I have been having a real problem lately filling seams, and am wondering if anyone else has had similar problem sin the past, and what did they do about it. It only seems to affect the Tamiya kits I build, the Hasegawa and the relatively few others I do have not had this issue. I use Tamiya extra thin liquid cement, and Zap products “Plasti Zap” for seam filling. The problem is, the superglue sinks down into the seam after a while. Current projects are two Tamiya 1/48 Corsairs, which I built the airframes and filled the fse and wing seams two months ago. I filled the low seam spots with the superglue, and checked them VERY carefully under a coat of silver paint. They were perfect when I finished them. Now, two months later, there are very noticeable low spots, about .5mm in depth. Has anyone else run into this? I would really appreciate any feedback. TIA!
Are you using gel superglue? That won’t give you a problem.
It’s not a gel type, I would call it “medium viscosity.” The gel types won’t do that?
Something is amiss with you needing to fill seams on a Tamiya kit…they are quite tight in tolerences…
Again another reason why I don’t usually use CA as a filler. Differing substances react differently to climate changes…plastic and CA move at different rates (expand and contract). Also never ever use cements or glues over a painted surfaces.
Assembly technique…improve your assembly methods to avoid seams as much as possible…especially with Tamiya kits they’re shake and bake kits, they fall out of the box almost perfect.[:)]
I think this “sinking” (or maybe better described as “shrinking”) problem is just a characteristic of extra think cement and even some of the fast dry puttys. That’s what you pay for “conveniency” I guess. I suggest you use normal/slow drying putty for large seams and coarse primer (like mr. surfacer 500. And yes, it WORKS) for small seams. That’s what I’ve been doing and I’ve seen many other modelers doing the same.
Hope this helps.
Sorry that it took awhile to reply. In my experience, gel has never sunk on me. In fact, I was just using the liquidy stuff to fill a seam on a Revell F4F-4 Wildcat and it happened. Went to the store, bought the gel, and everything is now fine. Zap is good stuff but my personal favorite superglue is loctite gel or Kroxx glue. There were some ads in FSM for the Kroxx. Hope it helps!
Frank, are you sure the CA is the problem? Most liquid cements I’ve used will do this. The chemical melts and welds the plastic, makes that nice little bead of plastic so there is no seam work to do once it’s trimmed. Problem arises later when the chemicals in the cement completely evaporate. As they do the seam will shrink, causing the area to look depressed or sunk in. When the parts are clamped together by mechanical means until the seam dries I’ve had no problems but if I just glue and stick together, hold a few seconds and leave it, in a day or two I’ll be able to detect a dip in the joint and out comes the Mr. S. 500.
You may be having the problem under your CA. My advice would be to complete all major construction then let the build sit a couple of days before you so any seam work.
Experiment to determine if it’s the CA. Take a nondiscript bomb or tank out of the spares box and glue it together with the liquid cement. Do the same to another but after you glue, fill the seam like you normally do with your CA and sand the joint. In a few days or a week check the two and compare. You should be able to tell what’s going on that way.
The only time I’ve had CA shrink and not fill an area properly is when I get a bubble in it or I’m tring to do to big an amount at once. I use accelerator a lot and the CA will do weird stuff when it’s hit with the mystery chemical and the CA shrinks up like cold nads. I too, use medium CA for seam and gap filling but only on certain occasions.
Thanks for the help guys! The more I think about it, the more I suspect either my technique and/or the Tamiya extra thin I have been using. Don’t recall ever having this problem years back when I used Tenax. I picked up a bottle of it from the LHS the other day, and am gonna try your suggestion hk about some spare parts and some experimentation. I am off this weekend so I plan to do some trials Friday and see how they look Monday. Again, thanks everyone for your input, MUCH appreciated!
Tenax and Weld On are much hotter thus giving better penetration and stronger and more effective bond. Most model company solvents are for a broad spectrum of skill levels…whereas the two I mentioned are geared to those with a bit more experience or been introduced by someone other than the model companies.
I have been playing around with the Tenax and Pro-Weld, and am having great results thus far. Also clamping parts first instead of just holding them together for a while. Looks like a trip back to the basics was in order, as my technique had suffered. To fix the Corsairs, I took some Gunze Mr. White Putty and thinned it with Gunze thinner to make a paste. Brushed some on, and sanded it down. Looks like that did the trick so I am back in business with those two. [tup]
Thanks again everyone for your help! [^]
Glad it’s working out for you, Frank. Now off with you to the 109!
Yeah…right!