Quick Tip- Masking with White Glue

[Casey]

Here's a quick tip which will help make assembly easier and keep your built models together.

Most scale RWD suspensions using parallel leaf springs and a solid axle mount to the chassis via a pin-into-a-hole type interface, so here's a quick way to keep those holes clean during the painting process.

1) You'll need white glue (Elmer's, etc.), a toothpick, and the part(s) with the holes to be filled, in this case a 1/32 scale Monogram '65 Mustang chassis:

2) Next, slowly squeeze the glue bottle until a small drop starts to come out. The tip of the toothpick can be mushroomed or bent/broken like so to hold a slightly larger drop of glue, if necessary:

Here's a typical chassis hole, into which one of the rear leaf spring mounting pins fits:

3) Apply one small drop of glue to the backside of the part, if possible. You have less chance of overlapping the glue drop onto an area you don't want masked if you apply the drop from the backside. If you must apply the drop to the front side of the part, use a drop of glue smaller than the hole diameter and apply it in a circular manner. The surface tension of the glue will allow it to fill in the hole without overflowing into the surrounding surface.

Here you can see how the applied glue drop looks from the frontside of the part. Remember, you only need the glue to mask the inside of the hole so you can get a solid plastic-to-plastic joint come aseembly time:

Another shot of the chassis with all four leaf spring and the single front driveshaft mounting point holes filled:

Let the glue dry then paint as you normally would. Once the paint is dry, take a new, dampened toothpick and poke out the white glue plug, then give the toothpick a twist or two to clean out all the glue residue. Now you've got clean, bare plastic for a good soild bonding surface. It sure beats cleaning out and enlarging the hole later.

Edited January 29, 2012 by Casey

[scalenut]

nice tip! great photos too !

[crazyjim]

That's a good one, Casey. Thanks.

[Danno]

Great idea.

[Harry P.]

I agree. Nice tip and very nice photos, too!

Now that's what this section of the forum is all about!

[futurattraction]

Great tip Casey! Thanks a bunch...

[cowboysevens]

thanks for the tip

[GOTH KUSTOMS]

Thats killer Casey, I should of thought of that years ago, thanx man....

[FASTBACK340]

Nice tip! Thank you

[Casey]

Here's the follwow up, after applying two light coats of Tamiya Grey primer.

Chassis painted:

White glue plug removed:

Two different pictures of holes with the plugs removed, showing the bare creme colored plastic inside each hole:

[crazyjim]

Most excellent. Sure is better than cleaning out a painted hole with an X-acto blade.

[whale392]

Thanks for the tip, Casey. Now, that brings up another thought (for me anyway). Could this same tip (with slight modification) be used to deatil mask other areas on a build?

Let's say you have some wheels that you will be painting, but want to keep the lug nuts chrome. Could you cover the nuts in white glue, paint the whell, allow the paint to fully cure, and then soak the wheel in warm water to release the white glue?

[JustBill]

I was thinking along those same lines Bradley. Not so much of wheels but to use it to mask off parts of a chassis when detail painting. If you thin the glue a little you can work it in detail lines for separation of colors. I like your idea of wetting it too. Removing dry glue with dry paint could pull paint off too. I'm getting ready to do some detail painting on a chassis. I'm gona give it a try. Thanks for sharing this Casey, you've ignited all sorts of ideas!

[Casey]

Sure can. I used it to fill in some headlight bucket recesses with great results. I think it's best used in areas where ultra-fine detail isn't an issue, as a thinner, liquid masking medium would probably be a better choice than white glue.