Tweezers
This is by far my most favorite tool. I use it almost every day. I think I bought it from "The Tool Man" (www.hobbytools.com - now closed). I would flag this tool as "essential". The very fine tips don't bend or break, even under a lot of pressure.

"The Chopper II"
This is an extremely useful tool if you enjoy kitbashing and/or scratchbuilding. Northwest Short Lines, the company that manufacturers this product, also produces a cheaper unit. I bought that first, but soon found it to be a weak design. Since I enjoy scratchbuilding, I need a tool that can last. Purchasing this product was a wise decision. I use it in every project I work on, and highly recommend it. The product comes with a free order for another mat (they are replaceable). I am still just using the first mat (only turned it 90-degrees one time). I think the tool will last a long time. Easy to replace the razor blade. (product web page)

Metal Weights
A collection of metal weights are indispensable tools, when you need them. Not being a metal-worker, I didn't know where to find something useful until someone mentioned "Small Parts". I bought four 1" x 3" x 3/8" stainless steel rectangular bars. They help out in weighing parts down for gluing, as 90-degree corner jigs, laying track, etc. It does tend to rust a bit when left on wet surfaces, but that can be removed. (product web page)

"Miter Saw"
A simple hand tool made by Fourmost Products for making miter cuts in small pieces of wood or plastic. It is a nice design and seems to be well-built. However, the main board is made out of wood, so it may not last "forever". I don't really find myself using it that often. Maybe as my scratchbuilding projects become more complex, involving miter cuts, I might start to use it more.

"The True Sander"
Manufactured by Northwest Short Line, I bought this product to help me sand true corners and edges. I used it on one project and the whole thing fell apart. It is horrible. I highly recommend that you look for another product. The "Miter Sander" by Fourmost Products might be a better option. If the company would design a new model based on the cast metal design they used for their The Chopper II, I would consider buying it, but this Masonite board-based design is worthless. It doesn't clamp down on the project wood. The results still didn't yield true edges. The clamp bar started falling apart shortly after first serious use. The miter gauge is flimsy, and therefore not reliable.

Dial Caliper
I have been wanting one for a long time. A few years ago I bought a digital caliper, thinking that that was the latest technology. The unit was horrible. After every measurement is never returned to "zero", which meant that I could never be sure of its accuracy. The digital read-out didn't seem to stay in sync with the thumbscroll, and the battery didn't last very long. I threw it away.

I picked up this beauty shown here at Harbor Freight after I switched to S-scale. There was only one in my local store, but that's all I needed.

It has two scales. One scale shows 1/1000ths of an inch (the blue scale), which is great for measuring the thickness of styrene and other plastic parts. The other scale measures in 1/64ths of an inch (the white scale), which is perfect for S-scale, since 1/64 equals one scale inch.

This was my first purchase at Harbor Freight and I was always a bit nervous about their cheap prices. Everything we bought there that day was of excellent quality. I highly recommend the store.

This dial caliper works great! I have been using it for both woodworking and model railroad structure building and it is very accurate and reliable.

Scale Corrugated Metal Dies
One night I was browsing through eBay's listings when I came upon these dies. They are made by Fassett Studios. They produce them for various scales. I bought the ones made for S-scale, of course. As soon as they arrived in the mail, I grabbed a piece of aluminum foil and tried them out. They worked great. The instruction sheet that comes with them is very clear. You get two dies.

The first photo on the right shows the instruction sheet with the two dies and a piece of aluminum foil. The second photo shows a close-up of one of the dies. I look forward to using them on my next scratchbuilding project.

#41 to #60 Drill Bits
I bought these drill bits from Micro-Mark. They appear to be of very good quality, and I have used several of them already. Just be aware that even though these drill bits are very light and the package you see in the photo is what you get, Micro-Mark still charges $8.95 for shipping (the postage in the envelope in which it was sent indicated $1.95; they make money off of their shipping and they should be ashamed of themselves).