Authored by: Bryan Lee - Mechamind

The very first step to building a plastic model kit is to cut out the plastic parts from the runner. The recommended way to do it is to use a proper cutter/nipper designed for this instead of a normal hardware store cutter, nail cutter or scissors.

For this article, I will be using the following tool:

Sharp Nippers for HG Plastic (Thin Blade Type) - Wave Corporation Japan

https://ani-mecha.com/products/sharp-nippers-for-hg-plastic-thin-blade-type?_pos=1&_sid=7f04eda0c&_ss=r

When cutting the plastic part from the runner, it is recommended to make the 1st cut away from the piece as seen in the photo above. This is to prevent stress damage to the actual part caused by the cutting action of the tool.

The unwanted nub can then be removed with the 2nd cut. Avoid aligning the blades of the nipper parallel to the surface edge of the nub so that you don't accidentally cut into the part.

There will be some nubs left behind after cutting the nub, a good nipper will leave lesser behind. The nubs can be removed which I will cover in another article. Hope you have found this article useful!