Tools of the trade - miniature prepping
| I’m about to teach a class at ReaperCON this weekend, so I’m going over common tools that I use. I’ve got more tools, but these are the ones I find myself using most often. The images are to scale within this article. The lower hash marks are inches, the upper hash marks are centimeters. |
| Cutting Wheel A rotary tool bit that is useful for cutting through materials. Beware the heat generated by the friction and always wear eye and hand protection. When the wheel breaks it shatters and can travel into places you’d rather not have it go. | ![]() |
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Cutter / Gouger A rotary tool bit that is useful for removing masses of material. It is easy to remove too much material with this. On minis I’ve found this bit to be useful for gouging out concave areas; the mouth of a beer mug is one good example. |
| Cutter / Gouger, small A rotary tool bit that is useful for removing masses of material. On minis I’ve found this bit to be useful for gouging out grout areas on custom made paving stone bases, and etching designs. It does take care since it’s a tiny bit on a high-speed rotary tool. |
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File, Flat and Square A tool that is useful for smoothing out large flat areas with vigorous motions. I say that since I would not recommend as much effort going into the use of |
| the rat-tail file. The rat-tail has a reasonably sharp point that I’ve seen many hobbyists impale their passive hand with. | |
| File, Round A round file useful for boring out the inside of curved areas. Care should be taken to avoid cramming the tool through an opening. The end is tapered, so | ![]() |
| you should try to allow space to freely move the file. | |
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File, Round and Flat curved / angledI use these for place on a miniature that are difficult to file with a straight file. Usually the bent tool can reach the surface, where a straight |
| file is blocked by part of the mini. In general, this also means that you won’t be able to do large motions; usually smaller or circular motions. | |
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Polishing Pin and Collete A rotary tool bit that is useful for removing mold lines or smoothing out mold-shift. Shift is where the plane of the two halves of the mold are not in line. This creates a crease on the surface of the mini. Mold-shift is not a mold line as it looks like a miniature that has been cut in half and then glued back together poorly. Mold-lines are extra material past dimensions of the original mini. |
| Sanding Band and Mandrel A rotary tool bit that is useful for smooth the surface or quickly filing down a portion of the miniature. Beware the heat generated by the friction and always wear eye and hand protection. | ![]() |
I’m about to teach a class at ReaperCON this weekend, so I’m going over common tools that I use. I’ve got more tools, but these are the ones I find myself using most often. The images are to scale within this article. The lower hash marks are inches, the upper hash marks are centimeters.
| Cutting Wheel A rotary tool bit that is useful for cutting through materials. Beware the heat generated by the friction and always wear eye and hand protection. When the wheel breaks it shatters and can travel into places you’d rather not have it go. | ![]() |
![]() |
Cutter / Gouger A rotary tool bit that is useful for removing masses of material. It is easy to remove too much material with this. On minis I’ve found this bit to be useful for gouging out concave areas; the mouth of a beer mug is one good example. |
| Cutter / Gouger, small A rotary tool bit that is useful for removing masses of material. On minis I’ve found this bit to be useful for gouging out grout areas on custom made paving stone bases, and etching designs. It does take care since it’s a tiny bit on a high-speed rotary tool. |
|
![]() |
File, Flat and Square A tool that is useful for smoothing out large flat areas with vigorous motions. I say that since I would not recommend as much effort going into the use of |
| the rat-tail file. The rat-tail has a reasonably sharp point that I’ve seen many hobbyists impale their passive hand with. | |
| File, Round A round file useful for boring out the inside of curved areas. Care should be taken to avoid cramming the tool through an opening. The end is tapered, so | ![]() |
| you should try to allow space to freely move the file. | |
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Squeeze TweezersI use these for retrieving small pieces from unlikely landing places. They are also useful for holding pieces firmly and gently for gluing and test-fits. |
| Wire Brush A rotary tool bit that is useful for polishing and removing leftover edges from hand filing. For example, If you spend a reasonable amount of time filing a sword edge, there will be a sharp and loose edge that will detract from the miniature once primed or painted. It is usually difficult to see, but easy to feel by running your finger along a filed edge. Use the wire brush to remove this excess material. |
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