1/72 gato & Eduard PE ?

Wow, you have your hands full.  3 very different subjects and all with different PE techniques.

Gato - I would imagine you would want to fair in the PE to where it meets the plastic.  In other words shave out about the thickness of the PE so it matches up cleanly against the remaining plastic on the hull.  That would be for the hinge plates on the sides.  That said pay attention to Eduard's instructions.  This could create some issues on top that I haven't thought of.  I haven't thought about the best adhesive to use.  CA could be too messy.  When it comes to PE I like adhesives that are more forgiving.  White glue may be just the ticket.  The nice thing is that if you don't like the result you can start over.  The other nice thing is that you can mop up any extra glue without messing up your PE.  Another possibility is to use Alene's Tacky Glue (basically a faster and stickyer white glue) to tack it in place and then go back and work CA in for added strength.  I'd be interested to hear what you decide to do and how successful it turns out. 

Missouri - That's a whole different animal.  Lots of little stuff.  I would suggest getting your hands on a good bending tool if you don't have one already.  If you need more information on that let us know.  Mission Models has one and The Small Shop has a product called the Hold and Fold which I prefer.  You definately want to use white glue here.  Elmers is the best.  The advantage to white glue is that it shrinks, holds well, and as stated before can be mopped up for a nice clean finish.  If you're concerned you can go back in and add thin CA for added strength.  But it shouldn't be necessary.  For the radar and such I highly recommend the Alene's Tacky Glue.  The advantage is the same as white glue except that it grabs hold quicker than Elmers.  I also recommend painting your PE before applying.

Panther G - Armor guys like solder.  I use solder as well for certain things. 

You'll know PE much better after these three projects!  Let us know if you have any questions.  There's certainly more detail to be shared than I've provided here.

Dave 

thanks for helping to shorten the learning curve!!  Ive been building planes my whole life....now ive got a sub, a bb-63 and a Panther G all going at once, all with PE !  Its been sort of a rebirth into modeling for me. The tech has changed so much in the quality detail and complexity of the kits.....I guess Im old enough to have witnessed the evolution of them so to speak...thanks for your help.

If you have issues bending the PE try annealing hold it over an open flame till  it turns colors this should make it easyier to bend parts just dont do this to eduards zoom pe it is alraedt painted and would ruin the painted PE. hope this helps out.

Rob

  thanks Dave,  Ron here.  I will be glad to keep you updated.  I spent about an hour today fittting  out the forward deck sections and should glue them in tomm.  This is my first experience with PE....I figured the big pieces would be easier to work with and work my way down to the small stuff.  It is a little harder than I thought it would be...mostly due to the fragile nature and unforgivin nature of the stuff..but Im takn it slow and hope the end result will be worth posting a pic or two.

The "fuselage hinge plates" are designed to attach directly to the existing plastic.  I have this kit and to be honest haven't spent enough time deciding how I'm going to approach this.  At first blush I would imagine that I'll do something around the flood holes and where it matches the plastic at the bow area and stern area.  If you were to remove all that plastic you would have to rebuild it extensively to have enough support for all that PE.  It may be easier to remove small amounts where you have visibility and back it up with support.  Also be careful about what you do under there because it can be very visible at this scale.

The instructions for the "floor plates" are pretty clear.  There you remove the plastic and rebuild the deck support.  You'll need all that plastic on the side of the hull to support all those plastic braces you'll be adding. 

By the way, the people at Eduard are very good about answering email and helping us.  Their web site also supports all their instructions which you can down load.  I love this feature.  Here's their web site.

http://www.eduard.cz/

Please post your progress.  I'd love to see how your project goes and I don't recall seeing anyone posting anything with this set yet.

Dave