Is it worth to pay 29,90 Euro for a side cutter? Spoiler: yes it is. Today we find out if the RGG Precision Nippers by french company Redgrass Games, known for their Everlasting Wet Palette, is worth the premium price tag.
This item was kindly provided by Redgrass Games. Opinions are our own.
Design & Features
The nippers come in an easy to open blister, the blade protected by a transparent wrapper. About 12,5 cm long, the tool has rubberized grips in Redgrass Games’ brand colour orange.
The blades are extremely sharp and thin and reach the tightest spaces in all the plastic sprues I had laying around, see the comparison with my old Citadel cutters above. I could clip pieces of the sprue for which I otherwise would have to switch to a hobby knife, saving valuable hobby time. A spring mechanism and a spacer screw prevent you from applying too much pressure when cutting. Speaking about cutting, it literally feels like carving a hot knife through butter. Removing plastic parts from the sprue takes almost no force at all, even when cutting through the thicker frame of a sprue, as the blade is so sharp.
As you can see in the picture, there is less discolouration (“whiteness”) on the cut sprue piece with the RGG Precision Nippers, because there was less stress on the plastic thanks to the superior sharpness. On the contact point of the base peg, the cut is slightly cleaner with less excess material.
Redgrass Games recommend these nippers for plastic and resin only, up to a thickness of 3 mm. Metal, lead and thicker plastics might damage the blade. Also, avoid dropping these to the floor, as the thin blades are easier to break than you might
Value
At an RRP of 29.90 Euro, these are thrice as much as The Army Painter’s cutters and 5 Euro more than Games Workshop’s current generation cutter. They are available from redgrassgames.com or at our partner stores Wayland Games and Element Games at a 10% discount. The RGG Precision Nippers don’t come cheap, but you really get the quality you pay for. And looking at the offerings of Japanese scale modelling and Gunpla hobby companies (for example, the fabled God Hand nippers, which clock in at around $100), I think the price is not too bad. The only thing I’m missing would be a little pouch or sheath to protect the nippers. The nippers come with a transparent plastic wrapper for the blades, but for 30 Euro I would have liked to see something more lasting.
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9.0Score
Pros
- High quality tool
- Super sharp
- Clean cuts
Cons
- Expensive
Final Verdict
A premium hobby tool you should definitely consider if you want to get more serious about your hobby. If you've used only cheap cutters before, you have to try the RGG Precision Nippers to believe how thin the blades are and how comfortably you can slip even in the tightest spaces of your sprues.
4 Comments
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Thanks for the review. It would be interesting to compare that one with a Knipex electronic sidecutter.
Whilst the product does look nice and the review states how effective they are, I think it’s a bit of an unfair comparison against your “old Citadel cutters” unless you are comparing against a new set of GW clippers… everyone’s old set is blunted dented and worn, of course they don’t cut as well as a new shiny pair!
I’d be interested to see how well these cut in a few years time. If they also get dings and blunted and need replacing you might as well by inexpensive ones and treat it like a consumable.
I agree, it's not a fair comparison, though I reviews Army Painters Plastic Cutter a while ago, which was only slightly sharper than my 8 years old Citadel Cutters (that still work pretty well), so I feel the RGG is definitely a step up. I think the main draw of the RGG nippers are the thin blades. I just assembled a few Warcry ruins which sprues have some tight spaces my old cutters wouldn't fit, yet because of the thick contact points it's a pain to remove the parts with a hobby knife. With the RGG I was able to reach every contact point and removing the ruins from the sprues was a breeze 🙂