Review: Green Stuff World Basic Tool Set

Starting the hobby can be daunting. You’ll need paint, brushes, tools, and all that stuff, and the choice is wide. Many hobby companies offer sets for beginners, but so far I haven’t seen one that I would really consider good. In today’s review, we’ll take a look at whether Green Stuff World does it better with its Basic Tool Set.

Green Stuff World’s Basic Tool Set is one of three tool sets you can currently get on greenstuffworld.com, along with a Touch-up Tool Set and Airbrush Cleaning Tool Set. The box contains the following:

• a hand drill with 10 drill bits of varying diameters
• a hobby saw
• a hobby knife with then 10 scalpel blades
• Cyanoacrylate instant glue
• 5 diamond modelling files
• a dual-blade flat cutting nipper

Please note: In the past there have been some (justified) shitstorms around Green Stuff World. For example, they recently used a paint job for product packaging without the approval of the artist. Since I try to maintain an unbiased and journalistic approach, I feel the need to point this out, but ultimately leave it up to you to judge.

Green Stuff World Basic Tool Set review – unboxing

When I opened the cardboard box, I was surprised to find all the individual items in their retail packaging. So you get exactly the same products that you would buy individually on greenstuffworld.com. I think this is good, as you are often fobbed off with lower-quality tools in such sets.

The hand drill

This is a light-weight drill that also fits well in small hands. The drill chuck can take bits between 0.3 to 3.2mm in diameter, and included are 5 drill bits in 1 mm, 3 drill bits in 1,5mm, 2 drill bits in 2mm. So a good variety of the most common sizes, plus a few spares to go. The dark black metallic finish looks nice as well. All in all a nice tool.

The hobby saw

This is a hobby saw / bone saw with a wooden grip, suitable for plastic, resin, soft metal, and balsa wood. The blade length is approx. 115mm, with a thinness of 0.2mm. A saw may not be a must for all hobbyists, but when you want to convert or cut up metal models, or need to remove thicker chunks of resin vents from a Forge World cast, it comes in quite handy.

The hobby knife

The Hobby Knife has a black plastic body, with a silver metal screw to lock the blades. I would have preferred a metal body, and the logo print is not very stylish, but the tool serves its purpose and with 10 spare blades you can get by for a while. The blades themselves are of mid quality, I have the feeling that the original scalpel blades from X-acto stay sharp a little longer. But they are okay for a start.

Instant Glue

The 20g super glue from Green Stuff World has a screw cap with a very fine and long nozzle to apply the glue with pinpoint accuracy. I like that, but you have to be careful because the nozzle clogs up quickly. The quality of the glue is okay, but it is a bit brittle and has less flexibility than, for example, Gorilla Glue. Personally, I would have preferred a bottle of plastic glue in the set. Of course, you can use super glue for plastic models, but I don’t recommend it, and most hobbyists will start with plastic models rather than resin or metal.

Modelling Files

The 5 modelling files are diamond-coated and have a variety of shapes, from flat to pointed, round, half-round, and square. The grit of 150 is quite high, so they eat through plastic and resin quickly and are more suitable for rough filing work or metal models. With a length of 140mm they are also quite large. They do have fine tips, but my personal set of diamond files is much smaller and better suited for infantry models than these, so yeah.

Dual-blade flat cutting nipper

The Nippers are a solid pair of entry-level cutters with a rather fine tip and dual blades, better than other entry-level cutters in the 10 Euro range from The Army Painter & Co. Unfortunately, they are not the single blade nippers type that Green Stuff World also sells, which I chose to be my recommendation for budget nippers, but they’re still decent.

Value

For an RRP of 46.50 €, you get quite a lot of stuff in Green Stuff World’s Basic Tool Set. If you bought the products individually, you would pay 56.05 euros, so you save just under 10 euros or about 18%. Green Stuff World often has sales and special offers on their site. At the time of publishing this review, there is a 10% saving on the Basic Tool Set, so you only pay 40 Euros:

You can also find Green Stuff World products at our partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, Firestorm Games, and Taschengelddieb, which all offer Games Workshop and various other hobby products with discounts of up to 20% over RRP.

I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.