Scissors to cut PE

Like many of you....I have a seriously stupid obsession with Photo Etch....and I have the fine folks at Verlinden to "thank" for getting me started in this PE addiction with a 1/48 BF-109 E Super Detail set I bought from them years ago when I was doing my first kit upon re-entering the hobby. Now Eduard PE goes into many of the kits I build.

I quickly learned that cutting PE with an X-Acto knife was a good start to get the PE piece off the PE sheet....but trimming the PE piece was impossible with an X-Acto knife. I tried filing the piece...this was possible, but time consuming as heck and very damaging to the thin delicate PE pieces. Then I picked up a tiny pair of medical scissors and I was shocked how easily it was to cut PE with these scissors. With these scissors, it was like cutting a thick piece of paper. So my technique and experimenting grew from there. Here is my simple sequence of events when cutting PE.

First tape the PE sheet and the particular PE piece you want to remove from the PE sheet to a piece of glass or mirror that you've laid on your desk top.....DO NOT try this on a window or you'll go right through the window.....the glass must be resting on a desk to deal with the high pressures from the X-Acto knife. The scotch tape holds the sheet in place during cutting and keeps the tiny piece from flying away into the carpet etc.

Next, take your X-Acto knife and using a sharp Scalpel blade cut the PE piece from the sheet by pressing down hard till you cut through the tab holding the PE piece to the PE sheet.

Now you have the piece roughly cut from the PE sheet...time to do fine trimming.

I have a tiny pair of medical scissors I use to do fine trimming on PE. I have since learned through experimenting that pretty well any scissors will do the fine trimming just as well. Experiment with different scissors to see if they work for you.

This a close-up view of the blades on these tiny scissors. The blades are not the shape knife edge like you'd find on paper cutting scissors....instead they are a squared off blade like a pair of ice skate blades. I don't think this matters.....I'm just trying to describe the scissors that work for me.

1/48 Eduard HE-111 H-3 photo Etch piece before the tab is cut off.

Cut stopped halfway to take a photo

Tab cut off......

Due to in-progress photo being taken....cut wasn't 100% perfect....but even under the best situation....a few seconds with a fine file is needed to get the edge perfect.

This is the piece with the tab removed....from here I'd do 10 to 15 seconds of gentle filing with a fine modelling file to get the cut edge perfect.

Now folks will ask...where can I buy these little Medical scissors....hummm...good question....the ones I use can be purchased from a medical supply shop....if you have one of those near by....these places sell crutches and wheel chairs and other medical equipment. But there is an easier option.....read below....

I tried a regular pair of inexpensive scissors and they seemed to cut PE just as well. I also checked my local drug store last night in the cosmetics dept and they had a pile of little scissors, but they had curved blades for cutting nails....these would not be best for PE as you like scissors with a straight blade, but if you are only trimming tiny, tiny areas of the PE, then these nail trimming scissors from the cosmetics dept would work very well.

I grabbed a pair of regular inexpensive scissors I had around the house and they trimmed the PE sheet no problem. These were cheap paper cutting scissors with the blue handles in the top picture of this article.

One final note.....these wire cutting pliers do not cut PE very well at all....do not buy these for cutting PE...the results are very bad.

Remember....apply scotch tape to the PE sheet when cutting smaller pieces to hold them to the sheet as you cut the attachment tabs....this will keep these pieces from falling into the carpet or shooting across the room.

When trimming PE try to place the PE piece away from the tips of the scissors blades and more towards the pin holding the scissors blades together.

Happy Cutting!!!

Steve