filling tiny pits and scratches question.

Chris,

I use Zap CA glue myself. I just put a drop in a bottle cap, pick some up with a toothpick and apply it to the area. I let it dry for 30 seconds or so and then sand it with 400 grit wet. The putty would work also, as well as a little Future over the area, but these take longer to dry.
I am not familiar with Mr. Surfacer or any of the Japanese products like that.

Mike

If I have a seam that is so fine that it won't take the Green Putty very well, I'll use liquid paper instead. Works like a charm!

Eric

mike, i also have so thin, medium, and thick CA glue. its not Zap but i do fill cracks with it. however, it did leave some bubbles. maybe i should give it a try again. the liquid paper sounds kinda cool. thanks fellows.

Can anybody clarify the green versus useful Liquid Paper question? There are reportedly two Liquid Papers in Europe/England - green (environmentally friendly but not particularly useful as a scratch filler) and red (good for modeling.) In the US, Liquid Paper seems to come only in a green package and doesn't smell like it has ketones or other harmful substances in it so it's probably the environmentally friendly version. However, it does seem to work okay - dries fast, doesn't shrink much if at all, and is sandable. I haven't had much luck with CA (it is either too hard or too pitty or I sand it too soon which is not a good idea) so I use an very fine auto putty and liquid paper to fill small gaps and scratches respectively...

I use Krylon gray spray primer in the big can. Spray it into a film can and then brush it on the scratches. Smooth it down with a triple grit flexible fingernail buffing stick (wet).

HTH

stinger

saltydog hi
i normally use just a bit of normal adhesive, wait for it to harden then sanding sticks come into play! obviously if it's a big hole then i go for putty...
have you checked swanny's piece on seam-filling?

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Seams.html

maybe that will help.
regards,
nick

yes, thats a regular practice of mine now. i have some gray primer on my work bench, i may try that. later.

Hi saltydog. I have used Mr. Surfacer, and it is lacquer primer. So that means that it fills pretty well, but you don't want to use it for deep pits and imperfections. In other words, if you have small marks or imperfections in the joint of the fuselage, then you could brush this over that area and it would take care of it fine. It is very soft, so you need to use fine sandpaper as well. If you wanted to, you could airbrush this as well.

One thing to keep in mind it that this product is really soft. So if there was an area, such as a scribed line that needed to be smoothed out and the material should be soft - so that it is easy to sand out. Rather than CA, which is kind of tough, even if you start right away.

I hope this helps out, and if you have any more questions, give me a holler!

best wishes