seams help.

Depends on how bad the seam is, I think puttying and sanding it will be your best bet.
After that lay down a coat of primer and start painting.

There are a few fixes that you can do to get rid of those pesky seams, BUT you will need to do them prior to joining the parts.

Those seams are one of the reasons why I avoid plastic figure kits and go for Vinyl or Resin figure kits, at the most I got to deal with a mold line there.
Think I still got the Kaiyodo Darth Vader lurking in the Pile somewhere, he is waiting for a new clear blade to his lightsaber..

If you plan on working a LOT on figure kits best get yourself a good set of files(diamond files, etc), basic scupting tool set, some wire loops, etc.

P.S.: Feel free to drop me an e-mail to ask figure specific questions.

Fixing seams isn't that difficult, just takes a little time. Here Is A Link to some informaiton on Swanny's site. You can also thin the putty with some denatured alcohol and it will flow right down into the joint (thanks Robert!)

Once the joint is filled and the putty has dried for a couple of hours, sand it with progressively finer sandpaper or sanding sticks and the joint will disappear.

If you use something like Tenax 7R or Ambroid ProWeld glue they actually melt the plastic of the joint and will make many seams much easier to deal with.

Gap-filling CA such as Zap-A-Gap are also great for filling minor seams.

I personally use Gunze Sangyo's pre-thinned Puty or a Tamiya putty/thinner mix..

IME, the fencing method does not work well on figure kits as the seams often run across very uneven areas and sharp corners/steps(like on boots, laces, etc).

One of the best methods I found is to apply a bit of putty along the joint and when the parts are joined it will sqeeze out and once hardened can be smoothed/sanded.
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Word of warning:
At times the putty will fill detail that you don't want filled, you need to slowly and carefully scrape the dried putty out of that to restore the detail, that is where the scultping tools and file sets come in handy.

Just goes to show that I don't build figures. It works great on planes though Thanks for straightening me out.

QUOTE: Originally posted by MusicCity Just goes to show that I don't build figures. It works great on planes though Thanks for straightening me out.

It is a good technique that everbody should know, I use it quiet often on Robots or on a figure kit that has a joint like mid-thigh(older resin figure kits.

BTW, I only learned the technique after becoming a lurker on the forum, been doing it the ahrd way for a long time.


Ishan.

Most technqiues will work well on different mediums and genres, but might need a bit of tweaking here and there.

Check the Figures and Misc. Forum too for tips and suggestions.