Magic liquid putty - a.k.a. modded Tamiya basic putty

[Guest]

I just want to share a little discovery I made quite a few weeks ago that now has been tested on many occasions and I think I can stand behind this concoction with regards to its function and quality.
This is perhaps already widely know and if so I'm sorry for posting something obvious, but it's been working wonders for me since I discovered it and I thought I'd share.

Whilst trying to fix both wonky kits and touching up my premium Takom King Tiger with interior there's always going to be some details that needs attention from Mr. Putty. I think this is inevitable...

Using Tamiya basic putty (the white stuff) is a rather messy ordeal and it's sometimes hard to get into seams and small cracks without making a mess so I started experimenting with various methods of thinning it.

To make a long story short this is where I discovered that Tamiya Putty became something very different when mixed with Tamiya extra thin cement! Not only did it flow perfectly into those small cracks and seams - it dried very fast, and when dried I think it's actually become harder than when used on its own! (This might be an illusion on my part but it certainly sands better.)

So what I did was to take a jar of the cement where only ~20% was left and I added almost a half of a tube of putty into it and stirred. Now I have liquid cement at hand all the time, just shake before use and that's it!
If you want slightly thicker stuff just add more putty to your like.
The built in brush was obviously something I wanted as a built in applicator and it works great.

No more mess, faster drying and fantastic when you want to fill tiny cracks/seams!



Depending on how thin you make the liquid putty there's going to be some shrinkage when drying, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and since it dries in just a few minutes another thin layer can be applied where needed until you're satisfied. My intention was not to have something to build up large blobs but to have something that could easily fix seams and similar minor blemishes and this works fantastically well for me!

A bonus is that it bites in to the plastic really well due to the MEK (i.e. methyl ethyl ketone, Tamiya cement) it's thinned with.

I hope this could be of use to anyone else who'd like to have a liquid putty and have yet to discover this!

[colin m]

Nice one Jens. This could be very useful.

[Guest]

Cellulose (lacquer) thinner works also.
Same principal with the cement but with scrap styrene is something I've used for a while.
Take scrap sprue, softer the better, chop the styrene into small pieces and throw into the cement until it's just over the level in the bottle, give it a stir and let it sit until it turns into gooey liquid styrene add more styrene or cement to get the consistency you want, apply with a paint stirrer or scalpel blade, takes awhile to dry but you're filling styrene with styrene.

[Guest]

I didnt know about this. I will give it a try some time. Thanks for the info Jens

[zuludog]

I've been playing around with that sort of thing for a while

I have a jar each of Mr Surfacer 500 & Mr Dissolved Putty; in practice I can't tell much difference
Also I have been using Green Stuff putty for years, but I had one tube with a stripped thread on the plastic cap, and it was starting to dry out, so I squeezed it out into a small jar and added a small amount of cellulose thinners to thin it slightly.
I use the Mr Surfacer as my 'base jar' and top it up with the others as needed. This concoction works well enough

I've kept it reasonably thick, but still thin enough to brush on
For a brush I scrounged an old bottle of nail varnish from my daughter (last week's fashion!). I don't deliberately add nail varnish to the mixture, but there's no problem if a drop or two finds its way in. The bottle is simply a keeper to prevent the brush from drying out. I trimmed the brush slightly to make applying the surfacer more manageable

I prefer tube glue for large components like wing & fuselage halves, and attaching wings to fuselage joints. I also have liquid glue for small components
But I have made some glue that is halfway between liquid and tube glues by dissolving some clear sprue in a bottle of liquid glue, and I prefer that to the very thin 'pure' liquid glue
In fact you can mix up liquid glue. tube glue, and sprue as you wish to obtain the desired consistency. You can use clear or coloured sprue

All these glues, solvents & fillers are intermiscible - liquid & tube glues, body filler, liquid fillers, nail varnish, acetone, cellulose thinners
If you want to use acetone for thinning & mixing, make sure it's pure acetone and not nail varnish remover, as that often contains other components, like water and oils

I find the tamper proof tops on bottles of liquid glue really fiddly and annoying, so I bought a couple of bottles of Tamiya and, I think, Mr for their ordinary tops, plus some bulk liquid glue to top them up

Search YouTube for 'plastic model putty techniques'. There are several videos, both from manufacturers and modellers. Some of them show how to mix & mess about with fillers, and there are also one or two on using dissolved plastic as a filler

[BarryW]

Interesting Jens. Thanks for sharing. I tend to use Mr Dissolved Putty in the same situations. This needs thinning every now and then and surplus can be removed by a cotton swab dipped in ipa and a spot of elbow grease.