Toothpicks and Palm Pics

Dollar Tree cocktail stirrers.

They were about $1.25 per pack of ten, so 13 cents each.

Day glo green and flat, styrene plastic.

My plan for the Kiss Kiss Club was to make slots in the base and push these into them.  Then they can be removed so I could re-arrange the set up as needed.

Decent detail on the trunk and okay on the fronds.

Since these are decorative palms I figure they could look the same in a nightclub setting.  Painted up they look okay I think.  Unpainted they may end up decorating some casinos, hotels or villain lairs.

I like using these kinds of picks for model work.  Bamboo shreds and causes splinters.

The plastic end makes them easy to find on a crowded table.

Longer than most toothpicks they are more versatile. 

Nice and smooth, and sharp.
 

Bits and Bits

I got this bit of plastic rod at my local hobby shop.

I want to make a laser weapon for my troops and this fluorescent rod will make a nice addition to that project.

Does not show up well on camera but it really glows on the ends.

Drilling holes in resin has caused a few drill bits to break.  A trip to Menards solved the problem.

A nice set of little drills.

It is nice to have a big selection and to have back up drills for when they break at a critical time.

I use a pin vise a lot for drilling holes for trailer hitches, machine gun mounts and other purposes.

These were pretty cheap and a better deal than buying them one at a time.
 

Bead Holder Tool

Sometimes I use beads and other spherical objects in my model building.

That worries me because they can be hard to hold particularly if I need to drill a hole in them.

I found this tool in the bead section of Michaels recently.  It is for holding beads.  The bottom half is curved and the bead sits in the trough.  The top part is cone shaped and holds the bead in place.

I have already used it for several projects and find it works very well.
 

Mike Went Shopping

Visited the local Hobby Town and Hobby Lobby.

Picked up some Tamiya spray paints for a robot project I got going.  Converting some anime looking robots into Samurai Robots by use of paint.

More robot paints and the light green on the left is for Japanese aircraft interiors.

Glue for aircraft interiors, perfect for gluing on aircraft canopies.

Kind of expensive blades, but I am working on some Heiser Models resin kits and I like the sharp long blades for trimming off the very tiny amounts of flash on the mold lines.

These little gems are for applying paint in hard to reach spots. Helpful for doing aircraft pilots and instrument panels.

I don't like to use sandpaper much but sanding sticks I like.  Good for doing each half of the fuselage on an airplane to insure a good fit before glue is applied.

I never had one of these off set tweezers but they always looked like a good idea.  So we shall see.  I mostly wanted the handle, but the razor saw will go into inventory as a replacement when the currently in use one gets too dull.  I wanted the  handle so I could maintain several different large knife blade types ready to go and cut out some of the switching.

I broke the tip off of a tweezers the other day and so I picked up a replacement.  One of the few things I miss about California is the hobby shops, they were much better, but that goes with the larger population which brings its own problems.  Naturally, I got the Hobby Lobby 40% off one item coupon.

Blades

The larger handle is good for larger and stronger blades.

It also has this little saw blade too.

It uses the same size blades as the big red handle.

Chisel blade.  Much stronger than the little blades.

Curved blade is good for cutting when a moderate amount of force is needed.

Angled break off blade.

Two kinds of angled snap off blades.

Comparison with the standard #11 blade.

Snap off blades come in several different handle styles.

Knives

The right tool for the right job.  This is an Olfa knife.  It is a snap off blade and very sharp.  The shape of the blade is similar to the #11 X-Acto blade.

Once my X-Acto blades get used a bit, I put them onto a metal handle and they get used for trimming soft metal, or other harsh materials.

My good blades I keep on a green plastic handle to identify it as a good blade.

I always keep a mighty host of blades ready for cutting on my workspace.

This is a light saw blade, perfect for a quick small cut when you don't want to break out the razor saw or if it's too big to fit into a tiny space.

The short angled blade fits into spaces that the #11 can't reach.

The chisel blade.

My full panoply of blades.  Each of them ready for use on my workbench.

Work Table

This is my work space.  My favorite glue for styrene is the Model Master in the black bottle.

The metal tube allows careful placement of the glue.  The tube is cleaned using small wires that are included in the package.  I tape the wires to the side with blue tape so they don't get lost.  I use cutting boards to keep the work surface from being damaged.

I often work on several projects at once, Batmobile, aircraft and others.

This is a T-wall.  I made it out of plastic as a master model to resin cast.