Model Railroader – October 2019

October 2019 45

❷ Careful shaving. Louis rounded the edges of a no. 17 chisel blade so he

wouldn’t nick the plastic around the porthole window frames as he shaved

them off in preparation for filling the openings.

❸ A little putty. Acetone makes

Squadron putty easier to spread, done

with a piece of plastic in a knife handle.

❹ Smooth finish. Careful sanding helps blend the porthole patches into the sides

of the model. Take your time to avoid sanding the batten strips and their rivets.

porthole opening so the lathe could

reduce it to the correct diameter. The

octagon was attached to a small wooden

dowel using a drop of cyanoacrylate

adhesive (CA), being careful to attach it

squarely perpendicular to the dowel.

Each octagon/dowel assembly was

chucked into the main spindle of the

lathe. The cutting tool was set at an angle

to cut a beveled edge on the porthole

plug, enabling the plug to nest into the

body shell.

I used a caliper to measure the widest

part of the porthole opening, which is

closest to the outer surface of the body

shell. Then, I turned the plug in the lathe

❶, cutting slowly and measuring fre-

quently, until the outer diameter matched

the caliper. Each plug took only a few

minutes to make. With the turning com-

plete, I carefully removed the plug from

the dowel using a sharp hobby knife.

If you don’t have a lathe, the dowel

could be chucked into a drill and at low

speed, the disk could be spun against a

fine sanding block, at an angle to create

the beveled edge. The disk would be spun

until it was reduced to the correct diame-

ter. Safety is always the rule, and I would

be sure to follow instructions and safety

precautions when using any power tool.

On the body shell, the porthole frame

and hinge must be removed. I used a

sharp no. 17 chisel blade in a hobby knife.

I modified the blade by removing the

sharp corners with a grinding wheel to

prevent unwanted nicks in the body shell.

I used this modified tool to slowly

shave away the raised edge ❷, being

careful not to damage the surrounding

raised rivet strips. The area will be

smoothed over later when sanding.

At this point the styrene plugs can be

inserted into the porthole openings.

Apply a styrene cement to the entire cir-

cumference when installing, as the

strength of the cement will be needed

when sanding later. Try to keep the

cement on the beveled edge and not let it

leak out onto the exterior of the body

shell. Let this completely dry before pro-

ceeding to the next step.

There will be gaps and some uneven-

ness between the plugs and the body

shell surface. These areas were filled with

Squadron Green putty that was thinned

with acetone to make it more workable.

To apply the putty, I used a thin piece of

styrene, not more than a ¼" wide, in a

no. 2 knife handle.

I used this to apply the thinned putty

slowly and in little bits, frequently mak-

ing small batches by mixing the putty

and acetone in a small snack pie tin ❸.

The thinned putty is very workable, but

only for a short window of time. It dries

relatively quickly to what seems to be a

hard, almost crystallized surface.

To sand the narrow surface between

the rivet strips without damaging the

raised details, I cut small squares of 320

grit fine and 600 grit extra fine sanding

film and cemented each square to the flat

end of a similarly sized wooden stick

with CA.

Proceeding from fine to extra fine,

I used these sanding sticks to slowly sand

the surface of the putty until the area

Registered users can find a materials list online at http://www.ModelRailroader.com.

❶ A quick turn. Louis finally found a

use for his mini-lathe – turning the

plugs to fill the E8’s porthole windows.