After idling for almost 1 year, suddenly I took down a P-47D from my closet and started building.

But to my dismay, I lack something that ruin my mood. My gluing technique. Anyone can share to me how do you do your gluing between the body?

I just found out this soon after I started painting. I can see the joint clearly and it looks hideous.

I might as well title this gluing and sanding technique... :(

When you glue the fuselage together make sure you use a good cement/glue. I normally use superglue for most application, especially glueing large parts. The elephant brand super glue. Although it'll be more expensive if you compare to cement.

Also, When you glue really large parts like the plane's fuselage, better use something like clams or rubber bands to grip it firm before the glue dries, so that they don't budge open when drying.

Lastly, there might be some miss-alignment, gaps, seamlines at the joints. Use putty to fill them and then sand it nicely. Once the putty is dries, you can scrap the bigger chunks carefully using you hobby knife, then sand it smoothly with sand paper not less than 1200 grid. If the gap is big, you can fill it up with stretched spures. Some ppl like to use glues for gap filling, but I stick to the traditional putty way. Careful don't damage the surrounding details when sanding. After sanding, you might need to re-scrib some panel lines.

For aircraft, the best if you can spray a coat of silver or aluminuim color before you paint the base/body color. The silver/aluminium paint can act as a primer, and the best part is that these color will tell you where the misperfection is. Finger prints, stains, dusts, gaps will be very obvious under this coat of paint. Since you are working on WW2 aircraft, it'll be nice for paint chips as well. ;)

Before committing to glue, check that the parts fit together by doing a dryfit. Give the mating joints a swipe with sandpaper to smooth it out and remove any unwanted flash. If any misalignment, you will need to correct it first which may involve some surgery. Minor gaps can be taken care of after glue is applied. Major gaps may need to be tackled differently.

- If using liquid cement (eg. Tamiya green cap), just put the two parts together and use the provided brush to apply a touch of cement to the joint. Capillary action will draw the glue into the joint and that is usually strong enough once dried. For long joints like fuselages, do this a couple inches at a time until all joints are sealed. Sand off any glue residue. If gaps are still present, fill with putty or superglue and sand to perfection from 400 to 1200 grit.

This tutorial should be able to give you some guidance as well
http://z12.invisionfree.com/ScaleModelsMal...?showtopic=4760

- If using thick cement (eg. Tamiya white cap), just apply a bit of glue along one or both sides of the mating joints and then put the parts together. Sand off any glue residue. If gaps are still present, fill with putty or superglue and sand to perfection from 400 to 1200 grit.

Be careful with using rubber bands to hold the fuselage together. If you put liquid cement near where the band is, capillary action will draw the cement around the band and thus around the fuselage or whatever part it was you banded together.



HTH

cheers and happy modelling

Hi twistedfinger,
This is probably a universal problem to all and we all have our own ways of tackling it. Both fly's and pooh's version will work fine.

From experience, you can never get a fuselage join to be seamless without some sanding and putty, so some exercise will be needed especially if you need to repair seam lines, recessed lines and details.

Multi grade sandpaper will be absolutely neccessary and of course if you can find sanding sponge, they are very symphatetic in maintaining the contour of the join halves.

Have fun

flylice80: Thanks for the tips. But as in Kota Kinabalu, it is hard to get aluminium color. I need to order it from Mr Low :lol:

PoohBear: Thanks for the link. I think I should practice to be more patient. Maybe I didn't wait for the glue to really harden first.

Loo CK: Also, thank you.

If you don't have the patience like me, you could use rubber bands to grip the part that you glued, while waiting to dry you can glue other sections, and rubber band it. Make sure you apply enough rubber band and tight enough for good grip.