Question about painting with PE

[krgf15]

I am new to photo etch, and the main thing I was wondering was, lets say you were doing something like a Japanese Cruiser, would you paint the deck first then mask it and glue the PE on, or do you guys attempt to PE the whole thing and then mask it? Im not even close to ready to tackle
US dazzle schemes with PE yet. Most of my 700 scale models are messes without PE as it is. But im really getting into that scale hardcore, I have about 90 of them right now. But anyway, a little advice would probably go a long way
Thanks
Kelly

[Richard Durham]

Kelly, In short, I paint the ship and then glue on painted photoetch. This allows me to spray paint the photoetch using an air brush before application. Often when I build up the ship superstructure, I add the photoetch between levels because it might be difficult to add the photoetch after another level is added. However, whenever possible, I add the photoetch at the end of the build to prevent damaging the photoetch during building and painting.

I measure/fit and cut the photoetch railing pieces and then hold them using an XACTO Self-Closing Pointed Tweezer and spray paint them. Once the piece is glued to the ship, I very carefully touch up paint the railing.

I attach the photoetch railing using a medium thick superglue (holding the photoetch piece dipping the bottom of the rail in a small pool of the glue and quickly putting it on the ship, hopefully in the right place). Once the railing is in place, I run a bead of thin super glue along where the rail meets the deck using a thin bronze rod to apply the glue.

I find Gold Medal Models Photoetch to be easiest to work with. It is a bit more robust and is less likely to be damaged during application.

I find that I need to use reading glasses or an Optivisor when working with 1/700 photoetch. Rich

[Tom Naylor]

Thanks Rich. I was wondering what techniques other people were using.