Hi,
New member of the networkhere. I have been building armor models off and on since the early 1980's (I am ON again). I just wanted to get some input on a good way to deal with those pesky "mold holes." You know, the round depressions and raised areas used to get the piece out of the mold. I know it is simply sanding and filling but I wanted to see what others are doing.
Thanks!
Andy

Sand, fill with putty, hide with stowage, fill in with glue.

If you have a plastic punch set like Waldrons, find a punch that is roughly the same diameter as the knockout pin hole and punch out a disc then glue the disc in place and sand it flush if needed.

A great deal of stowage covers most of the obvious holes. For those pesky ones--folllow the advice given above: sand and fill or use glue fill

There's no avoiding them. Like nubs left over from when you snip the part from the sprue or the mold seam lines that run along your part, filling ejection pin marks are part and parcel of basic modelling. Fill and sand -- like all of us...

Less filler = Less sanding. Work a small amount of filler into the pin mark and let it dry. After a couple of hours, sand lightly and repeat as required. If you slap gobs of filler on to small areas, one of two things happen, either you "pull out" the filler or you sand the sorounding area to thin.

If the ejection holes are shallow .... paint over with a few layers of Mr. Surfacer 500, and then when this is dry, rub down flat again with cotton tops and aceton-free nailpolish remover. I use this method when and as needed, as theres no risk to damaging details.
Theres also an item today called the micro chisel which has small chisel blades that are 1 and 2 mm wide. Great for getting into small areas! Alternativly you could also grind down an ordinary chisel blade for your knife to the required width!

I have found a soft palette knife used for fine arts painting works well with putty to help put it in the right place and scrape off any excess before it dries.

Fingernail polish remover will also soften some of the putties and allow you to wipe off the excess.

What about simply outsourcing it all to China or India like we do everything else these days???

Semper Fi,
Dave

I always use a fine tip paint marker and make little faces in them.




Ok, sorry, I don't usually do that. I use the suggestions above.

LOL!

Filling is generally the best way to go. But filling with putty takes time. I like to use a small stretched piece of sprue or a pin to dab CA into the hole. It will stay within the confines of the border. Hit it with accelerator such as Insta-Set and immediately start sanding. On broad flat pieces it takes about a minute start to finish. Hard to reach reach areas take a tad longer, but you'll ultimately save lots of time.