Paint PickerPaintPicker

Cutting & Prep Tools

There is a stable brand ladder here — budget clippers, then Tamiya, then the Japanese single-bevel nippers — with roughly a fivefold price spread across it and one real difference at the top: a single-bevel blade leaves a flat, almost invisible cut face instead of a crushed nub you then have to scrape. Mould-line removers and needle files are the unglamorous half of the same job, and the half most beginners skip.

The Honest Verdict

The expensive nippers are genuinely better and genuinely not necessary. If you clip a hundred parts a week the flat cut saves real cleanup time; if you build a kit a month, a cheap pair plus a sharp blade and a mould-line scraper gets the same finish for a fraction of the outlay.

On This Shelf

334 products read and admitted so far - Green Stuff World, Tamiya, AK Interactive, Vallejo, Citadel, Gunprimer, Army Painter, Kromlech, Monument Hobbies, Gale Force Nine, Redgrass Games and Warlord Games. More are mined and waiting to be judged.

Other Tools & Accessories

Glues & AdhesivesWet PalettesPaint Mixers & ShakersBasing MaterialsMagnets & Pin VicesPaint Racks & StoragePainting Handles & HoldersMagnifiers & VisorsHobby & Daylight Lamps

Brushes have their own section - every range compared and priced - and so do airbrushes and compressors.