Irish Marine | 16 Feb 2019 9:49 p.m. PST |
I have never used plastics so what would be a good glue to use? |
Lion in the Stars | 16 Feb 2019 11:30 p.m. PST |
@Irish: If your local hobby store has it, my preference is Plastruct Plasti-weld. But Tamiya also makes a great brush-on plastic glue that may be better. |
Grunt1861 | 17 Feb 2019 12:20 a.m. PST |
Tamiya makes two types of liquid plastic cement, (regular and thin) that work really well. Easy to use brush in bottle. Welds the plastic, rather than surface adhesion. |
deadhead | 17 Feb 2019 12:48 a.m. PST |
There is plastic and there is…plastic. One type sticks better than metal to metal using NASA strength ultra-superglue. First, the kind of hard plastic used by Perrys, Victrix etc and almost every model kit maker. The adhesive works by melting the opposing plastic surfaces, but they then rapidly set and bond. Straight from the tube tip we all did as kids. Far better is indeed the Tamiya brush attached to the bottle lid. I also use Revell glue which comes with a very fine needle applicator. Then comes the bendy soft plastic, which we all remember from Airfix 1/72 Sheriff of Nottingham or WWI Germans. Uhu can get some bonding but you really do need pins for any real strength (as is the case with metals frankly). Nothing works really. The result is fragile
Can be very hard to know which of the two you are facing with modern Eastern European releases. Generally 1/72 20mm go for the softer stuff. 28mm, much easier to work with and convert, in hard plastic, but usually in kit form requiring some assembly.
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gisbygeo | 17 Feb 2019 12:50 a.m. PST |
Wait, What KIND of plastics? All plastics are not the same. Styrene, (Perrys, Victrix, etc.) you can use plastic model cement. 1/2 soft plastics are another matter, there is a plastic glue available at DIY shops. No idea what it's called. PVC figures (Heroclix, Bones, DD) use superglue or PVC weld. (For repairing air mattresses, water beds, etc.) |
gisbygeo | 17 Feb 2019 12:51 a.m. PST |
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Londonplod | 17 Feb 2019 2:58 a.m. PST |
Rubicon kits require a certain type of plastic glue, Tamiya is good for them. Revell's Contacta is good for Perry, Warlord etc but will not work on Rubicon. |
Vigilant | 17 Feb 2019 3:22 a.m. PST |
Rubicon does not need special glue. They need a proper plastic glue that works by melting both surfaces together, I use Humbrol Liquid Poly, like most styrene glues. I would expect the Tamiya glue to work perfectly. Contact glues probably don't work because of how they bind to surfaces. |
deadhead | 17 Feb 2019 3:41 a.m. PST |
Exactly. When you glue with polystyrene cement, once properly set, any styrene join has disappeared effectively. It melted and set and fused into one. Bend an arm enough and it will snap at the elbow, across the plastic, rather than through the original join at the shoulder. The best ever superglue is only as good as its adherence to the surface beneath. (How do you coat a frying pan with a non-stick coating when, by definition…? It can be done!)
Two smooth metal surfaces are a hopeless prospect without other linkage. Superglue on polystyrene to metal is OK…ish…often used it for mixed media…..but not as strong as polystyrene cement. |
Irish Marine | 17 Feb 2019 6:50 a.m. PST |
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irishserb | 17 Feb 2019 7:08 a.m. PST |
Just wanted to offer that I find the application of solvents for plastic welding to be much easier, neater, and faster, if done so with a disposable syringe. Grind or file the point off of the needle, so that you won't accidentally hurt yourself. Load the syringe from the solvent bottle, apply as needed through your session, and then empty the syringe into the bottle when the session is over. A single needle will last decades, and the syringe can last years, and in the worst, months. I find that a 5 CC syringe is comfortable and and usually only needs 1-2 CCs loaded for small work projects, such as figures or a single vehicle kit. |
nnascati | 17 Feb 2019 7:18 a.m. PST |
On hard plastic, Perry, Victrix, Warlord type, I've found Testors Model Power to work very well. |
Winston Smith | 17 Feb 2019 7:45 a.m. PST |
Again it depends on the plastic. The guys who came out with the Starship Trooper minis a few years ago had the bright idea of casting them in ABS plastic. Hard plastic, right? Nope. The usual "cement" beloved by plastic modelers and glue sniffers didn't work. You needed specific ABS cement like Plastruct. |
deadhead | 17 Feb 2019 10:49 a.m. PST |
Anyone called Irishserb gets my vote, but not too many Seamus, Padraigs or Seans in Belgrade. You need to make friends with your anaesthetist (US speak is anaesthesiologist, there is a difference!) and he/she will give you as many blunt ended syringe needles as you want. They use them for drawing up drugs and then the sharp pointy ones to stick them in you, or your surgical patients.
Do not get me started on spinal needles, the stylets. Not the hollow cannulae, for lancers. Never chuck anything out in the Theatre (OR) but beware the beancounters with the clipboards after.
"You want to us them for whaaaaaaaaat??????"
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Stosstruppen | 17 Feb 2019 5:27 p.m. PST |
I use Plastistruct Bondene brush on, it works well enough. |
Patrick R | 18 Feb 2019 2:51 a.m. PST |
For styrene you can use stuff like Revell Contacta, which has a nozzle, but it's fairly thick glue so any spills and accidents are hard to remove. Liquid cement of the variety Tamiya makes has many advantages, you can use capillarity to fuse parts together. Especially useful if your model has a gap, clamp it, add glue and presto. The added advantage is that the glue doesn't change the surface of the model other than a bit of a shine (barring you touch it with your fingers, leaving fingerprints all over the model), which vanishes as soon as you paint it. ABS plastic needs its own glue types. And soft plastics have their own glue types, though many modern soft plastic models can be glued with styrene glues, older figures like vintage Airfix are nigh impervious to cements and need a strong adhesive to stick together. I know there are some people who seem to have used some kind of magical superglue that appears to be indestructible, I made dozens of models and figures with superglue in the past and they all suffer from spontaneous collapse disorder. That's why I rarely use superglue on models and especially not structural work. |