Our journey is delayed by the swamps of Academia.
We decided to discard the etching idea, due to its difficulty relative to simple electroplating.
Garrett found several extremely useful books on electroplating. A possibility exists that we could offer several reactions to the freshmen to choose from.
We discarded the idea of electroplating a plastic figure (i.e. a LEGO space guy) due to the special, complex, and expensive treatment that plastic requires.
We still need to choose a reaction (or reactions) and procure the necessary materials.