Tenaz- How best to use?

Select one of your finest new paint brushes. Dip it into the Tenax, then touch the brush to the seam. Repeat along the seam (dip touch, dip touch dip, touch) until you get it closed. DO NOT get into the habit of 'painting' it along the seam, once the plastic softens you'll leave brush strokes. The brush is nothing more than a transport vehicle to carry the Tenax to the subject allowing a somewhat precision application process. The Tenax will transfer from the brush to the model and flow along the seam through capillary action. Pinch the seam as you work along it.

Practice using a few old fuel tanks or bombs to get the feel of it. Use the brush only for Tenax nothing else. Tenax evaporates rapidly so there is no need to 'wash' it afterwards. Should it get a styrene crust, wash in lacquer thinner. Store your brush on the bottle, hold in place with a rubber band bristles up.

I believe Tenax has an applicator brush in the lid...I usually just remove and toss it away because it is too fat for fine work. 

I would like to add....solvent glues are thin, thin, thin! They don't have even the surface tension of water.

So if you accidentally apply too much to, say a fuselage seam, a 'run' of solvent can run down the girth of the fuselage. Not too big a deal unless it runs beneath your thumb or forefinger and melts a fingerprint into the skin of the craft!

As Gerald says, a practice bomb or tank is a good way to get the feel......let the stuff run in the seam....the capillary action will keep it there. 

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

DO NOT get into the habit of 'painting' it along the seam, once the plastic softens you'll leave brush strokes.

Man, I wish I had seen this a week ago! As usual, thanks Gerald for all your informative posts, learning a lot from you! I will piggyback a quick question on this thread... I also tried some tenax on a "seam" that was already glued with Tamiya thin. The idea was to melt the seam where the two parts join... "seems" to have worked. Does anyone use Tenax AFTER the fact, in order to melt seams or small imperfection on joined parts? Is it recomended? Thanks!

ATTENTION!

If you do get a Tenax run or a splatter someplace where you don't want it...LEAVE IT ALONE! ALLOW TO AIR DRY...DO NOT TOUCH IT IN ANY WAY. Once it evaporates and cures, you'll be able to remove any blemish very simply with a polishing stick.

If you do get some under your finger/thumb just set the whole thing down, in a couple minutes the Tenax will evaporate and the fingerprints will 'set' so again once you're all done you'll be able to polish out the prints with a polishing stick...or a little filler may be required if you were squeezing really hard at the time before you notice the seepage.  But it is not ruined...it happens to me frequently!