Thursday, July 10, 2014

Squadron Putty

I have heard about Squadron Putty for years. Many builders use it to fill the seams in plastic nose cones. I've been using medium super glue on plastic nose cones with good results.

I haven't used Squadron Putty before simply because I don't build plastic models. It is primarily used to fill the joint seams on plastic kits. I recently picked up a tube at JonRocket.com.
The Squadron Putty contains Toluene and dissolves some of the plastic locking the filler in the open seams. The Toluene is why the Squadron putty stays in the shallow mold lines on a nose cone.

I was curious if there was any difference between the green and white Squadron putty.
After a few online searches it seems that the green putty is the original formula.
Some builders say the green is coarser, the white putty is finer. Others say there is no difference except for the color.
All agree the white putty covers easier when color coats are applied after filling.
Some say they have similar results using the Bondo Spot and Glazing Putty.

TIP: Don't use super glue to fill gaps in a soft wood like balsa. Super glues dry too hard and you'll end up sanding more wood than the glue you set down as a filler.

I was most interested in filling the small tab gaps on the QCC Explorer intakes.
Super Glue is used to assemble the intakes. After sanding, the super glue has sealed the wood and a water based filler (CWF) won't stick in the open seams.
The Squadron putty has the Toluene solvent and so far has stayed in the fill areas after sanding.
The dried putty sanded pretty easily with 400 grit sandpaper.

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