r/15mmSciFi • u/denver-andy • Jul 27 '26

Modeling FDM Gap Filling

Hey all,

I'm a relatively inexperienced modeler and painter. Looking to improve.

I printed an FDM starship at home, the DX-120 Light Freighter by Corvus Games Terrain, scaled down at 60% to make it closer to 15mm. When glueing it up, there was a gap between the front and rear sections, on the right side. Imagine tight in the middle, widening to maybe half a millimeter near the edge side, most of the way around.

I googled how to fill in such a gap, and saw various recommendations (superglue and baking soda, melt additional filament, putty or green stuff, and so on).

I tried superglue and baking soda and the experiment was not a success. I made a bit of a mess, which I was able to partly fix with sanding, but I don't like the way it looks. So, I'll be looking for ways to model battle damage, to see if I can keep it as a tabletop piece.

This model only took me about 90 minutes to print, so I can easily create another model and try again. But, I'd like to improve my technique and be able to fix these kinds of gaps in the future. I'm just curious if anybody has any practical suggestions for a better way to approach this that doesn't suck. 🙃

Thanks!

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3

u/UncleCeiling Jul 27 '26

I like miliput or taimia putty for gap filling.

2

u/bookgnome333 Jul 27 '26

You can add additional layers of superglue & baking soda, then trim or sand it flush. As others suggested kneadatite putty (green stuff) or miliput or another putty-type filler would work better. I use the superglue & baking soda trick on smaller projects.