...anding.
There's nothing I enjoy more than a satisfying sanding session. I scratchbuild a lot of stuff, and however careful I am, there's always SOMETHING that needs a little gap filling. Sometimes, it's ejector pin marks or sinks in bodies or frame rails, but whatever it is, I have some kind of weird sanding fetish.
Take the chassis above. It's for a 40 Ford that I'm building. I used the recently-reissued Lindberg kit, which is frankly terrible. I know it's an old kit, but the flash and general quality of the parts is horrendous. So, rather than make chicken soup out of chicken shit, I decided to make the chicken largely from scratch instead.
A new chassis was first order of business, constructed with 3mm square styrene rod and a front frame (much modified) from an AMT 49 Merc. Rear end is a 9 inch Ford, and the motor will be a 5.0 Mustang mill.
I've finally got it mocked up and complete enough that I'm ready to paint, and tonight I laid down some healthy blobs of Squadren Green fputty to fill the gaps. I like to use McDonalds coffee-stirring sticks to get it roughly the shape I want it whilst it's still wet, then leave it for a couple of hours to set before sanding.
The comes the fun part: breaking out my sanding stick collection to attack the now-set Green and get it all leveled out and pretty. I;ve gt probably 20 or 30 sanding sticks (aka 'nail files') that I've collected from various places. Some smooth, some coarse, some seemingly suitable for rubbing down the sharp edges on a tank, and some suitable for nothing much more than bulking out my sanding-stick bag.
I like to start with about 150 grit or so, to level out any lumps and bumps quickly, then progress up to higher grits as I go. There's nothing quite so satisfying as sanding a bit lump of Squadron on the corner of two joined pieces, and gradually seeing the colour of the plastic peek through, leaving patches of filler in the low spots. A quick coat of primer brings even more sanding fun - this time with a potential three or four colours to appear before your very eyes. It sometimes takes me 4 or 5 goes to get it how I want it, but I always get there in the end.
Take your time, be patient, work gently and carefully and you too can experience the Joy Of Sanding, and the much improved finished product that comes with it.
JB
There's nothing I enjoy more than a satisfying sanding session. I scratchbuild a lot of stuff, and however careful I am, there's always SOMETHING that needs a little gap filling. Sometimes, it's ejector pin marks or sinks in bodies or frame rails, but whatever it is, I have some kind of weird sanding fetish.
Take the chassis above. It's for a 40 Ford that I'm building. I used the recently-reissued Lindberg kit, which is frankly terrible. I know it's an old kit, but the flash and general quality of the parts is horrendous. So, rather than make chicken soup out of chicken shit, I decided to make the chicken largely from scratch instead.
A new chassis was first order of business, constructed with 3mm square styrene rod and a front frame (much modified) from an AMT 49 Merc. Rear end is a 9 inch Ford, and the motor will be a 5.0 Mustang mill.
I've finally got it mocked up and complete enough that I'm ready to paint, and tonight I laid down some healthy blobs of Squadren Green fputty to fill the gaps. I like to use McDonalds coffee-stirring sticks to get it roughly the shape I want it whilst it's still wet, then leave it for a couple of hours to set before sanding.
The comes the fun part: breaking out my sanding stick collection to attack the now-set Green and get it all leveled out and pretty. I;ve gt probably 20 or 30 sanding sticks (aka 'nail files') that I've collected from various places. Some smooth, some coarse, some seemingly suitable for rubbing down the sharp edges on a tank, and some suitable for nothing much more than bulking out my sanding-stick bag.
I like to start with about 150 grit or so, to level out any lumps and bumps quickly, then progress up to higher grits as I go. There's nothing quite so satisfying as sanding a bit lump of Squadron on the corner of two joined pieces, and gradually seeing the colour of the plastic peek through, leaving patches of filler in the low spots. A quick coat of primer brings even more sanding fun - this time with a potential three or four colours to appear before your very eyes. It sometimes takes me 4 or 5 goes to get it how I want it, but I always get there in the end.
Take your time, be patient, work gently and carefully and you too can experience the Joy Of Sanding, and the much improved finished product that comes with it.
JB
No comments:
Post a Comment