I am working on a skiff kit it has p.e. Parts to be added to the model . what is the purpose for putting p.e on a model? does it have anything to do with weathering ? meaning is this the section of the model you want to show paint chips,rust or bare metal? Again to p.e. Or not to p.e that is the ?
Thanks in advance
Sk2

P.e. or photo-etch is just a way of detailing some parts to make them more scale correct, or to add detail not possible in plastic, think thin metal banding, gun sights, handles etc. Some people loath it and some swear by it, most of us just manage with or without. Remember to use super style glue wih them, plastic cement wont work. I tend to use wide tweezers to help hold the parts while bending with another set suited to the piece, shaping them with your fingers is no fun
hope that helped a little.

well that is a question i ask myself all the time etch is good.. but sometimes can make a already good plastic part be replaced for no reason other than look its photo etch!! as far as your skif kit it will only improve your kit !!! have fun building

Its basically another option for those who want it. Some parts cannot be reproduced realistically in plastic ... like grill netting, but mostly it for getting closer to the proper scale ... items like lourves, guards, etc, tend to be too thick in plastic. When realistic damage is called for, its hard to beat the etched parts as it can be dented easily.

There are those who get satisfaction of using every single piece of an Aber set, but personally I use only the parts that will add to the finished effect, are easy to do or are fun. Theres no law that states you have to use it, or how much you should use. Generally, I like etched sets, although they tend to be expensive as I rarely use more than 50% of an entire set. It can be often true, that the etched parts are actually inferior to the plastic parts as they are 2D or flat. Its up to each and every modeller, what they think themselves is necessary/useable. Sometimes its better to use the out of scale plastic pieces as they have more relief fo painting. The etched parts might be closer to the scale, but the detail can almost dissapear under several layers of paint!

Well said Frank,
It comes down to personal preference, I always weigh up the plastic part against its etched replacement and decide which peice will do a better job at the end of the day - that way you can guarantee your kit will be as good as you can make it.

James

I agree with the others... It is an effort to recreate detail parts to scale and is strictly at the discertion of the modeler whether or not to use it. What I have never understood is why manufacturers try to duplicate round bar stock items such as periscope guards or grab handles in FLAT photo etch? Same thing goes for wing nuts! You can't make a clearly bulky, round shape out of flat material. I wish you luck with your Skif kit. They are very basic in detail and a bit crude by today's standards. To borrow a quote from the movie Christine, "You can't polish a turd." Skif is almost as bad as Lindberg. Have fun.

Coming from ship models, where you can have 3+ 9"x9" square frets full of pieces(the nimitz has enough to cover a 24x32" area completely with etch frets), I love the stuff. But I will skip parts that do not need etch on armor(at 1/350 it works for a lot more stuff-try 1/350 20mm gun sights, adjusting wheels, shields, and shoulder rests sometime, with a ship that has 40 of them ). Sometimes its too thin to be scale. like on tie downs on a T34. A lot of etch sets do have excessive pieces just to have them, and can be more frustrating then its worth. And some details, like a lock on a tool box, doesn't look quite right, your eyes now draw attention to the pefectly flat padlock. A lot of the plastic kits have gotten much better too. The main things that are almost always worth replacing on plastic afv's are engine intake/exhaust and basket grilles and headlight guards. And they are usually the larger and easier pieces to work with on the frets.

With a new generation kit, like a Dragon or Tristar PIV, its hard to say if doing Voyager full fender sets is really worth the tons of work involved though, when a few tool clamps and chain details are really all they need. A good place to start is a Dragon 'smart' kit to get your feet wet with a one-stop purchase with the basics in the box already.

You're just not going to get basket details and grilles without it. But even the trumpy LAV doesn't need too much(although I have a ton of straps to do)



On ship models its a prerequisite these days, the 20mm's would look like fire hoses without it.



Or if you want landing gear doors, pylons, tail hooks, refueling probes, ect...

I'll chime in with Kevin on this one. FOr the most part, PE really does add to the detail of the model. Especially with regards to gun sights, screens, brackets, etc. However, there are times when working with PE is really insane (at least in my opinion). I am working on an M113A3 now, and Eduard has included these microscopic tie down brackets (about 40 of them) to be added to the model. First of all, they do look good, but god, I can barely hold them with tweezers and get the lined up straight and glued on properly. I actually just decided to leave the existing kit tie downs on the roof, and add Eduards to the side of the M113 as they are non existant on the original kit. Really, its up to you and your abilities. When it starts to get really frustrating, its no longer a hobby. Remember, you took up modelling to have fun and use your artistic abilities, not to get aggrevated.

PS - Kevin, BEAUTIFUL ship!

IMHO The eduard sets can make you nuts for sure. The metal is extremely soft, and when the pieces get tiny, soft brass is not your best friend. But if you need tie down straps or want grilles with wear and tear its great stuff. The Lionroar stuff tends to be more on the stiff side and a little forgiving(I think they make Dragon's PE too). Voyager kits are great because of the sheer number of parts and options you get for the price. I just got a set for my hetzer that had full fenders, all clamps, side skirts, and all kinds of little details for $14. But some of the asemblies are not for the faint of heart. I started a Jagdpanzer and gleefully cut the fenders off and had to take a break from it for a bit. In retrospect I should of just scraped off the brackets and hinges and replaced them....

But if you want to go out of your way to make yourself nuts, check out what a Lionroar full-package kit looks like for the 1/350 Hood

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/pe/lionroar/ls350004-hood/lion-roar.html

I try not to use PE. I consider myself mostly a PLASTIC modeler, and therefore try to avoid it. I sometimes use PE that comes in kits, such as some of the Dragon tanks, or buy PE engine screens for the ones that REALLY need them (Tigers, Panthers, Pz III, etc). And sometimes I use metal barrels (not PE, I know). Otherwise, I try to do more with strip styrene or metal or plastic rod (grab handles). I can't see spending $40 on a tank and then $35 or maybe more on a PE set. I know some get a lot out of it and I applaud it. But for me, it's too expensive, and also WAY too time consuming. In the last year I've completed 2 dios and four other tanks....if I started using PE, I'd probably finish 1 or 2 tanks at most.

Those who use it (fenders, braces, handles, screens, etc.) and use it well tend to have great results, and I love looking at it all (even before painting). But it's just not for me.

Rob

Yea but some kits like the Cyberhobby PIV ausf D tauchpanzer came with 400+ pieces, indy tracks, two full sets of tools(with and without clamps),metal barrel, full PE, cartograph decals, and resin upgrades for $39.99

:-) great job on the lav it looks great , have found that the overextension of etch making is tiresome so i want a balance ..my current t-34 has all the bling on it and it has taken three months of maybe 2-3 hrs a weekend if i dont go obx it takes ia while it is good to see others opinions on the subject at least im not the only one who is crawling in the carpet looking for that part i dropped

Such kits are definitely the exception. And what if I'm not a big fan of that tank? The Cyberhobby Tiger I Early Wittmann edition, if I remember right, was more than that, yes? I'm not as big a fan of these multimedia kits, and prefer that if they do include all the "bling", that they have plastic equivalents for basic items like sandshields and fenders, in the kit as well.

Rob

Thanks! its been sitting around for a bit being that trumpy had it finished in sand on the box art yet gives no markings for it on the decal sheet. Eschelon to the rescue though! I was tiring of working on the fenders for the Jagdpanzer and went out and bought, of course, the T34 with bedsprings :-), a model covered in etch. Was a pretty easy build though, not as involved as it looks. Probably the most viusal drama for not that much effort. Just don't grab it the wrong way by accident

PE certainly has its place I believe, there are certain things that plastic just cant reproduce with any scale thickness, be it gun shields or whatever, yes they are makeable out of thin plasticard but not everyone is capable of scratchbuilding, which is where PE comes in, yes a lot sets have parts that could been easily made by a lot of us and they are there as filling around all the useful bits.
Now as regards Eduard's sets being a nightmare, the couple I have used have been quite easy, now I've seen an Aber one and it would drive me totally insane, so many smaller than small bits, all the parts jumbled in together....

Great perspective from a ship modeller, Kevin! Nice stuff. I have some 1/700 stuff calling to me. I'm not intimidated by the minute PE just because of my experience on 1/35 and 1/48 PE stuff.

My most extensive PE work was two whole weeks of dedicated time to the DML 8.8cm Flak 36 trailers and the LionRoar PE set. In the end, I felt it was worth the effort and built up my confidence/experience greatly.

I like that, it looks great. I can't wait to see what they do when Trumpy comes out with the 1/16 Tiger II

As for the skif kit . I needed to pratice building and finishing a kit without spending to much . I went to my local pusher (L.H.S) and saw this kit for sale for 8. bucks why not. 8. Bucks. That was untill I started the build. 8 bucks . I used the golden rule dry fit, dry fit, dry fit then glue. that didn't work. No matter how hard I tried some of the parts just wouldn't fit correctly. Then theirs the P.E. They are so small I couldn't hold them with the twezzers. I came up with a new scientfic theroy. Pressure plus gravity equals Lost they say what goes up must come down, The landing is the tricky part.

you save the best for last.I forgot ot comment on the great jobs shown in this post. Looking foward to seeing them when they are finished . I can't wait to get to the skill level of the models shown on this site | to all
sk2

PE is beautiful to look at and adds a great amount of detail to a kit but it can break your heart. The main problem I have had with my limited PE experience is dealing with gluing the parts on, superglue can be super finicky. Wish there was a better way to attach it to plastic, I'd be more receptive to using more PE that way.

Maurice: What type of superglue do you use? I use medium viscosity stuff. I put a few drops onto a slip of aluminum foil (for some reason, it remains wet for a long time) and replace the cap.

I'll use a bit of stretched sprue or a needle or old #11 blade to apply the CA. Sometimes, I'll just dip the part into the CA puddle and attach thereafter.

I've not had good results with the gel CA (too messy and gloppy) or the watery, thin CA (too messy and uncontrollable).

HTH

I've had mixed results with both of those too, using either medium or the thin stuff. I've dipped parts in the thin stuff and put them right on the part and it went on BEAUTIFULLY, then I've had issues with thin as well. lol The medium stuff works good but it's easy to get just a tad too much on the part, especially smaller parts and there's some areas that need cleanup. It's also probably me as well, not having had a lot of experience with PE yet but I continue to learn.

Ive recently built a dragon M4A3E8 and if I was to build another I would invest in some PE headlight guards for the hull front as I found the kit items too thick and awkward to get off the sprue correctly without damaging them.