My first “Taming Etch” post was several years ago and
featured Trumpeter’s M1126 Stryker APC, with attention on the excellent etch
fret supplied with the kit to make up the jerry can racks on the tail end. That
was my first structural use of etched brass and I was quite intrigued.
It was inevitable I’d have another go, and when I tackled
their AS-90 SPG, back in 2014, I invested in two etch sets from Eduard to dress
it up. I didn’t use all of what was on offer but I did use maybe 80% of it, and
it took a loooong time to get those fiddly parts cleaned up, bent and attached.
The photos here were taken from an angle to optimise reflection,
to get the etched steel to show up against the plastic.
I guess getting into the swing of it is the trick – finding
a method that works for you and making it a production-line technique. There
are those fancy bending jigs out there, I’m thinking the “Etchmate,” but I
doubt I’ll use enough etch to warrant investing in a specialist tool (at a specialist
price.) My standby is the traditional one, two single-edge razor blades
(Stanely knife blades) used to manipulate and bend on the straight fold lines.
The pic below has nothing to do with etch and is included for curiosity's sake. In my post earlier this year about the Trumpeter MiG-3 kit, I mentioned I had only ever had to use C-clamps to force alignment on two models, and oddly enough both were Trumpeter – well here's the other one!
Well, lots and lots of items were done this way – the tops
of the six stowage bins were etched, along with their latches, plus tie-downs
and tool holders, the smoke grenade launchers, the stowage unit on the turret
roof and a variety of hull fixtures. It was quite impressive to see it going
together but – and this is an important but – the moment the paint went on, all
the painstaking etched work flushed into the general visual impression of the
project and it was as if it never existed. Unless the model is under a good
light and viewed with magnification, the work invested in the metal accessories
is as good as lost. There is the satisfaction of knowing the details are there
and much more accurate than the kit bits, true, but whether that satisfaction
is worth the cost of the sets and hours spent installing the parts – such as
were willing to yield to my skill level, there were those I was simply not
willing to attempt – is another matter.
It’s a different situation when the etch is, say, a grill
set. It’s a detail that is likely completely absent from the kit and the
easiest of all etched parts to apply. I would never build a Pz.III, Panther or
Tiger without etched grills, but whether I would spend the time shaving away
plastic and replacing it with folded metal is very much down to my gut feeling
at the time. I might get ambitious and give it another go, or I might be
impatient to get to the painting stage where I can soft-edge the camo and work
up road grime and rust, which is always fun.
By the end of this project there were aspects not addressed, for instance the cargo tie-down straps that go with the stowage cage on the roof, but by that point I simply didn't want to know anything else about etch at that point. Perhaps I'll return to this project at some point, add some stowage in the cage and put the tie-downs in place, maybe do something about the shine on the decals, add some road grime, who knows.
If I was asked my overall impression of photoetched metal
parts I would say they are a valuable accessory technology to the industry
which is pretty much indispensable for some uses – railings, ladders and radars
for ship models, for instance. But perhaps more is made of it than is
warranted; that’s an individual call, of course, and if your thing is working
with watchmaker’s tools and superglue by the tiny drop, then you’ll be in hog
heaven. For myself, I weigh how well I can see the details in the first place
against how accurate they may be, and for the most part, when it comes to
things like tool clamps on tanks, I go with the plastic. Drybrushed with steel
over the basic paintwork, it’s evocative, and less trying to my dexterity and
sanity in the process!
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