In order for the aluminumAluminum industryIndustry to reduce its scope 3 carbon footprintCarbon footprint, the share of pre- and post-consumer scrap in recyclingRecycling must be significantly increased. This leads to higher Fe and Si impuritiesImpurities, increasing the volume fraction of Al-Si-Fe intermetallicsIntermetallic (IMs), causing a decrease in final formability properties (Davis in Aluminum and aluminum alloys. ASM International, 1993). The understanding of the physical phenomena governing nucleation and growth of Al-Si-Fe IMs remains limited due to the absence of direct observations. For a better understanding of the processes at play, we endeavoured a laboratory study of the nucleation and growth of intermetallicIntermetallic crystals in model Al-Si-Fe-Mn alloys, using directional solidificationDirectional solidification of thin (thickness of about 10 µm) metallic films. The solidificationSolidification dynamics are observed in situ, in real time, with regular optics. We give some details of our methods for (i) the choice of the composition of the alloys, and their preparation, (ii) the fabrication of the thin samples, and (iii) the main experimental protocols. We also briefly comment on some new observations and present theIn situ investigation research prospectsFe-intermetallics that are thus open.