The Hobby Toolkit: 6 Tools You Actually Need (and 3 You Don't)
, by Waterfront News, 1 min reading time
Before the paint comes the build. Here's the kit that gets miniatures off the sprue and assembled cleanly, without a drawer full of gadgets.
Half the hobby happens before you open a paint pot. Clean assembly is what separates a mini that looks good from one that looks like it lost a fight. This is the short list.
The six you need
Sprue clippers. Flat-sided cutters that get the part off the frame without tearing it. Cut a millimetre away from the part, then trim the nub. Don't use scissors. We've all tried.
Hobby knife. For shaving off mould lines and cleaning up sprue nubs. Scrape with the blade at right angles rather than cutting toward yourself. Change the blade more often than you think you should.
Plastic glue. Actually melts the plastic together, so the join is stronger than the part. A fine-tip applicator keeps it off the details.
Super glue. For resin, metal, and anything you've already painted. A little goes a long way.
Files or a sanding stick. For the stubborn mould lines the knife misses, especially on round surfaces like gun barrels and arms.
Clean-up water pot and a paper towel. Not glamorous, but you'll use them every single session.
The three you can skip for now
An airbrush (amazing later, expensive and messy now), a wet palette (nice to have, a bit of baking paper on a damp sponge does the job) and a hobby drill (until your first metal model needs pinning, you won't miss it).
One trick that changes everything
Dry-fit every piece before you glue it. Push it together, check it lines up, then take it apart and glue. Thirty seconds now saves prising a wonky arm off tomorrow.
The Army Painter tools range and the Citadel tools cover all six essentials, and most come in a starter bundle that's cheaper than buying them one by one.