General questions on Mr Surfacer 1000

[David Hingtgen]

Hi, I'm basically wondering exactly how thin/thick Mr Surfacer 1000 is, and how it's best applied. Would it work well to say apply it via brush along a seam? I've been using the 500, but it's too thick to be applied easily to most of the places I want. It's more of a "smear it on with a toothpick", and I usually end up covering an area 10x the size I want. Good for "bridging a cliff" between parts, not thin seams.

PS--and what works best (or even better, what has the least smell) to clean it out of brushes?

[Kurt]

David,

You can certainly apply the 1000 with a brush. Depending on how much of a gap you have will determine how many times you need to apply it. For the most part I tend to use the 500 for filling gaps. In areas where you want to be careful use a smaller brush or a toothpick. I use thinned 1000 to prime all of my custom valks. It gives the paint a nice surface to grip. I use lacquer thinner to clean the brushes. It smells pretty bad (or good depending on my mood ) but it is the only thing that I know of that will clean it off. Don't waste your money on the Mr. Thinner just to clean brushes. Go to your local hardware store and buy a big can of lacquer thinner for under $10. I use the Mr. Thinner just for thinning the 1000 for airbrushing.

[Mule]

I've been using Mr. Surfacer 1000 on my current model. It goes on great with a small brush for pretty precise coverage, and I've been cleaning it with Testors laquer thinner. It takes several applications to fill in most things like ejector pin pits, wayword scribing mistakes, shallow seam gaps, etc... but I'm quite happy with the results. I can't find 500 in this area right now, so I can't really give you a good comparison.

Edited May 28, 2004 by Mule

[David Hingtgen]

This may be a stupid question, but since I'm pretty new to Mr Surfacer in general, and it's not quite like putty:

To fill a moderately deep seam, etc----do you just keep layering it and letting it dry until you can see it's filled and then sand away the large amount of excess in one session, or do you sand away the excess between each layer after that layer dries?

[Kurt]

David,

If you have I large gap to fill I would start by using super glue. Use a gap filling or gel super glue to fill in most of the area. Sand that down and then use your Mr. Surfacer for the finish work. If it is a real large gap, cut pieces of styrene to fill it up and the use the glue / surfacer.

[Mule]

To fill a moderately deep seam, etc----do you just keep layering it and letting it dry until you can see it's filled and then sand away the large amount of excess in one session, or do you sand away the excess between each layer after that layer dries?

I'm new to it as well, so if I were to answer the same question in a month, the answer may be different. For now, I just layer it up until I don't see the depression anymore then sand the whole thing down. It seems to be easier to sand off than putty, so a slight glob isn't as tough to remove as a glob of putty or CA glue. One thing I have noticed is that with very small pits, you need to jab the stuff in the hole. If you don't it will just sit on top of the hole and when you sand it off, there's the hole again.

[Commander McBride]

Suggestion for using Mr. Surfacer: Buy a pack of microbrushes. That way, you can use one to apply the surfacer, and just toss it when you're done. No need to waste time and effort cleaning it out of a nice brush.

[David Hingtgen]

Ah ha! I knew there had to be a good use for the things. Microbrushes never seemed to work for me for glue or paint, but Mr Surfacer seems perfect. Of course, I don't have any right now... (or I probably would have tried them)