The Little World

Yes, I do – particularly when I am making Idea Model, Minicraft, Mistercraft, or Novo kits.

It is a natural reaction to the sight of gaping crevasses. I should be a quivering mess in Antarctica. At my workbench I am just barely controlled.

It was not always thus. As a child builder I would have ignored badly fitting parts. As a youth I might have smoothed seams with the blade of a modelling knife, but it is only in my maturity that I find the bad fits to be offensive. Other people do so much better building kits – and other makers do so much better moulding them – that the occasional poor kit really calls for something. I don’t know if it is craftsmanship or revenge.

Well, commercial fillers fill, and sand, and you can become expert in their use. But they sometimes fail to bond with the mouldings, and often flake off or trench out as you sand them. The only really reliable filler is a a home-made product that uses cement or lacquer thinner and chips of model sprue trees. You make it to a consistency that pleases you and sand it off flush with the kit plastic. It takes a little longer to set than commercial putty, but the result is excellent.

I make mine thin, and put it on in two coats, a day apart. It is cheap as chips and never fails to seal the worst gap. I make mine pink to contrast with every other model moulding on the planet. Revise that line if you build Barbie dolls…

Note the Idea Models Grumman Tracker has more canyons than the Colorado River. If they kept this level of precision going when they supplied mouldings to Minicraft, I can see why the Canadian company folded.