Using super glue to fill gaps

[Frank Burroughs]

I see the use of super glue and thin plastic to fill gaps in seams on a plastic model.

 

1)  If the gap small enough, can you skip the filler?

2)  Where do you find the thin sheets of plastic? 

[Scottish Guy]

40 minutes ago, Frank Burroughs said:

1)  If the gap small enough, can you skip the filler?

 

Tbh, I did this in the past (don´t build plastic models anymore even if there are still some Star Trek models unbuild in my shelf) but it works fine when the gap is not more than 1-2 mm (pls don´t ask me about inch ), then some good superglue will do the job. If the gap is up to 3-4 mm I used plastic cut offs (the little stuff that comes of when clipping of edges and cleaning the cut outs) or I used some cling foil to strengthen the glue.

But be aware that it can become a pain in the butt to sand the glue off, it often ruins your soft files (the nailing fails for women) and also your normal files, so you have to clean them after the use.

 

 

40 minutes ago, Frank Burroughs said:

2)  Where do you find the thin sheets of plastic? 

 

You can find plastic sheets of 1 mm on Amazon or use the punch pockets from Amazon which come in different thickness (here 30 microns) but I know you get them also in 50-80 microns (more expensive).

 

Micha

Edited April 16 by Scottish Guy

[Frank Burroughs]

Forged Acrylics Styrene Sheets .015", 12x12 Inch, White 4-Pack works?

[Scottish Guy]

5 minutes ago, Frank Burroughs said:

Forged Acrylics Styrene Sheets .015", 12x12 Inch, White 4-Pack works?

 

That should also work well Frank.

 

Micha

[Keith Black]

17 hours ago, Frank Burroughs said:

Where do you find the thin sheets of plastic? 

 Frank, a good experiment to try is take a small piece of paper, a little heaver than copy paper, thinly coat it with CA (super glue) and voila, plastic. Not exactly plastic but pretty close. Makes for a good substitute and if you need to cover a void, a little paper, some CA and you've got a patch. It does not sand all that well because the underlying paper gets fuzzy but once you're down to the level you want to be, add some more CA to strengthen the surface. 

Edited April 17 by Keith Black

[Thukydides]

Your best bet is to just get some milliput or similar epoxy putty and use that to fill the gap. The nice thing about milliput is you can thin it down with isopropyl to create a slury that flows into gaps.

 

Also can use sprue gue (take some small pieces of sprue, put it in a old plastic glue bottle with plastic glue).

 

I have used both to great success. In a pinch you can also do the super glue thing.

[Scottish Guy]

4 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Frank, a good experiment to try is take a small piece of paper, a little heaver than copy paper, thinly coat it with CA (super glue) and voila, plastic.

 

That is a good option though but I would suggest book paper (120-200 gsm), bond paper / copy paper (70-100 gsm) could work when you use the high end copy paper (100 gsm). I´m not sure if it makes a difference if you use coated (thin layer of clay -  used to archive high resolution prints for pictures etc.) or uncoated paper. Also I´m not sure if it is a point if gloss or matte but I doubt that this makes a difference, satin could be maybe make a difference because satin can be water repellent (depending on the qualitiy of the paper)  so it might also not work with the glue.

 

Which also becomes quiet sturdy is normal newspaper (snippets of newspaper) mixed in water (not too much, you can add water to get a creamy consitency) and then add wallpaper adhesive (powder) or some PVA (don´t use it for wallpapers (makes them wavy and falling fo the walls maybe).

[Keith Black]

 I use watercolor paper. 

[Canute]

Another putty material is Durham's Water putty.  I also use Spot Putty from Bondo. It had an odor, so use outdoors or with adequate ventilation. It sticks nicely to the plastic. You should prime it for painting.

 

Thin sheets of styrene from Evergreen Scale Models. They sell a combo package with a number of thicknesses; the sheets are 4" x 6", I think. Evergreen makes loads of styrene strips and shapes , along with the sheet products. Most is white styrene, but they do make sheets in black. Here's a link: https://evergreenscalemodels.com/