Photo-etched sets aren’t for everyone. You either love them, hate them, or hate them but use them anyway while the wife hides the kids in the other room till the language returns to PGR levels. Those in the third category obviously have some sort of hidden maschoistic tendancies. I tend to be in that latter category.
It isn’t really that I hate fine detailing, quite the opposite, I love it, but working with some of those fiddly little bits is only something I can endure so long as at the end the sense of self-satisfaction at the result makes it all seem worthwhile. In that regards I think of it like childbirth must be for women, in that while they’re actually doing it they’re all “I’m never doing this again and I hate you” but afterwards when they see the result they’re all “oh isn’t it cute, let’s have another”.
I tend to only resort to photo-etched sets when I can’t build something myself, and I have been known to use some parts of a photo etched set simply as a template for building the same part out of paper or plasicard. To be honest I find a great level of satisfaction in being able to scratchbuild the detail myself but often times the photo-etch is handy for showing what needs replacing and how it should look.
Let’s be honest here, photo etch sets do for the most part provide a step up in the level of detail in any kit, simply because there are just some things that cannot be easily made in plastic, or are in fact impossible to make in plastic. Though mould technology increasingly gets better and better, negating some of the photo etch requirements of kits from last century.
Though of course that ignores the fact that some PE sets provide parts that don’t actually improve on the original part. And I won’t point any fingers here but there are a lot of Photo-etch sets that do seem somewhat “padded out” having a lot of parts that really just aren’t necessary as they don’t really improve anything, on rare occasions even looking worse than the original, due to the two-dimentionality of most PE frets.
Then at the other extreme there are the uber PE sets that seem to be more a case of adding some kit parts to the PE set rather than the other way around. The cost of these usually being two to three, or even more, times that of the base kit. Which makes you wonder why they don’t just include the whole lot in one box.
Maybe that’s where we are heading. As kits get better it does seem the PE manufacturers are targetting even finer and finer detail. We now have PE sets that are attached to backings so there are no sprue attachment points, and we are also now seeing the likes of the Kamizukuri laser cut paper sets which add a third dimention to detail kits. So as kits get better will PE sets continue to get finer ?
Perhaps the next stage will be prefolded and preformed PE sets for those willing to pay that premium, because after all the breaking point in PE development, or any AM part for that matter, is the selling point. If it sells it will be made, simple as that, if there’s a demand, someone will fill it. Even if it’s just some chinese factory that uses a conveyer belt of workers to preform PE into ready to use pieces to save us all the pain of trying to make .50 cal ammo belts with working links.
I can forsee a time when all that will be left to make will be a completely stripable engine complete with piston rings. When that time comes I may have to call it quits though, I can only combine so many glasses and magnifying stands to be able to see what I’m doing and I can see trying to add 9mm ammo into a PE formed MP40 mag as being the straw that finally pops my eyeballs out of my sockets.
But I do envy the younger builders if that’s where the evolution of modelling leads. At least I think I do. Perhaps I just envy their eyesight. I do hate PE, but I do love the results. Would I like it all done for me and delivered ready to add ? Sometimes yes, but sometimes the fun of the build is in doing it yourself. Sometimes you don’t remember that till you take a $10 Italeri Schwimmwagen and invest 100 hours into detailing it to death. Would I have prefered to have all that detail come ready in a box that took only 30 minutes to attach ? I don’t honestly know, there is a huge degree of satisfaction in a job well done,and done by your own fingers.
Maybe I really am a masochist.
