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Miniature Wargames

Useful tools for assembling your miniatures

by Vlad, Quartermaster @ The Guild Hall

March 23 2020

Wargaming is a fun and exciting hobby, and part of the fun consists of assembling and painting your miniatures. Today, I will help you make a more informed decision when buying the tools that you are going to use to assemble your miniatures.

A very useful thing to know when starting to assemble your miniatures is that not all tools are essential – some are used just for specific steps and are not used that often.

Hobby Cutter / Plastic Clippers

These are essential in cutting the model parts (bits) out of the sprue. You’ll need to identify the bit that you want to cut out, use the flat part of the clippers to cut as close as you can, and start sniping around the bits. Just be careful to hold the bit when you snip off the last piece, so you don’t lose it (nobody wants to start looking for a tiny piece of plastic in their carpet).
Cutter

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Sculpting Tools

After you have your part cut off the sprue, it’s a good idea to remove the mold line, if you have any; if not just skip this step. With the mould line remover, all you have to do is draw the tool along the mold lines to scrape them away with ease.
Sculpting

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File Set

Files are used to remove the small imperfections that may appear when you cut the model from its frame. They can also be replaced with a hobby knife.
File Set

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Mini Saw

For advance users, this is a perfect tool for precision modeling and conversion, designed to cut through resin and plastic quickly, cleanly, and efficiently.

Hobby Knife

This tool combines the mould line remover, file and mini saw together, so there is no argument that this is one of the best tools to have at your disposal.
Hobby Knife

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Super Glue / Plastic Glue

Depending on the material you are working with, you should use super glue for metal and resin, and plastic glue for… well, I’ll let you guess which material. 😀
Glue

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Mini Drill

Drills are great for pinning together parts of miniatures that may need a little extra support, like securing the enormous skeletal wings of a zombie dragon onto its body. They are also great for creating holes in gun barrels, or when you want to magnetize arms/weapons so you can have more options for your model.
Drill

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Green stuff

Green Stuff is a two-part modeling putty that is useful for filling in gaps on models and/or sculpting additional details. When the two colors (yellow and blue) mix, they form a green putty that can be applied to plastic, resin, and metal miniatures and then molded into any shape. Once it has fully cured, Green Stuff is solid enough to glue to other components, and you can paint over it with your regular paints.
Green Stuff

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Finally, the most important thing to know before you start assembling miniatures is that you should always have a quick read of the instruction booklet that comes with the kit. That will help you get familiar with how the parts should be put together, and you will also notice that the pieces from the sprues are numbered – that helps you find them faster on the frame.

If you want to find out more about this hobby and you want to be part of a passionate community, you can find that at The Guild Hall!

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