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General Ship Modeling: Super-detailing
Topics on photo-etch, metal-parts, and all types of additional detailing.
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Photo-etch funnel cage - help
strokkur
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England - North West, United Kingdom
Joined: April 18, 2007
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 05:54 PM UTC
Hi All

I am building my first resin kit with photo-etch (WEM HMS Kashmir). Having a lot of fun and learning loads, but.... I cant get the funnel cage to bend right. Managed straight bends and curves ok but cant work out the convex thing.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Sam
Gunny
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 06:30 PM UTC
Ahoy, Sam,
Welcome to Model Shipwrights, mate!

Well, when I need to bend a radius with PE, I find a suitable size round object (i.e., a toothpick, paint brush handle, dowel pin, etc) depending on the size/scale of your pe... then place your PE part that you want to put a radius on flat on your bench, and gently roll the toothpick or rounded object over your pe part, in the direction that you need the radius... the corners will raise into a radius. . .repeat until you achieve at the proper diameter that you need to arrive at. . .good luck, and have fun!
Keep Modeling,
~Gunny
strokkur
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 06:46 PM UTC
Hi Gunny
Thanks for your help. The problem here is the cage at the top of the funnel needs bending into a dome shape (with a funnel outline rather than a circle of course) rather than a normal curve.
I'm having trouble keeping the rim flat all the way round while trying to form the raised centre - I hope that makes sense.

btw I'm glad I have good eyesight - I hadnt quite appreciated how small the 1/700 PE parts were going to be when I ordered the kit.....
strokkur
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 07:17 PM UTC
Ahh problem solved - nicked tiny gaps in the rim. Now I can bend each rib individualy and fine tune the shape.

Gunny
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 07:19 PM UTC
Ok, mate, I'm not done yet!

Is this the shape you need to acheive?



Gunny
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 07:20 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Ahh problem solved - nicked tiny gaps in the rim. Now I can bend each rib individualy and fine tune the shape.



Good deal, mate!
~Gunny
strokkur
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 07:38 PM UTC
Well it worked ok but if you have another method for future builds I would be interested... always good to have a couple of options available. This'll look ok on my 1/700 but might not look as good when I have a bash at something bigger...
Gunny
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 10:23 PM UTC
Ahoy again, Sam!
Well, mate, I took a look at the PE sheet in question for the kit you're building, and I can see exactly what you're talking about now...and quite honestly, I don't see any other way to really accomplish the task than how you went about doing it...I have an idea for a tool that I'm going to turn the boys loose on back in my shop to see if I can come up with something for an occasion just like this one...Nice kit, by the way...how's it going?
~Gunny
strokkur
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Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 10:34 PM UTC
Hi Gunny

Its going fine so far but I'm just in the early stages. Very much a learning exercise as used to plastic kits.
Still working on my cyano handling - very annoying when the drop of glue picked up the piece I was gluing - lucky I had spares.
gator
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#027
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Posted: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 03:57 AM UTC
Sam, take a sewing needle and snip off half of the eye. Put it in a pin vise or better yet, an old paint brush handle. Instant CA applicator.
strokkur
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Posted: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 01:13 PM UTC
Hi Gator

Thanks for the tip. I'm busy snipping a needle as we speak.
Any tips on holding tiny bits down without gluing them to the holder?
Gunny
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Posted: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 02:25 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Gator

Thanks for the tip. I'm busy snipping a needle as we speak.
Any tips on holding tiny bits down without gluing them to the holder?



As in "holder" Sam, do you mean your fingers!?!
I myself suffer from "big clumsy finger" syndrome, and with little bits of PE, I'll take a toothpick, touch the end in the tiniest bit of CA, and then touch the tip to the fiddly bit...then use the toothpick as a "finger extension", glue the piece in place (with the toothpick still attached), and then gently twist off the toothpick after the CA sets...give it a try!
~Gunny
strokkur
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Posted: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 06:32 PM UTC
Fingers, toes, tongue anything handy, all unwieldy and only really good at working in 1:1 scale (or evem bigger)

It hadnt occurred to me to actually glue the cocktail stick on then remove it. So obvious when its pointed out.
Ron_Smith
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Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007 - 02:29 PM UTC
Use a steel or lead ball to form domed funnel caps. I keep a box of 4.5 cal. lead balls on the bench for that and nose weights on aircraft.


Quoted Text

Hi All

I am building my first resin kit with photo-etch (WEM HMS Kashmir). Having a lot of fun and learning loads, but.... I cant get the funnel cage to bend right. Managed straight bends and curves ok but cant work out the convex thing.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Sam
Ron_Smith
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Maryland, United States
Joined: October 24, 2006
KitMaker: 20 posts
Model Shipwrights: 5 posts
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007 - 02:33 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Gunny

Its going fine so far but I'm just in the early stages. Very much a learning exercise as used to plastic kits.
Still working on my cyano handling - very annoying when the drop of glue picked up the piece I was gluing - lucky I had spares.


Mini-Maglites work for finding dropped parts. CA application is easy, save your plastic soda and milk bottle caps, rinse them and put a puddle of CA in when you need it. Applicators are as simple as .010", .015" and .020" diameter music wire glued into a chunk of sprue or dowel.....just pick the right size wire for the job, I keep all 3 handy. When they get snotted up use a crappy old #11 blade to scrape them clean.
strokkur
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Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 03:23 PM UTC
Hi Ron

Thanks very much for the tips

Its very gratifying how helpful everybody is here - makes the whole thing an even more enjoyable hobby.

Sam
Ron_Smith
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Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 10:27 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Ron

Thanks very much for the tips

Its very gratifying how helpful everybody is here - makes the whole thing an even more enjoyable hobby.

Sam


You're welcome Sam.
blaster76
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Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007 - 11:14 PM UTC
I do the larger scale which simplifies things a bit. Like Gunny says, I roll the shape out a bit around a paintbrush or dowel. But, when I glue, I only glue a section down at a time. Maybe start in the front and glue the first section in. Wait a while until it is dry and set, then gently push the back section down and get it glued in. After those two ends are set and locked, you can kind of bend and push a bit using fingers, toothpicks or whatevr to achieve your final shape and glue the sides down to lock it there. Haste makes waste when it comes to PE.
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