Glue, Filler & sanders

Hey Steve,

My two favorite glues are Tamiya's cement (which seem to be out of stock everywhere at the moment) and testors' cement in the black applicator bottle.  The Tamiya's is nice because it's nice and thin, the testor's is a bit thicker and gives you a bit longer working time.

For filler, I like squadron white.  Mostly because it can thinned and cleaned up with acetone, which eliminates a lot of the need for sanding.

But if you have to sand (and you will), I've got about a half a dozen tools just for that.  I have regular sandpaper, I have high grit polishing pads, sanding sticks in different grits and sets of files used in electronics. 

As you go along you'll figure out what you need and what you don't.  That's how most everyone here has built their tool collection.

Sometimes, just figuring out what tools you'll need for a job is the most fun part of the build. 

-Fred

"Glue": I use solvent cement for most seams. This is usually just methylene chloride (dichloromethane), regardless of the brand you buy. Some sold for modeling use have other chemicals that make them faster or slower evaporating. You can get methylene chloride in large, and much cheaper quantities, from many plastic supply and fabrication places. The brand I buy is Caseway's SC-125.

I also use various cyanoacrylate (CA) glues for attaching parts where strength is required, but my major use is as a seam and surface filler. For these, use the one's sold for modeling.

Filler: On the rare occasions where CA glues won't do the job, I use 3M Acryl Blue or Acryl Red. Wonderful stuff! it can be thinned with 90% isopropyl alcohol, and sanded to a mirror polish.

Sanding: Wet or dry sandpaper (always used wet) in grits of 240 (massive stock removal), 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, and 2000. For flat finished models, you generally don't need to go higher than 800. For cars and metallic finishes, the higher the better. I use a rubber pad to back up the abrasive. I also recently discovered Flex-i-files, and I love them. A paint polishing kit is also good for cars and metallic finishes.

Except for occasional very delicate  work, always sand wet.