Dragon 1/700 Kirov with PEB

Ajidica

CapnMac, what do you mean by 'etching primer'?

It's a product more common at an auto parts store.  In a perfect world, you could "scuff" the PE to give it "tooth" using fine emory or similar abrasive.  That's like to grab the parts and bend them.

The self etching primer does this as a paint surface.  It "bites" the surface the least bit, so that your top coat grips the primer which is gripping the metal part.

Now, a person wanting to skip a trip to AutoZone or the like can use Tamiya's metal figure primer, which has some self-etch ability.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

CapnMac, what do you mean by 'etching primer'? I've read that I should give the PEB a quick soak in warm soapy water to help pull off the machining oil, but the ship kit guide by David Griffith doesn't seem to make any particular mention of special primers to use.

Or are you referring to the ability of spray primer to get coverage with less primer blobs and surface tension 'windows' in gaps than brush primer?

Two things I have found invaluable, a small set of jewler's pliers with wide, FLAT blades (no serrations) and a Tamiya diamond needle file, No. 400.

You can get the jewler's pliers in the beading section of the craft store, and the needle file on-line. The pliers are useful for making 90-degree bends in small pieces or bits of railing. The needle file is very good at getting rid of the little nubs after you trim a piece of PE off of its fret.

As for folding, I've had reasonably good luck with NEW single-edged razor blades, one to mark the fold or crease, and the other to bend the PE up against the first blade. The razor blades have always been large enough to handle the biggest PE I've used in my 1/700 ships, but then I usually stick to merchant ships that don't have a lot of radars and aircraft cranes and such.

About that fold sequence-

Loren Perry of Gold Medal Models wrote a book some years ago about using PE.  Lots of good motherhood and apple pie stuff was included, but the one item I have retained was about sequence of folding. 

If you have a four-sided structure to fold (like a crane or lattice mast), the trick is to fold the two outer creases first, than after you have those good 90 degree bends, do the center crease last.  That has worked well for me, even though it doesn't seem intuitive.

Good luck,
Rick Heinbaugh

Add to that... Avoid joining railings at corners. Any time you can make the attachment points not one line, the better. Don't set down long runs of rail. Look at photos; rails are always interupted by gaps for bits, cable reels, gun tubs, accom. ladder landings, davits, you name it.

Try setting them with Elmers in several spots, when dry go back and run CA along the join. 

Make a CA app. tool by taking a decent sized sewing needle, chopping off the top at mid-eye to make a forkie looking thing. Dip into a spot of CA on a piece of tape away from where you put your elbows and bleed the CA along the part.

Yes his Admiralcy is correct- fold sequences can get difficult even for us visually minded folks. I have on occasion made an enlarged photo copy of a part, cut it out and practiced with it.

A lot of PE is pretty much unusable, GMM, Tom's and Eduard being notable exceptions.

Bill

Glue?  A little bit of everything, actually. 

If parts have a good mechanical fit (slots, tabs, pins, etc.) then Super thin is handy.

Flat parts on flat surfaces might want (regular) Thin.

Things with sloppy fit, or with tricky alignment will want a medium to thick/gel.

Now, for attaching sompleted assemblies to finished/painted surfaces, PVA (Mig Super Tack for one) has much to recommend it.  Many folks swear by PVA fro attching trailings (I'm 50/50 swearing by/swaering at)

As to paint, that's always a personal preference--doubly or triply so at 1/700, where the masking/unmasking could be an entire week at microscope scale.

Now, the brass, to my experience will benefit from an "etching" primer, and at 1/700 you need a light, light, touch.  Which suggests spraying.

The brass is often incredibly delicate, so any washing you do it it more about dipping and blotting rather than a rub or sccrub down.  So, chemical reactions are often a key to success (having an entire coat of paint slough off a part that just glued down perfectly is disheartening).

As to tools, there is wide range of personal preference.  Many subscribe to just using two single-edge matt knife blades.  Let me put 2¢ for Tamiya's Bending Pliers, they have two sizes/shapes; ith are well worth the price.

Usually the biggest hurdle with PE is getting used to working out the order of the bending.

Make sure you have your references handy before getting the paint out.  Dragon's color callouts are less imaginary than Trumpeter's, but are not always the best.  You will likely have to select, early, where/when to depict Kirov.  The Soviet Navy changed which deck bits were in their russet reddish color.  From potentially bad memory Kirov sailed with both no boot stripe and with a white one.  The four Soviet Fleets each had their wn paint schemes, too.  The radars and sensors were seen in a gunmetal as well as black color.  So, you need reference materials to decide.

Hope that helps any.

Oh, and do not neglect looking up builds on youtube.