Photo-etch - Part 3

One of the advantages (or maybe disadvantages?) of having a blog, is that you can retrace your progress, or lack thereof. Turns out I haven't seen the airbrush in at least 2 months. My head is full of ideas on how to proceed on multiple ongoing projects, but somehow I'm stuck in the idea phase and not actually doing anything. I should add procrastination as a major skill.

I attached the last PE parts that required soldering and am now slowly adding all the minute details with CA glue. I clearly have a misconception on how long it takes for CA glue to cure. "Mere seconds" - as is described on the bottle - should be interpreted as "several minutes". I just made it a new habit to browse the web or catch up on mail and Facebook after attaching a part, so I do not mess things up because it's still wet.

Below the as-good-as-final result, next to the plastic version.

If I say tiny, I mean TINY!

There are 20 large rivets and 60 little ones. They are supposed to go over all the indentations in the larger PE-parts, but I think I'll only place the large ones. (The smalle ones are all on the inside of the ring anyway, so much less visible.

Picking up small PE-parts (or plastic ones for that matter) is a hassle. If you dare to use tweezers, they are bound to fly away, never to be seen again. A wet finger seems to be the general way modellers pick up the tiniest parts, but I wanted to try something else.

I've read about these little sticks with low-tack surface for exactly this purpose, but it seems like a waste of money. I tried making one myself by cutting the point of a cocktail stick and dipping it in Humbrol Maskoll (or any other latex-based product). Repeat after 5 minutes and again and again until it looks like a teardrop. It's tacky enough to pick up small PE parts, but not too much, so you can position the picked up part into a small drop of glue on it's intended destination.

Photo-etch soldering - Part 2

Last february, I did my very first attempt at soldering photo-etch parts on some scrap photo-etch. I reported that it was fairly easy and that I would "experiment more later and report my findings".

Well, 9 months definitely counts as "later" as we go into round 2 of the experiment. I decided to up the ante and go from scrap to actual photo-etch parts. Nothing like actual, ruined-of-you-mess-up parts to raise the stress levels a bit.

Finally time to break out the photo-etch bending tool that's been sitting on my desk for over a year. I must say, this tool is fantastic and provides precise and controlled bends. It was a bit pricey, but cheaper alternatives are available, for as low as €15.

The soldering itself is a technique to be practiced a lot, so it should go better the more I do it.
Not all photo-etch parts require this. In fact, more often than not, the photo-etch for your model kit wil be stand-alone pieces, to be bent and attached to the plastic model with CA glue. This kit, however, has an entire photo-etch assembly, consisting of over 50 parts, which stand to benefit greatly from the super-strong bond that soldering provides. It ain't always easy though ...

Below are a few pictures of the result of about 3 hours trial and error, swearing and rejoicing. I assembled the plastic counterpart in a few minutes and used it to check positioning and get the curve right for some of the larger parts. Just like any other new technique, there's a learning curve to this. Not burning your fingers, was a quick, easy lesson.
The larger parts are actually rather easy to join. The fact that the bond is strong as soon as you withdraw the iron is almost amazing. The smallest details however really tested the limit of my patience.

In the second picture below, you can see the 4 tiny hinges with which the panels are connected to eachother. Each is about 1 by 3 mm (roughly 3/64" by 1/8" unless my math is off) and a real pain to handle, let alone attach. I must have attached and removed them at least 10 times, before giving up and resorting to CA glue. When that ALSO failed to succesfully bond the parts, I considered leaving them off, but I pushed through with a last attempt to solder them and in the end settled for a mediocre result.

I punched 2 holes through the front part (with a hammer and a small nail), which should line up with the larger damage on the turret. It's basically 2 places where the paint chipping got out of hand because I used too much chipping fluid and too much water (another technique I'm just starting to get the hang of). I'm hoping the holes in the armour will create the illusion of several hard hits and look realistic.
Another advantage of photo-etch thus seems to be it's easier to make it look like damage metal, because it IS metal.

The thing I'm really looking forward to is getting both the plastic and photo-etch parts primed and painted. The paint should hide all the discoloration and scratches (from filing away excess tin). The whole idea of this longer-than-intended experiment is to see if all that trouble is worth it in the end. Will that photo-etch assembly look better than the plastic one or only marginally so?

Next time I will attach both pieces together. Again this requires 4 hinges, so wish me (and my fickle nerves) a lot of luck.

First time soldering photo-etch

I already mentioned in an earlier post that I was very impressed by the latest workshop at the local IPMS meeting : soldering photo-etch parts. So much, in fact, that I ordered the necessary tools and materials to try it myself. My current project (the German panzerjägerwagen, i.e. tank on a railroadcar) has a complete assembly around the turret consisting of many photo-etch parts and I wasn't eager to start glueing them all together.

When do you apply this technique?

When you need to assemble multiple brass parts together.

Why?

1. Because I don't like fiddling with CA glue
2. Because a soldered bond is many times stronger than a CA glue bond
3. The bond is reversible by applying heat again

I'm not gonna try this on some actual part of a kit, until I get the hang of it, but I have some left-over photo-etch fret from an earlier model to experiment with.

The first try

On my first attempt, last monday, I didn't have anything to stabilize the parts while soldering. You need at least 3 hands (preferably 4) to hold both parts, the soldering iron and the tin wire. I could easily attach 2 pieces together, but they would occasionally move when touched with the iron.

A second try

I bought a so-called "third hand", which is usually a stand with 2 alligator clips and an optional magnifier.

The proces is extremely simple :

• attach both pieces in an alligator clip (one each), maneuver them against each other and free your hands to hold other things.
• apply some flux at the join (a liquid that cleans the metal and makes the bond easier and better)
• place a smal strip of the tin wire
• place your soldering iron against the bottom (!) of the pieces to be joined, alternating every few seconds from one piece to the other

The flux will start the sizzle first, then the wire will suddenly liquify and run against the length of the join through capillary action. Withdraw the iron and you're done.

The resulting bond is instantly as strong as it's gonna get, which is VERY strong. I pressed down on the resulting piece and the surrounding metal is more prone to bending, then to breaking the bond.

I continued attaching several more oddly-shaped bits and was very happy with how quickly it all went. I will need to learn to use only exactly enough wire to make the bond. Any excess will need to be cleaned up with a file or something.

I will experiment more later and report my findings.

More boxes?

More boxes, I hear you say? This time it's an order from Conrad, a rather cheap webshop in Brussels. They have almost anything (bikes, tv's, tools, ...) and it's easy to qualify for free shipping.

What's in it? A soldering iron (15 or 30 Watt), a stand, a cleaning station and a length of soldering wire.

Yay, I can start soldering photo-etch this weekend! Right? No! I ordered soldering liquid and flux from yet another site (Bol.com - mainly books, but also various other items) and it hasn't arrived yet. Can't do much soldering without flux, so I'll have to hang on just a little longer.

More tiny photo-etch

The remaining photo-etch parts on the submarine are tiny, but the radar dish is beautiful. I keep being surprised by how sturdy this tiny metal is. I dropped the radar dish on the ground, accidentally brushed against it with tweezers and bent it in the wrong direction and still it handles perfectly. No reason to stop trying to be careful though.

I only hope the looks won't diminish once it's all painted.

Photo-etch

Photo-etch (or "PE" for ease of typing) parts are small frames with tiny little parts made from metal. The term "photo-etch" refers to the process that makes these frames, but no need to go into detail about that. They are generally used to create extremely small or thin parts, which would be too delicate in plastic - or simply impossible to make.
You often find PE parts in aftermarket kits to add superdetails to existing models : railings, grab handles, antenna's, ... which aren't always in scale when made in plastic.

I intended to experiment with PE later in my "modelling career", but was surprised to find a small photo-etch frame in the submarine kit. It consists of the propeller, some antenna-blades and the nameplate for the display stand.

The PE version of the propellor is optional, since the kit contains a plastic version. (seen below, the rightmost part), but I want to grab this chance to work with it for the first time. It would be a waste not to try it.

The building instructions tell you to cut off the plastic propellor, but best to wait with that until you've successfully removed the PE one and folded it into shape.
This is one of the things about PE : you have to fold them into the right shape. Not all parts, but more often than not, folding is necessary and you need to do this really carefully. (special tools can be found for it)

The PE frame is usually packed in (self-adhesive) plastic. Do not remove this! It will help you when cutting off the part, to prevent it from flying off your desk onto the floor, where it will be eaten by the carpet monster. (Tip: keep your workbench away from carpet, if possible)
Cut through the plastic wrapping to remove the part. Use a sharp hobby knife and avoid using sprue cutters, as these are not intended for cutting metal.

I removed the propellor, peeled off the protecting plastic and  gently bent the propellor blades. It's extremely thin, but feels stronger than I had feared. Handle with extreme care though.

(Sorry for the picture quality, I seem unable to get my camera to focus on small parts)

Below you see the part in it's place, inside the propellor housing. It's still missing it's cap, since I decided to play safe and not remove the propellor blades until the PE one was in place. The cap is now painted black and drying. Although the plastic one, once painted gold, would probably have looked okay, the PE result will always look extra sharp.