"Adhesive for metal figure on plastic base?" Topic

I am going to experiment with styrene bases for my 15mm figures. Any thoughts on glues? What has worked for you?

Super glue worked for me.

What Mandy said.

Liquid nails.

jb weld

Goop (don't know if it's available in NS).

Another vote for superglue/ CA, if it isn't.

I glue my Flames of War metal 15mm figures to the plastic bases with Dollar Tree Super glue gel. 3 tubes for a dollar. I can get about 10 bases (40 figures) per tube.
The bond is fine. Nothing more expensive or exotic is needed.

i second super glue.

Contact cement, right next to the super glue in the dollar store OFM buys his stuff.

Elmer's Pliobond wood glue. Wicked cheap.

The best thing I've found is hot glue. Get a hot glue pot, get the little pieces of hot glue, not the sticks and away you go. It is fast, it holds them very well and if you want to rebase, just freeze them and you are all set.

I don't know what the difference is between the two types of hot glue but I do know that the sticks I have gotten from Michaels in the past have not work anywhere near as well as the little cut up pieces I get from WOW outlets.

I second Goop. Works great – dries slightly soft so if you were to drop your figure on a hard surface it won't come off the base.

If you want to be able to remove the models later on, PVA might be a choice to consider.

Griefbringer

I use Elmer's glue for the reason mentioned by Griefbringer.

Rarely have I had a figure come loose on its own.

I have dropped a few on the floor and was pleased that the figure came off when the glue joint broke, rather than the figure breaking. Perhaps an even better reason to use PVA or Elmer's.

Tom

My experience is for 25/28mm figures but I'm sure I'd use the same thing for 15mm.

For any bonds that I wanted to break loose later, I'd use superglue (cyanoacrylate).

To permanently adhere metal figures to styrene bases (e.g., slot bases), I use 2-part epoxy, usually the 15-minute cure variety but any kind will do.

PVA glue works excellently and as noted above above, can be cracked loose in the future if needed. Its cure time is a little longer than short-cure 2-part epoxy but with anything like this, you probably want to let it set overnight anyway.

Hot glue works excellently if for you it's convenient to set up the hot glue gun (or hot glue pot also, I guess) and can stand to trim the little streamers of hardened glue. For me it has something like a 5-10% break-off rate over time but the nice thing about that is the glue just peels right off with no damage and you just re-glue it.

Gorilla super glue is what I use.

or WARGLUE! 100% GLUE!

I use regular Elmer's white glue to base metal or plastic figures on metal or plastic bases. It's easy to work with (no mixing) and is strong enough without being permanent, so the figures can be easily popped off the base during rebasing. The hold also often gives when the stand is dropped, often eliminating damage to the figure.

Note this is for 15mm or smaller or 1/2400 ships. I do not know how this glue would work for larger figures.

If your figures have integral metal bases, like most 15mm's, then the contact area between them and the bases is so large that pretty much any glue will hold.

I'd go with white glue myself. If you ever want to rebase, just soak the figures in water to soften the glue.