You Know You Are A Model Builder When...........

[MikeC]

I have another - washing-up sponge scourers. A roughly rectangular cube of foam, you can use them to support models whilst painting; put in storage/transport boxes, again for support; holding items like wheels that have been mounted on cocktail sticks for painting; and as a source of foam for internal masking of things like wheel wells.

 

For those in the US and possibly others, "washing up" = dishwashing.

Edited May 30, 2023 by MikeC

[Duncan Doenitz]

Yes, the foam backing is my source of masking recesses such as wheel wells and a useful applicator of nearly dry aluminium paint for chipping / pigments.

[Christa]

Calpol syringes, handy and free from kind parents of younger children.

[ScottsGT]

I have a stash of 18 ga needles that I can use for machine gun barrels or pitot tubes.  Helps to have a wife that can bring a few home from work. 

[ringleheim]

The women's toiletry/personal body care tool aisle at the store is a paradise for modelers.

 

Different kinds of cotton buds, makeup applicators, tweezers, nail buffers/sanders, and lots of things you didn't know exist!  

 

I always go straight there when I'm in a new store that has a nice section of that sort of thing.

 

And yes, I notice the women around me giving me odd looks, like they are wondering why I'm nosing around in the artificial eye lash applicator area.

 

 

[phasephantomphixer]

The rectangular adhesive backed security magnet things inside CD's, DVD's, etc.

have foil strips within that are excellent for any mirrors, taped down on surface for scribing against,

or to reinforce a small area when overlaid with superglue. Just cut with scissors.

[ivanmoe]

You're five years old and you spend all your time at the museum gazing at miniatures of the real thing.

[Shawn M]

chop sticks for parts holding while painting

take out containers to store parts

wine bottle foil for seat belts, tarps, etc

beading tools (files, pliers, etc)

red, clear, yellow and green colored plastics for marker lights

dental picks and scrapers (glue applicators, etc)

Edited June 6, 2023 by Shawn M

[John Stambaugh]

Your a modeler when while away from the bench you spend your idle time thinking about what you will be doing when you get back to the bench.

[thierry laurent]

... when you look strangely at bike brake or gear cables or steel fishing lines as they can be used to mimic steel cables! 

[Duncan Doenitz]

The wife's eyebrow tweezers that can pluck a single hair have been re-purposed for fitting spark plug leads on a 1:24 DB 605 engine. Perfect for the job.

[Dpgsbody55]

About a decade ago, I took my son off to a physio session.  He'd broken (actually, shattered) his elbow in an industrial accident, and was being fitted up for a plastic cast to restrain his elbow movements following his third bone graft.

 

Part way through, the doctor gets out a fresh pair of tweezers then chucks them in the bin once he's finished with them.  They're excellent quality and not cheap, so I asked if I could have them.  He gave them to me and the next session a couple of weeks later, he asked me if I wanted the next pair he was about to chuck out.    Much better grip than most other tweezers, too.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

PS.  Son has fully recovered from his busted elbow and has good medical scars to impress the girls too.