Annealing Photoetch

[Andrew Maverick Taylor]

Hi all.

I have been using photoetch more and more of late and have come across other modellers who are now using the technique of Annealing their photoetch to shape them and look more authentic such as o seat belts and munition belts. The technique of annealing involves heating a material to change it's molecular properties to make it more ductile and therefore more workable, so in the case of PE, simply passing the PE through a flame from a candle or cigarette lighter should do the trick according to what I have seen.

What I would like to know from anyone who has tried this technique, does this method work on PE such as Eduard's pre-coloured and Fabric look sets without damaging the colours or look of their fabric styles?

Cheers from NZ

Andrew

[I.Illes]

Heat will cause the paint to come off as the metal will expand, the paint will most likely melt or flake off. It's not how slowly you will heat it up, but the temperature itself that you need to reach.

I'd say try to gently bend your parts around brush grips or pens if you don't have specialized tools.

Edited November 17, 2014 by I.Illes

[ChippyWho]

Funnily enough, the harness parts of Eduard sets are about the only things I never use now. The pre-coloured ones are usually rather strange colours, and I cannot get them to 'drape' convincingly, annealed or no. Cut off the Eduard fasteners/adjusters and use them in conjunction with narrow masking tape (jammydog.com supply various tiny widths in regular or PVC lo-tack varieties). AIRES p/e harnesses seem to work better and are wonderfully detailed, but you have to buy the whole resin deal to get them, of course.

Anything else that needs annealing can be done with a ciggie lighter or tea light flame.

[GEH737]

Fine Molds makes some awesome seat harness sets in different scales - and they are posable to a reasonable extent.

Here's a picture of them in my recently finished 1/32 Tamiya Corsair. Not the best image - but you get the point.

And the finished plane;

[11bee]

Annealing works but you need to be careful. If the part is thin and you heat it too long, you can melt it.

I found this out the hard way.

[compressorman]

Wow, that paint job on the Corsair is fabulous!!

Chris