While working on my latest model Ive come to the primer stage and there are a few small gaps need filling.
Ive noticed in the forums recently a few people asking for advice on how to fill gaps without having to sand away the fine detail around them, so I thought Id take a few photos and describe how I get around this problem.
This is by no means my method alone and Im not going to attempt to take any credit for it,its just the one that works for me.
You will need,Q Tips,Putty of your choice,masking tape,and some nail varnish remover,(the type WITH acetone). As with anything,work in a well ventilated area.

You can see the 2 areas Im going to be addressing.Just behind the supercharger ducting and the gap in the fusalage seam just forward of that. Sorry,Im not able to add the little red arrows that some people do.

The first thing we need to do is isolate the area we are going to be working on,and this is done by masking as close as possible to the gap with masking tape.

Putty is then applied to the area with a cocktail stick cut in half or something similar.As you can see,because the surrounding area has been masked you dont have to be too precise with the application.

After 5-10 minutes the masking tape is removed.

Using Q Tips dipped in the nail varnish remover wipe away the excess filler.You'll find that you'll get through quite a few Q Tips so make sure you have plenty to hand.

Last picture is the finished job after a dusting of primer. A neatly filled gap with no sanding and no loss of detail involved.

It actually took longer to type this small thread than it did to fill the gaps!
Happy Modelling!
Nige

This is really helpful, thank you for sharing. I am starting on an old Esci Jaguar that is going to require a lot of putty, following your guide will make my life much easier.

NIgel,

Thank you very much for the tip! That will save me a lot of time.

-Derek

Hi Nigel!

Very Nice tutorial!

I assume there will be a lot more and you will publish a serie here at Aeroscale...

Now that you managed to eliminate the big seam (see red arrows) and given the fact that the big supercharger exhaust will be in the way (blue arrow) how do you plan to eliminate the smaller seam behind (green arrow)?



Jean-Luc (but some call me "the Arrow Master")

Jean Luc
I will be using exactly the same method.The beauty of using nail varnish remover and Q Tips is that you can get underneath supercharger ducts and anywhere that chunky fingers and sand paper cant get to!
On my last Tamiya P47 I didnt fill that gap,and thats probably one of the reasons why it was placed no higher that 3rd in the competitions I entered it in last year.
Alternatively,,I might just stuff it full of coloured little arrows instead.
A series eh?,,I hadnt thought of that. I could call it " How To ****up Plastic Kits The Nige Way"
Glad to see from the comments that this little tip is of some help everyone.
Nige

That's an excellent example for dry fit testing and some pre-assembly work.

A method I have used in the past, is to cut a piece of very thin sheet styrene to cover such gaps, put in place after the fuselage halves are glued together. Of course any unevenness in the join is removed during the dry fit process. Not a perfect fix as it does alter the depth, but it does avoid a lot of filing and sanding that may damage the surround.

I hear you Chuck.
5 minutes work with this method and the unsightly gap is gone.No loss of detail,no sanding,and no need for cutting styrene sheets.

Nige

Good on Ya Nigel, I've used your method often too

More often, than not, since I learned about it !!!!

Hi Nigel:

Very good and helpfull article ! The pics are very explicative.
In my 1/72 P 47D I used the same method described by Chuck in the seam behind the supercharger. I think it´s the better one for that inaccesible part. I´ll also use it in the 1/48 Academy P 47.

A very useful thread! Thanks.

This was going to be my first question on this forum.

Hi Propwash and welcome to Aeroscale
Im glad you found this thread usefull.
Looking forward to seeing some of your work and hopefully some of your aviation art.
Nige

Tonight I had a bit of spare time, so decided to fill the gaps in on my P-47. I had no nail varnish remover, so used a very fine grade sandpaper. However, once I'd sanded down there were still some gaps showing here and there; looks like I have to do more filling.

Does this normally happen? I used a cocktail stick to apply it, but when sanding faint traces of lines were left, and so I resorted to using my finger and made a right royal mess!

This is my first proper build of a model, as you can probably tell.......lol Can anyone tell me if it normally takes a few sessions with the Tamiya putty?

Cheers

There is no penalty for having to go back to a previously filled area
I've had to go back more than once, and a couple of times I've had to go back after I painted the model.
It would be nice if putty was guaranteed to work first time, every time but it's not.

Just echoing what Chuck says.
A light spray of primer over the filled area will show up any areas that need revisiting.
Do we get to see some photos of your w.i.p P47?
Nige

Thanks guys, I will try to get some photos later this week, but it won't be pretty!

I don't have an airbrush and will be painting with brushes. I plan to make make a very war weary-looking '47. By the way, the kit is a 1:72 Tamiya Razorback.

More later this week.

Hi Propwash

Just to add to what Chuck and Nige said about painting often highlighting areas that need more work, bear in mind that most commercial fillers shrink slightly as they dry. How long this takes can vary (it's often days, depending on temperature etc.) and this continues even after the filler is hard enough to sand. So, if the filler isn't fully cured, you can get a joint filled and smooth, only to find it reappear faintly a few days later.

That's one reason I like to use "supafilla" - cyano acrylate mixed with talcum powder to form a paste - it dries very quickly and doesn't shrink over time.

All the best

Rowan

propwash -Not knowing how experienced your are, I just want to remind you to thin your paint even when using a brush. This will avoid covering up detail and help eliminate brush marks, caused by the paint being too thick.

Thanks for the further tips, fellas!

I haven't painted a model since I was a very young kid; I'm now 35. So, any tips like this are helpful.

Cheers,

I hate filling seams. Adds to much work to the project but sometimes is an evil necessity. I like using 3M Acryl-Blu automotive glazing putty. Thin and easy to use. Dries fast and is easy to sand and rescribe lines in. The trick is building with having seams to fill. For some kits that is a major undertaking but a majority of the filling can be eliminated. Check out part I of an article I have written about seams.

http://www.hawkeyeshobbies.com/feature.htm

That easy. I have still been doing it the hard, and obviously destructive way.

Just tried it
WOW and I used none acetone nail varnish remover this seems to work with Squadron White putty
Nice tip

Its good to see that this little thread is being so much use to people
Perhaps in hindsight I should have done it as a feature
Nige

Hi Nigel!

That's exactely what I thought...

Jean-Luc

I guess I have an answer for Jean-Luc Formery question.

In situations like described by Jean-Luc I use self adhesive foil, which after proper measuring and trimming can be nicely used for masking gaps like this - where you can hardly use putty.

I used this method for Tamiya's 1/48 FW-190A-8 wheel wells, which had horrible gaps that would took hours to masking>filling>sanding, but I had managed to solve this problem in 10 minutes.

Hope it helps (will try take some pics of the process tomorrow).

Cheers!

I apologize for taking that pic so long.

Here it's:



All of you, that built Tamiya's 190s know that there's an ugly gap in the wheel well, but with self adhesive foil you can simply hide it.

Hope this one is useful