I have been gutted on my first five models to find the seams shining through like a full moon on a clear night. They stood out like moon beams.
The latest a Mosquito 1/48 not a seam in sight. This time over the moon. Sorry ! Pity the rest of the model is not the standard I wanted but that is another story.
Got most of it from Mr Flory.
Used for the first time
Tamiya Extra Thin Cement with the capillary method. This I found to be a revelation as fitting everything together with tape before glueing allows better & precision fitting or at least getting the better option with ill fitting pieces. Also found that the joint is much better although care is needed or the glue will migrate to areas you do not wish to glue. John in the Shop does all the Albion range which includes glue, applicator & bits & pieces to apply the glue. The Albion glue is similar to the
Tamiya one above.
This still leaves you with the seam to contended with. I got Mr Surfacer 50 1000 & 1200. All of these are applied with a brush. 500 being the thicker filler & most useful. The others are I have found for really fine filling. Apply coat on coat as required to fill. You will loose panel lines. Have to admit there are not so many on a Mosquito with the ply construction. Mr Surfacer is available in Hong Kong via Amazon. From memory about £5 per pot.
Next comes a bit of destructive work. Main thing I have found is to use abrasives which retain the shape of the fuselage otherwise the result is awful. To do this I have used again Albion abrasives. The Flexi File System which is perfect for retaining shape when filing & also the Foam Back Sanding Blocks which come in different grits. John stocks the Flexi FIle but not the Sanding Blocks. Used the blocks to give a good start & finish with the flexi file.
You may then need to apply more surfacer & repeat the process. The Mosquito joints (
Revell) were terrible in places but the above was a sucess.
Then you need to scribe lines again. Needs practice & I still need it. Found one way was applying a vinyl automotive tape which has a good thickness to guide the scriber. The other was to use templates for straight & curved panel lines again John in the Shop has these. I have a
Tamiya scriber which allows work in difficult to get at areas & also a scriber marketed bye Bake Metal Foil & Hobby Co. The latter is better as it cuts the surface rather than dragging the plastic.
For visual of the above techniques go to - Flory models Home. I have found here some very good tuition videos. But you will need to pay a subscription monthly £3 to watch the Tutorials. £3 covers all the tutorials & there are hours of the stuff.
Laurie