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Another Look at the Modeling Table...Sharp Things by Mike Whye
It used to be that upon getting a kit when I was a kid, I'd snap the pieces off the sprues and glue them together. Well, after awhile I learned that not everything fits together well because of how some of those pieces had too much plastic here and there on them....remaining pieces of sprue and flash. That's when I began to learn how to use modeling knives, mostly X-acto knives, under tutelage of my father.
Over the years, I've learned that there are other things out there besides the X-actos that can help. But first, the X-actos.
When I first started using them, Dad and I had just the simple handles and the long triangular blades. Then we bought a small box that had three handles....two were the usual long slim things and the third was a fatter one, just the thing a boy's hand needed to hold onto. And there were a variety of blades in the box too. I still use the long triangular ones the most. Actually, I hardly touch the others....most are still there, matter of fact. Of the others, those I use most often are the flat chisel type blades for scraping here and there and the small saw blades (which the handles never seemed to hold properly no matter how tightly I turn the collars). Occasionally, I use some of the wide ones but they seem more appropriate for carving wood than plastic but if there was nothing else available for working on plastic, they are just fine. I never have understood the purpose of those long curving blades that look like something fit for a 120mm Arabian prince's outfit.
One of the first things I was taught was to cut away from myself...call that a survival skill. Nevertheless, I still cut my fingers from time to time. After awhile I learned it was better to put band-aids on some fingers BEFORE cutting and trimming...using them as protection devices....rather than after the blood was flowing. Another thing I was taught was to not use the kitchen countertop or table for cutting surfaces.--the main reaction from this was that it got my parents pretty mad...again, a survival skill learned. Just use a cutting board, I was told, and that's what I've done ever since.
Besides slicing off excess plastic, I've used the knives to spear items (acting as holders while I paint something) and to cut items from sprue although nowadays I prefer to use a trimmer for that most of the time. I also use a regular blade to scrape away seam lines on plastic pieces.
About 20 years ago when I lived in a small town in northwest Iowa, another modeler there was a dentist and I would marvel at his work. Of course, he was using dental tools to help with things like scraping and cutting and such. He eventually gave me one of those long things with a wicked looking hook at each end.....don't ask me what they're called....probes, I think.
And they are wicked, I learned. One slip with one of those hooked ends and you'll lay your flesh open and it's not like a sharp X-acto blade that can cut you so cleanly that you don't know you're cut until the blood is flowing. No sirree...let one of those hooks bite into you and you will know immediately and painfully that you have made a mistake.....so take a warning from the painfully educated here.....be careful with them. One very important item to note is that the probe has TWO hooks so while you're working with the hook at one end, remember that the other is either nestled in the palm of the hand holding the probe (ready to rip open your palm) or waving around in the air...something to really keep in mind while you're looking through magnifiers and working close-up with small pieces (meaning the probe is close enough to rip into the side of your face). A way to lessen this hazard is to grind down or clip off the second hook.
You can buy probes from various sources but if you play your cards out like I did, me, ask your dentist for any old ones he or she may have lying around during your next visit. That's how I've acquired a handful. Although dentists hang onto probes for a long time, there's only so much sharpening of those probes that are good enough for dentists; after that, they just lie in drawers. However, as unfit as they may be for dentistry, they're still pretty good for modeling. Over the years I have used them to:
* scribe....carving various lines where needed
* paint....dip them into paint and you can put a pinpoint of paint where you want it
* position items....I've used them to place various pieces, such as some small fuselage windows in a B-17's radio compartment, after all the painting was done
* hold things....they can either press pieces down while you paint them or glue them to other pieces or you can press them into plastic and hold the items that way.
Over the years, I have put a couple of the probes to the grindstone but not for sharpening them.....they're sharp enough already, believe me. Instead, I've ground down the points to create flat tips of varying widths. With a touch of white glue that can be easily scraped away later, I've used those flat tips to place some small items into places without leaving tell-tale pinprick marks and to also dab paint into spots that don't need the needle-point precision of the regular sharp points yet are too small for paint brushes.
Another sharp tool I have on hand is a chisel. Don't ask me where I got it. I don't know anymore. But it's a slim six-sided handle with a chisel blade at the end that's 1/16th of an inch wide. Talk about getting into tight places. I've used it for removing some mold ejection points that are seen in some odd places, like the bottom of the seat of Tamiya's 1/48th Me-109.
Next there is a scriber. I got this because I work in photography and occasionally need to inscribe some information on the sides of large format transparencies and along the way I thought, hey, why not use this on a model? This is simply a pencil-shaped object with a diamond-carbide tip that cuts into plastic beautifully and, with a ruler or a flexible guide, I've used it to scribe some lines that I've eliminated by sanding. There's nothing magical about using a scriber at all....if you can write with a pen, you can use a scriber, it's that simple. A good source for this is Micro-Mark Tools.
Finally, the last and perhaps simplest sharp item on my work table is the common straight pin. They're great for cleaning out clogged glue tips, sticking into small plastic pieces to act as holders and holding down some pieces while working on them.
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