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I've seen these for sale as well as mentioned... but what do you use them for?

The forgeworld bits are mainly for adding relief detail.
They are also often included in historical kits (esp Dragon) for all manner of tiny/fine detail bits and pieces that cant physically be cast in plastic.

What Alex said. And if you're curious using the brass allows for bending so it can be used on curved surfaces like shoulder pads without warping the symbol.

It makes it much easier to get a high level of detail, but to scale. Things that can be cast in resin or plastic, would often be too fragile at a particular scale thickness, where brass etched bits wouldn't be. I've seen tiny little working hinges and buckles as well. Cockpit panels from scale models are great to use for computer panels in 40k too. I've thought about getting some IoM eagles and such from FW. I'd like some SW ones, but the ones FW make are kinda cheesy IMO, and many wouldn't be used. Others they make are pretty cool.

Also, companies sell metal (usually aluminum or bass) barrels for armor and artillery. For the same reasons.

The majority of the plants and ivy I use are brass etch.

Thanks... some of them looked almost like stencils, but with the numerous repeats i figured they had to be add-ons.

Hmm... I'm guessing very expensive to have made. I am continuing my quest to find a water-transfer maker that can do white on clear transfer... I have a chapter badge I want made but the one place I found that said they could was over $200 bucks for the set up.

You can actually make brass etch at home fairly easily, so it is not that expensive. [e.g. this Micro-Mark set, which seems a bit expensive, but gives you everything http://www.micromark.com/micro-mark-pro-etch-photo-etch-system,8346.html ]

Finding an ALPS printer to be able to print white is pretty hard, as you have found.

 lasgunpacker wrote:
You can actually make brass etch at home fairly easily, so it is not that expensive. [e.g. this Micro-Mark set, which seems a bit expensive, but gives you everything http://www.micromark.com/micro-mark-pro-etch-photo-etch-system,8346.html ]

Finding an ALPS printer to be able to print white is pretty hard, as you have found.

Have you used this? If so, would is be able to produce badges that would fit on the shoulder pad? would they then need to be cut out?

kernbanks wrote:
Thanks... some of them looked almost like stencils, but with the numerous repeats i figured they had to be add-ons.

Hmm... I'm guessing very expensive to have made. I am continuing my quest to find a water-transfer maker that can do white on clear transfer... I have a chapter badge I want made but the one place I found that said they could was over $200 bucks for the set up.

Poor mans white decals...

You use you regular clear decal sheets for ink jet printers. Create your decal graphic sheet, and head to a custom sign shop. Have them cut a stencil for the white portions of the sheet on vinyl stencil plastic. Use an airbrush (white flat rattle can paint can work too...but it is harder to control). Let the paint cure fully and then send it through you printer for the colored portions. Most sign shops will do the stencil for $25-50 for a regular letter sized sheet. You can also cut your own using cutters like a Silouette SD and apparently a Cricut (I havent used the Cricut though...but I have heard they are able to cut stencil vinyl). The decal paper is fairly cheap...and of course your inkjet printer ink. Once you have the stencil though, you can make as many as you want without much difficulty.

Regarding the etching kit...havent used the Micromark kit, but it looks to have everything you need to etch brass. You can get extremely fine details, the same principle is used to create circuit boards with 'wires' that are hair sized and hundreds of connections. There are plenty of ways to do the job though, and if you are curious...you should research the process first. There are some chemicals involved that not everyone will want to work with. With a little work and planning though, you can do extremely detailed custom work and get the exact sizes and shapes that you need for your project.

Because of the process you will want to have each part on the fret, so you will need to cut them off. If you dont, by the time you fish them out of the etchant...they may well have mostly dissolved.

I wrote the company... surprised that the etchant will dissolve all the brass and leave floating bits.

going to start a youtube search to see if i can find some how-to's or this is how i do it videos.

I am doing an unforgiven successor chapter... and want a DA like emblem with a hammer instead of a sword. I can green stuff the little bits here and there, i could even paint over a DA icon free hand and maybe blend it... but now i think i may get the brass set in a couple months when my budget allows for it and have raised chapter icons on every shoulder guard. my painting is only a 2 maybe a 2+ (BTP standards) for most of these rank and files so having the extra relief will help bring them up. The brass also makes it easier to create bits for vehicles...

I think I'd use it once I got into it, jsut need to get all the Arbites done... the local club is starting an escalation league saturday and this is my motivation to get unpainted junk from years ago done up. The Marines can wait, Apocalypticon isn't until July and they are 6+ colors already... Just hop my schedule fits in these badges... or else I will just have 200 green marines.