I have an old vacuform kit with recessed panel lines. The panel lines are not uniform in depth and width, and some appear to wander hither, thither and yon (if there is such a place). In any event, it looks like some rescribing will be required.

My first thought is to fill the defective panel lines and rescribe, but I am unsure as to what to fill the lines with. Superglue comes to mind, but so does "be leery". The plastic is white styrene, and is quite thick. I am in the research and planning stages right now, so there is no deadline.

Your help and comments will be greatly appreciated

If the lines aren't too deeply entrenched, perhaps the old, faithful, stretched sprue would suffice. When Echelon first produced the 1/32nd Hunter, one of our club members filled all of the carefully moulded lines, with sprue, because he prefers raised lines! We thought of having him committed to one of those quiet little hospitals, in the countryside.
If you fill with superglue, you may find that, if you flex the plastic, afterwards, while working on it, the glue falls out again. Glued sprue will stay put, and be the same consistency as the model.
Edgar

I'd go along with Edgar's suggestion myself, as CA also becomes much harder than the styrene after a few hours curing, and sanding becomes a bit*h, and scribing tools run the chance of skippy and wavering over the CA setions when rescribing.

Edgar and Dave, thanks much for the responses. Superglue is by far the least desirable method, but the stretched sprue is something I had not thought of. I posted the same question to our local IPMS chapter and did get a suggestion for 3M auto body filler.

I have decided that tests are in order and will experiment with various fillers, including the sprue and see what works the best. I plan to do this, of course before I tackle the model.

Again, gentlemen, thanks for the help. Last question: what did we ever do with our spare time before we became modelers??

Hi Michael

Here is a hint that I tested 20 years ago (or so) when modelling filler was not readily available in my corner of the forrest.

I "diluted" sprues with thinner (I think it was laquer thinner). When you have the right consistency (add thinner or leave the jar open to let it evaporate) and you've used it on your model you'll work with the same material .... no fear of material chipping when scribing

o.k. this is a low tech tip and I am not sure if I would use it nowadays, but may be this works good...

just my 1/2 euro ct

cheers

Steffen