One special note here concerns the strips that often circle many parts of the guns (especially the 37mm that I wrote about earlier but also some special parts of the 75mm). It’s been a lot of time I gave up cutting them out of plastic. First i never enjoyed to have to sand the stuff after cutting it because the action of cutting would produce a thin line of extra material around the cut as anyone knows. And then, when you glue the plastic around a round piece, you better be careful or you glue your own fingers as the elasticity of the plastic leads your part to straighten. So now when Ii have such job to do I use semi hardened Magic Sculp. It’s very easy to cut when half dry, it retains its straight angles and doesn’t have the plastic’s elasticity which makes it a lot easier to glue.
Of course to seal the different parts together, I use some Tamiya mastic.
Now it was time to add the last details -mostly stuff picked on some old photoetch sets as well as some lead foil cut from a wine bottle top. I choose to ignore the sighting system because I couldn't understand any of my plans at this particular place.
No problem. As the boat is a wreck I guess the priciest stuff would have been scavenged. I also liked the look of the gun like it was, just some tube with some stuff underneath.  The riveting was done by using some Grant line like rivets which were offered to me as a gift which is certainly something i won’t forget tomorrow. (pic 9)

The model making nerd

I work as a programmer, internet caretaker on daytime, and sometimes at nightfall when I reach my pliers and brushes and do a somewhat rough action on my dioramas I scream "Ctrl+ Z, Ctrl+ Z!!" that's it, there is no undo commands when you do dioramas.
On the top of this I always wondered how my knowledge in computer graphics could help me doing those things.
A few years ago, I tried to use a graphic software to draw plans, and even 3d softwares to simulate some proportions, but I quickly realized I was spending way too much time in doing this, and that cutting bits of cardboard and maintaining them with blue tack was an easier option.
But I always kept in a corner of my mind that there must be a way to apply that knowledge to my dioramas especially because I am that kind of scratchbuilder that I don't really like cutting plastic, and the idea of letting some devices doing this tedious job for me was certainly appealing. And then I found it!
Last year when doing my Izmail torpedoboat, I was pissed to have to spend quite a few euros to buy a small photoetch grid so that I could do the gun cradle. Then i realized that the pattern of the holes was not the right one and on the top of this, the grid was not big enough and I had to cobble up the whole with leftovers so that I could cover the entire surface.
After a few hours spent on this I took an oath never being swindled this way anymore and that as long as I was ready to build by myself every element in my dioramas, photoetch should be included in that oath.
So I basically spent the following year looking on and of at "how to do homemade photoetch".
I discovered that the main difficulty was indeed to design the fret.
Once everything is drawn, the rest is either a question of big bucks if you want to buy some good quality material, or if you want to play it cheapo a question of being very wise. I tried to comply with the second option with more or less success because wise I ain't.

I used to have a teacher at high school that made a big difference between succeeding his failings and failing his failings. I can say my first attempts at homemade photoetch where of the latter.
Last June saw me trying to succeed my fret almost every day and failing every time miserably to the point of not believing in it anymore until I tried something new which then succeeded. So I will try in the following lines to tell roughly what you should do and the different pits in which I fell down.

First, I had to understand the whole thing of homemade photoetching. You have to find a way to print a black scheme on some copper, dip the tinted copper in some FeCL3 bath, and the acid will basically attack the metal where it wasn't tainted.
Most of the material can be found at okay prices in electronic shops as this method is also used to create printed circuits.

The first step was not really hard to do as far as I was concerned. I used some graphic software to draw all the pieces I were about to need. (pic 10)
Those included the holed plate under the gun but also the side plates, stanchion supports, supports for the gun cradle, funnel’s parts, access ladders etc.
The thing you have to remind is that the less metal the acid will have to bite, the less your acid will be clogged. Which means you will be able to use it several times afterwards.
So I absolutely crammed the drawing of the fret with various wheels and stuff I could need for later.
Of course I used some pen kind of instruments available in the software to tie each piece to every one in order for these not to fall in the acid when they would be etched enough. I then put some big side borders because you have to be able to handle the fret between the different operations.

When it was done, I used a laser black and white printer to print the future fret and went to a photocopy shop to get 2 exes done on transparent celluloid (I know there is some special transparent paper available directly for the printer too but those don’t come any cheaper).

Now the thing you are supposed to do is to spray a small metal fret (copper or brass, 0,02 inch thick) with a photoresistant spray on both sides and then to expose the metal covered with your celluloid sheet to the rays of the sun for a few minutes each side. Then to go in a dark room to dip the metal fret in a revelant bath until the pattern you want to revel comes in.
That’s the bloody theory, the very same as if you were about to develop your films by yourself. It certainly works for printed circuits maybe because you can afford getting a dirty job but not when it comes to model making.
I just couldn’t manage to spray evenly the metal –and then as the photoresistant  takes several hours to get dry, the single grain of dust falling on the fret would attract the liquid and therefore completely spoil the whole job.
I tried several weeks like this, getting more or less bad results, which led invariably to some Frankenstein like bits once I dipped them into the acid until I took the decision to buy some special recto verso photoresistant brass that is sold on railroad modelling mail-order shops.
The stuff comes as a fret covered on each side by an opaque plastic film and is not so cheap.

The following step would then to expose the fret under the light of the sun with your pattern as a screen for a few minutes so that the photoresistant material is getting activated. I used the simple trick as to take the fret in sandwich between my 2 celluloid sheets and to actually use superglue to attach the fret to the celluloid –this way I was pretty sure that the 2 sides of the fret would be corresponding. Now the problem is “How many exposition time”? I have been reading 2,30mn under full sun.
Duh and what about winter sun?!
I let 4 minutes each side under French June sun and it worked, up to you to work this out.. (pic 10)

Well, the problem is that there is no sign your fret is supposed to be ready until you developed the stuff... (pic 11)
Anyway, you have to go in a dark room (because your fret will still be sensible to light until it’s being fully developed!) to use a plastic container (I used the kind of things you put under plants) and then to mix the right amount of water and developer (refer to the documentation). The problem is that the mix should be at a temperature of 25°C to really work, and be constantly agitated. Once I used a too hot mix and I saw the pattern develop extremely fast and then dissolve completely. So you have to be careful and find a way to use the right temperature.
Just agitate the liquid gently and then you will see your pattern appear. When it does, just wash the fret under clear water to stop the developing process.
Then dip the fret in your acid.
And be very patient. I know there are some way to speed the process using very aggressive chemicals but those may be very dangerous so I won’t cover them. Just let a few hours and try to agitate the acid regularly so that it bites the metal okay and there it will work..
I suceeded the first fret on my first try once I had buy this already photoresistant brass sheet.
I tried to do another fret a week later and somehow did one failure or two but those proved fantastic to model some rusted parts. (pic 12)

Building the Sokol underwater and over water.

Compared to what I went through, building the rest of the Sokol looked like dumb modelmaking as most of the important parts where already done.
You may notice that I built as different parts both the emerged and underwater parts of the Sokol and there is a good reason why: polyester resin –or actually most of the stuff you may use to create water- actually retracts while drying which produces some completely unrealistic effects if the water is supposed to be still. So I thought that if I were about to actually embed the parts of the boat that are supposed to be underwater inside a mould, I would just have to glue the emerged parts on some perfectly smooth surface. I choose to embed 3cm of boat underwater. (pic 13)
So here I was again, gluing and cutting some plastic, sanding and applying mastic. I bent the photoetch sides of the gun cradle, glued the different stanchions holders, and made the ladders by gluing all the different parts I had created on the photoetch fret. The funnel was created out of very thin plasticard so that it could deform easily under the fingers which would lead the whole to look pretty worn out. (pic 14 -15 -17)