Filling Gaps (Green stuff): advice?

[MoblinMan]

Heya folks, I had my first experiences with Green Stuff yesterday, and it was a little more tedious and fiddley than I had expected. The Gobbla model I recieved in a Skarsnik and Gobbla kit, had some pretty thick and unsightly gaps that that just had to be filled.

Filling the gaps was easy, I rolled the green stuff into very thin sausages, and applied them over the length of the gaps before squashing them in.

Removing the excess greenstuff however was much more of a pain. On more than one occassion I tried removing a little excess only to pull out the stuff I had filled the gap with!

And finally trying to smooth out the greenstuff and blend it into the model afterwards took took me forever (And still you can vaguely make out that it has been filled if you look close enough).

Am I doing somthing wrong? Or is this all normal and to be expected? (The chaps on here make it look easy lol).

Anyone have any tips, suggestions or techniques I should know about?

 

[freakinacage]

i would suggest using something other than gs. maybe magic sculpt. or a gs/milliput mix. gs is actually remarkably hard to work with

 

[MoblinMan]

Thanks for the suggestion, I cant say I'm familiar with the products (I've been away from the hobby for around 10 years), are they easily availiable from standard arts/crafts stores or somthing specialist I'm going to have to search around for?

 

[Chrome]

Something I do when I'm filling larger gaps is to fill it and not remove the excess until after it has cured. then it's a lot easier to cut and sand down to create a seamless filling

 

[Sleipnir]

Milliput in all variations is mostly available in every art store u can find out there.

Just a sidenote: I ve made the same experience some weeks ago Genryu - so you re not alone!

 

[In Chigh P.I.]

For gap filling i find Milliput far superior to GS (and cheaper!) Also, its water soluble, so it can be smoothed with a wet brush or even just a wet finger.

That said, it has a tendency to shrink during curing, and i find that larger gaps need 2 (sometimes even 3) applications

 

[MoblinMan]

I never even considered leaving it to cure and then sanding it down later, I'll have to remember that.

As for Milliput, sounds interesting, especially the fact its water soluble. I think I may go and check out my local arts supply store next time I get paid.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Shawn R. L.]

It would be too hard to try to explain step by step how to do some of this stuff - BUT, that said there is hope!
Sometimes a two step approach is helpful. Fill the gap with whatever putty and let it cure.....just get 98% of it filled. THEN go back, sand it and then put a VERY THIN layer of putty simply to fill the tiny gaps, lines and to 'blend' one piece to the other. The difficulty your running up against can also be due to the tools you are using. Make sure they are very smooth, clean and using a very little bit of oil can make all the difference.

 

[freakinacage]

Thanks for the suggestion, I cant say I'm familiar with the products (I've been away from the hobby for around 10 years), are they easily availiable from standard arts/crafts stores or somthing specialist I'm going to have to search around for?

milliput is a very common modelling putty. magic sculp no so, but it is cheap and my fav by far (lacks the brittleness of milliput). where are you based? sylmasta sells magic sculp online

 

[MoblinMan]

Uk resident here, we have a 'Range' near to where I live with a very large Arts & Crafts section. I'm going to pop in on payday, and see if I can find anything there.

 

[Einion]

If you're lucky they might stock Milliput (many art shops do) but the price probably won't be great. Sylmasta's page on Milliput is here in case you want to compare prices.

Nobody has mentioned the various colours of Milliput I don't think so: for general work the standard one (Yellow/Grey) is probably okay but many users recommend Silver Grey as the best all-rounder; Terracotta will probably do you fine if it's all they have. Superfine White is the finest grade but it's not necessary for simple filling duties and it costs a lot more.

Milliput is not the worst thing you can use - certainly a step up from GS for gap filling! - but MagicSculp is in many ways better so I would also highly recommend it instead.

Einion