Weld lines

Jakko

Way past the mad part
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Jakko
For my Sherman Crab, I needed to replicate a lot of weld lines because one of the kits I’m using, had them all as wide recesses rather than narrow, raised lines. After contemplating and trying a few things, I settled on the following method.

Step One: Put two pieces of masking tape along the weld line, leaving a narrow gap between them:

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Obviously, you’ll need to leave a gap the width of the weld line, and preferably a tiny bit less.

Step Two: Smear more putty into the gap between the pieces of tape:

2384165B-0701-413D-936C-8154B984BC6F.jpeg

Don’t put this on too thick — not much more than the thickness of the tape itself should do, but it doesn’t need to be perfectly even or smooth.

Step Three: Remove the tape:

391789A0-986D-42C2-B1BB-0D64DFA64069.jpeg

Do this before the putty sets, and make sure you don’t pull too much off with the tape.

Step Four: Texture the putty:

8F1E0A5B-7F3C-4936-BDE8-5A0EB519F4BE.jpeg

I pressed a ridged pattern into the putty with the edge of a spatula. You can also do this before removing the tape, but since this texturing will flatten the putty a little and push it outward, it’s better to do it after because it will smooth out the sharp edges left by the tape.
 
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