And scissors on Coors brand shim stock is fine for straight lines, but
it's not accurate enough on curves, IMHO, for this sort of work, plus
it tends to crimp the edge.

If you can't manage this on aluminum can, try it on card stock with a
brand new X-Acto, then varnish the results.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A big Roger on this. Even when using tiny scissors such as for
cuticle or those nifty scissors on a Swiss Army knife, it is simply
impossible to make a cut having as small a radius as you can get when
using a scalpel or X-acto knife. But don''t take our word for this
(or anything else :-) Go ahead and try it WHILE WE'RE STILL HERE
(ie following the thread). Perhaps we can offer advice you can use.
In fact, I'll go ahead and make a separate post covering how to make
precision KNIVES suitable for this kind of work.

-R.S.Hoover