I need to do some welding on my Firefly Vc. I have practiced using putty and then carving parallel lines in it with my knife, but it didn’t come out quite the way I wanted it. Is there another way of using putty to do this. I would rather not spend much money on new tools if I can avoid it. Thanks
I had luck with letting some cement soften up the area and then giving it the once over with an exacto. Some people use strip styrene and liquid cement. I was just kind of playing here, mud will cover all of this and then some…I’m happy with the lower half of the seam in this pic…
Or use a dremel to make an indented seam, also roughing up the ‘rolled armor’ edge near the weld. set it at the lowest speen possible and slowly work around. The bit is in the pic to show the size.
ausf is right on the money.
I read about the glue/knife tip method some years ago somewhere, and even though I didnt do any armour models, I gave it a go for giggles sake, and the result is quite impressive.
Just remember to break the tip off of your knife, use and old blade and snap off the very tip of it.
The place some cement on the bit you need welded, and after it has softened the plastic, gentle plunge the knife blade into the soft plastic.
Leave it for a couple of hours, and if the effect is not strong enough, go over it again following the marks you made before.
Practice on a scrappy styrene piece first, but it really is an easy method.
Sean
Thanks, guys. The reason I asked about using putty is that I need to fill a small, but noticeable gap between two parts that are welded together, but I can’t make fit properly. Could I use gap-filling superglue instead of liquid cement? Does superglue “melt” the plastic the same way liquid cement does?
No it doesn’t.
You could use a thin strip of styrene (shave down some sprue or styrene rod) and glue it in place. use a lot of glue so the strip softens and then use a blade as described above. You also could glue in a strip and then use a low power soldering iron (4 watts) or wood burner to create the seam (practice on scrap first!) or melt some plastic in liquid cement and put the resulting paste in the seam.
I was typing as Claymore was posting, What he said [#ditto]
I like to use a dremel with a pointed steel cutting bit in it to create weld seams. If its to be a raised bead then I glue some styrene rod and soak it in glue much like the above techniques. I then go in with the dremel and make the weld marks, then flood it again with glue. I may take several treatments on a depressed weld but the effect is good I think…
Thanks again. Styrene rod and lots of glue seems to be the way to go. I’d better get practicing…
Kenneth,
Are you going to try the hot knife for welds?
I was just thinking that… I am working today but I will try it when I get home… I have already started the welds on my KO’d King Tiger using my aformentioned technique but I may give it a go anyway… It may work for the better since I need sunken weld lines. Have to use a light touch though… I’ll let yall know how bad I screw it up in the morning…[:D]