A buddy gave me a 1/72 kit as an early christmas present. I figured I would start on it and give it a try while the paint dried on the Panther. Never done one of these before. Just wanted to know what do you use to hold onto these tiny pieces? I have all ready been down on the floor with a desk lamp more than once. Got one piece that is gone for good, good thing it was an optional piece. The other thing was , any good tips for the road wheels? I hate doing 1/35 ones enough but these look impossible. Hopefully this tiny thing can get done and look decent. Thanks.
Usualy my fingers do the trick, but I find that wet cocktail sticks are of great help sometimes. Tweezers too, occasionaly!
Hey there, Chris. Welcome to Braille! Cant wait to see pics.
I use two-sided tape, attached to a plastic card, and stick small parts onto the surface. If a part is too fragile, I cut off the entire area of the sprue carrying the piece.
If you mean painting the road wheels, well you could always “muddy” up that part. Alternatively, you can paint the surface of the rubber black and just drybrush the rest of the road wheel (saves you from having to strain your eyes following the demarcation line between the rubber and the rim). Otherwise, theres just no way around it, my friend.
Hope this helps.
I use my fingers and a pair of sharp pointed tweezers with the curved end. Squadron makes them. For road wheels I put them on the end of a round tooth pick. After painting them the base tank color, I use a fine tipped brush to paint the rubber portion. For all steel road wheels I use a #2 pencil to color the road wheel rim. I’ve also used a fine tipped Sharpie permanent marker.
Thanks for the tips. I never thought about cutting the sprue with the part on it. I was using tweezers with a eye hook and must squeezed them to hard, needless to say thats a hole I have to fill in.
That should be a fun adventure. I have enough trouble finishing bigger kits, couldn’t imagine one of those. Way back, my friend built a few and they were quite detailed.
oh yeah that’s the way to do it!!! I’ll be posting pics shortly of my hasegawa 1/72 crusader that I did last night. and that’s what I did with the road wheels. but the way I do my 72’s is I put most of the hull together (minus a few of the small parts that need to be painted diff. and do the same thing with the turret. I leave the road wheels off. and paint the small pieces and road wheels on the sprue. and then touch them up after I cut them off. sometimes I glue the road wheels on before paiting them. ( I did that with my crusader)
Thats basically the route I have gone with this one Chris. About all that is left to put on it is the roadwhells and a few little tools. I’m going to get it painted up today. The camo ought to be challenge, never done any german before on a 1/35 now I get to try it on this one.
I usually do the toothpick trick to paint the road wheels too. I’ll assemble the whole lower hull, then paint it, then apply the painted road wheels, then put on the tracks, then paint the tracks. While the paint is drying, I’ll build the turret assembly and set it aside, and then glue on the top hull accessories. Then once everything is done, just put it all together! 
Welcome to Braille Scale! 
I got all the parts on. Found out though that the tracks should have been put on before the top half of the hull. yet another little thing learned. Should be fun getting them on now. Just need to paint it and try the camo now.