Kestrel shuttle pinholes! Help!

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I'm building the B5 Kestrel shuttle model and around the sides where the mold seam was I sanded it smooth. Now I have thousands of pinholes. I tried using Mr. Surfacer 500 and built a up about four coats to where I thought the pinholes were filled, then wiped the excess off with lacquer thinner. It filled a lot, but I still have a LOT of very small holes left. Do I need to try a finer grade of Mr. Surfacer or what? Help!

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Anybody? Help!

[Sparky]

Ter_or points out that the use of Mr. surfacer is not to fill then remove, it is to place a new thin shell over the old surface.

Don't remove the Mr. Surfacer accept where it interfers with wanted surface details.

[TER-OR]

Sparky's right.

IF you wipe or buff down to just where you see the filler in the holes, you've gone too far. The goal is to build a shell over the area and buff it smooth. I find it best to do an entire area up to a panel line or natural break. If none exists, then buff the edges (far from the problem area) down to the model surface.

I learned this painting a WARP Death Glider kit - and discovered the microbubbles in the GRP resin. Not a big deal if you know they're there - but I didn't when I sanded the area.

[Go Flight]

FWIW, I use Porc-A-Filler. It's a porcelain chip filler, for sinks, tubs etc...
You can find it in either Home Depot or Lowes (and probably any other good hardware store.
It can be put it on with a paint brush and it goes on pretty thick. Clean -up is with fingernail polish remover.
Once dry you can sand it with a tiny grit sanding stick. If you don't wait to long you can even smooth it out with the fingernail polish remover on a flat paint brush.

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Sparky's right.

IF you wipe or buff down to just where you see the filler in the holes, you've gone too far. The goal is to build a shell over the area and buff it smooth. I find it best to do an entire area up to a panel line or natural break. If none exists, then buff the edges (far from the problem area) down to the model surface.

Ok, I'll try that, thanks!

[didihno]

Wouldnt a nice liberal coat of future solve this?

[Sparky]

maybe, but we use fine pigment ink in future to bring out fine details , like the almost invisible panel lines and details on the BSG mini from coby. chances are if you you coat it with future you will see every pin whole and scratch. It is after all a ship passing through atmo.