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Glue for test-fitting?


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What type of glue do you guys recommend for temporary assembly of fuselage parts? I don't want to use scotch tape/Tamiya tape, etc because I don't like the flimsiness as I handle a model & turn it around in my hands to study the different angles of a airplane kit.

I need something that is relatively strong & yet allows me to take the fuselage, wings & fins apart when I'm done test-fitting. Being able to dry quickly helps too but not a neccesity. I just don't want to be holding a difficult-to-fit wing & main fuselage together for 10 mins until the glue dries.

Any recommendations?

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Idk if I'd glue something just for a test fit. If you don't like using tape use rubber bands or zip ties. If you have to use glue maybe very small amounts of CA glue in various places so that you can pop it apart. But then you're going to have to sand off all the glue before final assembly. I use small dabs of white glue to temporarily affix canopies for paint but that's not going to be strong enough to hold the fuselages.

I'd definitely go with zips or rubber bands.

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If you have to use glue maybe very small amounts of CA glue in various places so that you can pop it apart. But then you're going to have to sand off all the glue before final assembly.

That was my first thought too. I actually have done this on the very rare occasion where glue was the only way to hold parts together for test fitting a complicated assembly.

Pure acetone helps dissolve the CA (Superglue).

White glue (Elmers, Aleens Craft Glue, Testors Clear Parts Glue, etc) works too sometimes, but requires extended cure time. Warm water will dissolve it.

Edited by dmk0210
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The rubber band idea sounds good for the main fuselage halves but won't really work for vertical fins, wings, etc. I also might want to see how a kit looks like with gear down or with gear up. Or an inflight model with the gear on-the-way-up just after take-off. It helps to test-fit the kit parts & hold it up in your hands at different angles so that you can visualise in your mind's eye what the end result would look like.

CA glue scares me & I try to avoid it as much as possible...

SuperGlue.jpg

demotivational-posters-crazy-glue.jpg

The thing with the German woman above would be funny if not for the fact that the same thing happened to me as a kid. Someone had to use a pen-knife to gently slice the skin off my finger-tips in order for my fingers to be released :doh:

Now that I think about it, I recall that as a boy, I used UHU glue to fix my models and was surprised that I could pry the parts apart cleanly ( albeit after a few years) if I didn't lather on the glue too thickly...

http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/39149-uhu-glue-44091-uhu.html

I remember thinking how it didn't 'fuse/melt' the kit parts together the way Gunze or Tamiya cement did. I might go for UHU glue.

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IMO if tape isnt working for you, your doing it wrong or you are playing them too much.

Got to agree with this. Tape (Tamiya or that blue painter's one) works for me 99.9% of the time. The .1% I need something else, I use rubber bands.

Rob

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Blu tac's ok but I need something sturdier...esp for things like gear doors. Also, when I want to scratchbuild something, I need something that gives a good 'fit' but still has the ability to be taken apart so that I can test-fit multiple times. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't favor tapes.

Thanks, chaps. :cheers:

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IMO if tape isnt working for you, your doing it wrong or you are playing them too much.

Ever try to tape together something like a complicated landing gear assembly, or multi-part ejection seat? All the while trying to see if the assembly fits inside the fuselage?

Tape is not the solution to every problem. Especially when you are try to scratch build complicated assemblies.

Blue tack would be the first thing to try, but sometimes it may not work either.

Here is a real world example where tape would not work:

http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=251855

Edited by dmk0210
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Microscale makes something called Liquitape. It works pretty well for multiple assembly/disassemblies. Only problem is, to get it all off requires a little thinner of some sort. It doesn't melt styrene to adhere to it, it's just really sticky. But, when there's just no other way to hold something in place...

Tony

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Office supply stores might have something similar like Liqitape - some form of rubber cement used to temporarily glue paper together. IMHO the problem with most glue solutions - since they do not weld the plastic together, you need a certain amount of it on your parts, adding thickness/changing dimensions.

Cheers

Thorsten

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What type of glue do you guys recommend for temporary assembly of fuselage parts? I don't want to use scotch tape/Tamiya tape, etc because I don't like the flimsiness as I handle a model & turn it around in my hands to study the different angles of a airplane kit.

I need something that is relatively strong & yet allows me to take the fuselage, wings & fins apart when I'm done test-fitting. Being able to dry quickly helps too but not a neccesity. I just don't want to be holding a difficult-to-fit wing & main fuselage together for 10 mins until the glue dries.

Any recommendations?

That's what I've done when I was in the situation you described.

I took some PVA (polyvinyl alcohol). It is a well-known release agent used in fiberglass casting.

With a soft brush I put a coat of PVA on both parts to be glued.

Then, I used some epoxy 5 minutes glue to join the parts. Just be careful to put the glue only on the PVA covered areas.

This method allows you to separate the parts with some tap water.

Also noticed that sometimes the PVA is enough to keep the parts together if you don't stress them too much.

Regards

Euge

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Good tips, all. :thumbsup:

I might give some of them a try. This PVA glue thing is new to me but looks promising.

Microscale makes something called Liquitape. It works pretty well for multiple assembly/disassemblies. Only problem is, to get it all off requires a little thinner of some sort. It doesn't melt styrene to adhere to it, it's just really sticky. But, when there's just no other way to hold something in place...

Tony

I think I've seen this one at my local hobby shop. Never really paid much heed to it but I might pick it up the next time I'm there.

ps. I really like that description in your link:

"Say you would like to do a complete interior on a model, but when the model is finished you could not see it. If the top or some likely part is separate, you could use Micro Liquidtape as the final assembly and retain the ability to remove it at any time, revealing your detailed interior"

That offers me possibilities. Like I might want to build a plane with gears down today but a few years down the line, I might pull the gears apart & close the gear doors because I decided I like the inflight mode better.

:cheers:

Edited by JackMan
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  • 3 weeks later...

I use Elmer’s Glue when I need to temporarily glue parts together. I use this method allot when gluing the running gear on tanks that have individual track links. Once I have completed assembly of the running gear and added the track after gluing them with Testors cement and conformed it the way I like it. I let everything dry, and then I pull the assemble track off the wheels and pull the wheels from the arms. The Elmer’s glue is strong enough to hold the parts, but easy to pull apart when you need to. You then just pull the dried glue off with a pair of tweezer and proceed as you normally would with any kit.

Robert

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