Look at this splendor, this is French ironclad Masséna.
Really i don't give a toss about French military stuff, I prefer modeling Russian, buit it's been a while I wanted to model this boat.
Of course, 1/35 i won't be able to model *the whole* of the boat. But believe me, if I succeed this one, it should be dreamy as Koktebel, rusted like Sokol, Grand like Archangel and Tsushima.
In other words, I start a huge project :)
Seddul-Bahr diorama (unfinished for now)
I *think* that during all those weeks of trying, I managed to streamline the photetching making process. more on this soon.
Anyway, here's a ravaged looking photoetch set that I left too much in the acid. Why? hey, i needed it to be really very rusty looking, And I think i managed!
So here are the different parts after cleaning and trimming -the rest is some rivet plates that will be fixed here and there.
Now here are the parts as glued on the lower part of the hull!
Notice the porthole that i rougly cut in the plastic, then I inserted a plastic tube so that the shape would be perfect.
Now the mastic part, soon it will be sanded and I will add the lower part of the rusted metal plates
Still working with the photoetch plates; here are 4 that will be part of the hull, including the small one which is designed for the portholes.
So the point of those pics is to show basically what i do and to present -vaguely for the moment- the devices I have been building.
The red thing is the etch tank done out of a morning chocolate box, which is pierced and plugged to an aquarium air pump.
I take the fret between 2 wooden bits and secure the whole in a strong clamp (If i were to dip the clamp in the ferous oxyde, the metal parts would be attacked by the acid)
After 5 mn of this treatment, you notice that the parts of the plate which were developped begin to turn black
Depending on the amount of clogging of the acid, the first holes may appear after 15 mn -or way more, just check every 5 mn to be sure.
*be careful* of not dropping any acid on your floor or clothes or those are ruined!
Here it is completely finished. this is actually the double of the one I used for the lower hull. i needed a second one so that i could cut bits from it to put on the down side of the hull.
I start working on the detailing this part of the hull thios evening!
