The Bondo Squish

One of the flaws I noticed with the kit is that the back ring to the upper body has some depressions in it. Two non-trivial ones, to be precise. To me, it looks like the mold was not sitting flat when they poured in the resin. Who knows.

Anyhow, my first task of the day is to fix those problems. I will use a technique knon as "The Bondo Squish" to do this.

But first, let's take a quick look at how things are going. This is the main body after the primer has had a chance to dry overnight. Frankly, I'm quite pleased. On one side, the seam has totally disappeared. On the other side, it only needs a tiny bit of work. So far, so good.



In order to allow the putty to get a good grip on the body, I sand off the paint where I want it to stick. This picture shows a little more clearly the two trouble spots I'm attempting to fix.



So here's how it works. First, you put the putty in the places you want to level out.



Then you take that piece while the putty is still wet, and "squish" it onto a piece of styrene. You use styrene because the putty will not adhere to it once it cures. Press down firlmy, squishing all of the excess bondo/putty out of the way. Because the sheet of styrene is nice and flat, this flatness will be transferred to the putty, making it a smooth surface.



I put a can of paint on top of the body to keep the pressure constant while the putty cures. I give it about a half an hour, just to make sure it's completely done.

After that, I just peel off the styrene sheet. Here's what it looks like afterwards.



I then went in with a file and some sandpaper and cleaned it up a bit. I still need to go pack in and spot putty up some tiny cracks, but it's looking really good. The problems that were there before this proceedure are now fixed.