SPA Modeler

My work continues on the seams. I will have photos tonight. I am using a combination of CA and Milliput. The Milliput was difficult and messy to use so I am limiting the usage to just filler or backing for the CA. The last time I did this I jumped too soon to primer which resulted in a back-forth with sanding and removal of primer as well as redoing the filler. Hopefully I learned enough since to achieve 90% of the final filled seams before moving on. Patience. Photos later.

Mr Surfacer 500 applied with a pipe cleaner:

Blue highlighter - CA fill / Light blue highlighter - Milliput fill:

Four “locator openings” - CA fill:

Lots of grunt work that will pay off! I still can’t make Milliput work fo me. Not sure why.

Nice attention to detail fixing up all those surface flaws Bruce.

Lyle, One of the two compounds used to make Milliput work is definitely stickier than I would like and over time gets more so. What happened to me was the light rinsing I gave my hands did not wash away the sticky film well enough: small clumps of Milliput gathered to my fingers, gathered to areas of the model I was holding where I did not want Milliput. I am still cleaning up these mistakes. Thanks for writing and your support.

Carlos, I hope to make more progress than this but the seams are simply going to take time. Thanks for your support as always.



There is a small dimple where the arrow is pointing which is common to all the AMT 18-in E models. I am considering drilling a hole smaller then the dimple in order to get the putty to stick.

A bit like lancing a boil.

Beautiful work Bruce; your persistence with the seam filling is gonna pay off in spades. As for the dimple; try the Mr. Surfacer 500 on it; I use it for that kind of thing all the time. Beats having to drill it out some more.

I love what I see here. This is rocking along well Bruce!

Thank you so much for your advice, Mark. I sincerely appreciate your idea and will do it. I apologize to you and anyone following for the glacial pace of this project, but I learned the hard way that the seams need to be solidly glued and filled before painting begins. What a great tip, Mark. Sincerely.

You're welcome Bruce. I'm glad I could help. Don't worry about the slow pace. Life tends to get in the way sometimes and then there is our own persistence in trying to make it look right. I have taken long times to do a number of my projects; the Dora railgun, the Panzerzug BP-44 armored train, the C-118; the Space Shuttle with boosters all have taken a year or more of time given my drive to somehow make them look good. Believe me, based on the amount of work and attention you are doing here; this is going to be one smashingly great model!

I am really relieved to be able to use Mr Surfacer to fill the dimple. These are a plague on both... nacelles! Thanks again, Mark!!!

You're most welcome Bruce!

Glad I could help.