The Saturday Night Thread

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Evening all. I was out at a clients leaving do last night, so the FNT will be the SNT this week.

As before this is modelling related not chat - so keep it straight up.

This week I want to discuss fillers and filling. A chore we all have to do. So what are you top tips for filling? preferred fillers and methods of sanding out.

Which models do you think are filler free zones, and which are liable to be more filler than plastic? I've gone through a few favourites over the years. Holts Isopon P38, Milliput, Mr Dissolved Putty, my current favourite CA and Chanel No 5 talc!

I always try and minimise the amount of filler I use by masking around the area whenever I can, and then I sand down using sanding sticks starting with very coarse and ending up at with apolishing stick. Sometimes I'll use Mr Surfacer 1000 to overcoat the filled area as a final spot primer and surface leveller.

I find that sanding out filled seams can actually be a rather zen like process - theres a real satisfaction in getting the surface back to smooth polished perfection. Other times its like a Stygian task and never seems to ever totally eliminate the seam line.

Model wise I have to say that the Tamiya P47 springs to mind as a model that never saw the filler opened. At the other end of the scale I recall the Classic Airframes Meteor NF11/13 as amodle with very nasty winoutder wing joins that were just horrendous to deal with.

Right over to you.

Mines a chilled glass of Manzanilla, with some salted almonds on the side

Jonners

[Mark]

Hi Jon,

Well, with a few minutes to spare between getting young Oliver to bed, walking the dog and then settling down to watch the X-Factor final, I thought I'd add my thoughts here on filling.

Top tips? none really as you've covered the essentials, but my weapons of choice are Tamiya filler and the little four-sided nail sanding blocks you get at Sephora or other beauty / make-up shops and I'm sure Boots do an equivalent. To keep the job neat, I always mask either side if the area top be filled, usually a seam between parts that have not gone together too well, and then smear a little of Tamiya's finest along the seam, leave it to set then attack with the aforementioned nail filing block. There are modelling equivalents of the nail files, but I find these to be double the price for the same thing. Tamiya's filler can also be cleaned up with a small piece of kitchen tissue soaked in cellulose fillers.

I have to agree with you on the Tamiya P-47, the same also goes for Hasegawa's F-104, not a smidgen of filler was applied on that one. The biggest application of filler to date easily goes to the BraZ A340-600 resin conversion of Revell's A340-300. Tons of the stuff were used!

Anyway, those are my thoughts as I upload my CD collection to a NAS drive in preperation for my new Xmas pressie.... But more about that next year!

Room temp Ribera del Duero with some Tapas for me please!

[Shaun]

I think one of the biggest filler jobs I've done was on the Airfix 1/48th Bucc- Plastic card, Milliput, green stuff and Revel Plasto on that one!!

My fav has to be Revel plasto, easy to spread, dry's quick, grips well on plastic and is easy to sand back. But don't put to much on in one go, it will melt the plastic!

Shaun.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Shaun

[fu_manchu]

Superglue and talc for me as well at the moment for structural filling or areas thst need scribing. Tamiya white for tight angles or very thin gaps cleaned up with acetone. Mr surfacer for checking or hard to get ejector marks

Mine is a nice leffe blonde please

Ian

[mrvr6]

i use the smelly green stuff that apparantly rots your brain (stop sniggering at the back im talking about filler)

im doing a valkyrie atm and id deffinately describe it as a putty monster!

it doesnt help that i knocked my glue over (again) and covered an outer wing in liquid poly

[robert26]

Seem to remember trying a putty that was half green/blue in colour-couldnt do it as it was pretty hard to mix properly.

Squadron putty works for me. Sometimes use super glue and bicarb-but takes a hell of a lot sanding. No matter how good a kit is i still end up using putty-its just me.

Cheers

Robert

[Silver Fox]

Revell Plasto for larger areas and Vallejo putty for seams etc. Agree fully witht the idea of taping the adjacent areas.

Tamiya Spitfire Ia for a filler free zone and anything Classic Airframe( except the Hurricane) for a filler monster.

Mines a pint of Bombardier or Hobgblin and some Wensleydale and cranberry cheese to nibble on.