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Seam line quistion again n


Zglossip

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Hey there fellas i am back with probably another borring quistion how to make seam line dissapear i have forund the putty i like to use and it works well but no matter what technique i use you can still see them i am no novice to modeling i have been doing it for four years but i am also not a master every technique i have tried still shows a line or a ridge and it doesnt look like part of the model when painted the only technique i tried that hid them well was aplying a wide band of putty and sanding to the airvraft contour but it erased so much detail it didnt seem worth it any help would be appreciated .

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Okay. First putty can be a relatives visit. A little goes a long way. First try looking at the seam before you glue. A lot of times seams can be seriously reduced by trimming or light scraping before you glue.

Next using liquid cement try to clamp the parts together tightly and if a little glue come up when you scrape along the seam line (use the back of the blade), that should eliminate the seam line.

If not, put masking tape down along both sides of the seam. This will protect other details. Use very little putty and see if that helps.

Now here is a trick I learned while building some Aurora figure kits. These kits had seam lines big enough to hide another kit in. Putty does no good on the surface, so using the back edge of the hobby knife, I would make a very small v groove on the top edge of the two pieces.. This will allow you get the putty into the seam and you can then use any putty to fill it in and get an invisible seam line.

Good luck

Bob Gregory

Ruining one kit at a time.

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Bob gave some good tips. I would also emphasize adding a hot glue like Tamiya Extra Thin to the seam and clamping it tight to get some of the plastic to ooze out of the seam. Once dry, you scrape the excess off and leave a perfectly smooth, seamless section of model. Using the tape method to protect details is also an excellent technique. Finally, when applying your putty, let it dry, and if it appeared to have shrunk or sun onto the seam or gap; apply a bit more and let it dry. Keep doing this until the putty sits above the plastic, then sand it smooth and you'll eliminate the seam. This process works best with the tape method too.

 

 

In closing, I'd like to respectfully request that you use punctuation. Your explanations and question was a bit difficult to understand; I had to read it several times before I got the gist of what you wanted to know. Thanks.

 

Good luck and if possible, please post some pics of your work. Seeing the issue is much more helpful to us who want to help you. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words". Keep us posted on how well you're doing. Thanks.

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Do you have gaps in the seam, or is it a ghost seam that reapears after a while? If it is a ghost seam that comes back after some time, it could be your cement--Ambroid Pro-Weld sometimes does that. The solution is to either use less or switch to another cement. I like Tamiya's Extra Thin myself...

 

If there are large gaps or seams that don't want to take filler, here's my advice:

 

Along with what has already been said, the biggest thing to do is to try to eliminate as much of the seam before you apply glue--test fit, see where you need to make adjustments, file and sand accordingly, and test again. When it looks as if you have made things as good as you can, then apply the cement.

 

If there is going to be a gap no matter what you do, rather than using standard solvent based putty to fill a large gap why not use plastic? It won't shrink like regular putties do, and it sands rather easily when the cement has cured. You can use stretched sprue from the kit or Evergreen strip to fill the void. Let the cement dry thouroughly--read that as at least overnight, longer if the plastic is still soft when you start sanding--before you sand. Another option for large gaps is an epoxy putty like Milliput--it has some body to it, it won't shrink, and you can work it with a wet finger before it cures. Once it cures, it can be further sanded and shaped.

 

Super glue will also work as a filler, but you must sand it smooth as soon as it cures--it gets harder and harder as time passes, and if you wait it becomes almost impossible to sand without using a large file first.

 

I like the bead of plastic trick--if the seam is minimal, that bead of plastic may have done all the filling you need. It takes some practice, but you'll soon figure out how to eliminate those pesky seams...

 

Ralph

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Thanks guys again for answering my question I will deffinettly try these and hope it solves my problem . Mark sorry about the grammar I was using a phone and my big hands make it hard to type I will try to make it more leggible next post.

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Z: I didn't see you refer to the use of a primer coat.....are you using one? You can use a light gray or an aluminum color as a primer to check your seams before applying your color coats. This allows you to catch such seams and repair them.

 

The advice above is good, and following the ideas of using a "weld" cement and allowing the molten plastic to help fill the seam; test fitting-trimming-and adjusting for the best fit; will save you a lot of work.

 

I'd qualify Nick's statement about superglue as a filler by noting that IF you mix the superglue with baby powder it will make a thicker filler that fills larger gaps AND does not harden like plain superglue fills, being easier to sand even after 24hrs of hardening. This is my go-to filler for larger gaps because you can be sanding on it 2 minutes later and it also takes scribing better than most all other fillers.

 

You'll have to live with losing some detailing, especially the raised type when eliminating seams. The other half of this task is learning to replace the lost detailing so that your surfaces look "undisturbed" in the end.

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
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