>>7577874Many tools, here's a few of the tools I use:
1) Sharp tweezers for holding parts and putting them into place.
2) Bending pliers with flat heads for bending etching. Lindstrom makes extremely high quality jewelry pliers which I use, but they're pretty expensive (pic related).
3) Any metal cylinder of various sizes for making curved pieces of photo etch. I end up using drillbits very often for bending small pieces that need curves.
4) a good set of small metal files for shaving off the excess etching after you cut it out.
Also, one of the best tips I can give you is get some instacure super glue that they sell at hobby shops, I use a brand called "bob smith industries). You will want a gap filling medium one, which is slightly thick, but not TOO thick, as well as the super thin one with the blue label. Also, get super fine tip applicators so that you can control the flow on the super thin one better. You use the super thin for areas that you want to essentially be instantly glued, while the medium gap gilling I use by placing some on a piece of aluminum foil, and then taking the photo etch with tweezers and dipping it on the glue and then placing it on the model.
Oh yeah, and another tip is that I cut out all my photo etch on a piece of glass, since it's a flat and hard surface. I use a standard scraping razor that you can buy in packs of 100 at any hardware store to cut the etching out from the fret to minimize the amount of fret left on the etching that I have to sand off.
