I'd take the files, mould line scraper, and possibly the sculpting tools off that list, by virtue of actually having seen or tried the tools in question.
I have a set of cheap diamond files already, and the new
GW files make them look like gak. The
coarse one has about the same tooth as the very fine, diamond-coated knife sharpener I have. It made me go research types and grades of files, trying to find if there
were cheaper
GW-equivalents. I ended up buying a #4 cut ('dead smooth' cut, not diamond coated) swiss vallorbe needle file, and that cost almost as much as the full
GW set.
Although that was for semi-professional purposes.
The
GW files might be intended for polishing the last bits of mould lines off
GW's plastic models without leaving grooves or fuzz, and if you want some files just to quickly chew the mould lines off metal models, the cheap diamond files are probably okay. But the difference in quality is obvious and they won't act in precisely the same way.
The mould line cleaner: I use knives for scraping mould lines off plastic. I tried the mould line scraper, and I gotta say it's much better. Not to say you can't get the same results with a knife, but the head of this cleaner being a relatively thick bar of metal (I'd be interested and amused to know how much Tom Schadle thinks it'll 'dull') means there's less-to-no 'juddering' of the blade over the surface, nicking or gouging of the plastic, or even having the blade slip into a finger. All of which is avoidable with time, care and effort, but spending noticeably less of all that is pretty convenient in my view. I'd buy that for a dollar. Or ten quid.
And I did! I still use a knife for nicking and carving mould lines out of tricky places, but for most of my plastic model cleanup I break this thing out and whizz round.
I also looked up similar tools - seam scrapers - before I tried the
GW tool, and they are cheaper. But to have one posted to my location bumped the price way up to be comparable. (And to be honest, their shapes looked more awkward too.)
The sculpting tools... I was interested to see that
GW was switching to a 'wax #5' shape for one of the metal tools, but when I saw them in person I was disappointed. The mould line cleaner (the 'thick bar of metal') almost has as good and useful an edge as these. It baffles me that
GW still seem too coy to put a knife edge (not a true, knife-sharp, finger-slicing edge; just a fine edge for chopping and marking putty) on their sculpting tools when they sell sharp knives, clippers, and even pointy drill bits and files alongside them. I can only guess it's a deliberate handicap to make their own sculptors seem more unmatchably talented and mysterious. The plastic spatula seems like the most useful piece in that set.
However, I'm sceptical that the 'a zillion wax carvers for two bucks' sets are so much better. I've bought a couple of cheap carver sets before: compared to the
GW tool of the time (two generations back, at this point) the first lot were a revelation, and I swore by one particular carver for a time. But now when I dig them out and look at them, I wonder how I got much done with them. The edges and points are also blunt, squared-off, or even badly-machined to some degree. In fact, when I bought a set of cheap Rolson chisel-shaped carvers, I had to grind them down myself to straight, right-angled edges!
Also note I swore by
one particular carver. From my own experience, and reading of a few others (including pro sculptors), it looks like you generally settle on one favourite tool for 95% of your sculpting. The total number of cheap wax carvers I bought is fewer than the one 12-pack Tom Schadle points out, and most of them haven't been touched in years. I have about half a dozen tools I regularly use for sculpting, lying by my right hand on my hobby table, and only one of them is a wax carver! What particular shape of wax carver you gravitate towards depends a bit on personal preference, but all wax carvers are not created equal.
The third option, the one I'd highly recommend, is the dental-quality wax carver. The good news is that, unlike vallorbe files, many retailers sell them for less cost than the individual
GW sculpting tools. Some retailers can be most easily found on ebay, and usually sell carvers for about £3 each on Ebay
UK. Some of the more useful or intuitive shapes,
IMO, include the
zahle (the almost-legendary 'wax #5'), the
lecron (the
GW tool shape of the previous two generations) and the
vehe. Go search for those names to have a look. Remember to type 'zahle wax carver' to avoid a bunch of 'Zahle, Lebanon' results.
It's a wee bit like paintbrushes, I think. You can buy a whole set of different sizes of cheap brushes that start fraying and fishtailing after a week or two; or you can go for one or two kolinsky sables with good bodies and points, that make your beginners' practise easier and go like stink when you have more experience.
So, I'm no
GW white knight. (especially not with those sculpting tools) I'd just as soon rant about their crappy rules, crappy prices, and crappy ideas. But remember, girls and boys: the moral of the story is that although
GW often sells equal/lower quality ancillaries for a higher price, don't take it at face value that their stuff is always rubbish, or that the cheapo alternatives are always better.
