Ok, my first serious attempt at making a nice model, and since I have 2 P-47D revell kits, both 1:48, figured I would use one to practice. The kit looks pretty nice overall, but during my little pre-fitting I am plagued with a familiar problem. Some of the seams are just a little more than I want to see. Just how do you guys accomplish near zero seam visibility?? Didnt find anything to useful on a forum search so thought I would ask. Thanks!!

Ok, im a retard....just now decided to read the featured article on seams....anyway, if you guys have any other useful tips not covered in the article I would be more than happy to read them.

Greetings Bishop..

For seam line tips..here's what i did..

for small scale ac the seam maybe not the problem...since they're small...for bigger scale, having to remove the seam lines and to make the zero seam appereance required some task...

this is what i did...

glue the pieces together..for larger part such as the fuselage half, i used super glue in a couple of section..then i used the TAmiya fine cement along the join.. this cement is very thin in viscosity near that of water, will run inside the seam thru capilary action...be patient and not to put so much cement at the surrounding area.. use masking where neccesary...

after the cementing process is done..wait for the cement to cure... then inspect for any seam lines that may appear... sometimes i use primer... during this stage , you may sometimes need filler.....
any seam lines that appear i remove them by sanding lightly..if the seam is too long..then i used scream scrapper ..the one is used is available at Micromark

this is what it looks like :


when using seam scrapper, dont not start at the top (center) of the seam..this is produced FLAT spot..i always start slowly at bot side..work to the center...
after that , sand them carefully....any panel lines that are sanded, may sometimes required to be scribbed...

hope this will help..

good luck

Thanks for the info!

no problemo.....

One of the most used Item on my bench is a set of Brena Clamps. I use them to hold the parts together when I do test fitting. When it comes time to glue the parts togeter I do small sections at a time to avoid the dreaded step between parts, this also helps to slowly work any warping in the parts. Then once everything has set i'll go ahead and use a Tri-grit sanding stick I got from squadron to take care of any seams. If there are any gaps I go ahead and fil and sand at that time. One product I find useful is a jar of Putty made by Gunze that is very thin and it "painted" over the seam. I use this for minor seams. It also works well for simulating the putty used on German aircraft like the ME 262. HTH STUG

Awesome, i just ordered some of those clamps...dont feel like playing "lets hold the freshly glued airplane wing for 20 minutes" again....heh. Thanks!