Global Scale Modeller

I'm at the stage of putting together the 2 halves of my first plane model with the cockpit. As the parts have been primed and painted, do I need to scrape the paint off where I want to glue it? I'm using Tamia Extra Thin, and my only experience is from the old glue days that used to melt everything.

Hi Kane - unless youre using CA/superglue, yeah just give the mating surfaces a little sand back to bare plastic.

The Tamiya Extra Thin - TET will eat thru the paint regardless but it makes a mess! And stuffs up the brush (the paint sticks).

Also, another trick using TET - put the fuselage halves together, dry - without glue - and put your rubber bands/girls headbands around to secure.

Then, just put a small amount of the TET on one small part of the join (say the engine cowl), press together - the capillary action will make it fall into the gap and start welding.

Repeat in small parts over the whole join, moving the rubber bands out of way at the last and put the TET where they were (I just position them to a place you've already glued).

Dont be afraid to use only a little TET - its strong bloody stuff!

Thanks Chris. Would you recommend placing the cockpit parts in using superglue rather than TET?

Super glue/CA has a habit of staining/fogging up painted parts when applied. I would recommend something else

TET seems to do 95% of the styrene gluing I need.
Micro Crystal Klear (aka PVA) for any clear parts and normal Tamiya Glue (orange lid) for stronger internal structures do the rest.
CA is saved for photoetch or where there are 2 different materials that need joining.

As a car builder, I hardly use TET. Apart from some parts like the engine block or the suspension, nearly all the parts need to be painted before they go together. It's possible to do with TET, but as cib2265 already mentioned, it stuffs up the brush. TET is also a little too runny and can easily ruin the paint. So most of my models are being held together with CA glue.

I've started off with Zap-A-Gap Medium CA+ (the green bottle). Since then, I have tried various other CA glues, including Tamiya's Quick Type Cement. So far, I have found nothing that can beat the Zap-A-Gap. It's a little on the thick side compared to other CA glues and needs to be applied carefully with a cocktail stick. But at least it doesn't run off and ruin your paintwork. It also holds parts together quite strongly.

Thanks all for the info. My schooling continues

Also, you can place a part, (cockpit for example) with liquid glue (I use Mr. CementS but TFT is just as good) or white glue (Gator Glue in my case) so you have some time to adjust. Then you can strengthen the join with super glue. With experience, you'll get the hang of when and what glues to use. On a slight tangent, I will mention nose weights. I use white glue as super glue dries brittle and once in a while this will allow the weight to break free and you wind up with a plane shaped baby rattle.

Steve

Just ordered some Zap-A-Gap Medium. Should have by Wednesday. I'll let you all know how it goes. Hopefully have them joined up by the end of the weekend if work doesnt interfere

IMO, I would not prime fuselage halves before they are assembled. I feel this makes life harder in the long run. I always glue them together with out paint, work the seams with filler or what have you and smooth out the plastic before primer. I use Tamiya extra thin 90 percent of the time.

The painted parts I was referring to were in the cockpit areas. I primed and painted the interior of the plane's cockpit areas and glued the tub into place. Thanks for the tips though

I wasn't sure what the clear answer was to this question. If you have painted parts i.e. how do you glue them? Scrape them then use TET, or use CA?

Sorry, also a newbie!

Does anyone actually answer these posts?

I hear that if you do not sand back or scrape off the paint, especially where the painted part mates to the surface of the other part, then you might have a harder time of them fitting them together. This is especially true with the extremely well engineered kits like wingnut wings and possibly tamiya. I usually just take a hobby knife or xacto blade to the surface of one and just scrape to bare plastic.

For glueing clear parts try plain old white glue.

An interesting thread, I don't feel comfortable gluing a whole kit with just CA

I glue all the parts together first with tet as a whole or into as big a sub assembly as is practicable then paint . Then glue using either ca or tet scaping off paint where the glue goes then touch up later. I use Tet as a first preference.
I do want to experiment with the rubberized version of Ca when I get the chance.

digger303 wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2017 12:31 am ...I do want to experiment with the rubberized version of Ca when I get the chance.

I use "GORILLA" super glue, the "GEL" version, very handy

My 3 go-to glues are TET for bare plastic (and orange cap on occasion), CA for painted parts and PE (Bob's), and while glue for clear parts.

Wow what a great topic! I use Zap-A-Gap Medium and it just amazing. On everything short of TET for a good plastic to plastic bond and even then Zap can help at times. I would love to pair it up a bit with a quarter ounce of ZAP CA (Pink Label) Thin for PE stuff or parts where you dont want the CA to ooze out to far and make blobs on your model. This is my opinion of course because I have not tried the thin version. I do have some areas where CA medium seemed a bit too thick so Im gonna get some pink soon for that reason. Also keep in mind there could be a great reason for the thicker slower SLO-ZAP CA- (Yellow Label). Im sure its not used much here for aircraft but it does exist.

Found this after I looked at this post today. https://www.zapglue.com/zap-catalog

DrSprue wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:05 pm Wow what a great topic! I use Zap-A-Gap Medium and it just amazing. On everything short of TET for a good plastic to plastic bond and even then Zap can help at times. I would love to pair it up a bit with a quarter ounce of ZAP CA (Pink Label) Thin for PE stuff or parts where you dont want the CA to ooze out to far and make blobs on your model. This is my opinion of course because I have not tried the thin version. I do have some areas where CA medium seemed a bit too thick so Im gonna get some pink soon for that reason. Also keep in mind there could be a great reason for the thicker slower SLO-ZAP CA- (Yellow Label). Im sure its not used much here for aircraft but it does exist.

Found this after I looked at this post today. https://www.zapglue.com/zap-catalog

Not used yet , but I am very curious https://www.vms-supplies.com/cements-picker