Whilst I am waiting for some stuff to harden, I thought I'd pose a few questions on the forum regarding what ppl use and how they go about their builds. As some of you will know, I've been away from the hobby for a good 15+ years until the start of the year, so I've been in the process of 'rediscovering' techniques, looking for products to replace the things I used to use and discovering things that weren't around a decade and a half ago! The glue I used to use is gone, the putty I used to use has changed formula, etc; so how does everyone go about their basic building and seam finishing?
After a few months of experimenting, this is where I am at now:
Major Seams are usually filed (to ensure proper mating) and bonded with Plastruct Weldene - this stuff is so thing that it just SHOOTS down the join; it is a bit unforgiving, but the pro's outweight the con's! For smaller bits, I'm still using the trusty old Tamiya Cement (Orange), 5 second Superglue and Epoxy for resin and metal...
For filling, I used to use Tamiya Grey, but the last tubes of both Grey and White I bought were TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE; so I jumped ship to Squadron Green which has proven to be rather awesome! Just enough solvent in it to really bond well, but I find on some plastics (such as the older Dragon/DML plastic and the Eduard 'variable consistency' plastic) that the edges of the putty sometimes don't quite smooth over seamlessly. Thus, in place of the old Mr Surfacer (?) which I can't find any more, I'm trying this Tamiya Grey Liquid Surface Primer as a sort of microfiller. Has anyone noticed how similiar that stuff is to LIQUID PAPER in both smell and consistency?
I've also tried the Vallejo Surface Primer, which I initially wrote off and being too soft - when i'd sand it, it would 'tear' at the edges; well it seems I pre-judged it. If you leave it for a good 24hrs, it dries MUCH harder and sands quite well. BUT I think I will leave that stuff as a spray primer - it has an AMAZING finish and the black primer is SO dense; should work great under metal lacquers.
What does everyone else use? What has worked and what hasn't? For example, I know a bunch of ppl use superglue + talc as a filler, but Ive not had much success with that myself (what has worked tho, is letting some super glue soak into Squadron Green, where you need to form an edge - makes things much tougher!)...
Dan