Hello! I’m very new to model railroading, in the process of building my first layout and could use some advice. While assembling the main walls of the cement factory I inadvertently held the adjoining walls together with my rather prodigious left thumb. Upon removal of said thumb I noticed a MASSIVE thumb print left behind that appears almost as if it’s become part of the wall itself. Amazing solvent action of the glue I guess?
Anyway, advice on masking/removing this eyesore would be helpful. Sanding? Primer? Both? Plastic bondo (if there is such a thing)?
I’m sure, as time goes on, I’ll have lots of silly questions to ask. Hope this is the place for answers because boy-howdy do I need 'em.
It would depend on how bad and how much glue. Also methods of repairing or hiding would depend on the wall surface. If brick/ stone did the glue dissolve or distort the detail?
Since you should be painting the entire structure anyway, sanding, scraping or even filling may be done.
Many times I have used an Xacto chisel to scrape unwanted mistakes or even scraping off detail and lettering.
The problem with the thumb print is it’s on a shinny flat surface so the gaff is very obvious. I can scrap and sand but I’m afraid it’ll still look obvious. What I’m wondering is if there is a product similar to the sandable spray-on bondo/primer that you find in automative applications that might do a better job of feathering in the corrected mistake with the perfectly flat wall. Perhaps I just need to scrape and sand a little – maybe I’m thinking too hard about this problem and once I’ve got a coat of primer and some paint it’ll hardly be noticable?
when you put the building on your layout, put a tree or some detail in front of it; if you can; in order to hide it. Either that; or put some weathering over it to hide it.
If all else fails, put a sign on the building. This is a home-made decal, with the graphic downloaded from the dubya-dubya-dubya, and printed on an ink-jet printer. It looks old and crappy, which was the effect I wanted. By the way, when you put a decal on a roughed-up brick surface like this, it becomes “instantly-weathered,” while it will look pretty new if applied carefully to a flat surface.
It’s George Burns and Gracie Allen in their younger days, pitching our favorite canned meat product.
