Hi,
I' m rather new in scratchbuilding and so far built only some small things mainly as improments to kits.
I'm thinking about buying some tools to help me, and have some questions i hope you guys can help with.
1. punch & die set, which one to get: Waldron, waldron sub mini or historex?
2. there is a tool called "The chopper II" which looks very good, do i realy need it?, what do you guys use for making multiple equal parts?

TIA
Eran

Shallom Eran,

The best (my preference) is the Historex sets. I have both. Also, get a good set of pin vise drills. Also, a good knife (or three) with plenty of blades. Then, a very good and different supply of sanding sticks/paper.

As for the Chopper, it has helped, but not being a michined tool, there is some slipage that occurs. So "exact" multiple cuts is hard. THe best I have done is to scratch build a "jig" that will allow me to make the exact-multiple cuts.

You will see that while there are a lot of great looking tools oout there, start with the simple and get your skills up. These are going to be your best tool as you go about building anything.

HTH, Dave

for making duplicate items, I have found the Dupli-Cutter a great tool. You can find a lot of tools from micromark.com. they specialize in tools for the hobbyists.

Eran,
MicroMark has GREAT things, but I live in Belgium, Europe and shipping and customs costs almost double the price for anything I buy there.
Overall, I advise you use GOOD tools. Use a sharp knife, never a dull one. Make sure your worktable is not too fully loaded and your working surface is perfectly smooth. Get a good source of light over your working table.
I'm not saying you can't scratchbuild without machine tools, but a Dremel or other small drilling/sanding tool certainly comes in handy.
One thing you cannot buy is very important too : patience.
If you have specific '"how to" questions, just give us a sign.
Happy scratching !
Jan

Greetings Eran,
Like the other guys said, it's a whole lot more of getting a few tools and then learn how to use them well. Yeah those punch sets are nice, but having ham fisted sized hands I have a problem with the little tiny ones either bending or snaping off. I found that using my minidrills for any holes with the aid of the tip of an Xacto blade pretty mush covers the hole thing. For any small sized round stock, you can always use preformed rod or tube and if you really want to get tiny, stretched sprue is hard to beat. For repeat cuts on the same sized stock you can always stack up several and cut them all at one time. Due to the nature of the scratchbuilding game, it's hard to really say that yopu need many tools in particular, most of it is just seeing something that you want to make, get as much good information as you can dig up and go for it. If you can get close thats excellent. Remember you're doing this for fun. Besides, if someone else thinks it ain't right, make 'em show you with their particular scratchbuilt super widget. Who knows, you might pick up some good ideas to go into that next scratch-built wonder. Hope this helps.

Jay
Las Vegas, NV