After a long hiatus, I have recently decided to get back into a childhood hobby of mine...airplane modeling. I mainly do 1:72 scale but I am also going to try some 1:48. I find that there is such a great selection of kits to choose from and I never remember it being so easy to find what I am looking for here on Ebay. Since I am basically starting from scratch, I have found that I did not have all the necessary tools to do an adequate job. I will briefly outline some of the tools that I feel is a necessity for beginning plastic model builders.

• Well Lit Workspace: When I first got back into the hobby, I tried to work in my dimly lit study/living room. I would often paint parts late in the evening only to find out the next day that I had missed a couple of spots and had to redo the finish. Do yourself a favour and invest in a good lamp. If you can afford it, get one that has a built in magnifying glass. You won't believe the difference.

• Organized Workspace: If you have the room, designate an entire room to your craft. Have sub areas set up to aid you in the different stages of model building (ie: prepping, painting, area for tools, etc). This will make you more efficient and probably save you from searching all over the house for your tools.

• Tools: Invest in some basic tools to get you started. Tweezers, paint carousel, various sizes of paint brushes, hobby knives, scissors, vises (or clothes pins),toothpick, and a cutting mat (buy a cheap one at the dollar store) are all mush haves when you start out.I'm sure that you will add to this small list...I just found that when I got back into it, these are the tools that I had to have.