Home made filler!

[Gekko_1]

Hi guys,

I've been experimenting over the last couple of weeks with a new type of filler for panel lines etc. This came about after I discovered that the camera window on my Trumpeter 72nd scale Wyvern, which I had filled with super glue, had shrunk, leaving a noticeable step! This bothered me, so I started thinking of a better way to fill gaps and trenches. Everything I've used in the past has at some point shrunk a little, leaving a noticeable step, so I figured I have to come up with something that behaves like the plastic I'm using, so I thought to myself, why not use the styrene sprues that are left-over when all the kits parts are used, and melt it down with styrene glue!

So, what I did was chop-up small bits of styrene sprue and add it into an old Tamiya glue container that still had a little glue in it. I simply added glue or styrene "chips" until I had a consistency that I liked.

Then I applied it to an old kit part to see what it would do. It seemed top go on alright so I waited a day and started sanding using wet & dry paper, both wet and dry to see what the result would be. Initial experiments went fine, so I thought I'd try it on a kit!

As I had decided to start the Hobby Boss Mirage IIIC, and as it had some rivet lines that I didn't particularly like, I thought it would be the perfect subject for this experiment!

First off mask the area that you want the "goop" to go.

Be sure to mask over the panel lines to protect them!

Then apply the "goop". You can be quite generous in its application.

Remove the masks and this is what you have!

Then sand away with various strengths of wet & dry sand paper and here's what you get!

If you discover any areas that have been missed out, simply re-apply some more "goop", wait until it is totally dry (half a day to a day depending on room temperature) and re-sand.

Here we see what I started with, versus the end result, which I am very happy with. The blue arrows point to a rivet that escaped the treatment!

The beauty of this "goop" is that it sands with the same consistency as the plastic, and when re-engraving, is nice and soft and easy to deal with, unlike re-engraving over super glue or other fillers. So far I haven't detected any shrinkage and am not expecting any.

This "goop" is cheap, seems to work well and is easily made by any modeller! I'm happy with the results and I'm sure you will be too, so give it a go!

Also it would work well to fill the trenches in any old Matchbox kit or the Airfix Buccaneer or Jaguar! Plus you can make the "goop" any colour you wish, simply add whatever colour sprue you have and the "goop" will be that colour! So if, for example, you had an old Matchbox kit that had red plastic, just chop that up and put it in the spare styrene glue pot and there you have it, red "goop" or orange or blue!

Here we have an engine part from the Mirage IIIC kit. It has been glued together and "goop" added, left to dry and then wet sanded.

The blue arrow points to the join line and the pencilled arrows also point to the join line. I had to add them so that the camera could focus on something because the area is so smooth and glassy!

I didn't like the rivets on the flaps either, so they are getting the treatment too!

Have fun guys.

Cheers

Richard.

[John Laidlaw]

Nice idea Gekko - I'm going to give it a try. It makes perfect sense now you've mentioned it - thank you. Loved the the fact that there was a rogue rivet, by the way... there's always at least one, isn't there?

[AnonymousDFB1]

Done and still do something similar myself. I don't keep a ready made supply, just make it when I need it. I find it easier to use and sand down that the 'traditional' fillers.

[periklis_sale]

Nice tip mate...

now i only need to get Tamiya glue!!!

Or any other glue can do the job?

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

Good idea Richard. I did experiment with making something similar myself, many years ago, when building an Airfix Brontosaurus - I thought it would be easier to rescribe skin detail into plastic instead of filler - but I wasn't happy with the stuff, probably cos I'd got the wrong consistency. I must try again, only harder this time!

[Ant]

I've heard of this being done elsewhere, yet haven't got around to trying it myself. Think I'll give it a go now.

Shame it makes the model look like you have sneezed on it!

[Guest Drewe]

All I'd advise Richard is to be wary of some sinkage over the following weeks - sometimes it doesn't show up for that long. I've noticed this if I use something like MEK on a fuselage joint of an aircraft that will be natural metal. Looks fantastic when initially done, but go back to it a few weeks later and there's a very visible join where the last of the solvent in the join has "flashed off" over the following days and resulted in shrinkage clearly not visible on the initial clean up. Why I think for that kind of join these days nothing better carving a vee shaped channel, supergluing and sanding the hell out of it. But I hope it does work!

[DamienB]

Seems like an awful lot of mucking about when Milliput is easy to work with (can be smoothed with a wet finger), doesn't shrink, is easy to scribe into and carve to shape and cheap as chips for the amount of use you'll get from a standard pack...

[entlim]

Blimey, reminds me if when I used to do that with left over plasticard in my teens- glad you joggrd my memory....

Ed

[dahut]

Ive heard of this idea from years ago, but Ive never tried it. I agree there are other products available that have advantages - but, as always, your mileage may vary. If it works for you and you're happy, then there you go.

It certainly is cheap enough. I would think PVC primer or some other toluene type chemical would work as well, too.