help!!!??? putty went wrong

[aton304]

help please!!

i am working on a revell civic hatch. i tried to fill in the part where the sunroof was and primered it. it appeared to be nice and neat, but after i painted it with tamyia racing white, you can see where the sunroof is. it is like the area sank a little. i can only see 3 options ahead of me:
1. strip the car and start over
2. add more putty and primer over the paint and paint again
3. leave it as is and chalk it up to a learning experience.

any suggestions. i am not sure how to upload photos or insert photos, but i do have a few pics that kinda show what i am talking about.

thanks

[NISMO400R]

strip the paint on the roof and work the roof again.

[mike@af]

What kind of putty are you using?

Strip it, fill the sun roof with styrene instead, smooth the gaps with a two part putty. Then before primer, coat with a sealer, then primer, then paint.

[aton304]

thanks for the advice. i did fill the hole with styrene then used tamiya putty. i still seemed to sink around the styrene after painting.

[MidMazar]

Originally Posted by GTmike400

What kind of putty are you using?

Strip it, fill the sun roof with styrene instead, smooth the gaps with a two part putty. Then before primer, coat with a sealer, then primer, then paint.

Your problem is you didn't use a sealer like mike stated, putty, sand, sealer, primer, paint

[g00eY]

to upload photos you can either use your automotiveforums.com gallery(way top of page, click on gallery) or find a image hosting site(plenty out there, i use photobucket, but it's pretty slow). the to insert pictures click on "Go Advanced" when you reply. look for a dropdown box that says [font]. under the dropdown box(not in it, just under it) there is a yellow icon with what i asume to be mountains with like some sort of moon or sun or something. click on that. insert your picture's web adress. or you could just type [img]url here[/img].

about your problem: you should probably just do what the others say, i'm not expert on putty either.

[Diesel2NR]

What do you guy's mean by sealer? Like an automotive Primer/Sealer or what?

[mike@af]

Originally Posted by Diesel2NR

What do you guy's mean by sealer? Like an automotive Primer/Sealer or what?

There are sealers, and there are primers. Sealers seal the surface to be primed. This is mandatory when doing body work. When a plastic model is primed, it absorbs and expands, whereas the putty doesnt. The sealer will seal the entire model to avoid ghost lines with the putty. So after doing body work, use a sealer then a primer.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Bodywork "ghosting" is a big problem w/many lacquers, it probably is more prevalent than simple putty "shrinkage" and it's probably what happens when many have said the putty shrank. If you use a two-part putty the shrinkage is minimal and stops as soon as the putty has hardened. If you use any lacquers to paint the model you will get ghosting which makes your filled areas appear shrunken, because the plastic around the filler has expanded from the lacquer and thinners. It can get bad enough that anything you shaved off the plastic (mold lines, emblems, door handles) can "reappear" when the model is sprayed w/lacquers. Sometimes it doesn't appear until after that really nice wet clearcoat. Very annoying

Use a sealer. Many people use Dupont Variprime, an expensive and very toxic sealer that requires an airbrush and heavy duty breathing apparatus. They claim it works. I've been able to "beat" it, and make the plastic ghost under it. But I'm impatient.

Sand your roof smooth (hopefully you won't need to strip the paint), apply some Zinsser B-I-N primer/sealer (available at Home Depot/Lowes) and then prime/paint over it. Make sure there's a complete layer of primer or paint under it as well, it doesn't stick well to plastic. But it seems to do a good job of sealing plastic from lacquer damage aka "ghosting".