Photo Etched parts Bender

Master Tools photo-etch bender

A photo-etched fret is a thin metal sheet with etched parts: straps, screens, railings, panels, brackets and loops. To turn a flat silhouette into a real part, it has to be bent, often to a precise right angle. And this is where most modelers come unstuck. Bending thin sheet metal with your fingers or tweezers means a crooked, wavy and uneven fold, and it is obvious at first glance on the finished model. With long parts such as ship railings, bending by hand is completely hopeless: the edge ripples and you will never straighten it again.

What the bender does

The bender is a tool with two jaws. The photo-etched part is placed between them and clamped exactly on the bend line; the overhanging section is then folded sharply and straight along its whole length in one go. The result is an edge that looks factory made, not finger made. This variant is the large one of the range: it is intended for long and slender photo-etched parts, that is, exactly for the parts where bending by hand fails most. The dimensions of the tool are approximately 162 x 79 mm.

Use

• Bends of railings, handrails and long straps on ship models: a straight edge along the whole length.
• Right angles on screens, covers, loops and interior parts of aircraft and vehicles.
• Repeated, identical bends on a series of parts (a row of brackets, for example), with no differences from piece to piece.
• Precise placement of the bend on the etched line, without slipping and without deforming the surrounding area of the part.
• Working with both hands: the tool holds the part, not tweezers and your nerves.

Who it is for

For anyone who builds with photo-etched parts, and that is practically every modeler today, because photo-etch comes both inside kits and in separate detail sets. Without a bender they are a struggle, with one the bending is routine. It is a tool you buy once and then use on every following kit; it belongs among the best investments in a modeling workshop.

A workshop tool, not a kit and not an accessory for a model. Photo-etched parts, glue and paints are not included in the package.