Ghost Seam Lines - Never Again!

[Lazur]

Don`t you just love when those `ghost` seams keep coming back after gluing, filling and sanding, sometimes even weeks later? Well, there is a way to deal with that. Let`s see. Stretched sprue - it has to be glued. Glue takes time to cure (trust me, sometimes for a week or longer). Sprue goo – same thing. Ok, it can be dry to the touch 24 hours later but chemical reaction is a slow beast. Lacquer paint over acrylic putty method – no chemical reaction, but putty needs time to dry. True, acrylic putty dries faster, but it should be left to dry for at least 24 hours to be on the safe side. Cyano+talc – it doesn't shrink and sands nicely but the more talc you use, the more difficult it is to stick and crumblier it can be. Black cyano? Well, many modelers don`t like cyano because it dries harder than plastic. I find that with patience and properly applied technique, black cyano could be your best `shrink-free` friend.

Method:

1. detect seam lines with black sharpie (or pen of your choice) & fine grit sanding sponge
2. apply black cyano & activator
3. don`t use a coarse sanding sponge (to preserve the curved shape of the plastic), the goal is to sand just black cyano and this is done with hard and coarse sanding stick
4. rotate the sanding stick and plastic part during sanding and do not press hard
5. hard sanding stick (finer grit) is used later
6. polish everything with fine grit sanding sponge

Cheers!

[wokka]

Thank you for that.