By Shawn Merrell
Austin Armor Builders Society
May 15, 2005 

This article is the first in a series focusing on inexpensive techniques and materials of model building.  With the ever spiraling prices of kits and aftermarket details, we at least have some cheaper options in our tools and finishing products. This frees up money for more kits and details.  This segment explores the many uses of that most innocuous of household items; the Q-tip.

The Q-tip 

Derived from the medical cotton swab on a stick, the Q-tip is an extremely inexpensive item. One can buy 350 of them for about $1.80 at the grocery store. They can be used in any of the following ways:

1. Clean up / Paint stripping: Used in conjunction with the correct solvent, Q-tips can be twirled into cracks and crevices to remove the most stubborn of errant paint residue, leaving details unclogged by our past mistakes.

2. Polishing plastic: With a light touch and rapid motion, plastic can be brought to a high sheen using a Q-tip and plastic polish. Care should be taken to make sure the polish is completely dry before attempting this, so that the cotton strands don’t stick to the polish. This technique is best applied as a pre-finish before the base coat is applied. Q-tips and actual clear or appropriate colored Kiwi shoe polish can be used on the boots of figures for a true-to-life spit shine. Those modelers that have military experience may well remember polishing 1:1 scale boots with a little Kiwi and a Q-tip, so why would this not work in a smaller scale ?

3. Tubes: Modern Q-tips have a hollow plastic “stick”. If the cotton ends are cut off of the Q-tip, and the remainder is then stretched by heat, it becomes a tube of varying thickness, depending on how far it is stretched. Fine wire can be inserted to regulate the inner diameter of the tube. To make a hinge or oxygen type hose, the tube can be sliced by an X-acto knife at even intervals with the wire still inside.

4. Blending: Q-tips can be used to blend in highlights when using artist oils. There is also a slight polishing effect that occurs when Q-tips used in this way.

5. Pre-shading: More common in aircraft models, but sometimes useful in armor, dark artist oils are applied into cracks and panel lines using a Q-tip, with the excess oil paint buffed from the surface using a series of clean Q-tips. Carefully airbrushing the base coat around these lines and cracks will make more visible a lot of recessed detail that would seem flat otherwise. This technique works particularly well when acrylic paint is used as the base coat. The oil paint should be allowed a couple of days to cure or harden before applying the base coat.

6. Emergency Super Glue Sponge: In those cases where CA glue has been over applied, a Q-tip can be used to rapidly absorb an errant drop, thereby possibly saving the surface of the part being glued. One quick light dab will not usually cause the fibers of the Q-tip to stick to the surface.

7. CA glue accelerator applicator. Rather than using the spray bottle or micro brushes, Q-tips can be used to apply your favorite accelerator. The trick is to give the Q-tip a good soaking of the accelerator, then press to the surface near, but not touching, the glue joint. Surface tension will cause the accelerator to flow where it is needed.

8. Hair: This is perhaps an untried material, but the cotton ends of Q-tips could conceivably used to represent hair on larger scale figures. Try at your own risk

9. Real rust applicator: Steel wool and water can be left in a tuna fish can for several days, creating a good quantity of real rust, which can be crushed with a dowel or screwdriver handle, then applied to wet rust colored paint with a Q-tip. This saves paint brushes from being imbued with the rust, which has a tendency to degrade the quality of the brush, even after cleaning.

10. Unsticking paint jar lids: Nothing is more frustrating than trying to open a bottle of paint that has been “glued” tight by its own contents. Developing a habit of wiping the threads on both the jar and the lid, plus the upper rim of the jar, with a couple of Q-tips prior to resealing the jar will completely prevent this aggravating impediment. Lacquer thinner applied with a Q-tip is great for removing dried paint from the threads. A bottle that cannot be opened with bare hands should be inverted, and the lacquer thinner squeezed into the rim with a Q-tip, allowing the solvent to work into the dried paint for a minute or two. Once open, clean up the threads and rim of the jar before closing again. When treated in such a way, a jar of paint can last for years without drying up in the jar.

There you have it, ten uses of something that costs less than 2 cents apiece.

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