I was wondering how you make the weldseams.
I’m sure others will come in with scratch methods but for ease, Archer Transfers makes raised weld seam decals which are designed to be applied before finish coat and painted over.
A single sheet goes a long way and has various size weld beads on the sheet.
Rounds Complete!!
i take two pieces of blue tape, and put it on either side of the place to be ‘welded’.
then i use putty, and glom it on on the line between the two pieces of tape.
taking an old hobby knife, i ‘chop’ the surface of the putty, putting small lines/groves in the putty. this gives it the welded look.
Then let it sit for a while, and remove the two strips of tape. this will leave a sharp line of putty. Take the hobby knife, and blend it into the surrounding plastic area.
hope that makes sense
Thanks for the help
You can also get a piece of stretched sprue of suitable length and diameter, and stick it in place using liquid poly. When it has set, run some more liquid poly, a couple of cm at a time, over it, and use a scalpel blade to make weld seam marks.
This has the advantage of being 3-dimensional and the materials are free!
Cheers,
Chris.
I agree with this method–use stretched sprue, and add some glue, let sit for a few, and then just texture it with a sharp exacto blade.
Streteched sprue or round styrene rod treated with liquid glue works great depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. [tup]
I use stretched sprue, styrene rod and occasionally a putty/glue mixture, depending on where the weld is. For the welds I make from rod, I form it with the handle-end of a small file, which gives a rounder form. This almost looks like the “stacked dimes” of a good bead.
I understand weld sizes will vary depending on many factors.But for the novice is there a general size of plastic rod to use to give suitable effect.At this stage i have problems working out how small things should be.What rod would you use on say,a Tiger hull.And then rod for around a hatch or towing hook.Or things like that in general.
Welds can very considerably in size, depending where on a vehicle they are located and the amount of load the weld will be subject to. On Shermans with welded hulls, several large overlapping beads were used to join the upper and lower hulls. To attach accessories like clamps and headlight guards to the hull, a small bead is all that’s necessary.
Archer Transfer’s weld beads look like they would be just the thing, but I have yet to try them. Anyone have any personal experiece they can pass on to the rest of us?
I’ve used 0.022" rod for the most part. Don’t have it in front of me at the moment to be able to provide the mm diameter equivalent, but it’s pretty small stuff. Glueable, flexible, and of course, consistent length and diameter througout.
I have some digital calipers,i will find out on that.Thanks.
If size matters,
!http://th305.photobucket.com/albums/nn215/kanthgadu/new%20smileys/th_alien4.gif**well here…**
The scale is always the
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If it’s 1/35, Divide the real life part by 35 to get the model size. If the real part is large, be sure to break it down to inches before dividing. If centimeters, break it down to mm.
Example:
real life spark plug wires .325 diameter …better get out your
.325 dia divided by scale, in this example 35 = .0092857 rounded up to .010
If you want to know the size of the real life part according to the model dimensions, measure the part with a
and do just the opposite… 
multiply.
DISASTERMASTER
I have used them and they work great. Just apply like a decal. Let them set up overnight. Then paint over them. IMO well worth the money over the time to strech plastic or play with putty and MUCH simpler.
I understand being a true modeler and costs BUT there are diminishing returns…go with the Archer transfers.
Rounds Complete!!