Tool & Die Maker needed for 1:100 scale restoration

[cabin_class]

Greetings - I am looking forward to benefitting from the many resources and vast knowledge base in this forum!

I have recently acquired a 1:100 scale model of the Norddeutscher Lloyd express steamer Kronprinzessin Cecilie. This model was built for the steamship company circa 1906 by the Fleischmann Toy Company of Nuremburg. She is in need of major restoration, and I am having difficulty with one detail specifically: her hull and superstructure are decorated with portholes and windows of thin stamped brass - approximately .005". The ports are not open at center - that is, they are not just frames but are thin disks with raised rims - the "glass" area being hand-painted and then affixed to the hull/bulkheads with cement. There are three shapes used: a round porthole, a rectangular window and an arched window. The portholes measure .25" in diameter, the windows are slightly larger. Thankfully, a number of the original parts survived so samples are available. I am looking for a tool and die maker who can produce both the blanking and stamping tools to reproduce these items. I have found that the quantity required (just over 1,000 pieces total) is too small for a big-time tool & die company to consider taking on this project. I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who might be able to offer assistance, either with a resource for short-run stampings, or perhaps a home craftsman who has the skills to tackle the job as well as the interest in the restoration of this historically important model, of which only three or four are known to exist world-wide.

[Timmy C]

It sounds to me like you can make them out of photo-etched brass/metal. Have you looked into that option? Relief-etched brass would be able to replicate the disk-with-a-rim quite well.