Man, I haven’t heard of anyone using homemade filler in ages. I personally love the stuff. I have a jar on my bench right now. I too use MEK or Acetone. But I typically use old sprues, old toys, I suppose the ocassional fork or spoon. It’s hard to use on big gaps and seams, but for a spot filler, nothing is finer. Extremely old school. I love it.
Ted
Just reading the threads concerning MEK. Great idea, but be extremely careful using it and find the WHMIS sheets if you can. I’m an aircraft technician in the Canadian Airforce and we do use it occasionally to clean parts and strip paint. It has been recommended that we actually remove it from the supply system , but a suitable alternative is not available.
Whenever someone is using it in our hangar we actually evacuate the area because of the horrible fumes. If you use it, for your own safety, please use an appropriate respirator. Don’t use a simple painters mask, but a full blown apparatus with replaceable cartridges. I’m lucky as the Airforce actually supplies each one of us with one, and I always wear it while spraying models at home. It is one of the more nasty chemicals out there and has been linked to several serious health problems.
Happy modeling,
I like using homemade styrene putty for brushing (stippling in layers is more accurate) into one piece molds. It makes nifty styrene pulls from molds. I generally use liquid plastic solvent to melt the styrene. It dries a little faster.
That post about reaching into MEK with bare hands made me shudder. I got some under my fingernails one time fiberglassing and and it was some of the most intense pain I have ever experienced. I was literally holding back tears.
Okay , homemade filler. This is a great idea.
But can I use it for Zimmerit?? I am sure the texture is correct, but what about setting / drying times.
Thanks for the ideas
Yolev
You know I don’t build armor but this stuff “skins” over quickly. I’ll bet it could be manipulated before it hardens fully to produce a zimmerit effect. If you try it you’ll have to tell us how it worked out.
MEK, too dangerous to use for me. I shave plastic sprue leftovers into a jar, mix with tamiya cement, leave overnight, and use that as putty, but I’ve only done this twice, and both times, it wasn’t a pretty result.
Here is a site that might answer some of your concerns over M.E.K. .
An interesting side note is that M.E.K. is a natural substance that can be found in fruits and trees. It is also a byproduct of cigerette smoking! Yummy[xx(]
Anything with an acronym sounds like it has risks associated with it (e.g. VX, C4, etc.). Think I’ll stay with the white putty and swap the MEK for my wife’s nail polish remover. ← Not literally that is. [:O] I like my wife’s fingers where and how they are.[:p]
You might already be using it! It’s a pretty common solvent in putty and that is what liquid cements like Tenax-7 are but in a small bottle marketed to the hobby crowd.
Glad to hear you youngsters using old tricks instead of buying bottles of Mr (fill in the blanks) for this and Mr (fill in the blanks) for that. I think a bottle of Mr (fill in the blanks) cost anywhere from $4 to $6 each. I always thought the best filler for styrene is styrene. It’s cheap, sands easily, bonds well to all surfaces, and you can scribe right over it.
Enough already. Get off the internet and go glue that kit that has been sitting still way too long!
Amen! I’m signing off now!
A lot of work can be saved on making fillers by just taking plain old baking soda and mixing it up with CA glue. It sands out smooth, takes any kind of paint, and can be scribed on if panel lines need to be drawn back in. Cheap to whip up a batch as well.
Hi, Everyone i heard from a very good moddeling freind of mine about a good way of filling gap,s or small cracks in models is to use good old paper correction fluid. Just paint it on when dry sand it back and keep repeating the process.
In the past, I’ve looked for M.E.K. locally. I found it only in gallons for $15+ in most places (Lowe’s, for one). However, Home Depot does carry it in quarts in the paint department.
I had some several years ago and dispensed some into a plastic bottle used for cement with a needle applicator. I would even remove the cap, put a piece of waxed paper over the mouth of the bottle and replace the cap. It evaporated in a very short time. I had the can tightly (I thought) capped and it all evaporated, too. I probably used less than a half ounce of the stuff all together. I really liked using it as a cement (never did the filler bit). It sets up so fast, it makes Tenax look like a slow cement! My point is, be careful how you store it and what you dispense it into. It’s very volitle. I’ve got several empty Tamiya Extra Thin Cement bottles that I’ll be using. (I hope that stuff gets back on the market soon!)
During the early portion of my US Air Force career, (late60, early 70s) MEK was used extensively as a degreaser, paint stripped and a few other things. The medical folks eventually determined that MEK was such a potential health hazard that the USAF banned its use in any and all circumstances. It was against regulations to use it, store it or even possess it. This is a fairly strong hint to me that I should not be using this nasty stuff, even with good ventilation and a respirator. Tenax and most any other styrene cement contains MEK, Acetone or some other strong chemical, but in milder concentrations. They still need to be used with extreme care. Did you ever wonder why stores that sell styrene cement are not allowed to sell it to anyone under age 18?
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
I’m a little late to the part on this topic, but let me add my tuppence worth.
I like to use good old fashioned Squadron putty mixed to a cakemix consistencey with whatever liquid cement I have on hand. I prefer plastruct, as the Tenax (which I really like to build with) evaps to quick.
That’s it. But it is simple, it works and it welds, and fills, while it dries.
Andrew
Pretty wild homemade putty/filler, have had reasonable sucess with Testor’s plastic
cement (Liquid) that contains methyl isobutyl ketrone and methyl cellosolve acetate).
One oz jar with brush and from Kmart “little ones baby powder”. A 14 oz plastic white can, a soft powder made from the finest talc. Not too complicated, spill a dab of powder,
dip a brush in cement, wet brush into powder and paint it on. Ends up white and sands
quite well.
jpete800@aol.com
I was told by our clubs Guru that you have to let MEK/plastic mixture de-gas for a couple of weeks before you paint.
What are your opinions on this
Montanti@aol.com
I find the thinner the mixture and thickness it’s applied the quicker you can paint. I like to wait 24 hours between putty coats if I intend to apply a second coat. I also like to wait 48 hours before applying a primer coat. If you apply a very thick coat of thick putty you will have to wait at least a week but I wouldn’t recommend applying it that thick.
Super glue + Johnsons baby power.
This is almost exactly the same as the Japanese SPP-HG filler/putty
It sands pretty good too.