<-- **** DONE: 1/48 P-38J Lightning - Twin Engined Aircraft of WWII

Wurger said:

Really nicely done.

But a couple of notes here...
Firstly, you have used the incorrect tool from the dental set for applying of the putty. Instead of the one with the ending shaped as a hook with a ball you should have used the paddle type one. A dentist uses the hook with ball for tamping of filling in deep holes of the round shapes with bottoms while you had to fill a quite narrow and long aperture.
Secondly , you haven't had to remove the masking tape so quick. If you stuck them closer to the aperture and left these strips there while using the cleaner and Q-tips for removing of the putty excesses you would have less of plastic messed and less of the putty at all around the gap. Just my opinion.

OH BTW... instead of using the cotton wool for protection of the wheel bays you could use a pieces of sponge that is more elastic and get the bay shape while put it in a such hole. It is enough to cut a piece of the sponge of a little bigger dimensions than the hole and squeeze it while putting into a bay. Then it will return to its shape when you stop squeezing. The cotton wool is too "hairy" and leave fluff stuck easy all around usually . The example can be seen in your video while unsticking the strips of the masking tape.

Click to expand...

JKim said:

Cool to see your video of this process! I'm not sure I would be using the masking tape approach on an exposed joint like this. Is there a physical gap between the two halves that the putty would be occupying? You should be able to get a nice solid joint using glue only which could be smoothed out with careful sanding. Putty could then be applied (I like liquid putties like Mr Surfacer) in any small gaps. I reserve my Milliput/water technique for certain situations like filling physical gaps in hard to reach areas such right angle joints.

Click to expand...

Airframes said:

Nicely done video Robert.
It looked like a very small gap, so, in addition to the points raised by Wojtek and John, it may well be that the gap, or depression, is too shallow to allow the putty to 'take', hence the 'balls' when applying the acetone. If the putty is in such a shallow gap or depression, it's very like it being just on a smooth surface, with little or no depth for the putty to 'key' to, which leads to it still being at least partly soft, but trying to cure. This almost always leads to a break-down within the partly cured putty, which, when 'worked', sanded or otherwise treated, manifests itself as flaking, or, in this case, as the cotton bud is agitating it the 'flakes' roll in to balls.
It may well be that a length of stretched sprue, slightly larger than the gap, laid into the depression and fixed using liquid cement, can then be sanded back flush with the surrounding surface.
An alternative is a bead of CA adhesive, which should be sanded before it's had time to fully harden, otherwise it'll be like trying to sand Mount Everest - with a nail file !
I wouldn't worry about the surrounding raised detail too much - a lot of it is very probably way over scale, and would benefit from being removed, especially raised rivets.
If the depression is very shallow, then a mix of clear gloss varnish (enamel or polyurethane, NOT acrylic), or light grey enamel paint, and talcum powder, 'painted' into the gap, works just like the proprietary brands of 'surfacer', and can be sanded once fully set.

Click to expand...

fubar57 said:

Glad you're feeling better and paint looks good. Curious about the Vallejo. Early versions of the Metal colors didn't hold up to masking very well but the later versions improved

Click to expand...