I’m always on the lookout for tools that make my scale modeling tasks easier. The other day while Christmas shopping at Hobby Lobby while perusing the aisles I found a couple of punch sets near the leather tooling supplies. Since I had a couple of different tools to do small and extremely small sized discs, I opted to pickup the one for larger holes.

For six bucks I got a tool to help me knock out round discs for a variety of scale modeling purposes. Here I used some of the free card stock I got in the mail to test the punch. This disc will actually be part of a build I am currently working on.

While I’m on the subject of tools let me mention my favorite tools…those that are free and functional. Our good friends over at Sprue Brothers gave a gift last year of a small flexible shaft flashlight and laser pointer. Now this is a “promotional gift” but it is one that works. I like those…some places give away ink pens that are dried up from the first attempt of using them. This flashlight came in real handy the other evening when I needed to illuminate the inside of a model to see to align interlock wing tabs. I couldn’t seem to feel my way to making them connect, but I was able to stick the shaft of this flashlight to peer into the model to see what I needed to align and connect the tabs. Whew! That was a frustration quickly curbed with the right tool at the right time. It pays to be a good customer, especially when they give goodies like this away! Its also perfect for inspecting models at contests…you can use the laser to point out details and the light to illuminate them…especially in a dark exhibit room.