Hi
Do u guys use all the PE in a PE set?or u just use a part of it?sometimes i cannot understand the teach book of a PE set and i use those i can understand,how about u?
Do i have to buy myself some rods to work with PE? I buy Tamiya kits,do u think that they are detail enough for me just to use a part of PE?

Yes and no for me in the set for 8" gun I did but when it comes to aber set I don't use anything that will not be seen. Like if hatch is closed no 15 parts added to hatch and I get to keep my sanity and my hair does not get any grayer

I have sets from aber that have as many parts as the model has #:-) #:-) talk about crazy but great stuff to have anyway.

You know Timlo my hat is off to the 1/700 scale ship modeler and their PE sets (:-) (++)

Of the few PE sets that I have bought, I've used hardly 1/2 and usually less, of them. And the stuff that I have used, for the most part, once I get them on and the model finished, I wonder why I bought the set in the first place. Although I must say that I do get a sense of satisafaction by adding some of this stuff when I can get it bent and applied correctly.

What with the calibur of plasitc injection being what it is today, the need for PE is, in some cases, getting less with time; unless you do this for a living, are working on one of the older kits that do need this bit of 'extra' to bring it up to the level of the new kits being released,or are one of those 'gifted' few, who lead the way, and gratefully provide the inspiration for the rest of us to keep moving along.

Of course, as we progress through this hobby we will get better; usually at a maddening slow pace, at least for me. And as we get better and more comfortable in doing certain aspects of this hobby, we will get better at handling the small stuff, and our techniques will improve, or at least we will sort out those techniques that do and don't work for each one of us individually. So we will become more comfortable and better at using PE, understanding what each piece is for and how to manipulate it, through working with it.

This is just part of the progression of this particular hobby.

Good luck, and take care, sgirty

Absolutely not!

It was a big hurdle to get over, not using all of them, but not that I choose what I want to use, my productivity has improved. Having a bending tool has improved my ability to fold longer and larger box structures more neatly.

That said, I refuse to use flat grab handles or tie downs. I find myself using pieces that replicate sheet metal, Panther fenders, and skirts. Or grills and intake mesh.

I also do not usually take the time and energy - after slicing up my finger one too many times - carving away 40% of the detail on a part, in order to add 6-7 etched bits.
Eduard's treatment of Academy .50cals is famus there.

I am working on being able to use round parts, or parts with rounded corners, M113 headlight guards and Panther Mg rings. My efforts are improving, but are not to the level I'd like yet. I do NOT roll out mg flash supressors..

Mike

In my experience, and like the most of the things involved in scale modeling, it's matter of your own "feeling" At the very beginning I was buying tons of PE sets. When I started to actually use them on models I noticed that I was not going to use all of them mainly due to a few considerations:
- some parts are difficult to work with due to their size
- some parts are, in my view, not very realistic (i.e. the look of chains or mg handles are flat)
- some parts are too thin, they easily bend at the dry brushing stage and the paint easily chips off them when "restoring" the original part shape
- some parts are anyway not in scale because the thichness is constant for all of the PE set
What I personally do is to buy PE mainly to detail MGs, for the rest I use copper/brass foil to re-create fenders, supports, etc. I save lot of money and get much more fun...
Ciao

it depends on what your getting... like if you get a set that has 3 sheets of PE and many many TINY pieces no i won't use it all mainly b/c i'll loes alot of the pices.. but if it's like a small one sheet set yes i'll use it all

Howdy Timlo,

First, allow me to welcome you to the site! Second, I want to thank you for bringing up the 'PE' question. This is just one of the issues I have with the, shall we call them, 'rivet-counter' crowd. You're correct in your assessment of the PE instruction sheet (generally). It is sometimes quite difficult to interpret (the question should be, why do we need to interpret anything? It should be clear and concise, right? You couldn't do your

job and expect to be paid for the effort if all your coworkers had to 'interpret' what you were doing!).
I think MLD hit the nail on the head, and I apply the same building approach to my kits. I try to use pieces of material that replicates the actual parts on the vehicle, and not simply because they are provided in a somewhat expensive PE sheet.
I think the companies (Aber, Eduard) are just trying to 'fill-up' the PE sprue with whatever they can think of so that the consumer will think he's got his monies worth or something. I'm willing to bet 'dollars to donuts' the vast majority of the Masterclass modelers out there also leave quite a few pieces remaining on their PE sprues.
To delve even deeper (didn't think you were going to get so long-winded an aswer did ya?), and this is another thing the 'rivet-counters' don't understand. Quite often you'll get many different parts for your kit all on the same PE sprue, manufactured ALL on the same thickness of sprue! When, in reality the items depicted on the sprue tree are of many different thicknesses! It seems that some people just assume that if it's made by Aber, then it MUST be needed and correct!.........beg to differ.
To remain completely honest here, when I first started adding PE parts to my mostly OOB building style, I would have to count myself part of that crowd that thought "if it's on the sprue, it MUST be important". Fortunately, I don't suffer from that anymore. When I look at a PE set to determine whether it's a justifiable accessory, I really try to assess precisely what I'm going to use off of it. And, ya know what? Sometimes it just isn't worth it for one or two pieces of PE!

Tread.

Oops! Almost forgot one of my more 'personal' observations regarding either PE, or pre-manufactured accessories.......More times than not, when attending amodeling show, you can spot them from a mile away. That's why I never use pre-manufactured stowage. I do use knapsacks now and then, but never tarps or bedrolls.

well some day when my building talnets get better i might try PE sets on my armor.
cause some PE does look nice

Nope, don't use it all... but then what's leftover get's put in the spare parts drawer.. and some of it will definately get used on 'future' builds!