Finisher's Mode Putty

[SebLeung]

Does anybody have experience with Finisher's "Mode Putty" and/or knows how to get some in North America? It seems to be a "polyester putty" that's mixed with 5-10% of the included hardener.



Some context: I spend a lot of time looking at Japanese build blogs since they're generally much more active and ambitious with their projects (especially with modern conversions), and I noticed that they all share this one thing in common: green putty. If anyone has seen major Japanese conversion builds, you know what I'm talking about. At first I assumed it was a lacquer-based putty since it looks really similar in texture to Tamiya white putty or Bondo before sanding (i.e. obviously tool applied then cured rather than hand applied), but some builders would pile it on like crazy when sculpting sidepods for example, something you wouldn't dare do with lacquer-based putties as it would surely start shrinking beneath the paint over time. I took me about 2 hours of digging through various blogs until I found somebody who posted a picture of the tin itself.

Examples (not my work):







I like the idea of a putty that can be applied liberally and sands and blends well, but has minimal shrinkage. Does anybody know how to get some in North America (it's not lacquer based so I don't know if it's flammable/legal to transport via air freight) or let me know what the closest equivalent we have to this is? I know of Perfect Plastic Putty but to my knowledge that only works on top of plastic and not resin/metal, and seems to have a tendency to dry up in the tube. I could always use Milliput epoxy putty but to be honest I'm not a huge fan of the way it has to be handled, and I've had difficulty blending it in the past.

Perhaps Evercoat polyester glazing putty is similar?

Sources:
http://beginnermodeling.blog96.fc2.com/
http://syakeonigiri126yen.blog106.fc2.com/

[Chinamalc]

I spend a lot of time looking at Japanese build blogs since they're generally much more active and ambitious with their projects (especially with modern conversions)

+1 to that, there are some amazing Japanese F1 builds, I wonder if F1M could have a thread dedicated to links to the best Japanese build threads. Not sure if Eric would allow this....?
Sorry can't help with your main question!

Malc.

[MoFo]

Tamiya make a polyester putty for modellers that should be fairly similar. Beware that it is really(!) smelly to work with, though. Should be available from most larger hobby shops.

Barring that, yeah, I'd look at Evercoat.

[SebLeung]

I spend a lot of time looking at Japanese build blogs since they're generally much more active and ambitious with their projects (especially with modern conversions)

+1 to that, there are some amazing Japanese F1 builds, I wonder if F1M could have a thread dedicated to links to the best Japanese build threads. Not sure if Eric would allow this....?
Sorry can't help with your main question!

Malc.

It's really unfortunate, I believe in the past few months Yahoo shut down their blog service so a lot of Japanese modelling blogs were lost. Maybe they relocated but it might be a while until they pop back up on Google searches.

Tamiya make a polyester putty for modellers that should be fairly similar. Beware that it is really(!) smelly to work with, though. Should be available from most larger hobby shops.

Barring that, yeah, I'd look at Evercoat.

Hmm I can't find much online about people using the Tamiya polyester putty. I'll do some more research.

[Andrey]

In my opinion, the two-component from Tamiya is the best for such purposes. Ideal for resin and metal. Perfectly fills in small flaws and is suitable for building large elements.

[gp-models]

Why not using automotive 2K Polyester putty? Looks quiet similar to the finisher stuff, still use it for decades and had never any issue. There are several colours you can get, mainly beige, but there is white and grey as well very often around. The colour can change a bit depending on the hardener you use, here in europe it is often red, but you can get white one as well. Sticks to every surface pretty good, by sanding the area you try to putty infront of applying the putty, it is quiet impossible that it comes off. The good thing is when working with it, it getting very quickly hard, so you can move on with sanding soon and there is superlow shrinking. Every type of putty has shrinking, especially the 1K stuff, that`s why i normaly don`t use it, takes up 1 day to cure before it is possible to sand, another sad point.
I pay for 2,5kg Polyester fine putty about 20 Euro incl hardener, i guess the finisher stuff is much more expensive. Ok, you will not be able to use the full can i guess, but the smaller packages like 0,5kg is not much cheaper.

[flashman]

Calvin Sallee, who produces resin kits/transkits for Indycar and sports racing car models through his "Classic Racing Resins" brand in the USA, recommends Apoxie Sculpt Modeling Compound. He says it works similar to Milliput, but is easier to work with and without some of the issues that Milliput can have (premature hardening in the package). I've also read about it on other modeling forums. It is easily available through Amazon, and in some hobby/craft stores (several of the hobby stores in my area do stock it). I did buy some but have not tried it myself yet.

Calvin has written a blog article called "Why I Like Apoxie-Sculpt Molding Compound":
https://hobbitime74404545.wordpress.com ... -compound/

Hope this info helps!

Cameron