"new loctite glue works on 1/72 plastics" Topic

I just broke two horse tails in my Zvezda roman cavalry. I tried to glue them back with Humbrol's Liquid Poly, which was suggested by my FLGS. It didn't work.
Then I bought a new product (at least it's new in Italy, in my area) by Loctite. It's called "Attak Plastix" and it's very expensive. For your 9 (!) euros, you get a small glue tube and a special marker which contains the glue's "activator". You swipe the activator marker on the parts to be glued, wait 1 minute, then put the glue (which looks like standard cyanoacrylic, but the hardware shop guy swore it's a new formula) and presto, horses and tails become one again. Recommended, but very expensive (double the cost of standard Loctite cianoacrylic glue).

I remember reading some time ago on a train magazine of a new type of "molecular" glue, that bonds at the molecular level (or something). They were touting it as a solution for the rubbery plastic used in model RR trucks and wheels on rolling stock…could this be it???

Damon.

Golem Games,

I've used this product for 6 months now, and I've found it to be good for gluing soft plastics. I doubt the Loctite cyanoacrylic is any different than the standard, but I haven't yet tested that assumption.

By the way, when the special marker starts to dry up, simply unscrew the top and refill it with heptane (Bestine Rubber Cement solvent/thinner). I've done it, and the marker still works after refilling.

Sorry to hear the stuff is so expensive out there. It's much cheaper in the US (about $6 USD for the glue and marker, if memory serves).

Disclaimer: I have no connection with Loctite or any other such company. This is an unsolicited endorsement.

Happy gluing!
-Warwick

Thanks I'll look out for this. I gave up on soft plastics soom time ago because of the difficulty glueing. If this works well I'll probably start buying them again as there is some figures I could use.

x42

On top of the price, I've found that the Locite Plastix also manages to glue its own plastic top on to the tube, absolutely solidly. Next time I'm going to try keeping the glue and the activator in separate rooms so that they can't even smell each other…

where can you get this stuff in the US ? I'm familiar with Loctite Plastix, but mine came with a small bottle of activator which you painted on with a brush. There was no pen and no reference to the name Attak
Thanks for any leads

PeterH,
it's the same stuff. The name "Attak" is the (Italian only?) brand name of Loctite here in Italy. "Attaccare" in Italian means both "to attack" and "to stick,glue or attach" so they play on words.

Confusingly enough, many brands (no matter if they come from Latin countries or English speaking countries) give "English-sounding" names to their shops, franchises or products here. Even if the names make no sense to English speakers, they maybe resonate with a Latin word and they sound "cool". I guess we (or our marketers) suffer from extreme Anglophilia since the end of WWII. Maybe a reaction to the idiotic "Italianization" of foreign names that went on as a standard policy during the fascist era.

Sorry for the rant. In short: it's the same glue in a different packaging and with a slightly different name, but I saw pics of the US version online and I bet it's available in some model shops.

(P.S. I have nothing against anglophiliacs, being one myself. I'd prefer that my country copied the right things from the English speaking countries -- efficiency and sense of responsibility, to name just the first 2 things that come to my mind.

I have had great success with contact cement for soft plastic. I have figures so glued 20 years ago still holding. The legs may break of base but the weapons and head stay. Heads are pinned. I would do that with large pieces such as horse tails.

Contact cement is good because it sticks to itself. Put some on each part to be glued. It almost dries, then you stick the pieces together and the glue on one piece sticks to the glue on the other piece.

My experience with loctite is that it will break with hard contact whereas the contact cement is more flexible. Sorry do not know the non-english name for this.