weld effects using Tamiya basic putty

This is my first time to do these weld effects on Gunpla as I think this does not work with 1/100 and 1/144 scaled kits. I kinda saw this from Julius Lim in one of his WIPs and figured to try it on my 1/35 Tieren build. It was tiring for the fingers but it was really fun specially the puttying part.

As much as I want to keep it as a trade secret or something ( joke )... I figured to share to you guys this fun weld effect as usual. Again, this is my first time do this so I do not not claim expertise but would just like to share it you as always. It is basically a 3 step process which s fairly easy and really fun to do...

Here are the steps...

1. Scribe a panel line as a guide for the next step. I think it is better to scribe 2 panel lines parallel to each other to have a nicer guide for the chisels later. The lazy me prevailed thus I only scribed one panel line. Make sure to apply light strokes to produce cleaner lines, I used heavy strokes though as it will be covered with putty eventually and I was kinda excited to see the results.

2. Use chisels to gorge gaps like in the photos. This is where we will apply the putty later. Much like scribing, you have to chisel out the plastic in light strokes. I kinda did it with heavy strokes at first thus I kinda damaged the surrounding plastic. The parts have not yet been wet sanded thus the holes still has ugly lips left by applying too much pressure during drilling. The first photo shows my first attempt, kinda messy but I was getting the hang of it as seen in the next photo.

3. Apply putty and try to make it look like welding marks. I need a bit more practice with this step as my putty work does not look like weld marks, kinda excited to see the kit primed to see the weld effects though. 

That's it! fairly simple as long as you have the right tools for the job ( I think ). It was my first time to use the chisels and it took me a while to get the hang of using it. Again very much like like panel line scribing, light pressure is required to use the chisels effectively and to produce cleaner work on the plastic. 

finished kit with weld marks

Thanks for dropping by! Hoped you liked this technique! Til' next post guys! :)