What Tools Do I Need For Building Card Model Kits?

Essential Card Kit Building Tools

Introduction

When building any card kits, it pays to have the right tools at hand. This makes building the kits easier, more enjoyable & above all… darn good fun!! After all kit building is a great pastime that allows us to be creative, relax & forgot about the worries of modern life. So what tools should use? Here we’re taking a look at what tools we recommend here at Scale Model Scenery for successfully building card kits.

Why should I have a dedicated set of tools for building card kits?

Like any form of modelling project, it pays to have the right tools for the job. Don’t be tempted to try & make do with tools that aren’t designed for the job at hand. This will only lead to frustration, disappointment, mistakes, or even worse, leading to you abandoning the kit build altogether, and we don't want that. Having the correct tools will make the job much easier & prevent mistakes through using the incorrect tools.

Our Recommended Tools for Card Kit Building 

SX021 Professional Folding & Scoring Tool 

We begin this list with our SX021 Professional Folding & Scoring Tool. It's probably one of the simplest tools you'll ever use, but once you've tried it, you'll be hooked! The SX021 has been designed to make the scoring & folding of brick, stone, and wall texture sheets much easier. It features an angled tip, perfect for scoring fold lines along either side of texture sheets. This gives crisp, sharp, clean folds around corners, window openings, and doorways. Ideal also for scoring glue tabs, large & small.

Steel Ruler

An absolute must is a steel ruler. Use for measuring & marking out, a straight edge guide to score or cut against. It can also be used to smooth out texture sheets. A 30cm (12”) long steel ruler is a good size with it being long enough for most card kit building and general modelling jobs. Look out for the safety steel rulers which are designed to protect one's fingers with its built-in safety finger guard.

Craft knife & Spare Blades

A good quality craft knife such as those made by Swann Morton will stand the test of time as well as reward you with many years of service. Don’t be tempted by cheap craft knives as they won’t last as I’ve found to my cost over the years. I now only use the best quality craft knives. They'll cost a little more but they're definitely an investment that will serve you well. Craft knives come supplied with a blade pre-fitted & sometimes supplied with a pack of spare blades. It’s also worth keeping a few packs of spare blades in your toolbox, to replace blunt blades as needed. If you find your knife blade isn’t cutting as well as it should, then it’s time to change the blade for a new one. Spare blade packs are generally sold as packs of 5.

Cutting Mat

A Cutting Mat is highly recommended as this saves your workbench or table from getting damaged whilst cutting. Cutting mats are often self-healing so they can be repeatedly cut many times & should last many many years. The added bonus is that cutting mats have measurement markings & grids printed on them, ideal for assisting with marking out & aligning up kit parts together. 

A popular size cutting mat is the A3 size, or for smaller jobs, an A4 sized cutting mat is ideal. Another tip for when a cutting mat has reached the end of its life, keep it as glueing mat for glueing kit parts together. This saves getting glue all over a cutting newer cutting mat & also keeps your workbench clean & glue-free

Corner Jig Tool

Correct alignment of walls & corner joints is essential, a miss-aligned wall or another kit part can cause problems later in a kit build. A corner jig tool like our SX002 is another of our recommended items for your modelling toolbox. It aids the alignment of kit parts to give perfect 90-degree corners. To use, simply place both kit parts together & then run a bead of glue along the corner joint line, holding both parts against the side walls of the jig whilst the glue sets. The jig also features laser engraved angle markings, great for those modelling jobs when parts need to be fitted together at different angles other than 90 degrees.

Tweezers

Tweezers are ideal for handling small parts or fitting small parts into those awkward corners. Tweezers come in all sorts of sizes & types. Self-gripping type tweezers are great as they hold the item/part without the need to squeeze & hold the tweezers constantly. They’ll only release the part/item being held when the handle is squeezed to release. Standard tweezers have to be constantly squeezed together to hold the item/parts. My preferred choice is the self-gripping tweezers as shown in the image above. 

Sanding Board & Sand Paper

With laser-cut parts once cut from a parts sheet sometimes need the pips that held the part to the part sheet need to be sanded back flush & smooth. Any pips on the part edges that haven’t been sanded back flush can cause texture wraps not to sit smoothly on the laser-cut part. A sanding board such as our SX011 above is just the job. They hook over the edge of a workbench or table making it ideal for quickly sanding parts during a build. The built-in clamp holds the sandpaper firmly in place, as well as allowing for it to be quickly replaced as required.

Sanding Sticks

Staying with sanding, another tool that's really useful is Sanding Sticks. It's worth keeping a few of these in your toolbox for quick sanding jobs. If you are on a limited budget, then consider buying cosmetic nail file sanding sticks as a cheap alternative. They can be found in supermarkets in the health care department. Sanding sticks are great for getting into any narrow gaps & slots on kit parts. 

Scissors

A good pair of quality scissors are ideal for those larger cutting jobs. If you are handy with a pair of scissors, they're great for those cutting jobs with lots of awkward curved sections.

Compass Cutters

Cutting circular holes & round items out from texture sheets and card is one of the hardest tasks any modeller has to do. This is where a compass cutter comes into its own. They can be set to different widths (radius) by means of sliding the cutter head along the adjuster bar. Makes cutting any circular shapes quick & easy.

Deluxe Materials Rocket Card Glue

This was mentioned in my previous post about glues and is our favourite for card kit assembly. It’s definitely worth keeping a bottle of in your modelling toolbox! Deluxe Materials Roket Card Glue has a good working time which allows just enough time for making final adjustments before it sets. One bottle will last ages, and should be applied directly to the parts being glued together. A single bottle will provide enough glue to build many many kits. Roket Card Glue also bonds wood, laser board (ideal for our laser cut kits) & also some plastics.

Deluxe Materials Glue & Glaze

Deluxe Materials Glue & Glaze is designed for glueing clear glazing sections into place on card kits. It dries to a crystal clear finish & won’t craze or leave a hazy film as some glues do. Use on all model glazing projects from windows to overhead glazed canopy roofs. 

Glue Tips

SMS spare metal glue tip applicators are available in packs of 5 with a choice of ¼” & 1/2” inch long tips. These are designed to fit on the older Deluxe Material glue bottles & other similar-sized glue bottle tops.

These handy spare tip packs will always keep you going if you find your glue tip has become blocked & can’t be cleared of the blocked glue. I always make sure I keep a pack in my modelling toolbox.

UHU All Purpose Glue

This is one of our go-to general-purpose adhesives perfect for the assembly of larger card components as well as for use in glueing brick, and stone texture papers onto card and MDF base layers.

Glue Stick

Glue Sticks such as Pritt Stick or similar, are ideal for glueing brick, stone & other pre-printed texture sheets. When using these, make sure that you leave no lumps of glue on the back of the texture sheet before sticking the texture sheet into place. 

Pencil & Felt Tip Pens

For marking out guidelines to aid cutting & scoring of the printed texture brick, stone sheets, etc. A 6B grade pencil is a good one to go for. The bonus of using a pencil is that any mistakes can be rubbed out & re-marked again in the correct position. Felt tip pens on the other hand are ideal for colouring in any white exposed edges on the edges or joint lines between the kit parts. Keep a selection of suitable colours to match as closely to the brick & stone printed texture sheets.

Old Cloth 

For any unwanted glue spills or for those occasions when you accidentally get glue on the parts of the kit that shouldn’t have glue on. An old cloth is ideal for quickly wiping away excess glue. I use an old dishcloth for this purpose & keep it next to my work area in case I need to grab it quickly in the event of a mishap whilst using the glue.

Prevent Glue Spills 

To prevent any accidental spillage of any open glue bottles on your modelling workbench, a glue bottle holder is worth considering. It will prevent any accidents by holding the glue bottles securely. Our Deluxe Materials Glue Stand was designed specifically for this purpose and can also store your modelling brushes too.

To recap…

So upon closing this guide we hope the above information will assist you in putting together the perfect tool kit for building card model kits. With knife blades, always keep a few spare replacement knife blade packs in your toolbox. If you find the Knife takes more than two passes to cut through paper or thin card, then it’s time to change the blade! It goes without saying, please be careful when changing knife blades, & always dispose of used knife blades carefully.

Glue applicator tips are another absolute essential… keep a pack or two of spare glue tips in your toolbox just in case of any glue tips being used get blocked up & can't be unclogged. It's sod's law that you can be halfway through a build & you suddenly find the glue applicator tip has clogged up. It's quicker to change over the applicator tip for a new one rather than having to spend ages trying to unclog a blocked applicator tip.

Where Can I find the above tools & bits?

Head on over to the tools & glues section of our website to find everything you need for your card kit building toolkit.

HAPPY MODELLING