PE parts and using them

[Ian Aylmer]

Hi all,

 

I have recently received a few PE sets from Eduard for

 

F15E cockpit

AH64 Longbow Cockpit

F16 seat and cockpit

SU27B cockpit

A10 cockpit

 

Anyways, those of you that have used and do use this gear to enhance your models, How do you:

 

1, Bend them correctly,

2, What tools do you use

3, What adhesives do you use, plastic to metal etc.

4, Achieve those great paint jobs

 

Answers to any of the above would be great for all of us guys that are getting into this super detailing stuff, and an interesting discussion thread.

 

Thanks all

Ian

[stusbke]

Hi all,

 

I have recently received a few PE sets from Eduard for

 

F15E cockpit

AH64 Longbow Cockpit

F16 seat and cockpit

SU27B cockpit

A10 cockpit

 

Anyways, those of you that have used and do use this gear to enhance your models, How do you:

 

1, Bend them correctly,

2, What tools do you use

3, What adhesives do you use, plastic to metal etc.

4, Achieve those great paint jobs

 

Answers to any of the above would be great for all of us guys that are getting into this super detailing stuff, and an interesting discussion thread.

 

Thanks all

Ian

 

I'm no expert on this but this is what I do with PE stuff I use, to be honest I hardly use it , but then again that's just me

 

But for the bending and working with these PE sets I can only advice you to go and buy this

 

clicky

 

Mind you this is one expensive piece of equipment, it goes around 60 euro's here in belgium but just like the punch and die set once you have it you'll start to use it more and more often

 

as for the adhesives I think CA glue would be your best bet.

But on a side note, its best that you use white glue first to stick the PE to the surface and this enables you to move it around a bit to position it perfectly, once satisfied with it take a verry small amount of CA glue and run it along the sides of the PE part.

 

as for your last point I say practice practice and some more of the latter.

 

HTH

 

Greetz STB

Frederick Jacobs

[thierry laurent]

Hi!

 

Some additional advices:

 

- sand a little bit the point you're going to glue. this will help the CA glue to "grip" and will give you a stronger bond.

 

- clean the parts with fine grade sandpaper rather than files. I found this easier and quicker (use a folded 10 * 5 cm section).

 

- for small parts bending, use flat pliers. Tamiya released a marvellous one for photoetched parts but this tool ain't cheap and is not so easy to find (except direct order to buy it from HLJ or Rainbow Ten in Japan).

 

- according to the place you're living, it may be more interesting to purchase a photoetched bender from www.thesmallshop.eu. They have a larger range than Mission model and offer additional good tools such as the "brass assist" to roll parts. I freely received the set to cut photoetched parts but have to say that it did not replace my trusty cutting mat and good X-acto/swann-morton blade or the small scissors I purchased for this use! Very recently, they released a tool to glue photoetched but I've not be really convinced even if the guys who reviewed it gave positive conclusions. However, this stays more in my mind a nice to have rather than a must have tool!

 

- Use CA glues with different viscosities. There are cases when ultra thin is better whereas in other conditions gel (or old thickened CA thin glue!) is better. Accelerator is also recommended to gain time and ease the job. And keep CA glue in the fridge to lengthen its life. In rare cases, two-components epoxy may be used (if you need a solid bond and do not care of the amount of glue).

 

- Even if I hate to write it: the best glue will never give the same bond strength than solder to glue large photoetched parts together... For this job, welding tools used to fix fine electronic components is the way to go.

 

- Use a primer if your model has a lot of photoetched parts. However, I recommend you a fine grade one (such as the Tamiya white primer).

 

HTH

[Ian Aylmer]

Hmm, When you CA glue, are you talking about cyanoacrylate???

 

I haven't got any, will try and track some down if this is what you mean.

 

Thanks

Ian

[KOTR]

Hmm, When you CA glue, are you talking about cyanoacrylate???

 

I haven't got any, will try and track some down if this is what you mean.

 

Thanks

Ian

 

It is. Sometimes called super glue, too, IIRC