Activity

Well after cutting it from the runner, use your cutters to clip off the excess gate. From there you can use a file. always file in one direction, never back and forth, and try to keep the file straight and flat. A few passes should be enough to get the gate down and even with the rest of the part without scraping the rest of the part. from there you can use sand paper. go with a fine grit, something around 400. move up in grit finishing with like a 600 grit sand paper. Don’t press hard obviously, and you shouldn’t need to to sand with each girt for very long. When sanding, do so in circles if possible. Doing this helps to remove sanding marks as you move on to finer sand papers.

As for cleaning the nubs, Slater4u covered this excellent. He tells it how it is. I only suggest finishing sanding with a 1000 grid and use a 800 grid before that and after the 600 grid, since you’re not planning on painting and use Gundam Markers to get rid of the discoloration. A 600 grid still leaves scratch marks.
Also get the 800 and 1000 in a wet sandpaper. The water lubricates the surface and discards of the dust. When done with a grid of sandpaper get rid of the dust before going to the next grid, or the dust can make scratches in the same proportions as the lower grid sandpaper did.

Now to what I originally was planing to comment about, the suggested supplies.
-Any sort of tweezers will do, if planned for using to hold decals or stickers or small pieces. When wanting to use it for holding the little pilots for painting, I’d recommend getting a reversed action tweezers for obvious reasons.
-Some people prefer having two side cutters, one for getting the piece of the runner, one for trimming down the nub. When trimming down the nub, I suggest using a straight bladed side cutter. But to be honest, since you are planning to use a knife, files and sandpaper to get rid of the nubs, I don’t see why getting two pair of them. Just get a good one with sharp pointed and straight blades as some parts on runners have really small gates which makes access tough.
-The difference between the two file sets is that one is coarser then the other. I ordered the Fine Double Cut set a few weeks back, and after using the, I found that they don’t leave as much scratches as other ones. It just takes more motions to get the same material off then the other set but leaves a much smoother finish. I can strongly recommend the Double Cut set.
-For blades, I suggest http://www.hlj.com/product/TAM74020/Sup or http://www.hlj.com/product/TAM74040/Sup I’ve got the first of the two. I also have the one you suggested but the only difference is that the two I suggest have smaller blades, and you can get replacement blades much cheaper and in larger quantity. But the cut as good as the other ones, even a bit better because of the blades being less thick, therefor the angle of the sharp cutting sides are smaller, and the smaller an angle, the sharper the object. Also the length of the blade is only half of the blades that come with the one you suggested which also contribute in cutting better as less surface cause less friction. Don’t get me wrong, the other ones have their place, but for the purpose you are planning to use them, I highly recommend the ones linked in this description.
-Any scissors for snipping decals will do. IMO there is nothing special on the Tamiya ones. Just get a small sized scissors. Nothing wrong with them, but not worth it ordering them, provided you can get a good pair at a store near you.
I hope this helps give you some more information on the products on hand. Happy building and a Happy New Year!