Vallejo Plastic Putty was something I was introduced to by my Local Hobby Shop Owner when I asked about an easy to use filler that didn’t use lacquer thinner.  Curious, I bought a bottle and used it for several of my recent kits to gauge its usefulness.

This white putty comes in the same 17 ml plastic squeeze bottle as Vallejo paint which makes it easy to squeeze out the amount you need.  The putty itself is similar in consistency as plaster (a little thicker than Mr Surfacer 500) but you can use rubbing alcohol to thin it a bit and can be applied the same as any other putty.  It dries pretty fast (10-15 minutes) but it does not fully cure for a one to three days which means that it is still pretty soft and can not be vigorously sanded.

I found that it can not be vigorously sanded even fully cured because of its acrylic nature.  Even wet sanding, the putty residue clogs up sand paper very quickly and it as the annoying habit of coming off in clumps or peel away like dried up latex paint due to acrylic’s weak grip on plastic surfaces. 

It supposedly polishes well (for Near Metal Finish) but I’d still recommend using primer due to the fact that it will be a lighter color compared to the plastic and will show thru on thin paints such as metallics, reds, yellows, light greens and light blues.

Despite this, I found Vallejo Acrylic Putty useful for sink marks and filling in other types of surface imperfections.  I would fill the depression with Vallejo Putty, let it dry and then cover it with a thin layer of CA glue.  Once the CA glue dried then I would sand it smooth without too much trouble.   Much easier than using multiple layers of CA glue (my usual method) and easier to sand than multiple hardened layers of CA glue.  I think it would be ideal to use for resin pinholes without too much sanding (there was a recent Fine Scale Models article on building a Resin Car that highlighted use of this putty.)

I was hoping to dump my Mr Surfacer, but it appears I still need it although not as much as I did in the past.  Vallejo Acrylic Putty is rather useful for filling those annoying small gaps between parts, sink marks/pinholes (in conjunction with CA glue) , great for gaps between figures (which is what I suspect that this stuff was originally designed for) because it can be easily molded and for those annoying phantom seams that sometimes appear after sanding and filling.

Pros

-  acrylic based (no lacquer thinner)

-  easy to use

-  doesn’t shrink or shrinks very little compared to lacquer based putties

-  great for small areas and surface depressions

-  easy to clean with alcohol and/or water

-  surface dries fast

-  easy to mold

-  great for figures

Cons

-  acrylic based (doesn’t grip well to plastic)

-  not good for any gap greater than 1mm

-  not a 100% replacement for Mr Surfacer

-  reacts with acrylic paint

-  cures slowly 

December 2008

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