I have to agree with JoeRugby. PE can be very uplifting for your model but it does not do so much for 1/72 models, it is simply too small.
I wish I had the space to display 1/32 models…PE works well for those kind of models!
Exactly! Those darn levers you have to fold in two, that never, ever line up right, and then you can’t possibly glue them onto the console or whatever they go on! I use the ones for the instrument panels, but usually that is it.
I do use it but find that after I do a build with it I need to do a build right out of the box just to give my eyes a break. I do find some of it unrealistic in that it tends to look to flat. The gun barrels that have to be rolled into a cylinder are impossible. I generally look at the PE part vs. the piece it’s suppose to replace in the kit and judge which will looks the best. It certainly does extend the build time.
Hey if you don’t like PE its your right. Toss it in the trash if it makes you feel better. Its your model. Me I love PE.
Let me rephrase that I really really, really like photoetch!
i hate those photoetch parts,also i don’t really care for film, igeuss i’m old fashion in my modeling i want plastic and thats about it,and yes i’m not a big fan on resin .
I haven’t really used PE yet… but I think I want to. As far as all the levers go, to give them some realism, perhaps dab the ball/handle end in some white glue to make a ball on the end, like on throttle levers for WWII aircraft… just a thought
You know this issue is like an animal rights activist that craves milk fed veal.
We all want more accurate models, but have “issues” with what is available.
The question(s) becomes: Does PE really help, does it make a more accurate model, is it worth the time and effort, is everyone interested in what PE has to offer? The are many members completely happy building OOB. Some like to do alittle or a lot more. Reading threads and articles might give the impression that all good models have PE, AM resin, scratch building, dry-transfers… which isn’t necessarily the case. Not everyone is in it for the same reasons, and our goals might all be different. Accuracy is not always the top priority for everyone here.
that is why my Fw 189 is still sitting unfinished they came with the mpm kit but i am afraid of screwing it up, and i never used the set i purchased for a Pzkpfw.IV Ausf G [banghead]
PE parts can be a love/hate relationship. I do agree that some PE parts are too flat when installed and getting them bent in the correct shape can be a PITA. On most of my builds using PE parts, I use only a small precentage of what is supplied. Why sand off a square control panel just to bend and install a square panel that looks the same. You just have to have a balance of using kit supplied parts or going with PE parts. It is up to the individual.
Pick the parts you can work with as far as size and complexity. It can be tedious to say the least but can yield some great looking results. Like other I like the IPs and belts… but I think the pre-painted placards add nice detail to the pit and LG doors add
A lot to the overall scale appearance compared to the doors that are sometimes as thick as armor plate when molded in plastic.
As someone suggested… get an Optivisor. They will take my Optivisor away from me when they pry it from my cold dead hands. Ham fisted? Tell me about it. It stinks when you walk past the park and kids yell out, “Hey mister… wanna play first base… oh sorry… we thought you had your mitt with you.”
Have done that too and it works great.
The levers, and other parts, look great when some “dimension” is added. I dip the “knob” in some thick CA then accelerator, 2 times and it makes a nice round ball on the end.
So that was the long answer. The short answer is… I like it![:D]
Man, you about as subtle as a rhinoceros horn up the back side. [:(!]
And that upsets you? That just breaks my heart, too bad. By the way smilies don’t replace good grammar.
Easy fellows…it is just a hobby. Grammar and preference for detail aside.
I think PE has it’s place in helping to correct deficiencies in kit. I have a pet peeve about using decals for instrument panels. PE is usually a quick and easy fix for this. PE seat belts are nice to use as well. But for most part PE just adds more time and frustration to a build.
First, I would find it in incredibly poor taste and a sign of bad breeding to criticize a fellow modeler simply because he or she has used PE parts and decided they are not happy with them. We modelers exist under a big tent and can handle any tastes in modeling techniques and materials used by our fellow modelers. We are few enough in number, and it would be the height of absurdity for this to deteriorate into people taking sides.
As for me, this may sound absurd itself coming from a lifelong, diehard scale plastic modeler, but the more I model, the less I like plastic. That should be explained: It’s not plastic itself I hate. I mean, with the state of the art in the parts we get in kits now, well, it borders on mind-bending the detail we’re getting, and thinness and accuracy undreamed of even 12 years ago. What I like is putting as many parts as I can in my model that exactly mimic materials that were used on the real aircraft (think of the plastic skin on the vertical fin and other parts of, say, an F-16). If it had a wooden floor, like some Mustangs and lots of WW I planes, I like to find a very, very thin piece of fine-grain wood, stain it and use it for a floor.
And try making a really accurate looking set of 1:72 or 1:48 scale aircraft radios without a good set of color PE parts. Yes, some modelers can do it, but not many can do it better than, say, Eduard and their frets of German radios, which can be bought separately, or the British or American radios on their color sets for WW II aircraft like the B-17G and Mosquito.
Now, I have acquired a vast collection of PE sets, and just about every product made for bending, folding and rolling PE parts (I’m not rich – quite the opposite in fact – I just got very lucky), and I know that some of these people who can’t stand the parts would find them much better to use if they had one of these tools that makes very sharp and accurate folds.
For aircraft modelers, we don’t need those eight- or even four-inch-long folders made for railroad, ship and armor builders that cost 65 bucks or more. The very first firm to sell the current style of folding tool was The Small Shop with their Hold and Fold line, which was invented by a very creative engineer named Mr. Forrest, for railroad modelers (that’s correct, it’s not the other company you might think introduced the tool).
The Small Shop’s (and the similar but unrelated Small Shop UK’s ) product line includes “The Bug,” a two-inch, four-sided version of the folding tool that’s identical in almost every way to the bigger ones except it’s better because of having four sides to work with. And there is now an even a smaller four-sided folding tool that is absolutely perfect for aircraft modelers, especially in 1/72 and 1/48, and can be bought for less than the price of a quality pair of sprue cutters (less than $25), and they also make the best PE rolling tool anywhere, IMO.
Also, Airwaves makes a simple folding device for about $8.
Now, there is no way I would try to justify all these model and PE companies that want to palm off, say, the tubular framework that makes up a 1/48 cockpit on, for example, a Hurricane, with a large, flat PE part with multiple folds (as Hobbycraft Canada did some years ago). But if you ARE stuck with a flat metal part, and want to give it dimension, there is a very easy way around this: Evergreen makes half-round rod in every size their styrene rod comes in, with the exception of the tiniest diameters. Just cut it to the right length with the right angle on the ends and put it over the PE part with CA glue and, voila, three whole dimensions. You can do it on both sides, or just on one side, depending on the part and your ambition.
Also, the better makers of PE parts make their parts that are supposed to depict wiring in perfectly square cross section. There’s a reason for this: when you paint that square wiring with enamel, best with a brush, you will cut off the corner with the paint and get a round wire. Accurate Miniatures makes their PE wiring harnesses this way, and points out the painting trick on some of their kits, such as the F3F series.
Hope this helps some people.
TOM
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Etch just doesn’t work well for objects that are supposed to be tubular or round. In the case of that Fokker D-XXI, use the etched cockpit framing as a guide for building a proper cockpit frame out of Evergreen styrene rod to better represent the real aircraft’s welded tubular framing. Then attach the etched panels, levers, etc., to the styrene. Where etch shines is in reproducing flat parts like panels, radio faces, seat backs, seat belts, levers and such. Where you need a combination of flat and raised, such as round handles on the end of flat levers, a dot of white glue will give dimension, or use a Waldron punch set to punch out small disks of styrene to glue to the etched lever . A couple coats of Mr. Surfacer will also increase the thickness of flat parts to make them look more to scale.
It can work for some stuff, but I’m not a huge fan. Sometimes even when it works it looks a little weird, because it creates a discontinuity with the other parts.
Dave
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I find it very annoying that a certain poster on these forums has the gall to post a comment amounting to, “toss your model in the trash if you don’t like photo etch parts”, and that remark I feel was totally UNCALLED FOR! I have on certain occasions used PE and personally I don’t really like it and I have posted my reasons here on old threads stating why I dont like it. Using PE is a personal choice of the modeler and because a modeler prefers not to use it or dislikes it does not give anyone here the the right to suggest that they throw away thier model. I understand why some people like PE and why some do not and I RESPECT thier choice. I guess what I’m trying to say here is if you like PE thats fine but show some respect to those of us here that dont, it’s our choice weather we use it or not.
Nuff said.
Air Master