When to apply PE?

Thanks for the reply. I was surfing a couple of the more prominent ship sites last night and found a couple "tips columns" on PE that convinced me to get after it. I was already considering .009 piano wire/guitar strings for pre drilled posts around the decks to attach the railings. Unfortunately, in my bliss of finding a pretty good Naval Modern Photo Reference book, I forgot to pick up a protractor to mark the decks and hull while it's still in an unassembled state. I really have a hard time leaving a kit alone, once I've started on a "mission". "Patience Grasshopper..."

For me, it depends upon the ship...I will usually paint the hull first, paint the rails a corresponding color, then attach.

I will usually use a super fine glue tip (made from the tube of a Windex bottle, and stretched like sprue) to place a bead of glue along hte interior deck/rail edge. Once that's dried, I will go back with an artist's liner brush (verrry long bristles, used to paint pinstripes, etc) and clean up the area. Once that's done, a coat of clear flat.

There are times when I will apply PE rails during the construction process, a perfect example is my 1/700 Chokai bridge area. This is usually reserved for places that would be very tough to reach once the model is assembled.

If you have a specific example (ie., bridge structure on a Fletcher) I'll be glad to help out.

Regards,

Jeff Herne