I recently bought a dozen Bowser ore car kits, and put the first one together a couple of days ago. I started out ok, but when it got to the side ladders, I had problems glueing them to the car body. I have been using Testor’s model cement and using a toothpick applied the tiniest amout of cement to the ladder’s contact points,but being as how I am nearing 50, the eyesight for close work is at best going in and out, anyway the end result has been several spots where I missed the correct contact points, the cement has softened the ladder ends and now they are a little mushy and would not fit very well into the holes they are intended for. I also ended up with “strings” cement, while easy enough to clean up with the point of an exacto knife, were a pain none the less. Recommendations anyone?
I have used a gel type CA superglue with a toothpick to apply these type of small detail parts. It is less runny than the liquid glues and holds to the parts nicely. Also now that I am in the mid 40s I use simple 1.5 magnifier glasses and close lighting to see exactly where to place the details parts into their drilled holes. Any smears can be drybrushed later with a close matching paint and when weathered no one should be able to see the smears. As for the ladder being mushy it appears that the glue has attacked the plastic, maybe from excess glue.
I have also dry pressed small grab irons into a P-2000 kit and used liquid CA on a toothpick and allowed for the capillary action to secure the grab iron to the body. This required me to re-paint the grabs and some grab irons needed repeat glue applications.