Homemade Photoetch

So that was some three weeks worth of "work" then, the 4 first meters of that small ship are finally completed. I have no real time to feed t-hat blog properly, so here are some of the steps I used in order to build all the accessories. few text, loads of pictures.

So this starts with homemade photoetch. I only had a few bits of brass left -and then my French online mail order is sluggish to get the stuff delivered, so I had to rely a lot on some of the leftovers from previous dioramas I carefuly store. Anyway, I could still do some of the 47 mm Hotchkiss parts as well as air intake stuff etc.

photo etch homemade

First that air intake. I hate building air intakes, this is very difficult because you have to work out a master in plastc and Magic Sculp, then you have to vacuform it (with the heat of a candle!) and then you have to join and fill the two halves..

Air intake scratchbuilt

here is a bit of soldering, those are the two supports for the side lights. I don't think i will place them on the boat because their shape somewhat hides the gun, and then I have  a reference picture where those had been removed solder

half dried Magic Sculp, evergreen tubing, breech sculpting and trimming, sanding etc, here are some parts of the Hotchkiss 47mm gun parts of the Hotchkiss 47mm gun

Hotchkiss 47mm gun completed! Hotchkiss 47mm gun

Here are all the parts done! Now it's time for gluing those parts for the 1/35 russain PT boat

And here is the thing.. I will post some better pictures showing it primed soonish!

the shape of those torpedoes was okay really, but I soon discovered I would probably be unable to drill some evenly spaced holes at the 2/3 of the length of the thing.

But well I had foressen this and prepared some PE ring (soldered of course) beforehand. So I had to destry the shape in order to insert those metal rings.. Whitehead Torpedoesand then to cover the parts with a fresh layer of Magic Sculp. I let dry and then sanded again.. Whitehead Torpedoes

Then I drilled a few holes around the tail of each of my 3 torpedoes and proceeded to glue each and every blade of the propeller.

Finally I glued in place all the tail bits.. Now I have to sand an extra bit where the superglue overflowed -and I also have to add quite a few details

Now the trick for etching brass is that the etching must be the fastest possible.

That means that the bath musn't be clogged, the Perchlorure de fer (okay, can't remind how to say that in English), it must also be stirred and heated

So in an old aquarium I put 2 liters of the acid, an aquarium heater and air pump and dipped the fret in it.

You can see pretty fast if things go well. look below the parts pop out of the metal

etching

Then when the parts begin to fall apart, better clean everything and get the parts

Rhein gold! finished PE

Let's filter the water, dry the parts and clean them with Acetone so that every trace of the photoresist material can be wiped away.. and time to start the building of the diorama

When i changed my website earlier this year, all of my archives went down the drain. including everything related to Homemade Photoetch. So here is a bit of a reminder associated to my newest project.

Well first let's spend a bit of time on Inkscape or Illustrator (any vector graphic software) drawing this nice plan. Remember, there should be the less white possible because the white parts will be dissolved and you don't need to get your acid bath clogged too early.

Homemade PE -designing the fret with a vector graphic software

I use a regular HP desk lazer printer to printb this drwaing *4 times* on some transparent paper.

print the drawing for homemade photoetch

So why 4 times? that's because the drawing is not opaque enough with one print.

Do some sort of sandwich using some tape, 2 printings on the top of each other, because you're going to insert the brass sheet betwwen each of those 2 coats.

Cut the photoresist coated brass sheet at the right dimensions.

Cut the photreisit coated brass sheet

insert the photoresist coated brass sheet

Here is the sandwhich - Remove the tape protection on each side of the brass and insert the photoresist coated brass sheet betwwen the transparent printings like written a few lines up.

Place your sandwhich on your insulating machine (some special UV neons, plans are everywhere on the internet)

Insulating machine

Then place your brass sheet in the revelant bath (usually it's either sold in a dry form that you dilute in water, or as a concentrated liquid). You can buty this in most electronic shop as it's the same product that is being used to make some printed circuits.

Rememember that the temperature of the bath may be important too. Try not to touch the brass with your fingers and wear some gloves because this is acid and it actually may burn you.

revelant bath

And after a few minutes stirring (you must have a few minutes actually, if you develop the stuff too fast the print can me of a bad quality) you may have this which looks quite good indeed!

printed PE(to be followed..)