Health and Safety Tips for Plastic Kit Modellers

No one wants to injure themselves, but particularly when doing something as relaxing as plastic kit modelling! As is usually the case avoiding accidents and injury often involves nothing more than a healthy dose of common sense and patience. To help visitors and customers of The Model Catalogue with some tips I created the below health and safety guide a few years ago and thought it was high time I revived it.
I am not a health and safety professional though, so for more information on what to do if something does happen, note the useful links to pages created by the experts!

Health And Safety Tips for Plastic Kit Modellers
Some of the materials and accessories modellers come into contact with may be hazardous if used incorrectly or carelessly. It is the responsibility of every adult modeller or parent of a child modeller to ensure that all reasonable precautions are taken to ensure the safety of themselves, their child or a third party. This means taking reasonable precautions to prevent accidents. Preventive measures such as the following are advisable:

• Put pointed or sharp instruments away and out of reach when not in use.
• Wear a mask when dry sanding or airbrushing.
• Take extreme care when cutting with a scalpel: cut away from every part of your body.
• Take extreme care when handling glues, particularly superglue and epoxy glue.
• Replace tops on bottles when not in use.
• Wear a glove on the hand holding an object you are cutting and hold the object firmly against a secure surface such as a cutting mat on your workbench.
• Wear eye protection where and when appropriate.
• Wear shoes: better to drop a scalpel on a shoe than your foot.Locate your workbench in a room with a lockable door (and lock it when not in use) or if you do not have a spare room put hazardous items in a toolbox and lock that away instead.
• When spraying or gluing with toxic glues do so in a well ventilated room or use a spray booth with a fan extractor. Use an appropriate respirator mask.
• Always keep a superglue de-bonding agent (click here) in stock. 
• Familiarise yourself with the Material Safety Data Sheet if using glues and paints. These are usually available online. Click here for the Material Safety Data Sheet for Pacer Zap-a-Gap CA+ as an example. 
• Keep a chemical fire extinguisher to hand if you use an open flame.
• If using electricity do not use with water in close proximity or on your hands.
• Unplug power tools when not in use.
• Take your time. The old carpenter's tip is just as applicable to modelling: "measure twice and cut once".
• Have a First Aid kit close to hand.

It may seem a bit draconian to take such measures, but if you slice through the tendons on your finger with a scalpel or your infant child (if you are lucky enough to be a parent) finds a bottle of uncapped superglue on the side and thinks it is a small milk bottle, you will soon change your mind over safety.

Because human beings tend to do silly things on an off this list is technically limitless, however I hope you get the idea. I would not wish any harm to come to anyone involved in modelling. To ensure that you do not become a health service statistic please be sensible.

For further information about accident prevention you might want to visit the web site of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. There are also a number of third party web sites (the content of which The Model Catalogue is not responsible for) which you may find useful. The links are below.

• St Johns Ambulance
• BBC First Aid Action
• HSE First Aid at Work
• Mayo Clinic
• British Red Cross
• Kids Health
• Super Glue Corporation

If an accident does happen you need to be prepared. As such I have put together a list of links that you may find helpful in researching to educate yourself in preparation of such an possibility. I would suggest looking into how to deal with cuts, poisons, respiratory problems as a result of airborne toxins, allergies, choking on or swallowing small parts and glued skin. This list is by no means complete and you are encouraged to extend your knowledge through your own research. As long as you accept that pretty much anything that can happen will happen to someone, it will keep you in good stead.

Now for the disclaimer! The Model Catalogue is in no way providing health care advice on this page or suggesting that the sites to which these links will take you are in themselves accurate in their advice. When accidents do happen the first port of call should be your local doctor's surgery or the National Health Service (in the UK or the equivalent abroad).

Safe modelling!