Whenever I assemble a round object, like a fuel drum or tank cannon barrel, I cannot get the parting lines (or seams) to blend and vanish. I can still see them. I've tried several extra coats of paint, but that just makes it more pronounced. Any tips or techniques anyone?

hi there

i use to have that problem in the past when putting together fuel drums
what i do tho is take off sprue sand where ino itl make seem marks and then glue together let dry and then you can see obvious seem marks still. i sand again till i get it flat enough to my liking then use abit of model filler aplly that over the seems let dry and sand down really well and you shouldnt even notice any seem lines atal plus when you paint it should be easy and done!

hope this helps for you

tony

If both sides of the fuel drum are fairly even with one another (no real steps once you dry-fit them together) use Tamiya's thin cement and wait a couple of seconds before you join the parts then squeeze the parts together until the actual melted plastic starts oozing out. With this you don't normally need putty as you have that oozed plastic actually acting as a filler. Just sand and you should have no seams of any kind. The trick here is to use enough cement to get the oozing. Too little cement and you won't get it. You'll still get the parts to stick together but you won't get the oozing of the plastic.


Another method that has worked for me is to shave some sprue into a container, put some Tamiya (or Testors) liquid cement in and stir until you basically have liquid plastic. Use the liquid plastic as your filler and sand flush.

The key to covering seams properly is to making sure that there is glue on the seam lines. If a section of the drum or barrel has not been touched by the glue, even if they seem to be sticking together, you'll have a hard time getting rid of the seam as you'll be essentially sanding to dry mating areas. I never rely on just capillary action to join pieces together (especially joining items where a seam will be noticeable). I make a point to literally 'paint' the area in question with the brush and glue. You can always remove the glue marks when you sand the area. I've been known to even paint the bare plastic with glue (I use Testors for this as it seem thinner than Tamiya's) when I notice that I may have gone a bit heavily with the sand paper. The glue literally restores the plastic and make everything smooth and good as new. Again, the key is using glue in the right amount and according to the area you needed in.

HTH,

Rob

Magic! Worked like a champ! Great post!