"Glue for soft plastic figs?" Topic

I'm going to do some head swaps on some Hat soft plastic figs. Any suggestions for glue?

Superglue or epoxy.

Griefbringer

I have found that superglue is too brittle.

You should pin the head to the body.

First put some contact cement on each part. Let dry per instructions then stick together. The contact cement sticks well enough to the plastic, and then to itself for the heads to body contact.

Loctite All Plastic glue (formerly called Plastix). Works perfectly.

Loctite "All Plastic" Glue. It is a two part glue. The first part looks like super glue.

The second part is a primer of sorts. The applicator looks like a magic marker.

You brush on the primer to both surfaces and let dry for 30 seconds. You then apply the glue to one surface and hold for 15 seconds. Works well.

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They keep repackaging the stuff so the name varies a bit.

John

Windward, I haven't tried Loctite, but have heard it is promising.

What I do is what Bob suggested, ie, pinning. I use a pair of pliers that have cutters and gather a number of sewing pins. I use the pliers to guide the pin through the head and then into the torso. I sometimes use a second pair of pliers to hold the figure steady; making sure the pin protruding from the neck after going through the head is inserted in the correct spot can be tricky.. Most times, sewing pins are far too long than what is required, and I use the cutting edge to snip off the end at the head/helmet. The flat side of a slot screwdriver is useful after the sip to push against the bit of pin that remains sticking out above the head so that it goes flush into the figure.
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Tim

Some HaT soft plastic figs have a rubbery consistency. If the ones you have fit that description, conventional model glue will work (the same should be true with their harder plastic, too).
Loctite works great, but is pricey, I think. If you think you'll be doing a lot of gluing, you can use rubber cement thinner as a primer on both surfaces to be glued and then use conventional superglue (that's what I'm currently doing, and it seems to be working pretty well). Follow directions on the rubber cement thinner container re: ventilation.
Yet another option is to insert a hot object, like a pin, between the two parts, withdraw it, and melt them together. This work well, but can be something of a juggling act.
Use white glue (with a bit of paint added so you can see what you're doing) to hide any gaps in your converted figs.
Good luck!
Bob

I've got a tube of glue from UHU (Brand name) which has the labe; "por hartschaum" it is over 14 years old, still usable. It is a contact style glue. It was recommended in an article of "practical wargamer" as a glue for soft plastic. Good luck finding anything like it now.

Modern soft plastics are constantly evolving, and so my intial recomendation based on what I do is try sxome normal plastic cement (ie model makers glue – ie use Humbrol liquid ploy but other brands are available!) on two bits of sprue – if they stick togethr, then fine. If not, it means they are an older formulation, and then I use the two pack super glue which works really well.

Pinning is useful if joints are small or rough, otherwise I find my units (which are based anyway) do not suffer to much.

The reason that I try teh sprue test first is because it is nolt just the "rubbery" type plastic that will "melt" with model glue – some of the new Italeri (the "Let's glue it" brand) range is very hard plastic but works fine with liquid poly.

Try some

I've used it to glue shields and spears. So far it hasnt disappointed: Selley's Plastic Glue.

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