"Superglue & Plastic Tanks" Topic

As John the OFM once said:

If you use superglue in styrene plastic kits, your toys will fall apart.

Do you agree?

Obviously, yes.

I'm sure at some point they will but the kits I built 40+ years ago are still solid.

I started doing kits and plastic figures with superglue and they do fall apart. Please use proper plastic glues.

I haven't had this problem if there is any substantial surface area in contact-- if not then drill, pin and then superglue. Occasionally a sharp blow (oops!-- dropped my toy) has caused a failure but this is rare.

Why use super glue for plastic models in the first place?

Gee, that Winston Smith is a really smart guy. And that OFM dude he runs around with is pretty sharp too.

I disagree. I've got models I assembled 30 years ago (get off my lawn you kids!) with cyanoacrylate that are going strong.

I got into gaming with GW's metal and plastic hybrid kits. So I have pretty much always used superglue. Not had too many problems.

Superglue for metals.
Plastic model glue for plastics.

I use cyanoacrylate, for plastics, no problem.

I'll never know. I use plastic model glue for plastic.

Agree. Using super glue on plastic kits is a huge rookie mistake. But to be fair, if you never put together a plastic model kit in your youth (and many of us never did), and your prior experience is all metal and resin figures, it's only natural that you would reach for the same super glue that worked for those figures when you start on plastics.

Disagree completely that it's a mistake. I use both plastic glue and CYA glue for years on plastic gaming models that get a lot of use and have never had a problem.

I only use Cyano glue on plastics if it is dissimilar media (i.e. metal on plastic), or as a gap filler (cured with accelerator the superglue stays soft & fairly easy to sand). PLastic cement, especially the solvent kind, produces a strong but more importantly clean join between parts.

Damon.

Obviously it depends on the plastic. Some models out there use a new plastic that seems a bit more resin like. Warmachine models did not like plastic cement at all, and it was useless on them in my experience.

That said, for typical hard plastic models, I absolutely use plastic model cement and use cyano for everything else, or mixed media (brass or white metal on plastic etc).

Super glue is not the right adhesive for polystyrene kits. Different glues serve different purposes. Use the right glue for the job. For polystyrene kits you should use Liquid Poly (or similar).

Super glue is not the one glue to rule them all …

MEK for plastic, CA for metal.

Also remember that if you use superglue after painting you are gluing to the paint, not the plastic. This will weaken the join significantly. I use plastic glue (Humbrol Liquid Poly) on plastics with occasional superglue for pieces that are tricky to hold for any length of time. Never had issues with either.

How did this become a poll? It's a factual issue: will superglue hold styrene together? how well and for how long?

The answer doesn't come from our opinions, but from our experiences.

Proper poll questions would be, "do you use superglue on styrene models? What have your results been?"

I wish that I had seen this thread before I started to work on my latest kit. I did 5 StugIII's, the last with plastic cement, the first 4 with superglue. Live and learn!