Here is a list of the tools and supplies I use most often when building up a custom model or working on a resin figure. As a note, these items were all collected over the course of a few years, and are by no means things one MUST HAVE if you're getting started in plastic or resin modeling. But they are all useful in one way or another. Anyways, hope this helps!

Airbrush and painting tools

- Iwata HP- BCS Eclipse airbrush: This airbrush is a beast, and I mean that in a good way. It's a bottle- feed airbrush and used to be my main airbrush, but I have mostly stopped using it in favor of my Eclipse HP- CS. This is mostly because I've switched almost entirely to lacquer paints, which I mix only in small amounts, so having a gravity feed cup makes that easier to do. Still, I can spray pretty thick paint through this airbrush, particularly pearl- pigmented paints and it has never clogged once on me. Fits my hands very well and is properly counter weighted on the back end- makes it a lot more comfortable to hold when you have a very full bottle of paint on the front end. Easy to clean, I've had it for 5 years now and don't have a bad thing to say about it.

- Iwata HP- CS Eclipse airbrush: Originally, I had bought this airbrush for detail work, but when I made my conversion to lacquer paints, found it to be perfect for applying base coats and shading larger parts and is now my workhorse airbrush. I am currently using the .5mm nozzle on this, though it came with a .3mm originally. I have come to like gravity feed airbrushes more than bottle feed, primarily because I get very little hand fatigue with a gravity feed. I also like how easier cleaning is- dump excess paint, wipe out bowl, then put some cleaner in, pull back the needle from the tip a bit and cover the nozzle with your finger. This makes the airbrush "gargle" the cleaner, which removed the vast majority of any leftover paint that may be sitting around.

- Iwata HP- BH Hi- Line Series airbrush: As I continued to work on resin figures, I found that I was working with very small, intricate pieces fairly often (Such as pieces that formed hair on 1/8 scale figures). And I wanted something that sprayed even finer lines than the HP- CS. Enter Iwata Hi- Line airbrush. This has a .2mm nozzle/needle combination, and I don't think I really need/want to go any finer at this stage of the game. You can pre- set the handle on this airbrush so it sprays a set pattern/width every time you pull back on the trigger. Very handy for those teeny tiny parts that still need shading of some sort.

- Badger 350 Single Action airbrush: I use this for spraying Future and other top coats exclusively.

- Iwata Power Jet Pro Studio Air Compressor: My Smart Jet was getting on in its years, and I had been wanting something with a little more power to it. And an air tank... definitely an air tank. The Power Jet came with a lot of features that I had to buy separately when I got the Smart Jet- mostly importantly, an air regulator. It also has hookups for up to two airbrushes at once, which lets me have two different colors on hand and I don't even have to do the dump paint- quick clean airbrush- fill with new color routine. Overall, it has streamlined my painting process further and is pretty much exactly what I am looking to get out of an air compressor at this point in time.

- Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color: At first, this paint turned me off on lacquers, but the key to this paint and pretty much all other hobby lacquers is RETARDER. LOTS OF IT. I like lacquers because they go down very smooth and when they dry, they form a nice hard "shell" that can be sanded with fine grade sandpaper to make it even smoother. Compared to Gaia Color, Mr. Color dries much quicker than Gaia Color, so you generally need to dump more retarder into the mix than you would for Gaia paints. Mr. Color seems to have a slightly more "coarse" grain to it that Gaia, but it is more opaque, which is handy when laying down, for example, a white base coat for a fleshtone over light grey primer. Just remember, keep any unprimered plastic away from this kind of paint, because it will usually eat the plastic.

- Gaia Color: My favorite paint line right now. They are ever so slightly more expensive than Mr. Color, but you do get more paint, and they sell BIG jars of frequently used colors, such as white, fleshtone, and clear. As noted above, Gaia Color paints tend to be semi-opaque in comparision to Mr. Color, but they are more finely grained paints, and go on a bit smoother than Mr. Color. The only drawbacks I can think of to this paint is the color range and availablity. Gaia Color has many different colors to choose from, but not quite as numerous as Mr. Color's offerings. They do have a great selection of clear/translucent shades of paint, more than Mr. Color it would seem in that regard. Still, a slightly smaller selection of colors certainly does not and should not stop you from giving this paint range a try. It will at the very least, help you with mixing your own colors, which is what I end up doing a lot. I do like their fleshtone as a good starting point on human figures. Gaia Color paints are compatible with Mr. Color thinner/retarder, so it is not necessary to track down Gaia Color's thinner specifically. Both Mr. Color and Gaia Color are nice to handpaint with, as long as you add a little bit of thinner and retarder to them. The retarder has a leveling property, which smooths out your brushstrokes.

- Createx airbrush paints and Auto Air: What I used to paint with constantly, but I noticed after a while that this paint rubbed and scratched off very easily when something as innocuous as a slight rub against another model in the display case happened. I couldn't really abide by that and made the decision to switch pretty much exclusively to lacquers. I do still use this paint for painting tiny details and sometimes eyes on a figure, but I much prefer the durability of lacquer. Still, in a pinch Createx is readily available (Can be found in Michael's) and pretty cheap. It's also extremely NON toxic (Unlike Gunze, Tamiya, and Gaia color), has virtually no odor (Though I still wear a mask when I spray it), and can be thinned easily with water. The Auto Air line, also made by Createx, is a bit more durable (Obviously) and come in a wider variety of colors, including pearlized and color- shifting colors. As I've never seen it in stores, I assume you can only find the Auto Air colors online at sites like dickblick.com or Dixie Art Supply. Both the Auto Air line and the regular Createx line are water- based, and are easy to clean up. They are also pretty easy to hand-paint with, and have decent self- leveling properties.

- Tamiya Acrylics: I mostly use their transparent shades (Clear red, blue, green, etc.), which are very brilliant and smooth. I used to waste money on buying the actual Tamiya thinner to thin these paints, but then I learned pretty quickly they can be thinned readily with 90% isopropyl alcohol (And only 90%. Anything lower apparently does bad things to the paint, though I've never experimented with it myself.) Also scratches very easily, though not as easily as Createx. I airbrush this paint only, never tried hand- painting with it, and have heard it's not a good choice for hand-painting.

- Duplicolor primer: For a while I was using Valspar, but I didn't like how thickly I had to apply it in order to get a smooth surface. In some cases, where the surface details of a kit were very fine/shallow, it ended up filling them in. And then I'd have to go back and rescribe them, smooth the area out again... you get the picture. I don't have to do any of that with Duplicolor. The pigment grains are extremely fine, and its fan spray nozzle is super comfortable to hold. I use the regular, non- filling but sandable primer, though the filling type is pretty good too. If you're in the states, Pep Boys carries it.

- Future floor polish: Future is my favorite thing to use as a topcoat. It can be airbrushed straight from the bottle or it can be hand-painted with a brush. It has excellent self- leveling properties but takes a while to properly cure (Give it overnight at the very least, otherwise you'll have fingerprints on your surface if you try to handle the parts within a few hours of application). Future can be mixed with Tamiya Flat Base in various ratios to achieve different finishes. Future by itself gives a high- gloss finish. Also has a pleasant smell to it :p.

- Testors Dull Cote and spray paints: When I want a really flat finish, I use Dull Cote. I also buy cans of some basic (Black, white) and primary colors (Red, blue) because sometimes I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like pulling out my compressor and airbrush and airbrushing it on, heh.

- Brushes: And a lot of them. Even if you're like me and detest hand-painting, it's still a valuable skill to have. I have "good" brushes for painting tiny details like eyes and panel lines (Although lately I've been using Micron pens with the super thin tips for panel lining). "Good" brushes are usually sable bristle brushes, which are generally used for watercolor paints. A good sable brush will "snap" back to its original shape when you lift it from the surface you're painting. I also have a lot of very coarse bristled brushes for creating textures and drybrushing. The coarse bristle brushes are usually cheapo brushes, so I often use them to mix paints too.

- Tamiya model masking tape and Bare Metal Foil: After many years of dealing with tapes with too much tack, I have finally found one that realy minimizes run- unders, but also doesn't rip up my paint when I remove the tape. I use the Bare Metal Foil pretty sparingly, but it wins hands- down when it comes to masking off really, really thin areas (Five Star Stories mecha kit modelers can probably think of a few kits like this). Bare Metal Foil also has a very low- tack adhesive.

- Mr. Masking Sol Neo: This is the second step in my masking process. After everything has been masked off with tape, the tape gets a generous coating of this masking fluid on top of it, to truly seal everything up. Because nothing is worse than removing your masking tape off and finding a tiny square where the edges of the tape didn't quite meet and allowed a different color to come through.

Modification tools

- Milliput: It says in the "About" section of the Works gallery that I'm fueled by Milliput, and that's not far from the truth. Milliput, like most epoxy putties, come in 2 sticks- one is a resin, the other is the hardener. Cut an equal piece from both sticks, mix them together thoroughly, and then you can sculpt away. Milliput comes in two types- regular grain and fine grain. The regular grain is a green- brown when mixed and the fine grain is white (And must be mixed very carefully since both sticks are white in color). I switched over to the fine grain almost exclusively because I can sand it much thinner. Milliput is highly water- reactive- that is, you can put water on your finger and get the putty really smooth by lightly running your finger over the uncured putty. Milliput takes about 6 hours to cure on its own (Longer if you're working in a cold room), but you can greatly reduce the curing time by blasting it with a hair dryer. It can be drilled and sanded easily when cured and takes paint very well.

- Tamiya Putty (Quick type): I like this putty because it's a good adhesive. I use it a lot when I am adding joints to Zoid models or need to fill in a large gap between parts. This putty cures nice and hard and takes paint nicely.

- Tamiya Basic grey putty: Comes in a tube and has a consistency slightly thicker than yogurt (But don't eat this stuff :p!). It's not meant to drastically alter the shape fo a part like Tamiya and Milliput putty can, but is good for filling in pinholes and other minor surface imperfections. I usually apply it with an old brush.

- Tamiya Light Curing putty: Comes in a tube similar in size to Tamiya's basic grey putty. The unique and wonderful thing about this putty is that it completely hardens when exposed to light. It is not instantaneous by any means, and it does require strong light (I usually hold the part up to my desk lamp for a minute or two) to cure properly. Still, if you're working in filling in minor scratches, dings, or holes, this stuff is great. You can also build it up in thin layers (Apply a layer, cure it, then apply another, etc.) to build up the thickness in an area, something you really cannot do with their basic grey putty.

- Dremel (Multi- speed version): For rough sanding of parts and fast removal of large amounts of stock, nothing beats a Dremel. Engraving bits are helpful for rescribing panel lines, though I usually end up doing it by hand with the Hasegawa Trytool.

- Hasegawa Try (Tri?) tool: Basically, this is an extremely sharp panel line scriber. It even comes with its own honing stone! I love this scriber because it's shaped like a pen, making it easy to lightly "sketch" the panel line before I start applying more pressure. Normally I hate panel line scribing with a passion, but this tool makes it a lot easier.

- Plastic nippers: Used primarily for cutting plastic model parts off their sprues, I also use it to cut off small pieces of plastic and flash off of resin parts.

- Pliers, wire cutters: See above.

- Pin vice: Basically a "manual drill", this tool is for drilling holes. I use a pin vice almost exclusively for drilling holes- I feel it offers more control than a Dremel or other mechanized drill. Some people swear by their electric low- speed drills, but I personally can't imagine using one to drill holes in fragile resin parts.

- Brass rod of varying diameters, paper clips, annealed aluminum wire and floral wire: Brass rod is pretty much a necessity when it comes to building resin kits in my book. Resin kits generally need some additional support other than glue to make large and/or heavy parts stick together, so I drill holes into the spots where 2 parts will connect and insert a piece of brass rod to help support the joint and distribute the weight of the model over the joint better. I sometimes use paper clips for this, but only for very light/non- load bearing parts (Like the thin armor pieces on Five Star Stories mecha); because paper clips are so flexible and thin, they tend to sag over time when you try to use them to support heavy parts. Same goes for the floral wire. Annealed aluminum wire is stiffer than the usual aluminum wire, so I like to use it when repairing extremely thin, delicate parts that still need something to reinforce the connection (See the Jagd Mirage WIP to see what I mean).

- Files (Metal and sponge files): I like the metal files for removing lots of stock off plastic parts because it's harder than resin, and I like the sponge files for resin and smoothing out on plastic models. I use the sponge files found in beauty supply stores such as Sally's- I make sure they're the kind that can be washed because I wet- sand almost exclusively to keep dust down and prevent the file from gouging the surface too much.

- Testors Sanding Films: These are basically sandpaper, only take away the "paper" and put in "plastic film". Holds up to my wet sanding technique way better than sandpaper ever did.

- Tweezers, scissors, hemostats, single- edged razors: The tweezers and hemostats are for holding tiny objects. Single- edged razors do everything; make initial lines for panel lines, sculpt flat surfaces on epoxy putty, remove flash from parts, you name it. Probably my most used tool.

- Patience :p. Lots of it.