Cheers Moritz: some interesting stuff there.
I think I'm going to stick with Milliput for the moment rather than buying more expensive stuff, since I'm assured that it WILL bond to metal, and since I've already got some (including the fine white stuff). What I will do though is experiment first before plunging into working on the actual figure I want, two examples of which arrived todayv (one for backup in case I screw up).