Using Etched Brass

[Howard of Effingham]

as an etched brass newbie, does anyone out there use the stuff in their models
and does anyone have any tips for handling the stuff?

an   mind wants to know!

trevor

[Mossie]

I'm fairly new to etched-brass myself Trev & I made a bit of a mess of a cockpit I attempted but here's what I learnt:

Apply the superglue with a cocktail stick.  You can control it much easier than straight from the botlle.  Wood also has the benefit of being immune to cyano, so no risk of it sticking to your model.

Theres specialist tools you can buy, but since I haven't used it much to warrant buying them, I use a flat No.10A or No.11 scalpel blade & tweezers to fold the PE.  Some PE sets are fragile & will only take one or two bends before snapping.  Try & make sure you know exactly what sequence you need to do things in, not always easy from some of the instruction sheets.

Use tweezers to pick things up when gluing & push down using a cocktail stick.  The PE sometimes will stick to the tweezers, use another pair to remove them.  Don't be tempted to use your fingers, you'll end up with PE stuck to them & cyano dosen't always come off easily with soap & water, you might end up with a few layers of skin missing!

Use the slow setting cyano gel, gives you about 10-15 seconds to move stuff before it sets, although not nearly as long as you'll be used to with Poly.  Pop the bottle in the fridge before you use it, it'll give you another 5 seconds or so.

Oh yeah, the Carpet Monster loves PE!!!  If you lose a tiny bit, don't panic.  If you've got one of those hand held 'dust buster' type vacs, great, go over the floor methodically & it should suck up into the little container.  If not, pop a pair of the missus' tights (the finer, the better) over the tube of a cylinder vac & do the same, the, the offending piece should be sucked up onto the tights.  Works for anything else you ping as well.

Others that are more experienced should have some better advice but as a newbie too, thought it might help coming from the same 'place'!

[Joe C-P]

To cut it off the "sprue", place it on a piece of flat glass and cut it with a sharp blade. A curved one is best, because if you use a flat blade you'll usually need to use the tip and it will break off.

You might also try a few dots of white glue to hold the part in place, then run superglue along the seam once the part is in place. Cyano can break down over the years (though not always) so this will also give a better hold. Just don't mix the white glue and the superglue because it doesn't work.  
This also makes it easier if the part goes "ping", because by the time you've found it, cyano glue will have dried and stuck it to the carpet, your clothes, your skin, the wall, or whatever else it landed on.  

Keep your hobby table clear around your model, if you can, since often the piece will "ping" forward and mix into the piles of other stuff littering your workspace.

JoeP

[Allan]

Hi Joe
That white glue first and then superglue next trick is quite good and I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Allan in Canberra

[Hobbes]

To prevent pinging when you cut the part, you could use some clay, or tape it to the work surface.  

[NARSES2]

Bit late to this I'm afraid but a couple of pointers -

When cutting the part from the fret I put the whole thing (including the tile I use to cut it on) inside a clear plastic bag. Then if/when the part pings it should be safe in the bag - not always the case because of the application of "Sod's Law"  

If using unpainted parts then anealing them will make them a lot easier to bend.

Airwaves do a very nice little brass bending tool - available from Hannants - which is very useful.

Bending Tool

Chris