Andrew Vaughan of Severn Models - designing and painting brass models.

    Andrew Vaughan gave a very informative talk and demonstration of painting with acrylics including choice of paint, brushes, primers, ink washes and dry brushing. He followed this by explaining how brass etched kits are produced and how etching works.

    His helpful leaflet on painting with acrylics is available here.

    Following his talk on painting, Andrew gave the meeting a concise overview of the etching process. With the aid of slides, he showed how the brass sheet is coated with light-sensitive photoresist on both sides. A negative transparency of the metal to be etched is laid over each side of the sheet and ultra violet light shone onto it. This has the effect of hardening the photoresist where the uv light hits it. The remaining resist is then washed away leaving some of the brass exposed. Ferric chloride is sprayed onto both sides of the sheet simultaneously and this etches half way through the brass. Where both sides are etched in the same place, all the brass is removed. This might be a window opening or the edge of the model. Where the etching is only from one side, you get a half etch. This might be for a fold line or for a particular texture.

    What was apparent from his talk, was the huge amount of thought that goes into the design of his models. He does print an accurate card version which can be cut out with a scalpel and assembled as a trial run for the brass kit. From an initial list of 12 N gauge building kits, he now markets over 60 kits from 2mm scale up to 1" to the foot. These include mostly model railway kits but with an increasing range of kits suitable for dolls' houses.

    A very entertaining and informative evening's talk.