I don't know if this is a rant, me asking for help, or me just whining afer so much work coming out looking... blah.

I have the Hasegawa 1:72 F-15A. I bought the Eduard photo-etch set for the plane. I think that, done right, the p.e. stuff will make the plane look amazing. BUT... in a first coat of primer, mine does NOT look amazing. Many of the p.e. grill pieces apparently filled with glue and lost most of the detail.

How can I recover from this? Clean out between all the grill spaces by hand? Pull the parts, clean, and re-attach?

When attaching p.e. grill pieces, what sort of experience do people have? What techniques will you share with me? Would it be worth the effort to cut the spaces which are covered by the grills all the way through? Scribe a shelf for the p.e. part to sit down into so its flush? How do I glue these things so the glue does not flow into the spaces of the grills? How do I save all the fine rivet detail?

In this scale, am I asking too much?

I'm pretty new to PE, so may not be the best source...but here goes.

I'm working with two type of PE right now, the small detail that sticks on, as in the dials and details you're talking about, and big pieces that have to fit flush. I LIKE your shelf idea, and think this is a good way to go for some PE, to make a flush fit that's SECURE. I have a big piece in a submarine hull, and it's a press fit, "point" contact - well the first hot dayor cold day or whatever, I can see this puppoy popping out, even tho it's superglued. I wish the piece had a bigger edge, so I could have hacked out a bit of a lip and sat it in the lip, secured it physically that way with superglue, and then puttied seam.

I understand that small pieces are always tricky, and that we're supposed to use superglue applied with a toothpock. people have told tales of PE falling off "you just reglue" Oh goody. So I'd say make a lip/shelf when possible, use a toothpick, and good luck.

Wish I could be more help.