5 Essentials for Your Metal Earth Tool Kit (and 7 More It’s Nice to Have)

Technically, I guess all you actually need to put together a simple metal model is a pair of tweezers. But the results you can achieve, and your enjoyment of the process, will be greatly enhanced by a few more basic tools. Over time I have bought and collected a lot of things – some of which I use way more than others.

What do you really need in your Metal Earth tool kit? A basic Metal Earth tool kit would include:

• Clippers for cutting metal pieces from their sheets
• Tweezers for holding, gripping and twisting
• Needle nose pliers for the same
• Cylindrical objects for bending and shaping metal parts
• Superglue to repair any break along the way

All those items will only cost you a few dollars (you may already have them all in your garage right now!) But I also recommend you consider getting a few more things as you go along that can just really increase your fun. So let me walk you through them …

[NOTE: For links to the best deals on all these items, check out our Best Tools page]

5 Essentials to Start Your Metal Earth Tool Kit

1. Clippers. You’ll use these continually for removing the metal pieces from their sheets. You need a pair with very small cutting blades. Fascinations (the importers and distributors of Metal Earth models) sell an ideal pair as part of their Essential Toolkit (see below).
2. Tweezers. You probably already have a pair of these in your home. The firmer they are the better, because you’ll need to be able to grip metal pieces firmly and twist tabs with them. So, if you’re going to buy some, don’t skimp — the cheaper ones tend to be weak and flex too much. My favorite tweezers are Zizzilli surgical grade stainless steel.
3. Needle nose pliers. These have a number of uses in metal modeling. They’re especially useful for bending longer folds. Again, a good pair is included in the Fascinations Essentials Toolkit (see below).
4. Cylindrical objects. When you’re just getting started, go around the house and look for objects of different diameters that you can use to roll metal parts around. Some examples are drill bits, nails, pencils and markers, batteries, pieces of dowel … you get the idea. Later on you might consider investing in purpose-made tools (we’ll talk about “mandrels” a little later.)
5. Superglue. I guess this isn’t technically a “tool”, but you are going to need it sooner or later. Everyone breaks a piece now and then and needs to make a simple repair. So to avoid holding up your build, get a tube now and have it ready in your toolkit. (I discuss superglue in detail here: “How to Repair Metal Earth Models: The Missing Manual”)

Consider a Metal Earth Essentials Toolkit

A great way to start your metal modeling toolkit is the 3-piece set sold by Fascinations. It includes clippers and 2 different pliers (flat and needle nose). The tools are quite good quality, perfectly sized for our purpose, and very reasonably priced. (Click here to check it out.)

Well, we’ve covered the basics, but there are some other things that can really help you get improved results. And lets face it, part of the fun of a hobby like 3d metal modeling is the space and equipment you get for yourself to work with.

So, here are some more suggestions for you …

[REMEMBER: For links to the best deals on all these items, check out our Best Tools page]

7 More Tools That It’s Just Really Nice to Have

• Mandrels. Jewelers use mandrels for sizing rings, but they have other uses also. They come in sets of various diameters. I have two different sets: one made of steel (smaller diameters) and the other made of plastic (larger diameters). Having these means you don’t need to find and store lots of cylindrical objects for shaping curves and barrels against. They also make it easy to start rolling a piece at one diameter, and work it down to smaller.
• Magnification. Some of the metal pieces you will be shaping and attaching on a Metal Earth model are very, very small. It’s much easier to work with them if you can see them properly, and some kind of magnification is a big help for that. (Especially as you get older!) You might consider a hobby magnifying glass on a stand, or a magnifying visor that you wear on your head. I found one in a hobby store marked down to half price, and it has served me well.
• Photoetch bending tool. This is a brilliant tool that I purchased for my other hobby, plastic scale modeling. It’s made for bending photoetched detail parts, which come on a soft metal sheet so very similar to the laser cut sheets that come in Metal Earth kits. So it’s perfect. These bending tools come in several sizes, and if you’re into building larger models that require longer bends, they are going to make life SO much easier. Watch this video I made of how to use them …

• Photoetch rolling set. This is the complementary tool set to the bending tool above. The bending tool is for straight folds, but this set is for curves and barrels. It basically performs a similar function to a set of mandrels. Quick Tip: You can find YouTube videos that demonstrate how the photoetch bending and rolling tools work.
• Steel files. Occasionally you may end up with leftover burrs on metal pieces where they were attached to the sheet. A steel file its a great tool to remove these.
• Light source. Just like magnification helps you to see properly, good lighting is essential. You want to try and get as close to white natural daylight as possible. Fortunately these days we have LED lighting that is perfect for this. My wife bought me a large desk hobby lamp that is easy to move around, and provides amazing light right over my work area. (It also helps when I’m taking photographs.) It really wasn’t that expensive, and it might have added more enjoyment to my metal model building than just about anything else I’ve bought.
• Solar Powered Display stand. Okay, this last one is in the “pure indulgence” category. You really don’t need it, but some things are just fun to have. For a few bucks you can get one of these little rotating stands and show off your latest model in your collection. It rotates all by itself for as long as the stand is in some kind of decent light. I use mine for shooting short videos. Like this one …

So, there we have it. Five what I would consider essential tools you should get for your Metal Earth tool kit, and seven more that it’s just really nice to have.

[DON’T FORGET: For links to the best deals on all these items, check out our Best Tools page]

No doubt you will also find your own preferences for building over time, and more tools that you want to invest in. It’s all good fun, and it’s great to share your discoveries with other metal model builders.

If you’ve already found something you love to use that’s not on my list above, tell us about it! I love trying new things, and you might really help someone else. Leave a comment below.