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Visible Seam On Finished Kit


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While looking at my recently completed Flashback Me-163A, I noticed an obvious seam line at the fuselage join on the port side between the nose and wing root. I don't know how this happened, but there it is. The model has been primed, painted, gloss coated, decaled and varnished. I am fairly adept at working with seams on bare styrene, but this is my first on a "finished" model. Anyone have any idea on how I can deal with this short of stripping it and starting over?

Thanks.

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Second to Toadwbg, but if it's REALLY nagging at you...

If the seam is light and no decals or mottled painting are at risk, I'd run a bead of Mr. Filler or super glue down the seam, lightly and carefully wet-sand, and repaint, but ONLY if you're very confident in not ruining everything else.

But preferably, just come to accept it.

Can you provide photos?

Edited by Horrido
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Been there...done that. Your putty shrunk since you finished...and the seam is showing. I use Tamiya thin liquid glue for my kits, and that takes a while to dry, so avoid working on your seams too soon after glueing. I have found that I can sand out a recently glued seam nice and smooth, only to come back a few days later and the seam reappears. I had this a lot and finally switched to CA for a seam filler or Tamiya Light Curing Putty, no shrinkage since.

Cheers

Collin

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If this model is for your shelf and not for a contest, the people (besides you) that will notice the seam are in this order:

1. A contest judge

2. Other modelers afflicted with PMS (Perfect Modelers Syndrome)

3. Other modelers not afflicted with PMS.

4. Everyone that will tell you how great the model looks.

If this model is for your shelf and not for a contest, the people (besides you) that won't notice the seam are in this order:

1. Everyone that will tell you how great the model looks.

2. Modelers not afflicted with PMS.

3. Modelers afflicted with PMS.

4. A contest judge.

Note: All four groups will enjoy your model.

P.S. If I spent time correcting problems with the models that I have built, I would have to stop building and fix each one. I haven't seen the model in question, but I'll bet you did a great job on it. You just had a little hiccup and will learn from it. Keep crankin' 'em out.

Tim

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If it's one of those things that really bothers you, AND there are no markings really close to the area what you could maybe do is re-putty and address the seam as careful as you can trying to stay away from areas that are good. Then find the nearest panel lines around the area and using post-it note for masks, mask off the whole panel area. Then re-paint trying to match the color as close as possible. If you happen to be off shade slightly, it will look more like panel variations and less like a botched paint job. If you need to slightly weather other areas of the plane to make other such variations that might help conceal the problem. A final clear over the whole model will help blend it even more. I realize without having seen the area in question that this might not be possible.

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I'd agree with the whole let it go, and move forward. The final product that you'd wind up with if you were to go back and sand and reapply putty will probably look ten times worse than what you think it looks like now. Everyone makes mistakes, and just short of taking three weeks between each step in the build, you're going to eventually encounter things like this. I pretty much use CA glue exclusively for gaps these days, because it doesn't shrink. It's probably still a solid project.

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Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

This was to be a contest model, so I needed to address the seam. I ended up using Micro Mesh pads starting with a really light, circular sanding of 1800, and then worked my way up to 6000 as I got down to styrene. I made sure to keep it circular so I would have a tapered edge that hopefully wouldn't be noticeable once I re-painted. Once down to styrene, I applied a line of CA. I then sanded it down with with a Flexi File using progressively finer belts. Luckily the entire airframe is RLM 02, and there are no decals in the area, so I didn't need to worrry about masking aside from the cockpit. I then shot spot-two coats of Alclad II Grey primer, sanded, and then two coats of the RLM 02. I had used Testors Dullcote as my final varnish, but now I used a few shots of Micro Flat over the repaired area. I then went back to the Micro Mesh using 2400 to blend things together as well as I could. I'm happy with the end result. The seam is gone and no further harm done. I had a lot of advantages going in, such as the monochromatic scheme, no decals or panel lines, and a fairly small area. I think the Alclad primer was really what helped me the most by helping to fill in that divot. I'm still not sure what caused the problem in the first place. I didn't use any sort of filler at this join, as I had used Ambroid liquid cement, and achieved the desired molten styrene oozing out, and then just sanded when it was dry. It had dried for several weeks before I finally primed it. I have a friend at my LHS who insists that liquid cement can keep softening plastic for several months afterward. I always thought that was crazy but maybe he's on to something. I think Ill start a new topic on this actually. Anyway, thanks again for the input and encouragement.

Happy modeling!

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I also thing you should let it go.

I you only spotted it after building, priming, glossing, posing decals and varnishing your model, it is obvious that this seam must be very hard to spot.

I know that when we find a defect on our model it is then almost impossible to stop thinking about it, and we just only see it on the model. But you certainly will be almost the only one.

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Being that it is a contest model, meaning that sometimes people will be literally studying it TRYING to find these things, then yes he should address it and he did successfully sounds like. (good job BTW, it's a great feeling when you overcome a heart dropping problem like that isn't it?). I understand that some people don't feel these "problems" are worth worrying about and the modeler should just move on. And they have every right to feel that way. BUT sometimes people DO worry about it and want to fix it. Simply telling the guy to get over it and move on really isn't helping his situation is it? Just my two cents.

Bill

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I ended up using Micro Mesh pads starting with a really light, circular sanding of 1800, and then worked my way up to 6000 as I got down to styrene. I made sure to keep it circular so I would have a tapered edge that hopefully wouldn't be noticeable once I re-painted. Once down to styrene, I applied a line of CA. I then sanded it down with with a Flexi File using progressively finer belts. Luckily the entire airframe is RLM 02, and there are no decals in the area, so I didn't need to worrry about masking aside from the cockpit. I then shot spot-two coats of Alclad II Grey primer, sanded, and then two coats of the RLM 02. I had used Testors Dullcote as my final varnish, but now I used a few shots of Micro Flat over the repaired area. I then went back to the Micro Mesh using 2400 to blend things together as well as I could. I'm happy with the end result. The seam is gone and no further harm done. I had a lot of advantages going in, such as the monochromatic scheme, no decals or panel lines, and a fairly small area. I think the Alclad primer was really what helped me the most by helping to fill in that divot. I'm still not sure what caused the problem in the first place. I didn't use any sort of filler at this join, as I had used Ambroid liquid cement, and achieved the desired molten styrene oozing out, and then just sanded when it was dry. It had dried for several weeks before I finally primed it. I have a friend at my LHS who insists that liquid cement can keep softening plastic for several months afterward. I always thought that was crazy but maybe he's on to something. I think Ill start a new topic on this actually. Anyway, thanks again for the input and encouragement.

Thank you for posting your solution to the problem! B) I was following this thread with interest to see what could be done about it.

One of my pet peeves is when folks ask for help, get multiple suggestions, finally figure out a solution to their problem and then never give feed back to the community to help others with the same issues.

Glad you got it fixed!

Edited by dmk0210
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niart17- Yes, it is a great feeling to overcome these little dilemmas. To me, improvising and overcoming is what this hobby is all about. Well said about the judge TRYING to find faults. That's what a contest is! Which model has less faults?

dmk0210- I agree. That does happen too often, and I had that in mind when I posted. I was sure no one was on the edge of their seat waiting to see what would happen, but maybe someone could benefit from my mistake.

Happy Modeling!

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