Looking for good tips on eliminating intake seams as quickly and easily as possible. No, there are no seamless resin replacements (that I am aware of), and I am not going to use FOD covers.
The kit is the Monogram 1/48 F-15E. Fit is excellent so far. I sanded the intake halves to true them up and did a lot of dry fitting prior to gluing, but there are still seams present. Right now, it seems that putty, sandpaper glued to a long stick, and a lot of patience is about the only alternative.
Any advice is appreciated! Thanks.
Gip Winecoff
I think the sandpaper glued to the stick is the only way to clean up an interior seam. Using thin plastic cement and squeezing the join line to let out some melted plastic and letting it cure will reduce some or all putty work. I have used this method and it seems to work for the most part.
Hey Gip - I’m afraid you’ve left “elbow grease” off of your list!
Intake seams are one of my least favorite parts of building aircraft.
Glueing some sandpaper to a stick is one way to do it especially on the flatter surfaces. You can also use those flexible wet/dry sanding pads that you get at home improvement stores for the curves surfaces. They can be cut down into smaller pieces that will fit in the intakes.
I also brush in heavy coats of Tamiya gloss white paint. That helps fill in the very minor flaws.
Test fit adjust, test fit adjust and repeat as necessary to eliminate as much of the seam issues as possible before assembly.
One method many use is to liberally coat (pouring in) the inside with latex wall paint…gloss or semi gloss. Again repeat as necessary to get uniform coverage and seam fill. Its messy but has great results.
Practice on a toilet paper core, if you can get that to work, a model intake is a breeze.
This method eliminates the need to sand inside deep intakes where getting into is difficult at best.
YOu could try testors putty and isopopyl on a q-tip. I’ve had tremedous results with this on tough to deal with seams.
Thanks to everyone who responded. It definitely looks as if a little “elbow grease” is going to be required regardless of other methods.
vonBrakken, the idea of diluting the putty is really good in that it has the result of causing less sanding.
Hawkeye, I’ve tried the latex paint trick, and have had less than satisfactory results (my own fault, I’m sure). The paint I tried to use seemed much too viscous and did not want to flow. In addition there seemed to be some problems with adhesion to the styrene substrate once the paint had thoroughly dried.
Along those same lines, however, I wonder if a gloss white 2-part epoxy paint would do the trick? Because it is solvent based, It would flow a little better than latex paint (since it would be less viscous) and adhere to styrene better.
Any thoughts or opinions?
Gip
Thin the paint with a few drops of alcohol. Scuffing the intake interior pieces with some course sandpaper prior to application will give the paint something to bite into.
Recently i received from someone a tip to use fast drying wood glue/ white glue on certain seams. Since then the sanding on, for instance wing/ fuselage joints has decreased tremendously due to the simple fact that you can use your finger to rub it on and use a damp cloth for excess goo. Do give it a few hours/ overnight to harden fully or it will peel once sanded. Working with putty is so much messier…
Easy to apply/ remove, paintable and even brushable. I guess its worth a shot on your problem area?
Richard
Ah, not just dilution there styrene, you can actually smooth the stuff after its dry with alcohol. Takes a bit of a repeated rub but works outstanding and won’t do any damage whatsoever to the surounding surfaces. Sometimes the only problem will be having to do it 2 or 3 times as the putty will sometimes chip or there will be an air bubble or some other such insanity. I use this alot on seams with raised surface detail and hard to deal with places. Plus it’s cheap. We all like that. I do prefer to use a bit of t-shirt material vs. a swab tho. YOu can wrap it around various objects or just use it in a wad depending on the situation. It tends to leave a residue all over but don’t worry it won’t hurt anything. just a bit of a wash and paint right over it. It won’t show or affect anything. Good luck with whatever method you use!