Like many of
you....I have a seriously stupid obsession with Photo Etch....and I have the
fine folks at Verlinden to "thank" for getting me started in this PE
addiction with a 1/48 BF-109 E Super Detail set I bought from them years ago
when I was doing my first kit upon re-entering the hobby. Now Eduard PE
goes into many of the kits I build.
I quickly
learned that cutting PE with an X-Acto knife was a good start to get the PE
piece off the PE sheet....but trimming the PE piece was impossible with an X-Acto
knife. I tried filing the piece...this was possible, but time consuming as
heck and very damaging to the thin delicate PE pieces. Then I picked up a tiny pair of medical scissors
and I was shocked
how easily it was to cut PE with these scissors. With these scissors, it
was like cutting a thick piece of paper. So my technique and experimenting
grew from there. Here is my simple sequence of events when cutting PE.
First tape the
PE sheet and the particular PE piece you want to remove from the PE sheet
to a piece of glass or mirror that you've laid on your desk top.....DO
NOT try this on a
window or you'll go right through the window.....the glass must be resting
on a desk to deal with the high pressures from the X-Acto knife. The
scotch tape holds the sheet in place during cutting and keeps the tiny
piece from flying away into the carpet etc. |
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Next, take your
X-Acto knife and using a sharp Scalpel blade cut the PE piece from the
sheet by pressing down hard till you cut through the tab holding the PE
piece to the PE sheet. |
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Now you
have the piece roughly cut from the PE sheet...time to do fine trimming.
I have a tiny
pair of medical scissors I use to do fine trimming on PE. I have since
learned through experimenting that pretty well any scissors will do the fine
trimming just as well. Experiment with different scissors to see if they
work for you.
This a close-up
view of the blades on these tiny scissors. The blades are not
the shape knife edge like you'd find on paper cutting scissors....instead
they are a squared off blade like a pair of ice skate
blades. I don't think this matters.....I'm just trying to
describe the scissors that work for me. |
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Here's an example of using scissors to trim PE....
1/48 Eduard
HE-111 H-3 photo Etch piece before the tab is cut off. |
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Cut stopped
halfway to take a photo |
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Tab cut
off......
Due to in-progress photo
being taken....cut wasn't 100% perfect....but even under the best
situation....a few seconds with a fine file is needed to get the edge
perfect. |
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This is the
piece with the tab removed....from here I'd do 10 to 15 seconds of gentle
filing with a fine modelling file to get the cut edge perfect. |
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Now folks will ask...where can
I buy these little Medical scissors....hummm...good question....the ones I use can be
purchased from a medical supply shop....if you have one of those near
by....these places sell crutches and wheel chairs and other medical
equipment. But there is an easier option.....read below....
I tried a regular
pair of inexpensive scissors and they seemed to cut PE just as well.
I also checked my local drug store last night in the
cosmetics dept and they had a pile of little scissors, but they had curved
blades for cutting nails....these would not be best for PE as you like
scissors with a straight blade, but if you are only trimming tiny, tiny areas
of the PE, then these nail trimming scissors from the cosmetics dept would
work very well.
I grabbed a pair
of regular inexpensive scissors I had around the house and they trimmed
the PE sheet no problem. These were cheap paper cutting scissors with
the blue handles in the top picture of this article.
One final
note.....these wire cutting pliers do not cut PE very well at
all....do not buy these for cutting PE...the results are very bad. |
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Remember....apply scotch
tape to the PE sheet when cutting smaller pieces to hold them to the sheet as
you cut the attachment tabs....this will keep these pieces from falling into
the carpet or shooting across the room.
When trimming PE try to place
the PE piece away from the tips of the scissors blades and more towards the
pin holding the scissors blades together.
Happy Cutting!!!
Steve Bamford
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