Split seam on a prepped plastic model

[laughingmareacres]

I just took out a Pebbles stock horse that I had prepped about a month ago (had gotten as far as primer), and discovered that his back is starting to split. :sigh I didn't think I had gone too crazy in sanding, but apparently something wasn't right.

Any advice on mending the seam? Or will it just continue to split and I should just give up now? I haven't done a lot of customizing, so I haven't had to deal with this yet. If it's fixable, can I do it even though he's already covered with primer?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Elyssar]

I would think applying a filler like Bondo and sanding it down would work. I had a similr problem with my Padron resin...when he was half painted. My nails were longer than normal then and I made one wrong move and made a deep gash along his spine. I filled it in with bondo, sanded it a tiny bit, dabbed some gesso on it, and was able to fix it nicely. (Still was a very annoying experience...I KNEW biting my nails was good for something!)

[seventhdream]

The seam split had nothing to do with overzealous sanding. At a show I judged last fall, I'd say 8 out of 10 of those guys had the beginnings of seam splits down their backs.

I would (and a more experienced CMer could probably offer better advice) sand the primer around the split, fix it with some epoxy (not smooshing too much into the split - don't want to force it open worse), sand some more & reprime it.

[laughingmareacres]

Thanks for the replies! I'll probably try epoxy (partly 'cause I don't have Bondo...), and see what happens.

I'd hate for him to continue to split, but it's not too big a deal if I can't get it to work. I got the body in order to measure how big I should make background fences for the Pebbles, and figured I might as well try painting again :lol