poor adhesion of Vallejo Plastic Putty - switch to LGS?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**oadie**

So, a while back I got myself some Vallejo Plastic Putty and I finally got around to experimenting with it, a bit. In doing so, I ran into one of the issues I had seen warnings about on other sites - the adhesion is absolute crap. Even after giving it a solid amount of time to dry, I took a very fine emery board to it and even with light pressure, instead of getting abraded gradually like it should, the stuff simply peeled off in sheets.

I've found a few casual mentions of the stuff, the most detailed of which was in this thread, but nothing addressed my specific issue. I'm wondering if my approach was flawed, somehow (I've had little luck smoothing the stuff, while wet - it has a tendency to stick to the brush more than the model and wetting the brush even slightly turns it into grainy white water) or if it's just a less than ideal material. In the latter case, have people found that Liquid Greenstuff has better adhesion, both to plastic and to itself/regular GS? As I start to get a bit more advanced in my conversions and scratchbuilds, I'd really like to cover my bases, material-wise, and a liquid surfacer/gap-filler is the biggest hole in my list, right now.

**SmogHousePaintingCo.**

I take it that you cleaned your model properly before using the product. A nice run over with some 200-400 grit SP, then clean should create a better surface for adhesion. I find that all of these liquid puttys can be easily removed with a fingernail with little pressure. I try to use this as an advantage and only use it for small imperfections, and I easily remove the excess. Personally I prefer my old milliput, after using liquid GS this stuff is just too fragile, definitively a display only product for me, or as a premixed "milliput and water" solution.

**oadie**

Yes, I had already gone over the surface with the emery board (a slightly coarser grit than that what I attempted the final finishing with). At least, the areas where I was trying to use it as a surfacer - kind of hard to sand inside the cracks and depressions you're trying to fill. Honestly, I think I would have been better off using thick craft paint to level the imperfections, the way the putty acted. At least that stuff sands down properly...

The project I was using it on has been stalled long enough already (for various reasons), so I'm just going to wing it, for now, and hope that paint hides some sculpting sins. I'll mess around with the putty more in the future to see if I can't get it to work for me. Unless others chime in with experience using both products, I'll also try and get my hands on some LGS for a comparison, provided the local store has it in stock, now (they missed the boat on the release, then there was none to be had for a while).

**lord_blackfang**

Why are you trying to sand it? Ever tried sanding green stuff? Milliput is for sanding, GS and Plastic Putty are for cutting.

**oadie**

Actually, I sand greenstuff all the time - mostly when used as a gap filler, but also occasionally during sculpting. Sure, there are other mediums that take to it better, but that doesn't mean it can't (or even shouldn't) be done. Fine grit sanding is a viable method for removing and blending minor surface imperfections in GS, just as it is in plastic, metal, resin, wood, etc.

As to why I tried to sand the Plastic Putty, have you ever used the stuff? I would stand in awe of anyone who could manage to apply it cleanly. I stated in the OP that I found myself unable to get a clean finish wet, so abrasive finishing once dry was the obvious answer.

**winterdyne**

LGS doesn't sand particularly well either. For a really smooth surface milliput and finegrit polishing is still the way.

**oadie**

Hmm... So, it would seem that my options are either: A) to order Milliput online and sand it smooth or B) try to find LGS locally and hope that I can manage to apply it smoothly enough to obviate the need for abrasives, entirely.

Not what I was hoping to hear, but at least I have something to go on, now. Thanks for the responses.

**SmogHousePaintingCo.**

There's a lot you can do. You can superglue and baking soda if you're really hard up, that sands a treat. GS doesn't sand too well, but LGS seems to take to the 600-800 grit well enough. There's milliput, brown stuff, Mr. Surfacer, Tamiya makes a huge range of puttys. Hell, if you have the patients you cold apply coat after coat of matte medium for a display only piece. There's a lot you can do before you order online.

**oadie**

Actually, aside from super glue, pretty much all of those products would mean ordering online. The FLGS is rather limited in the hobby supplies department - just the basic Citadel line, sprinkled with some Woodland Scenics flocks and GF9 tools and gaming aids.