What adhesives do you find to stand up well over time, have good easy of use, relatively quick adhesion, and good cost?
Also. After completion of a project, what primer and paints work best with scratchbuilt styrene?
I scratch build 99% of my HO industrial structures using Evergreen Styrene and Tenax 7R solvent for assembly. I clean the structure before painting with a spray of Formula 409 and wash off with warm water. When dry, I’ll airbrush with Floquil paint, then hand paint Latex colors and thinned washes for weathering. Latest industrial structure URL below. http://www.geocities.com/oldlahistory/sheller.html
I use several bonding agents, depending on what I want to do. For a quick bond I usually reach for Devcon 5 minute epoxy. It’s a little messy to work with, but it won’t fog certain parts like superglue will. It sets up pretty quick and it dries clear. It’s sandable and paintable too. If I don’t need to have a fast joint but I want a good strong one I usually use Testors plastic glue in the bottle with the brush in the cap. It’s a solvant, so it actually melts the plasic together, so don’t use a ton of it. Because it’s thin you can get very clean joints with it, but sometimes it runs too much. For that I use good old Testors tube glue. It’s not as neat and tidy, but it works well, and like the epoxy it can be applied with a toothpick.
Hey, CP…
I like Testor’s liquid plastic cement. As described in a previous post, its a solvent that dissolves the plastic. Use it sparingly!!
Check the label and you’ll see that this liquid cement is the solvent Methyl Ethyl Ketone. Let’s do a little shopping and price comparison. You can buy a 1-ounce bottle at your LHS for about $2. That’s $2/ounce. If you’re interested in saving money, go to Home Depot or Lowes and find Methyl Ethyl Ketone in a quart or larger container. The price comes out to only pennies per ounce for what amounts to a lifetime supply.
CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION:
MEK vapors are toxic and flammable!! Keep away from flame and only use in well-ventilated areas!!
Bruce J.
I do not like CA (Superglue) - I can make a mess with superglue quicker than you can read this sentence - but I always keep some around because it is terrific if you are bonding surfaces together. I prefer ZAP but I can’t tell you exactly why except that when I do use CA I have good luck with it. I don’t ever even remove the cap on my CA without having a glass dish filled with acetone standing in the immediate vicinity. I - inadvertently, of course - managed to glue my fingers to a piece of ABS one time and had to yell “help” for my wife. I did so hate to amuse her!!!
Like pcarrell my adhesive of choice is epoxy and I have some quick setting and some slow setting. Milk carton lids are absolutely positutely fantabulous for mixing the stuff up and I’ve got a million of them around.
I use Micro Weld(R) or one of the Plastruct(R) glues for thin application; I have never used any of the Tenex product but I am coming to the bottom of my Micro Weld(R) so may try some shortly. When I need something a little thicker I go to Testors(R).
Although not technically an adhesive I keep both a green and white tube of plastic putty from Squadron Products(R) around to compensate for my sloppy cutting. I have found that this stuff looses its “Oomph” with the passage of time and I’ve had to File-13 some of it over the years so I try to use as much of it as I can.
As for the last part of your question pertaining to primers and paints; I am all over the map on this one and generally have had good luck with most available product. Painting requires a lot of care; lets face it, some product may be more forgiving than others but no product will compensate for slopiness so, in painting styrene as well as everything else, go slow and use caution. I don’t use Testors(R) as much as some other brands but that is because I find it just a little bit more cumbersome to use; I am not so sure that Testors(R) doesn’t
I have had good results with Faller “Expert”. I especially like the application “needle”.
There were a couple mentions of ‘fogging’, I assume that would be on clear plastic parts. Micro Crystal Clear is good for attaching clear plastic, acetate, and similar materials. It does not fog, and dries clear, but is not a strong adhesive so do not use it for structural bonding. If there is some ooze around the edges, wait a couple of minutes then carefully scrape with a toothpick, the excess will roll up and pull away. It’s a form of acrylic gloss medium.
It can also be used to make a window. Use a toothpick to run a bead around a window opening, then draw the toothpick across the opening. This should draw a film across the opening which will dry clear. The result is not as good as with clear plastic or acetate, but it will ‘glass in’ a curved or odd shape that would be dufficult to fill with plastic - vehicle windshields, for instance.
For attaching parts, I use Faller Expert. For walls and other seams, I use Testors liquid. After forty-some-odd scratchbuilt structures, they still seem to work quite well. I also use Testors for windows (touch the edge and let capillary action do the rest) but like Micro Krystal Kleer, too.
I almost never use CA on plastic because it doesn’t make as strong a bond as the solvents and CA’s shear strength is fairly poor. I will use it when I need to bond materials like wood to plastic.
It’s just personal preference, but I have almost totally stopped using solvent paints and now stick to acrylics for both airbrush and paint work. I use Polly Scale and Testors. My main solvent exceptions are Testor’s Gloss Cote and Dull Cote, which I use to seal the paint, decals and weathering.
Just as a follow up on the fogging issue, I use Handi Bond “Oderless” CA when I need to bond clear styrene and other clear materials to metal (such as glazing to brass car sides). It does not fog as long as you make sure the clear material you are working with is clean of skin oils and other residue. It does set fairly slowly compared to other CAs and is a bit “stringy” (sorta like Testor’s cement).
I primarily use Tenax 7R. The issue is that is evaporates quickly. Where I need a slower evaporating adhesive, I use Testor Model Master. For glazing, I use Testor’s Clear Parts Adhesive.
I use Krylon spray cans, and acrylic craft paint for my structures.
Nick
Any liquid plastic cement will work well, and they’ll all give you a basically permanent bond (because they literally melt the pieces of plastic together). The three most available types of hobby-grade LPCs are each a bit different:
Ambroid Proweld: has a medium work time, has a medium aggressiveness, and comes with a nice, handy brush in the cap.
Tenax 7R: has a FAST work time, low aggressiveness, and no brush. Small bottle, too.
Testor’s: has a long work time, is very aggressive, and has a worthless cap brush.
I use each, depending on what I need. My default is Ambroid, which I use for most projects. When I need to laminate two pieces of styrene together and have a lot of work time, I use Testor’s. When I want to glue plastic to a prepainted surface without marring it, I’ll use Tenax, applied with a natural fiber brush.
By far, the CHEAPEST LPC is straight Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). That’s what all LPC’s are based on anyway. A quart will cost you less than a tiny jar of Ambroid. But you have to transfer it to a smaller bottle, come up with a brush, and deal with the super fast drying time. The concentrated MEK fumes will rot your gray matter too.
Any primer will do (I’ve used Krylon!), but if you’ve got a lot of detail, you’ll want to use a hobby paint with a finer pigment. I usually default to Floquil gray primer, using Floquil white or black primer if I want the base coat to come out lighter or darker.
As for paints, use anything, again keeping the idea of fine pignemt grain=better in mind. For all of my rolling stock (be it plastic, resin, wood or brass) I use Polly Scale. For stationary scenic items (buildings, people, dogs, fences, trash cans,
Amazingly, I’m in complete agreement with Orsonroy on all points.
Adhesives for plastics fall into two basic catagories: solvent types which basically “weld” two pieces together and give you the strongest and most permanent joint. the others are molecular bonders like, superglues (aka CA or ACC) and epoxies. These bonds are not as strong, but adequate if used properly. Epoxy is best for glueing two dissimilar materials together. Superglues have a tendency to get brittle over time, (especially if used with accellerators), and are also affected by humidity. Both epoxy and superglues have relative poor sheer strength when used with plastics…
I use MEK (Methyl Eythel Keatone). It is fast and strong. Probably equivelant to Tenax.
The Ambroid Proweld is great for gluing Plex-glas. I have made clear boxes for my Digitrax Radio recievers using Plex-glas and Proweld.
The MEK is cheap by the gallon and available at any Lowes or Home Depot so you can get it anytime.
I have even made plastic filler by putting the left-over pieces of plastic from the sprues into a glass glue bottle and filling it up with MEK. Mix it up and the MEK turns the plastic into a nice goo. Then just spread the goo into a seam and let it dry. The nice thing is that the colors match the model you are working (like Pike buildings) so I can fill a seam and it looks the proper color without having to resort to painting.
BOB H - Clarion, PA
I find that I get a fast, strong bond by using lacquer thinner as a styrene cement. Since I also use it for thinning paints, like Floquil, Scalecote, Accupaint, and Testors, I buy it by the gallon. Probably even cheaper than MEK, but the fumes are just as dangerous, so if you’re using lots of it, wear a two-stage respirator and provide plenty of ventilation. Here are a couple of photos of some structures built from styrene, using lacquer thinner.
Obviously, all the styrene stuff in these pictures was put together with lacquer thinner, but the station in the background is the best example of scratchbuilding in the photo. Built from .060" sheet styrene, with modified windows from a Walthers waterfront warehouse.
The Lowbanks stockyards were built from strip styrene, except for the roof of the covered pens, which is .060" sheet styrene, covered with Campbell corrugated siding.
The auction building, although modified, will be recognizable to old-timers as Revell’s Weekly Herald.
Wayne