Seeking advice on the most efficient technique on producing narrow weld beads. I am going to attempt to place weld beads on the joints of a Wirbelwind turret.

I have tried the styrene strip/plastic cement method previously but I believe this would look too bulky.

Thanks again.

If you can find a soldering iron with a very fine tip that could do the job. I have one with a fairly fine conical tip that works ok.. but I think the tip is a little large to be accurate for 1/35

Thanks for the tip.

I have a cordless butane soldering iron with some fairly small tips. I was afraid It would be too hot. Maybe I'll try it out on some spare plastic.

Stretched sprue. You can make them as thin as you want, and depending upon the amount of liquid cement you use, as subtle as you want. It takes texturing well too.

I'm with 18BRAVO on this, I've just started using stretched sprue for weld beads and find it works very well. Stretched sprue , liquid cement and an x-acto blade to texture, no muss no fuss.
Cheers
Joker

I appreciate the advice and will give it a try.

With the stretched sprue method, what is the battle order? Do you run the cement in the groove then add the sprue, then as it softens use the blade to texturise? OR can you add cement first then sprue then more cement to soften then texture?
Cheers
Brad

Try Googling for weld beads + FSM and you should pick up the pdf of Jeremy Pearse's article on simulating weld beads with paint (very first hit on the list I got). For some reason I can't copy the URL or I would have put in a direct link.

EDIT go to the next post for a live link

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/objects/pdf/creatingrealisticweldseams.pdf

Got it this time !

I usually use a little cement to get it into place, let it set, and then add texturing in sections. I have used a groove on occsion, by scribing one with the back side of an old #11 blade, but that's if I want a fillet weld. For a raised one, just cement sprue directly where you want it and let it set up a bit before fiddling with it.

Y'all have been a big help. Thanks

Jarrod,

I use a variation of the paint method. I use artist acrylic paint out of the tube. Apply it with a thin brush, and you can work in the texture as you go. I posted a little article over at WW2 Modelmaker about this method if you are interested. Been using it for several years with good results.

Jim

Jim,

The paint method really caught my eye. I dug an old T-62 out of the scrap pile I'm going to practice on. I don't have any tube acrylic paint. I have oils, enamels and Tamiya acrylics. What would you suggest out of those? And does color matter? If so what do you suggest?

Jim,

Is it as easy as your article makes it look?

Yes, it really is that simple. I would definitely reccomend the tube acrylics, they are pretty inexpensive. The one caveat that I would offer is that it takes several layers if you need to build up a lot. For instance, I am builing the new DML M4A3, and I used styrene for the welds simply because I needed to fill the existing trenches as well as building it up. Had the suface been flat, I would have simply used paint. Feel free to contact me if you have further questions.

Jim

If your going for welds added on the battle field its important to darken with black or soot around hte weld beads and have painted chips.

Usualys welders grind of hte paint before re-welding a plate,and when htey do so, the paint usualy catches fire and creats the burned effect around the weld, and its even worse when they dont bother grinding off the paint and you will also have welding splatters.

if you want i could work something out for you and get the pictures.

Frank

Frank, That would be great. I am always looking for new ideas and techniques.