According to Daryl Hallquist the sideplates on the early guns are etched, they are definetely not engraved in the same manner that the scroll is on the rest of the gun. My dad was an tech at Hewlett Packard in the 70s and said they made very small circuit boards by using etching and he tried to explain that it wouldnt be a big deal to etch a very detailed picture pattern on metal using photo techniques. I didnt really grasp the method though.
Ross