Tips for filling small gaps cleanly?

[Birdie]

I've never been that great working on smaller pieces (chubby fingers) and I seem to have repeated problems cleanly filling small gaps between connected parts.

I rareley use bondo type filler, as I find it too viscous and unforgiving in setting time, so I tend to work with Milliput Fine. The problem I'm having in creating a clean fill without excess filler clogging up (?) around the join.

If I used a sharp blade to clear the excess before setting, the filler tends to 'tear' taking strands out with it, or leaves a rough or pitted surface, that is hard to get into to sand.

Has anyone got any tips or techniques for dealing with this problem?

In case I haven't explained very clearly, I've included a poorly drawn Illustrator diagramme to illustrate the problem.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Mr_Creepy]

This was recently posted; I've never heard of doing this before, and sounds like a great solution for very small gaps.

5th pic down - http://www.therpf.com/f11/1-7-scale-star-wars-astromech-series-153639/index3.html#post2373626

 

[Birdie]

Haven't seen that one before either, will have to give it a go.

Any other ideas out there?

 

[Gigatron]

Hey Simon,

You might want to check out Aves apoxie sculpt. It's a 2-part epoxy, that has the consistency of soft clay. Mix up a little bit of the 2 parts, and press into the gaps. Wait about 10 minutes, then just use water and your fingers, to smooth it out. You can dip a cotton swab into some water and clean up the excess around the joint. When it dries (about 24 hours), it's rock hard. You can sand it, file it, drill it and paint it, with no problems.

I rebuilt most of a Pulse Rifle using the stuff, so I can attest to it's usefulness.

-Fred

 

[Ozymandius]

Miliput and Apoxy sculpt are the same type of epoxy putty, so the same smoothing methods will work for both.

When you trim off the excess, keep your blade wet and clean. It's the putty that gets stuck to the blade that is doing the pulling and tearing. Wipe it frequently with a paper towel and spritz the area with water to keep it smooth.

And don't trim it flush when you use the blade. Leave a little excess above the crack and then smooth that down with a wet and clean spatula tool. Using this method will leave you with very little sanding work to be done.

 

[chuckyAPP]

I find that after sanding it down, hit it with dust off in a can, then apply more putty and resand.

 

[tim]

I've had good success with Spackle for filling small gaps. It's easy to work and sand, and does not crumble once "sealed in" with a coat of paint.