"Dealing with Pin Holes in Foam" Topic

Recently I picked up a CTS 1/32nd Scale (54mm) 'Large Mansion' at a local hobby swap meet that will fit in with both my AWI and ACW gaming.

The foam building has a lift off roof and comes painted; frankly, the paint job is terrible. It looks like someone drybrushed it with a 3" latex paint brush.

So, a repaint was in order. I shot a light coat of primer (Vallejo Model Air Gray) to help id any problem areas. The primer revealed hundreds of small to tiny pinholes in the foam concentrated mostly in the roof area. You can see the 'black' holes in the first pic.

Filling (and then sanding down) all those holes with any type of standard filler (3M Acryl, Bondo, Alves Epoxy Sculpt, PVA, etc.) was not appealing so I looked around my bench and thought of Mr. Surfacer 500 – which I use all the time with my plastic modeling.

I was concerned that the Mr. Surfacer might harm (eat) the foam and tested it on the underside of the roof.

No issues after 24 hours so I then literally painted Mr. Surfacer (1 coat) with a brush over all the area's with pinholes. You can see the results in the second pic.

Now all I need to do is a very light sanding and then I can paint.

This will be my go to filler for foam buildings from now on.

For those not familiar with the product:

Mr. Surfacer is a range of numbered fillers manufactured by Gunze-Sangyo. The higher the number the thinner the mixture (500, 1000, 1500, etc). It is designed to fill seams and small holes on plastic and resin models. It is medium gray in color and has a slight oder; I use it all the time and have gotten used to it. It dries rock hard in 24 hours and is easily sanded.

It is available in well stocked hobby shops and from numerous online retailers.

It can be brushed on or thinned and sprayed through an airbrush. It can be thinned and removed with Gunze's proprietary thinner-Mr Thinner.

I use it all the time for seam work on plastic and resin. Brush the Mr. Surfacer into the seam(s); wait 24 hours, dip a Q-Tip in Mr. Thinner and rub across the seam. Mr. Thinner removes the excess and you're left with a perfectly filled seam.

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

Pic #1 Pinholes:

Pic #2 After applying Mr. Surfacer:

Wow, quite a difference! That product looks to do an excellent job. Thanks for the pics and the FYI.

The pinholes did add a nice woodrot effect, but the filler seems to have worked perfectly.

Doug

Doug: good point regarding wood rot; I want to simulate a well maintained house, a rich landowner, so they needed to be filled.

You should have painted a 1/32 scale woodpecker and given character to the house.

Maybe…LOL!