Bench drill setup (on the cheap)

Here is my cheap bench drill setup complete:

- Minicraft drill stand from the 009 society stand at Shepton for £10.50

- Piranha 0 - 76MM quick release vice off of ebay for £8 + P+P

- B&Q value drill which fits the stand perfectly and has a latch (no speed control though) for £10

altogether about £30.

workbench

Work is continuing on 138s tanks and on 87s other parts. I also mixed some brick red yesterday (made from acrylic vermillion and railmatch light rust) and painted a load of waggons and vans in that base colour. Two roofs were painted grey and a few slate waggons therefore also got greyed up. A line up of 11 or so more slate waggons remains to be greyed. The black details and strappings will be added too. I already have slate loads for most of the waggons.

I also called into maplins and bought one of these - a soldering tool kit. Some of the tools are meant for electronic applications, but many of them are very useful indeed.

Colin

ultra-sound as a pound

This my friends is a technology I knew nothing about until yesterday - this is an ultrasonic cleaner.

Wikipedia says... "An ultrasonic cleaner, often colloquially referred to as a sonicator, is a cleaning device that uses ultrasound (usually from 15–400 kHz) and an appropriate cleaning solution to clean delicate items."

Indeed, and what's really cool about this?

You can use it to easily and quickly (3 mins) clean off flux and grease depositis off etched kits. Millions of tiny bubbles are created when ultrasonic sound is passed through liquid. It is these tiny bubbles combined with a huge pressure that create superb cleaning results. You onyl need to add warm tap water for general cleaning or tot of special natural 'Sea Clean' (made from seaweed) solution for enhanced/extensive cleaning.

and what does this space-age technology cost? £30 from ebay.

Needless to say I am hopeful that this (as well as cleaning jewellery, CDs/DVDs, cutlery, nibs etc) will save a lot of time prior to priming my models.

Colin

Toolkit

Here's a run down of my toolkit, which may be of interest to other modellers:

This assumes that you will be making up plastic, white metal and brass/nickel silver kits.

The core set

Sharp craft knife with spare blades.
Needle files – I also use nail files (easy to get from Boots etc) as they are less aggressive than needle files for some applications
Brush for flux and mek pak application (mine are different colours for each)
Small screwdrivers – for screwing and the removal of solder from flat surfaces
Fibreglass scratch brush
Set of micro drills and pin chuck
Steel rule
Set square
25W (or more) soldering iron, I also have a temperature controlled iron for low melt applications (white metal kits)
Small hacksaw with fine teeth
Tweezers (I use reverse and normal varieties)
Xuron tin snips (photo etch shears)
Xuron track cutting snips
Pliers – long nosed are the best – make sure you don’t get the ones with teeth inside!
Tabletop vice with smooth jaws
Tabletop lamp or very high watt bulb in room

Very useful but not entirely essential

Dental picks
Digital calliper for accurate measurement of gaps and thicknesses
Mini drill with cutting discs and other attachments
Other saws such as a piercing saw etc
Set of taper taps (10,12 and 14 BA I use most frequently)
Set of cutting broaches
A selection of nut drivers and spanners

Things I have yet to purchase, but which I expect to be useful

Airbrush
Taper reamer – expensive but performs better than broaches do in some situations

Have I missed any?

Colin