Flat Blade Knife 1 mm

A 1 mm flat chisel from U-STAR

This is a tool of the scriber and chisel kind, not part of a model. The width of the edge, 1 mm, is given directly in the name of the item. Unlike a hooked scriber, which lifts material out with a narrow point, a flat chisel has a straight working edge. It therefore suits places where the bottom of an engraved groove has to be leveled, where a gap has to be widened to the same width along its whole length, or where a surface with material left on it has to be trued up.

Engraving, gaps and restoring a line

The panel lines on a kit are molded shallow, and the first thing to wipe them out is sanding a joint or filling. The model then looks awkward once it is painted, because a panel ends in the middle of a surface. With a flat chisel the lost stretch is brought back to the same width as the neighboring line, and the parting gaps of hatches, doors or armor plates can be deepened so that a coat of paint does not fill them in and a wash stays in them. It will also clean out a corner the point of a scriber cannot reach.

Use

• Deepening and leveling a parting gap of a width matching the edge.
• Restoring a stretch of line wiped out by sanding or filling.
• Trueing up the bottom of an engraved groove so that it has the same depth throughout.
• Removing material left in a corner and on the edge of a part.

Who the chisel is for

For modelers who restore panel lines after filling, and for builders of vehicles and ships, where the gaps between plates are a prominent part of the surface. A width of 1 mm is among the wider ones in the range, so it suits larger scales and prominent parting gaps rather than fine relief.

Work in short strokes and take the material off in layers. Heavy pressure lifts the plastic and tears it out, and such a mark has to be filled and the engraving redone from scratch.