Piececool etched metal Restaurant

[cteno4]

So I’ve been seeing these Chinese etched (or maybe laser cut) metal kits on aliexpress then amazon. Most are very ornamental brass structures, but interesting as they paint after etching/cutting with red and white so it ends up making a very nice feeling finish of the loud red ornamental architecture style which would be hard to capture in other materials.

 

no real scale standard on them I think, but looking at the restaurant building it looked like it could be around 1:150 and thought fun to maybe have an over the top Chinese restaurant scene somewhere as fun looking. We had one in Oakland ca growing up in the 60s like this, very ornate (not quite as crazy as this one, but definitely probably the wildest building in town) and it was like going to fairy land when we ate there (every big Chinese banquet was there). It was expensive, but authentic and very fun.

 

the kit was only $20 on aliexpress and like $25 on amazon so decided to just give it a shot.

 

Well color me impressed.
 

These are very nice etched brass kits, very nice detail and all the paint layers are well registered to the cut lines. It’s like 0.3mm brass so enough to be stiff but very easy to cut and bend as there are a lot of small ornate pieces to the kit. tons of really nice detail built into this. Everything is only painted on one side other side is blank brass. Instructions are very well done with excellent diagrams and in color and big, not a postage stamp. Also set of color pages with all the parts numbered to the instructions. Step up from sankei instructions. Box is very nice and sturdy as it would be easy for this kit to be mangled. Even with the heavy book a couple of ends got kinked a bit from landing on the end of the box and one small dent from a blow to the top of the box. But as brass they were all easily fixed. There is a lot of etched detail that looks to have a few different depths into the surface, so perhaps laser cut and etched. Railings, stanchions can of course be really close to scale at having stuff like a couple of inches, much better than laserboard.

 

it does look at 1:150! The floors are about 9’ or so tall each and deck railings at 30-36” so should be fine. It’s so ornate that it can fudge a lot on scale as not the usual visual reference points.

 

it’s got a layer of gloss coat to make it pop as just a little bookshelf model. I will probably hit with some dull coat and weathering to make it more lived in look. With its wrap around porch it can have fun outdoor seating scene as well.

 

it’s a really nice kit all in all, especially for $20. Would be fun to see if this concept of painting over the brass might work on sankei type structures if this process gets cheap. But maybe would not work to a regular colored/toned/detailed building. But could be done on stainless to mute edges seen, but markers could help some with this ans with the very thin edges they are less noticable than with thicker cut laserboard or even cardstock.

 

they also do some mechs stuff and historic buildings and some fantasy stuff.

 

• https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=Piececool&crid=389A279HX4A6B&sprefix=piececool%2Caps%2C56&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
• https://www.aliexpress.com/premium/Piececool.html?d=y&origin=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20220521145159&SearchText=Piececool&spm=a2g0o.home.1000002.0
• https://piececool.world/us/

 

cheers 

 

jeff

 

[Cat]

Ooh!  Aah!

[Kamome]

If this is level 4, I wonder what level 7 diffficulty would look like. 

[maihama eki]

Pretty cool. So after receiving it, do you think it is close to 1/150?

[cteno4]

I would not call it a really hard, more tedious. Lots and lots of small parts.

 

sorry, yes it does look at 1:150! The floors are about 9’ or so tall each and deck railings at 30-36” so would be fine. 
 

think it will be a fun Ttrak module. Maybe a tour bus unloading in front!

 

jeff