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Sanding seam lines


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I'm having trouble with seam lines after putting pieces together. Right now with fuel tanks. After gluing them, I sanded them down until the seam line was barely visible, but once I painted, the seam line shows through.

Am I not sanding enough? I'm afraid of sanding too much because then I'll lose detail.

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I'm having trouble with seam lines after putting pieces together. Right now with fuel tanks. After gluing them, I sanded them down until the seam line was barely visible, but once I painted, the seam line shows through.

Am I not sanding enough? I'm afraid of sanding too much because then I'll lose detail.

If you're still getting a visible seam then the seam was not properly sealed during the bonding process.

http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/2008/07/22/encore-perfect-seams/

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what are you using for glue?

Model Master Liquid Cement

Maybe I'm not using enough glue? I used to put what I thought was too much, now I'm just putting evenly spaced droplets of glue on the surface.

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Are you getting any ooze of melted plastic out of the joint? I've never used MM liquid glue, but in theory it should do about the same job as the others. That said, there are differences. I prefer Tamiya extra thin, followed closely by Tenax. Each has it's advantages/disadvantages, as I'm sure MM does. If you're not getting any ooze, your not using enough, and/or the glue is drying too fast and not melting your plastic. If you can, I'd give Tamiya a try. Tenax works about the same, but dries alot faster than Tamiya giving you less workable time, which is sometimes useful.

Topic of liquid cements has been discussed here many times, I'd run a search here on ARC Tools-n-tips for Tamiya extra thin and/or Texax 7R and read up on them.

-Brian

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Cover the entire surface of the part you are glueing, not evenly spaced dots. Works better that way.
Are you getting any ooze of melted plastic out of the joint?

Ah, that's what I'm doing wrong. Back when I was a kid I would get the ooze, but I thought that was too much because then it would get on my fingers and there'd be fingerprints burned into the plastic. I wasn't getting any ooze this time.

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Liquid glues are really meant to be applied by capillary action, so if you're not doing that, it can also contribute to your problem by drying too much before putting the pieces together. And yeah, once you've got the ooze, you gotta let it be and not touch it. I usually wait at least 4 hours before I even consider trying to sand a seam. Usually overnight if I can help it. BTW, the ooze you get from todays liquid cements isn't quite like the ooze you get from the ol' school Testors tube cements, from what I remember. Some ARC'ers still use that stuff so ???

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I'm having trouble with seam lines after putting pieces together. Right now with fuel tanks. After gluing them, I sanded them down until the seam line was barely visible, but once I painted, the seam line shows through.

I sure am glad you asked this question.

I have the exact same issues, and use the exact same technique that you do. (spotting the glue instead of running a bead)

The video this is posted in the response just ahead of mine is exellant and made me feel like a fool.

I KNEW how to do the stuff when I was a kid, and now am learning it all over.

What I do is glue the seam, like you do, then when it isnt perfect (never is) I run a small bead of CA (with toothpick and immediately apply CA accelerator (with toothpick).

Then, I sand the seam immediately to close it up.

its a lot of work and not the right way to do it!

I just glued the booms on two (2) P-38s today, and wish i would have read this post yesterday!!!

Guess I'll run to the LHS and get some TENAX and a touch-n-go tomorrow.

Phil

Phil

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Is there more to that article? I saw it mentions more to come at the end of the article but I dont think I've seen another part to the first article.

Here you go. Thanks Gerald for putting that together. This article has helped me a lot.

Cameron

http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=111677&page=1

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