I have been looking without much luck for PE ratlines. I have found a place that does 1:1200, but don’t build many ships in that scale. Would like larger, at least 1:600, even up to 1:100/96.
I found adds for a place called Atlantic, but everyone is out of them (are they OOB?). I am going to try a technology called Toner Transfer for photo etching. Electronic hobbyists are using it for PC boards. Don’t see why it won’t work for brass not glued to a board.
Anyone else know of PE ratline sets?
I loved the Atlantic ones – used them in a half-dozen or so projects – but held my breath every time I ordered, since the vendors seemed to always show only 1-2 in stock.
Last place I found them in quantity was on Ebay, but I can’t remember the seller. Price then was higher…but not yet obscene.
You might try chacking out https://atlanticmodels.net/photo-etched%20details/1-600%20scale.html for 1/600.
They also appear to have 1/350 and 1/500.
If you browse the site, you may or may not discover more since I didn’t have time to check out the entire site.
The owner gives his email on the PLACE AN ORDER page so you can contact him directly regarding availability or any other questions you might have.
Hope it helps!
alx
It appears that all the Atlantic PE stuff is now only available from Starling Models (starling-models.co.uk), but Atlantic still seems to be in business - can’t hurt to drop him a line.
Could they be 3D printed?
They could be, but would likely be almost cost prohibitive to be done by a commercial resin lithography printer. It may be more suited to a more home-based filament printer. That would also likely preclude printing a rope cable twist.
Peter Hall of Atlantic used to be the patternmaker for White Ensign Models. After WEMs demise Peter was able to claim many of the resin masters in the old WEM line. He has remastered some and has drawn new PE. Tom’s Modelworks got most of the old WEM PE products and still market them under the WEM brand.
Rescaling PE is often not as simple as changing the magnification number on the copier and hitting print. The lines on the original master may have been drawn at the limit of the technology and when reduced they may not etch successfully. Or they may be out of scale large The graphics designer needs to adjust the line thicknesses for the final product scale.
I have done some home-brew photoetching on sheet brass with Ferric Chloride (FeCl) from Radio Shack [they’ve been out of business fror how long?]. Caution FeCl eats metal and stains skin, clothes, and counter tops. Use care when using and don’t use your wife’s/mother’s/girlfriend’s/significant other’s good stuff you will never hear the end of it. PPE is STRONGLY recommended.
I used rub-on circuit board etching solder pads, trace lines, and similar. I also used rub on letters and numbers. You could also likely use any of the rub on graphic items such as trees, cars, etc. Rub them on sheet brass, I used 0.010 and burnish down well. Spray multiple coats of paint on the back side as a resist. Color doesn’t matter - you want it thick. Put in a bath of fresh FeCl. It took about 4 to 6 hours to etch through Use plastic tweezers/tongs to manipulate the brass sheet because the FeCl will eat through metal ones (surprise!). Rinse well. The resist on the back can be removed with a wash of lacquer thinner if needed.
I found that there was a limit to the line thickness which I could successfully etch, It was about 1/16 inch. Smaller and I’d often etch through. I tried some etching resist material which could be printed using a laser printer then ironed onto the metal. Results were less than satisfactory and I was still line-width limited. I know Micro-Mark sells a home PE kit. Never used it – don’t know how well it works
Don;
Do you know anyone who has one of those new resin printers that can do the Eiffel Tower? I bet that printer could handle your needs. Maybe that person would make a set for you. I saw one at our recent Train Show that could do the job. But I ain’t got $4,500.00 for a machine I wouldn’t be using all that often!
One of the issues here is that you are creating a 3d object in 2d for PE
So, you’d need several of a kit, than take dividers and measure them to come up with a suitable average length for each of the shrouds.
At smaller scales you will need to allow for some representation of the deadeyes, too.
The spacing of the deadeyes, per kit would have to be sorted out, too.
Trying to figure out if you wanted to represent the eyes stacked and passed over the mast head would be a concern, too. (Whether the mast was moulded as one or multiples pieces would also matter, too.)
The nightmare senario woiuld be to run the verticle lines with thread and then measure and run each horizontal line.
It might look better, but the time involved would be enormous.
Let alone teh amount of beer needed to be consumes for the project.
I’m willing to do that for 1:96 or similar scales, but my dexterity isn’t up to that process for 1:350 or 1:600.
I recently built two 1:350 sailing ships that I managed to find PE for- they look great!