Don't feel alone out there.....I tend to purchase the PE stuff for kits, and then feel I have to use it and justify the $$$$ spent on it.  Then I sit there and try to figure out why I'm frustrated with it.  May use some pieces and scrap the rest, or just give up on it, and "shelf of doom" the whole project.

It's even worse when the PE is included in the kit, ie. Dragon's 1/350 Scharnhorst, that has several frets of the blasted stuff that you almost have to use because the styrene pieces have been replaced with it.

Same issues here. Im about to the point were Im just going to stop buying/using it unless the kit comes with it. 

I stopped using PE ten years ago.  I started using the stuff way back when it first appeared in the 1980's.  One my best friends designs and sells the stuff, so I built a lot of it.  I have never really got into the stuff.  Yes it has it place, but it takes the relaxtion out of plastic model building.  Oh, I still use PE flat screens, simple things.  I still have tons of the stuff around.  Maybe I will try again some time.

Yes, flat screens and things like that are okay, but I've never had a PE Sherman brush guard turn out properly, and I always end up using the plastic, no matter how thick it is.

In the Modelcollect 1/72 armour range, I've found that their earliest kits lack detail, and often have poorly moulded vinyl tracks, while their latest kits have excellent link-and-length tracks, but way too much PE. The sweet spot are their mid-production kits.

Case in point: I built one of their T-64 kits, which had plastic headlight guards. Didn't look too bad. Later I'm building a recently porduced T-80 kit. The same patern of guards were included as PE parts (and only as PE). One piece had to be bended to shape, glued to a flat PE piece (this is 1/72 scale, you understand), then added to the tank. After gluing it to my fingers four times, it finally broke, and I had to swipe parts from another kit. Who needs this frustration?

Seatbelts with the buckles already attached, IPs, rudder pedals and some placards are usually the only PE that I use. There is quite a bit of it located all around the workroom that I will never be able to find so why should I try to add more.

Jim  

Roger all that!  Once you paint over it, you really can't see it unless you know where to look.  I have completed builds on the shelf, where I have forgotten where the PE stuff is.  Basically, an aggravation and waste of time for me.

I'm not a fan of PE for aircraft, but it is a big thing for ships.

I strongly dislike the stuff, too.  For most applications, well molded styrene looks just as good.  

I swear a lot when I do use it.

As someone said, well molded plastic parts can look just as good as PE and without the potential trouble. My problem is the super small parts necessary to build a larger piece that doesn't have a corresponding plastic part so you have no choice but to try to make it. Not that long ago PE was optional. You could use a plastic part or replace it with PE but not anymore. It certainly has it's places such as ships railings and screens and the like. I no longer buy exrtra PE as I once did.

Never have tried it and don't see a need to add that frustration into the mix.

I'm using PE that came with a Scammell kit from IBG Poland. True; it's fiddly but this one is not very thin and bends nicely. I didn't go out of my way to find PE but it has turned up recently in the kits I've bought and I'm liking the small detail and delicate manipulation involved. 

Joe

PE is a whole new animal.  It lures you in with the false sense of security thinking its just a bunch of tiny parts that will go together like the rest of the kit, but NOT!  It will tease you and drive you to the brink if you don't prepare for it.

PE requires a learning curve due to the complexity of the parts, the thickness and quality of the material,and knowing which type of adhesive to use.  

I hated it, just like I hated sheet metal shop, until I started actully learning how to use it, now I'm addicted to it to the point I have been enjoying building in 1/700 scale with it.  

The key is to pre-plan the assembly. Its exactly like fabricating a bunch of sheet metal parts that you bend then weld them together, only Flea size.

You need to plan how to hold the part, whether its with a pair of tweezers, you make a jig, or use a PE bending tool, then figure out which type of adhesive to use based on how strong the bond needs to be and how complex the assembly is, CA?  thin, thick or gel?  or will white glue be strong enough?  I have also found through research to use glue stick, ticky tac, double sided tape and modelers clay to hold parts in place either permamently or just during assembly.   

Ditto to Cdn Colin. My wife says she knows when I'm using PE parts. She hears strange words that she doesn't usually hear coming from the loft. She says the classical music I listen to doesn't even cover it up. Soooooooo, when I take a break and go down for another cup of coffee, I usually give her the "Sorry about the language dear". Her reply is "Don't let it become a habit, OK".

Jim  

Glad I'm not the only one, lol.  Only reason I'm even doing PE on this build and Mini MMB is because I'm making them as detailed as possible.  I've worked and flown on both aircraft, so they need to be as close as I can possibly stand to accurate.  I had a hell of a time with the flaps on the first Mini W7, but they looked real nice when it was completed.  A lot of times when she's sitting static the flaps are left down for people to have a look at them, so I had to stick true to that.  Silly me.

I managed to complete 2 sections last night, only 6 more to go.    You have to build the inner portion and the flaps themselves, which are in 4 sections, 8 pieces total.  Shoot me now.

fox

 Soooooooo, when I take a break and go down for another cup of coffee, I usually give her the "Sorry about the language dear". Her reply is "Don't let it become a habit, OK".

Jim  

 

One big problem I have with working with PE is coffee and cussing.  I seem to drink coffee, work on PE, followed by the cussing.  It should be in the order of work on PE, then drink the coffee, and then maybe I wouldn't feel the need to cuss.

Being pumped up on a caffeine high, then expect to sit for an hour doing something that requires concentration and fine motor skills is not a best thing to be doing, but I do it anyway.  

Two things.

First, get really good tweezers.  There has been a thread in the tools forum recently about a set of tweezers from a company called Pixer.  They are really nice, and pretty reasonable price too. I have used them for about two years now.  I will not say I have never launced a tiny piece with one, but certainly far less than any other set I own.  They are very stiff in the direction perpendicular to the direction you squeeze, so it is very hard to get the points to mismatch, which is the primary reason for launching parts.  Amazon sells them.  Check out the thread in the tools forum for last week or early this week.

Second, my 81 year-old fingers are getting tremors.  I have found something that helps.  Do not try to do fine work with your hands cantilevered out from the shoulders.  You need to have both hands in touch with a common object.  Even the fingers of each hand not being used to hold a part, and keep those unused fingers touching each other.

.....why do I do this to myself?!

 For me..... if it comes with the kit; because it's there.

I greatly dislike the stuff at this point as I'm getting older.  I built the Tamiya Famo with trailer and had the Aber sets.  I honestly don't know how a human being could build many of those  components in those sets.   I doubt there are ten modelers in the world that could, and five of them probably work at Aber.   If you are familiar with those Aber sets you know what I'm talking about.

I built Tamiya's 1/350th Big E many years ago with the GMM parts and that was a LOT of work.

Fast forward to my building the big Revell QM2 and those railings are molded in very fine styrene.  So it is possible with todays technology to do that.

I'm next building the Rye Field models M1A2 Tusk II and their M1240, and I'm not looking forward to the P/E at all.  I would much rather have the parts in styrene.

Thanks for the tips Don! 

Hopefully once these flaps are done I'll be a bit better at working with PE.  The second set did go a bit better than the first.  I should be attempting to tackle the rest of it later on today. 

Being a real newb at modelling (decided to return after a years long break), i'm glad I have read everything you fellers have shared, with your struggles with pe. I'm going to steer clear of it, even thou i'm going to be doing sci-fi. Thank you all for sharing .

Willy