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Tool Kits for Constructing Wood Models
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- Created on Tuesday, 29 March 2011 21:17
- Last Updated on Saturday, 13 April 2013 07:38
- Written by Administrator
- Hits: 3166
Instead of buying individual tools and formulating your own Do It Yourself toolkit at home, you might find yourself saving a lot of money by buying a ready to go modeling tool kit readily available at Excel or X-Acto. You can find different tool kits for different kinds of modeling, from basic knife sets to ship modeling and model railroaders' kits. However, neither does this mean that you only have to buy a specific kit for your specific needs: the railroader's kit comes with a few extra accessories that are ideal for a model shipwright. If you search around on the internet, you are sure to find a great deal from hobby supply overstock dealers.
But, if you are going to create your own kit, you will need the following tools:
- Hobby Knife + assortment of blades
- Needle Nose Pliers
- Tweezers
- Saw and Miter
- Wire Cutters
- Small Awl
- Files
- Sandpaper & Sanding Block
- Clamps
- Adhesives (Wood Glue, ACC, epoxy)
- Pin Vise / drill bit holder and various drills
- Nailing Tool and Nails
- Dividers
- Small hobby hammer
- Metal Ruler (measuring both inches and centimeters)
- Plank Bending Tool
- Container to hold planks (for soaking)
- Square
- Cutting Mat
- Vise
- Dividers
- Stains, paints and brushes
The next thing you need to turn your attention to are clamps: everything from a metal C-Clamp to clothing pins can be used although you might find it easier to buy a set either from a mail order service or Home Depot. It might take some time to find a perfect fit, however. You might also want to keep a box of scrap wood strips and blocks at the ready, including saving these during cutting as these are useful for constructing shims for clamping.
A one foot long, metallic ruler measuring both inches and centimeters is a handy tool to have included in your toolkit and Draftsman's dividers are a handy and inexpensive addition as well. The ruler coupled with a large 11"x17" self-healing cutting map can help keeping knives sharp and help keep ruler measurements (and cuts) accurate. While proportional dividers are recommended by many modelers, you'll find you can do just as well without them. For aligning bulkheads and squaring corners, a hobby sized carpenter's square is the perfect must-have which ideally you should store in the three different (and standard) sizes. You will also need a vice for containing all wood for sanding, drilling, cutting, etc and while you don't need a really heavy duty one, we've found the Pana-Vice is a great selection though a little on the pricey side. But it serves a dual purpose – it can also hold the body of the ship during planking.
Keeping an inexpensive and plastic wallpaper wetting tray is great for soaking planks in before bending, so basically any container that is roughly 22" in length will do equally well.
Buying a solid set of modeler's paint brushes and provided they are cleaned after use, will last you for a very long time but remember to get brushes that match the paint you use. You can use the cheaper brushes for applying things like wood glue but for specific paints like water based paint for instance, using a synthetic fiber brush instead of a random brush, will work better.
While this is by no means an exhaustive list of every possible tool you will need for modeling, it is a decent place to start. You will find, however, that the consumables will finish quickly and will need to be replenished and tools like hobby knives can blunt quickly and easily, so replace them often or keep a sure supply of them at the ready.
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