discussion Photo etch glueing.

[Defiant911]

I’m bending a few box shape etch parts which don’t appear to have any tags to glue sides so it’s a case of glueing the edges to each other or surface which are only 0.15mm thick.
whats the best method of gluing these box sections.

 

[AlanG]

Could you not bend some plastic card inside and use that to glue to?

 

[Defiant911]

Could you not bend some plastic card inside and use that to glue to?

Yes, sounds a good idea. i had thought about sticking something inside but just wondered if this is the typical way of fixing as I’ve only ever glued flat controls panels before now

 

[Jim R]

I have had some success running a bead of thick CA along the angle of the inside of the join. Hold securely with blocks, tape etc till the CA cures.
Jim

 

[Tim Marlow]

Solder works well, but it’s a bit of a black art at times. That’s actually one of my pet hates for etch. Some manufacturers make the sides fold down from the top, so the sides don’t actually fit like they should.....square boxes can then come out with curved corners!

 

[Ian M]

Best thing I have found fr things like that is a soldering iron... :-(

 

[KarlW]

Soldering is the way forward, though I'm liking the idea from @AlanG

 

[Gern]

I always wonder why on Earth you should need to use PE to create a box. It's fine if you want to show the box with an open lid, but that would only need a single piece of PE with very limited folding to make the lid. For a closed box, it's MUCH simpler to use plastic, and PE for the fine detail for things like hinges and lock plates if necessary.

Are manufacturers deliberately trying to make things hard for us, or do they make more money from PE?

 

[Si Benson]

I always wonder why on Earth you should need to use PE to create a box. It's fine if you want to show the box with an open lid, but that would only need a single piece of PE with very limited folding to make the lid. For a closed box, it's MUCH simpler to use plastic, and PE for the fine detail for things like hinges and lock plates if necessary.

Are manufacturers deliberately trying to make things hard for us, or do they make more money from PE?

I know it’s probably difficult to get your head round, but some of us really enjoy the challenge of PE. There is a FB page dedicated to the stuf.
I suppose you could argue, why build a model plane when you can buy one built and painted already or why make a meal when you can go to a restaurant?
The logic is the same I suppose.

 

[Gern]

It could be just me Si. As a kid I always preferred Lego to Meccano, so plastic not metal is my thing.:smiling3:

 

[Tim Marlow]

Not really Si, etch for etched sake is not always a good thing. The point Dave is making is why not use the correct material to enable you to make the best of the job in hand.
A closed box is much better in moulded plastic or white metal than in etched brass. The corners are far sharper in the moulded item, and the construction is far easier to keep square.
On the other hand, a thin valance will always look far better in etched brass than in plastic because the material allows it to be closer to scale thickness and keep sufficient handling strength.
Some manufacturers add etch because they think it pushes up the perceived finesse of the kit, and therefore add to the kudos of the company. Others add it because it’s expected at that price point. However, badly thought out etch is as detrimental to the build experience as badly moulded plastic.
If you want a challenge in etch, by the way, buy a Kestrel or Falcon brass railway kit off of eBay! They are absolutely awful in my opinion, with all of the etch faults apparent. Badly designed parts, fold lines too thin or in the wrong place, over thick or too soft brass stock, and cusped edges that mean that every part has a forty five degree bevel edge......good etch is great, but bad etch is bloody awful...

 

[Guest]

I always wonder why on Earth you should need to use PE to create a box.

In this case, looking at Carl’s photo, I suppose it’s because of the holes in the top, which will appear much closer to scale with an etched box than a plastic or resin one. Of course, they could also have made an open-topped plastic/resin box with an etched part to glue onto it for the holes.

Are manufacturers deliberately trying to make things hard for us, or do they make more money from PE?

I suspect something like that is at play too: with etched parts, they can market it as a higher-end kit than without, so if adding a piece of etch that costs them ¤1 allows them to charge ¤2 more for the kit to the wholesaler …

 

[Ian M]

I kind of agree with both teams here; I do like a bit of PE to sharpen things up or for corrections - however when I am finished I tend to have a lot of left overs considering them to be no better than the plastic part.
On the subject of plastic boxes I find a lot of them are not very paralle sided. A result of the tooling having to be able to eject the part. However some makes of kit the problem is very hard on the eye. A quick sand down often solves the slightly tapered ones, the real bad ones get replaced with a scratch built one. Or the famous PE.

 

[Guest]

Use low temperature solder. It is liquid. squash it into the joint enogh to make it squugy out through the joint. Heat gun will then send the low tem. solder off. 10 minutes later file or sand. Makes a smooth & solid joint.

Just one but there are many. Used a number of times on PE . Great advanatge. PE being thin it is low tmerature & will not buckle or distort the thin PE metal.

https:tongue-out3:/www.ebay.co.uk/i...237475?hash=item1aa1796623:g:CfMAAOSwvddflcSn

Laurie

 

[Guest]

Should have mentioned the heat gun required.

I use this which is cheap but does the job. Also handy for slightly heating plastic to mould a little as required.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ETEPON-Ele...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[Defiant911]

I agree in that I think experience show you need to pick what’s going to work best whether that is PE or the original
Plastic part. From my limited experience I think some details do add to the finish albeit often very little can be seen in the final model but I will be weighing up whether to use some of the box sections until I have built them to a better standard. I’ve built both PE and plastic parts before deciding.
I think the PE has worked well for the cockpit area and in particular the pilots seat as pictured below primed.

View attachment 405127View attachment 405128

 

[Guest]

Carl on your PE box. Are you using a good qaulity bender. Regret to say from experience that for bending decently you need one.

There are a lot of cheap ones which are not worth the money. This is the top of the range. https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/pr...-8in-mk-r-hold-and-fold-the-small-shop-sms005. There is a half size which is excellent & very much near half the price. But John has some not so expensive which look the part.

This is a part after using low temp solder the bottom picture is the insde of the unit.




Do not give up on PE. Yes there are some rubbish about but this is PE from Flightpath on a Seaking.

This is very rewarding stuff I can tell you & a total enhancement to the plastic model. However you have to delve further than Edaurd to find these PE kits. They are there.

 

[Defiant911]

I bought this one for £27.80 so not sure what quality that makes it. Seems to be ok apart from a little twist but if you make sure both parts are square it appears to do a decent bend.

 

[Jon Heptonstall]

Laurie.
you have a Sea King?
Surely not a Hasegawa 1/48 ?
rare as hen's teeth.
Jon.

 

[Guest]

I bought this one for £27.80 so not sure what quality that makes it. Seems to be ok apart from a little twist but if you make sure both parts are square it appears to do a decent bend.