Questions

Putty for Zvezda figures?

Posted by Ender Duman on 06 Mar 2017, 19:42

Hello, everyone. I haven't been active on the forum for a long time though I have been visiting it regularly. I finally returned to the hobby and immediately started working on a new diorama. I am using figures from Zvezda's Zaporozhian Cossacks set. Great set with lots of possibilities for conversions.

I have a problem: No putty I used seems to work on the plastic Zvezda used. The white putty that you can see on these figures is from Tamiya. It sticks on the figure but when it's dry it just flakes off, just like Humbrol's Model Filler and Revell's Plasto. Greenstuff is out of the question since I need to be able to carve it later on. What do you guys used on this kind of plastic?

And another question: Is there a putty on the market that can be heat treated (I use a soldering iron) when it is dry?

Image
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Ender Duman  Turkey
 
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Posted by Marvin on 06 Mar 2017, 20:24

I know I have trouble getting paint to stick to Zvezda figures. I get around that by painting the figures with a little pva glue beforehand. Once its dry the paint seems to stay on much better, with no loss of detail on the figure. Might work with your putty too?
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Marvin  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by Cryns on 07 Mar 2017, 17:01

Marvin wrote:painting the figures with a little pva glue beforehand.

A very good idea by Marvin.

Ender Duman I have some more suggestions:

-Remove the grease (applied during production) that covers the surface of the figure by soap or terpentine.
-Roughen the area you want to apply your putty with a needle, knife point or file.
-Use a putty mix of green stuf and magic sculpt (or a similar putty that can be cut or grinded afterwards) so you keep some of the stickyness of the green stuf but it is more easy to reshape it after hardening.

Good luck
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by poky on 08 Mar 2017, 06:39

sorry to say but what you want is not possible, flexible putties stick better but cant be or are hard to carve, procreate can be carve and sanded but not as well as say magicsculpt which is a hard putty.
you can scratch the surface and add a drop of super glue but because of the pressure during carving it will always be hard too keep it stick.
best option is to sculpt it and not curve it, bit harder to learn but in the end it will look better

anyway good luck
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poky  Netherlands
 
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Posted by Ender Duman on 09 Mar 2017, 14:46

Thank you guys. I tries a combination of your suggestions and it seems that poky is (unfortunately) right: This plastic doesn't allow anything stick to it. I will try scratching the surface with the soldering iron and built details over the figure using Milliput. Will post the results here. See you.
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Ender Duman  Turkey
 
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Posted by Kekso on 09 Mar 2017, 15:46

Maybe you can try to wash plastic with some small amount of paint thinner.
It might eat out surface a bit so putty can stick better.
But first, you should try it on some Zvezda sprue leftover.
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by TakeMeBackToElbe on 09 Mar 2017, 20:33

I used a water soluble degreaser and left the Zvezda sets in for 30 mins. You need to rinse them very well, but it has meant no adherence problems with paint or the very small quantities of liquid greenstuff I have used. Have not tried putty.
TakeMeBackToElbe  Australia
 
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Posted by Kostis Ornerakis on 09 Mar 2017, 21:41

Just some ideas:
Drill holes on both pieces and connect them, inserting an appropriate wire.

Use a putty, make it surface soft enough with an appropriate thinner and sculpt it with a common brush.

Use superglue (with dust) and then curve, if it breaks reattach with superglue. You can repeat the process several times.
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Kostis Ornerakis  Greece

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