Preparing to Build Your Model Car
If you are going to be doing a good deal of customizing on your model cars then you definitely want to buy a decent hobby knife with a couple different shape blades. A thin one that comes to a rather sharp point is excellent for getting into areas that have a good deal of small spaces. A chisel shaped blade is handy for making long straight cuts when cutting out hoods, doors, and trunks. A normal hobby blade is great for cutting your parts from the parts tree. If you have small children in the house you might consider purchasing a lockable kit so that small hands cannot get to the knife. These are extremely sharp no matter if cutting through plastic or skin.
The next thing you must think about is whether you will be hand painting your model cars or if you will be airbrushing them. If you are going to paint them by hand you should pick your supplies accordingly. A number of brushes and some acrylic cleaner will get you started. Next you need to pick up the paints you would like to use. Acrylic paints stay good for sometime so you might consider picking up a couple small jars and a couple larger ones of your basic colors. The last things you should need are some primer for those models that require it and some rubbing alcohol for the little mistakes that can happen from time to time. If you are airbrushing then you will need a decent airbrush kit that should come with all the parts you need to get started including a small compressor.
Some other supplies that you will find useful in building and detailing your model car are toothpicks for painting extremely small details such as knobs and buttons on the interior, a soft bristle toothbrush for cleaning your parts before you paint or glue them, and wet and dry sandpaper of a very fine grit in case there is a painting error or glue error you need to correct. You should also think about safety equipment. While you may not realize it there is a bit a caution required in dealing with model cars. It is easy when cutting plastic for stray pieces to fly up and catch you in the eye. You should always wear eye protection when cutting and painting your model. Another bit of safety equipment to use is latex gloves. They will protect your hands from paint and from little nicks that may come from handling sharp bits of plastic.