Etched Brass

[Katharon]

Hello guys. I need some help regarding etched brass that you can get from FW. How easy is it to use, bend, and is there anything in particular that I should know about painting it?

[DWest]

Etched brass is fairly easy to work with, though clippers and a decently sharp knife are much better than trying to sand any burrs off. I would also recommend having a cutting mat or other type of backing to cut on; the brass bends extremely easy, and while it's very simple to bend back, easier to not bend it in the first place. When trying to glue the brass in place, it's best if you dry fit the piece, mark where it's going to go, then apply superglue and aim to be as precise as possible. Whatever type of finishing FW did to the brass sheet makes the surface very "porous", as far as the glue is concerned, and it sets extremely rapidly. If you're applying FW brass to FW resin, the instant they meet they're joined.

As far as paint goes, the brass takes paint just fine, no special prep, and the brass is hard enough (in a metals sense) that if you have a dremel tool you can use one of the wire wheels to go back and polish the brass later on, if you want the shiny metallic look.

[StraightSilver]

Yeah, basically what DWest said, it does stick very, very quickly with super glue.

So a dry fit is essential, and then getting into place very carefully is essential, so a good pair of tweezers comes in handy.