP35 Sparmax (bought for £25 off LuckyModel I think, last I looked they were £80-90 here, brilliant workhorse brush) and a couple of H&S's, both far better than I will ever be. You do this stuff for fun, nice feeling tools are a big part of this (IMHO.)

Patrick

[cksh]

Lots of good stuff here.

For me it would have to be Tamiya extra thin cement (I know I am behind the times). And have even re-discovered the benefits of standard cement. For 10 years all I had ever used was CA, and some white glue for canopies.

[mlicari]

Uncle: I do believe the UMM saw and the JLC saw are one and the same. Great tool.

Mike

[Mark M.]

Yeh, but WHICH micro-drill brand would ya say is adequate to work with on styrene, Mark?

It doesn't matter. They all do the same thing. Drill very tiny, clean, precise holes for inserting wires, thread, string, rigging, making mounting points for plastic sprue or other bits that need attachment points.

I have a simple hand-held with variable size chucks. I would suggest the narrowest bit you can afford, and if you're not sure how ham-fisted you are, get 2 (in case you break 1).

[Blackcollar]

I would have to go with:

Pre/post shading. There has been such a marked change in modelling since this has come around.

UMM Razor Saw

Alcad

Hasegawa tri-tools

Photo-etching and resin kits

and the biggest one of all:

The INTERNET with websites with people like you folks. This is not a cheap plug btw, but what I learn from every one is immeasurable

Thanks to all

-Al

[Pep]

Just pick up some microbrushes from the store, what exactly are they for?

[Old Man]

Making decals.

I started out by painting on clear decal film, and applying dry-transfer letters and numbers to clear decal film. Painted strip is very good for framing windscreens.

I now have done some color printer decals successfully.

It really opens up the possibilities....

[Old Blind Dog]

Just pick up some microbrushes from the store, what exactly are they for?

1, General paint touch-ups

2, Applying paint or glue in hard to reach places (they're bendable)

3. Precision application of liquid cement or CA

4. Precision application of CA accelerator

5. Precise application of washes (directly into panel lines)

and almost anything else you can think of.

cheers

Old Blind Dog

[Kalashnikov-47]

Microbrushes (Fine and Superfine) can't be beat for paint touch-ups or precision application of glues. I always try to buy them in lots of 400 at a time.

Me too! Discovered 'em a couple years back and now couldn't live without 'em!

Where the heck do you get them in huge lots? I buy packs of 10 at the LHS for $2.

Just pick up some microbrushes from the store, what exactly are they for?

Everything. I find new uses for them all the time. See OBD's posting above.

:)

- Patrick

Edited July 10, 2010 by Kalashnikov-47

[Derek Moss]

Without a doubt - OPTIVISOR!!!!!!!!

[Old Blind Dog]

Me too! Discovered 'em a couple years back and now couldn't live without 'em!

Where the heck do you get them in huge lots? I buy packs of 10 at the LHS for $2.

Micro Mark sells them in packages of 100 for somewhat under $10. BUT, a much better deal can be found at dental supply outlets, some of whom sell through Amazon, where I most recently picked up a pack of 400 (4 of the same packs that Micro Mark sells separately) for about $23.

Amazing all the different weird and wonderful colors the things come in!

cheers

Old Blind Dog

[Prenton]

Absolutely!

As the "older" modellers return to the hobby, and discover that our eyesight is not what it used to be... and then discover that there are things called PE, and that it is expected that a cockpit has to have more than a ledge and a pilot with no legs, we need something to help. And we were brought up on the "one true scale", and remember the golden years of Airfix and Matchbox.....

SO - YES - Visual Aids of various kinds... from Headband Magnifier Kits (Model Craft collection no 1765 with the 3.5X lens) to other visual aids (Optivisor??)

Of course, we could sell our 600+ 1/72 scale kits in our stash/attic insulation and buy maybe ten 1/32 kits instead.... (yeah - that's likely to happen.....)

Prenton

[AX 365]

Removing putty with acetone-based nail polish remover. I still have to sand but not nearly so much.

Learned right here at ARC many moons ago!

Ditto! And Tamiya Extra Thin cement.

[Don923]

The ARC web site has been most helpful for me in the last ten years.

!. I don't know how many techniques I've picked up here

2. There's always a helpful answer to a research question, and advice

3. I've been able to get long forgotten decals from other friendly members

4. Great links for both research and sources

5. Last when I put my building away awhile coming to ARC always helps motivate me back into my passion

Don923 (flylo)

[Neo]

My favorite tools are my ex GF dental cleaning tools ;) there expensive as hell but are so use full

i have the thins needle size picks 1 curved one angled and the onther as a 45degree flat with measurement marking on it other side is the same but round shaft

Just wonderful

and cant forget the 1000+ help outs i have had from ARC members and article around here

Cheers

Neo

[janman]

Removing putty with acetone-based nail polish remover. I still have to sand but not nearly so much.

Learned right here at ARC many moons ago!

That's the one for me as well. As a matter of fact I just used it some hours ago.

[Blackcollar]

Forgot about my ultrasonic cleaner, absolutely great for cleaning the airbrush

-Al

[mingwin]

i know a lot of people would say : rely on your eyes, paint the colors you see...

I'm colorblind! ( i can see colors... but it seems like they're wrongs... (problem isn't in the eyes, but in the frontal cortex...) ...so, time to time black turns to deep blue...or dark green... pink to white, brown to red..., when my brain knows something should be blue, it seens it blue! (but is it the right blue... ...)

no wonder why i'm a big fan of NMF!

...so, contrary to those who claimed to rely on your eyes, ...when looking at a picture(whom colors might be wrongs)... or worst, from a computer screen... i going with FS colors/brands colors charts... or specialised colors (white enseign, akhan... alclads...)

ok, if you are or had been working on planes, or pilot them, you certainly got good eyes, and perfect color view... and most of all, seen the real thing from very close!

but that's not my case, so i have to rely on special colors, or precise/reliable color guide...

...and i search for feedback when avalaible...

...cos i wasted too many paint in my life trying to acheive what i was seeing...

and maybe, you might not know it, if you are just slightly colorblind! (a friend of mine discovered it at a med exam, at 30 years old!)

[chukw]

Me too- I rely on Photoshop's color picker to help me understand tones in photos and paintings.

Got a pic of your plane, tank or car? Rusty muffler? Bulldozer blade? Pick and click to see the exact shade- it's a big help for me.

Cheers!

chuk

[Nuno Andresen]

If I had to pick one, but a single one tip or tool that really improved my way of doing model I would had no doubts in picking the Merry Sprue Cutter. I purchased mine about 10 years ago:

And the biggest improvement it brought to my bench is perfectly visible in this magnification:

It cuts down to the root of the sprue. Leaving virtually no leftovers of the plastic sprue in the part:

The immediate finishing quality this small cutter gives has for sure saved me incommensurable hours in my modeling activity.

I still remember the first time I showed these images in a forum, about five years ago, the question, IIRC was exactly the same, and to my deep surprise no one knew this cuter. My local friends were so thrilled with it that they all purchased it. They too were delighted by this simple, however highly effective tool.

Well, in the end, this long lasting fellow, has separated already in the past decade, thousands and thousands of plastic parts from their sprues. The best of the story is that it’s blades are still sharp like they were, way back in the XX century!

And cuts the brittle and fragile clear plastic wonderfully well too! Never had a scratch or a break up since then!