Metal Earth: a humiliating confession

Hi ;

 Smee Agin ! I got to thinking about this very carefully . I realized another problem with " Metal Earth products . Can you say Orthographic Projection ( Perspective ) ?

       These and some P.E. I know of have directions that sometimes can confuse a builder .Why ? Well , they project say , a three Quarter view of the part in place .

 Sometimes it's color coded sometimes not. This then requires an ability to mentally picture the product at this assembly point and the parts relationship there .

 No , I do not recommend these , for those who didn't pay attention in art or engineering related classes .    T.B.

What was the name of that book about the French Indochina War?

Oh, yeah, Hell in a Very Small Place. I have found that with these Metal Earth kits.

Hey , Mfsob ;

   Listen here , I didn't know about that book . As to " Metal earth " Time is the ruler here . Take the time and read the instructions ten times if you want . Then do the step described once .

 But really , I feel they are a good primer for anyone getting into P.E. . As I said if you can do one , then P.E. will be a lot easier .

 The antennas on gun directors in 1/96 for example are no easy task . Even harder in 1/350 . So there you have it .The simplest  "Metal Earth " kit will help train the eyes ( no matter how bad or good ) and hands in this small metal bending world .

  One important thing I picked up on .The blade you use , ( if you choose to use one ) to remove the parts should be gone over with a Black magic marker . This way you get closer to the sprue when you cut the part off .You can see where you are putting the blade !

    I recommend the same technique with the P.E. Scissors ( which I really don't care for ). I use a cheap pair of " Jewelers " cutters with one absolutely flat face and modify them for P.E. ( narrow the tips from top to bottom .) These are much better for the kits .

 The P.E. Scissors require a cut at a shallow angle into a tight space . The cutters I modify and use can go in at 90 Degrees to the part. Keeping them sharp is no problem either .  T.B.         P.S. Before I get into an intense P.E. part session , I do a  "Metal Earth " kit to warm up these old arthritic hands . It works !

The metal earth kits seem to be stainless steel PE.  I find that much harder to cut than the brass.  I can usually deal with the brass stuff okay, but sure struggle with the s.s. stuff.  I worry about it dulling my knife blades and Xuron cutter quickly.

Don ;

  That's why I bought the jewelry cutters . It cuts stainless fine And works well with most wire rod in brass up to .010 .Stainless a little smaller . On the stainless I do a light annealing . That seems to help .

    Of course you can't do that to the M.E. parts . So this cutter with it's perfectly flat surface on one side cannot be beat . They have light orchid colored handles and are available at Hobby - Lobby !     T.B. 

Someone mentioned problems with curved pieces.  I have done three airplanes and I found I could get a nice symetrical fuselage by curving the piece around a drill.

I'm just getting back into modeling after 20 or so years so I was looking at the Metal Earth kits as a good training ground for PE.

I enjoy them. I have a LEM and a USS Arizona to do yet.  I helped my daughter with an Eiffel Tower. I don't think any of them took more than two hours. 

Yes;

     I found that if I carefully curve the parts or shape them on foam ( a nose cone or such ) .They come out okay . My Chinook has ALL the right shapes in the surfaces .Wasn't any harder than P.E.

Yeah !

 For years after Nam I had a strange vision problem . I would look at an instruction sheet and something seemed off .Turns out the left eye was not seeing in the right way . Some kind of nerve thing .A little time at the eye surgeon's fixed that . Now I am only partly confused . LOL.LOL.  T.B.     P.S. Guess the gord got rattled too many times LOL.LOL.

I think, after careful reconsideration, and the fact that I just spent about 2 hours completing ONE engine for their B-17 kit, I'm sticking to my original observation - Metal Earth kits are hell in a very small, albeit stainless steel, place.

Yeah They are !

 Now that said , They will definitely prepare you for Most Photoetched kits including EDUARD and BIG ED  , Which have a lot of stainless in them . T.B.  I found this out with the 1/350 ALABAMA kit .

Did their Huey for a bud who was a crew chief/doorgunner on one back in the day.  Decent little thing that went together well.  Have the Arizona, and not ready to attempt her quite yet.

I always buy these things at Hobby Lobby using the app. It has a 40% off coupon every week. I hope this helps!

One problem is that forming sheet metal into compound curves is quite difficult, especially a hard stainless.  One can tell by looking at pictures of them that many subjects do not lend themselves well to PE contstruction.

I have bought two construction vehicles, an excavator and a bulldozer.  These, especially the dozer, have few panels where the prototype has a compound curve (curves in two dimensions).  I think I can make pretty good models from these with a bit of extra detailing. 

I think a model of one of the new stealth destroyers with faceted surfaces would work well.

Don,

  I have done a few. I found they were not good choices as gifts for my Oldest Grandchild to build. He is now the Reciprient of a Tiger I, Millenium Falcon, and AT-AT Walker.

     I found it was good practice for learning patience and forming metal. And, they actually look quite good in a Decorative sort of way. When I had them at my house visitors took note of them more so then my wifes' Precious Moments figures.

       Jim.