Hornby Magazine - explaining what you’ll need...

Essential tools

Just what do you actually need in your tool box? Hornby Magazine shows what basic tools you will need to get started in railway modelling, without filling your house with excessive numbers of files, saws and pliers.

There are an awesome number of different tools that are available to assist in railway modelling projects, but with so many it can be a daunting task deciding what you need to progress your layout. Here we will deal with the tools that you are likely to need to take on simple projects like building a goods wagon (see pages 104-105) or other similar plastic kits such as buildings, station furniture and road vehicles.

A number one priority is a craft knife. This tool will be required in virtually every project, so it is worth buying a good quality knife that can be used to cut plastic, card, cork underlay and more. Most craft knifes can have replacement blades fitted should one break. No craft knife is complete without a safety ruler either, as these save many fingers from being loped off!

A pair of tweezers will also be handy to have available, and it is best to buy a pair especially for model making as they are bound to end up with paint or glue on them at some point. To assist in getting a perfect fit between parts, a set of small files are a useful addition to the toolbox, plus one middle-sized file.

Add to this a set of high quality paint brushes, pencil, jewellers screw drivers and a set of small drill bits (a range from 0.3mm to 1.6mm is recommended) together with a mandrel and your toolbox should be starting to fill up. Of course you will also need the paints to go with the model your are making, and these can take up a lot of room. The panels on this page will provide ideas for which tools to buy and where to get them from.

Toolbox Contents...
Cutting board - Used as a base to cut items using a craft knife
Craft knife - Cutting plastic, card and cork
Small files - Cleaning up plastic parts from kits
Micro drill bits and pin chuck - Drilling out small holes to fit detail parts
Small screw drivers - Drilling out small holes to fit detail parts
Paint brushes from size 000 upwards - Paint work
Tweezers - Handling small parts
Safety ruler - Saves your fingers when using a craft knife
Snipe nose pliers - Handy for handling larger, but fiddly items
Side cutters - For cutting lengths of wire
Pliers - General useful tool
Scissors - Used for cutting out decal sheets
Paints - Colours to match models in production
Glues - Plastic glue and multi-purpose glue are useful

Suppliers:
Tools - Squires Model and Craft tools has a wide range of suitable tools. Call 01243 842424 for a catalogue or visit the shop at 100 London Road, Bognor Regis, West Sussex PO21 1DD. Alternatively, local DIY stores and model shops will be able to supply many of the tools listed here.
Paints - Most model shops have a plentiful supply of paints to suit all the BR eras. The Railmatch and Phoenix Precision Enamel paints are matched to original railway colours. Contact a local stockist for a full list of what is available.

For the full story see HM April/May 2007 p107.