Photo Etched parts; brand name...or?

[Saturnine]

Hi I recently purchased a Tamiya Nissan Skyline R34 GTR Z-Tune, and wanted to buy the matching set of photo-etched parts. There are 2 sets i'm looking at. One is made by Tamiya themselves and the other is made by Crazy Modeler. My question is; Is there a noticable difference in quality between the two? I would assume Tamiya to be far better. And a final question...what exaclty are photo-etched parts? Are they just very detailed parts cut out of thin sheet metal? Thanks for the help...this is a great forum.

[chris coller]

Go with the Crazy Modeler set. I find Tamiya photo etch is thick and certain aspects lack detail. The Crazy Modeler has more detail and probably morwe detail parts per fret. The set I got for my FXX was 5 frets for like $33 or something like that. The only thing with the Crazy Modeler is the brake rotors are a bit thick but they are like 6 or 8 piece disc brakes. Just my take. Hope this is useful.

[CAL]

I agree, generally the AM PE is far better than Tamiya. The do excellent kits but fall down on their face when it comes to PE.

Photo Etching is a a photo etching process that in real basic terms is you start with plate mask part of it off with "resist" a photo-chemical expose, wash off, the area to be etched, dip it in an acid bath to etch away the unwanted material - you can do double etchs to get surface detail. same idea, more compex because you are doing everything twice.

If you ever want to know the nitty gritty of PE ask and I will tell you. I have done some custom PE at home. It is a big PITA, but over all not that hard. Just a lot of steps make a fret.

Edited January 2, 2009 by CAL

[Dodge Driver]

Ancient thread here, but identical topic- Anyone have more feedback on the Crazy Modeler PE set mentioned in the original post?

I'd appreciate any info anyone can add.

I imagine this topic belongs in the Aftermarket section, moderators.