No, just a soldering iron and solder! Main rule, the brass to be soldered must be very clean. Painting the brass with soldering flux also helps a lot. I find the biggest mistake beginners use when trying to solder, is that they "dab" the joint. By this, I mean they put the soldering iron on the joint, lift it off after about a second, then put it on again, for another second and so on! Soldering needs heat transfer. With a small amount of solder on the soldering iron tip, apply it to the joint and KEEP IT THERE UNTIL THE SOLDER RUNS, then lift it off again! The images below show some miniature brass cowl ventilators for a steamship model. The brass cowls were made on the lathe. The shafts were held down in a simple jig by half a crocodile clip (lower jaw sawed off, and clip screwed to wood, The stick stops me burning my finger during soldering. The third image shows the soldered ventilators. I then sprayed them white with aerosol spray paint. Finally, the ventilators in position on the passenger liner Carmania (Scratchbuilt). All the deck rails are soldered as well - Bob (Don't know how the images got mixed up!)