Work-in-progress

WAAAGH – ‘Naut Shims

Didn’t have much time last night, so I just did some shims. The nice thing about this approach is a few things: I create a nice smooth surface to decorate (rather than cut-up Rhino innards), and I can check the fit on both sides of the shim to ensure it works. A problem I was having with the Rhino treads as-is was that I was never certain how much coverage (for gluing) I was getting — every time I went to check, the tread moved a bit!

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I’m going to need to do a lot of gap filling. Both of these models were built by other people, and those people didn’t take as much care with good fittings as I would have preferred. Anyone have good materials for filling gaps? My go-to is green stuff, but the way I use it tends to create rounded pieces rather than straight-across pieces. Maybe I just need to overfill and file back.

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2 Comments

  • Kelly
    April 4, 2016 at 8:42 am

    We’re talking about a really large gap here? How big exactly?

    I would pre-fill with plastic off-cuts and bits of sprue first, otherwise you’ll end up using a ton of putty. Milliput would be my go-to for this as well… it’s coarser than green stuff, so perhaps bit rougher surface for glue to stick to, and it’s cheaper than green stuff too.

    After having done a bunch of home renos recently, I’d almost say polyfilla or bondo, as that stuff comes by the bucket. But polyfilla is too light and crumbly for models (although if it doesn’t need to support any stress…), and bondo is something I’ve only read about, not actually used (it’s made for filling in dents in car bodies prior to primer, but it’s apparently great for filling in cracks in rotted wood posts and decks too). Both will need lots of sanding after it sets though, which sucks… I’d rather spend a tiny bit more money than time any day.

  • Craig Fleming
    April 4, 2016 at 10:17 am

    Half a centimeter at most, not super big gaps. Just a lot of them. 🙁 I ended up filling with green stuff and filing back. But I worry that it flakes a little bit, or I’ve filled in places that I can’t reach with a file very well.

    The nice thing about orks though is that if it looks bad, just cover it with another piece of plasticard and call it a day. 😛

    I’m with you — I’ve got money, time is at a premium. 🙂

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