What is the best way to remove material?

[Andy R]

Depends on the effect you want, but the best overall will probably be simple modeling putty (tape the underside, then flood the gap with putty and sand). Of course, wait a day or so for a couple other people to reply and see what they say…

[basilsdad]

Thanks Andy, will do.

[Ali Baba]

If the gap is big enough, you could make a piece that fits it exactly. Maybe even from the same color plastic. Especially when you have a dremel. :-)

[basilsdad]

If the gap is big enough, you could make a piece that fits it exactly. Maybe even from the same color plastic. Especially when you have a dremel. :-)

Thanks Ali Baba.  That is a great idea, I am visiting my brother in Annapolis next week, he is going to give me some lessons on how to use the Dremel.    Wish me luck!
Joe

[Ali Baba]

I have a dremel and I love it very much. It is a great tool. You won't be needing much luck, but I wish it for you anyway.

[Wesley Myers]

I was able to cut the fence base, used my trusty hack saw.  There is a bit of a gap between the two pieces, but the fence railing fits just fine.  Any ideas as to what to use as a filler? 
Joe

You can get what is called a 'razor saw' - it is the same thing as an hack saw, but a much thinner blade with very fine teeth for more precision cuts.  You can get them at any hobby shop.



With such a big gap as that, I might glue in some styrene (plastic) and then fill the fine seam lines.  If you fill such a big gap, it will be a very weak point when you try to take it apart and it could very easily break.

You can get some very good glues today for the type of plastic that Playmobil uses (the hard plastic, styrene, anyway, the softer stuff used for some parts like the anchor wheel, for instance, which are made of a polyethylene and you can not glue that type of plastic (even though there are a couple glue makers on the market who try to claim they make polyethylene glue, it does not work).

Here is a link for gap filling:

http://www.scalemodelguide.com/guide/construction/gap-filling/

Here is alink about fillers:

http://www.scalemodelguide.com/guide/construction/about-fillers/

For glue I use Plastruct Bondene (http://www.plastruct.com/Pages/CementGuide.html because that's what I can get locally, but you can get other cements that are just like it.  It is perfect for gluing Playmobil together and is a very strong bond (just right to glue those broken parts).

Hope this helps.

[basilsdad]

Wesley,
Thanks so much for the information on tools, fillers and glues (and the links too.)  As you can tell, I am new at this and very nervous about making mistakes, but I guess that is how you learn.  Thanks so much everyone for sharing your experience with me.  I will try to keep you up to date on my progress.
Joe