Filler And Nail Varnish?

[zuludog]

I use Mr Surfacer 500, and have found a problem, though not with the actual filler itself


I apply the filler with a cheapish paintbrush; If I leave the brush uncleaned it sets hard.


I can clean the brush with cellulose thinners, but, skinflint that I am, that uses up my thinners


So I'm thinking of scrounging one of my daughter's many almost - empty - and - unfashionable bottles of nail varnish


I would use the internal brush to apply the Mr Surfacer, then return it to the nail varnish bottle, as a 'keeper'. The solvent saturated atmosphere inside the bottle should prevent the brush from drying and setting.


I would probably cut a few mm off the brush so it wasn't quite as flexible.


Would there be any problems if a few dregs of nail varnish mixed with the filler?


Or any other comments?


Perhaps I should clean out the old nail varnish to be on the safe side

[stona]

It depends on the nail varnish. If it is acetone, or possibly other suitable solvent, based your plan should work just fine. Some (but not all) cellulose thinners contain acetone among other chemicals.


On the rare occasions that I use a model filler I smooth it and remove excess with an acetone/nail varnish soaked cotton bud. It saves a lot of work later


Cheers


Steve

[Gern]

It depends on the nail varnish. If it is acetone, or possibly other suitable solvent, based your plan should work just fine. Some (but not all) cellulose thinners contain acetone among other chemicals.
On the rare occasions that I use a model filler I smooth it and remove excess with an acetone/nail varnish soaked cotton bud. It saves a lot of work later


Cheers


Steve

I tried that with cellulose thinners and managed to get a line of melted plastic down both sides of the filler I used. It did clean up the filler though!

[stona]

I tried that with cellulose thinners and managed to get a line of melted plastic down both sides of the filler I used. It did clean up the filler though!

Maybe the cellulose thinners you used was a bit 'hot' Dave. Cellulose thinners is a generic term for various mixtures of solvents. Some have MEK as the principal ingredient which would make them an excellent polystyrene cement. I believe that Tony uses a cellulose thinners as his liquid poly. Using an acetone based nail varnish remover should not damage the plastic because it is not a concentrated solution and acetone is not the hottest solvent for polystyrene. It should get rid of the excess filler and smooth that in the gap to be filled though. I wouldn't recommend using any cellulose thinners instead, unless you know what's in it (and it never says on the tin) and have done a test.


Cheers


Steve

[zuludog]

Looks as though for my purpose it wouldn't matter if a bit of nail varnish got mixed into the filler ; I'm talking about a near empty varnish bottle,, not a full one by any means. In fact it would probably help the filler to attach itself to the plastic


But to be on the safe side, and for the sake of a few pence worth of nail varnish remover, I think I'll clean out the bottle first. There are even a couple of videos about this on YouTube


To remind you, I don't want to actually put anything in the bottle, it's just to prevent the brush from drying out


Maybe I'll put a drop or two of some sort of thinners or liquid glue in the bottom of the bottle, to keep the atmosphere saturated


This would not be enough to touch the brush, especially if I've shortened the bristles slightly


Right, now I know what I want to do, the next thing is to get hold of a teenage girl.

[Gern]

Why? They're nothin' but trouble Zuludog! Stick to your modelling if you want a peaceful life!

[zuludog]

More peaceful maybe, but not half so much fun. (or so I've been led to believe)