John Vojtech and the people at UMM-USA (Unique Master Models) have come up with yet another tool that is well worth having in your collection. The Profiler Scribing and Contour Guide is a very versatile tool to help you with scribing and replicating inside and outside contours of your models.

Modelers may need to find the exterior or interior contours of parts to either scratch-build additional parts or shape/sand kit pieces to fit better. The guide is made from a thin piece of pliable metal and covered with a non-slip material. The metal can be bent in several contour position without breaking it and once bent has no memory. The guide also is sold with a blue straw like holder with plugs at either end, so it is easy to find when you want to use it.

The guide can be bent and placed on a model lined up with areas to be scribed and taped down so it does not move, then a scriber can be used along the guide.

The other way the guide can be used is to bend it around the outside or inside contour of a model to get the shape if you wish to make parts with the same radius. Once the radius shape is made you can place the guide on a piece of plastic as an example, to trace the body contour of a fuselage if you were intending to make more inside bulkheads.

To straighten out the guide I place it on a hard surface and roll an exact-o knife handle down its length and it is ready for another application.

In what seems to be a basic idea for this tool, I have used it several times mostly for a guide to scribe lines in the outside of some of my models. Getting the guide to right area you want to work and then taping it to the model so it doesn’t move is highly recommended, it will make your scribing job easier.

To make extra bulkheads in model aircraft I was working on, I pushed the guide into the inside of the fuselage to get its shape where the bulkhead was to be attached. Then I placed the guide on a piece of styrene and drew the contour. Once the contour shape was drawn for both sides of the fuselage on the plastic, I cut them out and the pieces fit perfectly.

Thank you to UMM-USA and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review the Scribing and Contour Guide.