The Ship Model Forum

Jim21680 wrote:Good post here, as I will soon be working with PE for the first time as well.

What's a suitable degreaser? Regular dish soap?

Hi Jim.

I use car brake cleaner or circuit board cleaner to degrease my PE. Failing that a good brushing over with acetone will do the job. On larger parts its also worth giving the paint a key using very fine wet and dry or scotchbrite.

Hope this helps.

Good post here, as I will soon be working with PE for the first time as well.

What's a suitable degreaser? Regular dish soap?

Gunze make a Mr Metal primer. It's clear and goes on very nicely and dries immediately. For PE I don't intend to solder, I spray the PE on it's frame before building with it.

You must degrease the parts thoroughly first. If you use Acrylics a primer is a must in my opinion. I admit, I am new to ships but have been building other kits for over 40 years, and have recently got into Brass and PE. Unprimed PE will not stick to the paint, particularly if you need to handle or weather the parts after painting.

Hope this helps....

I've not found it necessary to prime the parts - just needs a few more coats to hide the shine. I use PollyScale acrylics.

Hi all,

Are there any tips for painting brass aftermarket parts? Especially in relation to barrels for modern warships?

I also have some aerials so I'm sure a decent PE type primer would suffice first?

Thanks all

Tony