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Daniel posted an update in the group
Modeling Supplies Addicts – Tools, Paints, Tips 9 years, 9 months ago A short question, of sorts. I’ve done seam lines before but sanding them propperly always came out hard to do or left surface not smooth enough for painting. Any advice? Using files and sanding sticks will do the trick but what grain? What would be my basic for sanding down excess glue roughly and then what grain should I get for that fine finish just before painting? I’ve noticed that the grain number go to 1200, would that be too fine for a pre-paint work?
Thanks in advance.
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Modeling Supplies Addicts – Tools, Paints, Tips
Basically, to eliminate sanding scratches, you sand the surface again with a finer-grit sandpaper. The finer-grit sandpaper will make its own scratches, obviously, but they’ll be smaller. Continue the process through a few stages and the scratches will be small enough to be indistinguishable.
For most of my modeling work I use four sanding grits: 220, 320, 400, and 600. 220 is coarse enough to have a significant impact on the part, and 600 is fine enough to produce a smooth surface for painting. I recommend buying the sandpaper from a hardware store – look for wet/dry sandpaper in 8.5″ x 11″ sheets, you should be able to get the four sheets for around $5 total, then cut them up into smaller pieces and have enough sandpaper for several projects.
There are really only a few situations where I need finer grit than 600 – for instance, when sanding a clear part I might go up to 1500, 3000, or 6000 to get a really polished surface. Sanding paint coats to get a smoother finish is another case where finer grits are useful.
I’m using polishing files for fingernails to sand things down. They are very flexible so you can use it on round parts and they have parts with very high grit to buff up and shine your nails. But it works on plastic parts really good to.
I myself am using a 240 for rough sanding, followed by a 1000 and after that I run it down with a flexible fingernail file for some fine polishing. I guess a flexible nail file is around 1500-2000 or so. A knife’s good too for that exess glue that’s easier cut than sanded. But still watned to read what the others use. This is a hobby where one can perfect himself even after thinking one knows everything already.
Thanks a lot guys. I’ve already filled my bookmark list with some nice stuff. At the very least I have this year’s “to buy” list set. I guess I won’t be getting that Perfect Zeong any time soon so why not give this a go while I can!
Thanks again. If someone else has something to add, we’re all here to learn and compare our knowledge. You’re all welcome.