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Hey yall,
Very noob question I know but i am havin trouble putting him together, nothing will hold..
Ive tried:
Crazy glue
Metal modeling cement
plastic modeling cement

any response is appriciated

i use normal GW super glue most of the time. The trick is to hold the pieces together for a while. The stuff will never hold immediately.

I'd suggest pinning, but that takes skill and practice to get right. Try finding a product called "Zip Kicker," I use it and it dries the glue as soon as it hits it. It is a catalyst agent for super glue. But what might help first is cleaning the parts you're gluing together. Warm, soapy, water will do the trick, then make sure it's perfectly dry before you apply the glue. Besides that, you might just have to hold it and blow gently on the glued area.

I'm sure there are plenty of other tricks I haven't tried yet. So sit back and wait, it shouldn't take too long.

Normal superglue will do the job. You can pick up superglue better than GW's watered down rubbish for a quarter of the price from anywhere that sells glue.

Wash the mini in warm soapy water before assembling.

Make sure that the parts fit flush. Superglue doesn't work as well if it has to fill in gaps. It's intended instead to form a super-thin layer between two smooth surfaces. So if the pieces you're trying to glue don't fit flush against each other, you need to sand or file them flat, or fill them with putty before trying to glue.

Be sparing with the glue. More superglue isn't better... it's designed to only need a tiny amount. Excess glue just gets in the way and weakens the bond.

For larger pieces, pinning is definitely the way to go. This involves simply finding some appropriately sized wire (1mm brass rod works well, as does a paperclip... although good quality stainless steel paperclips don't hold to the glue as well), and drilling a hole in each of the pieces, (making sure that the holes line up with each other when the pieces are in position. The hole should be only just big enough for the wire to go in. It shouldn't rattle around in there). You then glue the wire into the hole in the first piece, cut it to length so that the second piece sits on snugly, and then glue that second piece on.

And finally, make sure you hold the pieces together for long enough for the glue to set. The time required for this can vary depending on the temperature and humidity.

Skinnattittar wrote:I'd suggest pinning, but that takes skill and practice to get right. Try finding a product called "Zip Kicker," I use it and it dries the glue as soon as it hits it. It is a catalyst agent for super glue.

Nothing personal, Skin... but thatt's actually some bad advice (I'll elaborate momentarily).

Skinnattittar wrote:But what might help first is cleaning the parts you're gluing together. Warm, soapy, water will do the trick, then make sure it's perfectly dry before you apply the glue. Besides that, you might just have to hold it and blow gently on the glued area.

EXCELLENT advice. Needs no elabortion.

Re: bad advice...
Avoid any catalyst for your superglue like the plague, and use it ONLY in the direst of corcumstances, and ONLY in support of some other bond (a pin, already glued & dried naturally, etc).
You see, when you accellerate the "drying" of the glue, you are prohibiting it from dying as it was meant to do. It actually doesn't "dry." It simply hardens. Now, at first thought, some might find this to be a good thing.
"Hey. It's hard. That'll make it harder to break. Right?"
Actually, no.
When superglue does not harden naturally, the bond is weak. Not only that, but that hardened glue takes up space.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. A buddy of mine has MANY professionally painted models in his collection. One of those places, ratherthan wait for the glue to dry, accellerated it. His pieces come apart constantly. Not only that but they're harder to reassemble and glue because pieces that USED to lay flat together now have a "skin" (sometimes THICK) of hardened glue between them. It picks off fairly easy with a fingernail... but that is NOT what you want to have to do because the paint can come with it if some of that hardened glue was painted over.

My advice is to pin it. It can be difficult but, if you're going to be a part of the hobby, you have to learn how to do it sometime.

It can be a pricey initial investment. You need a pin vice (AKA a hand drill) and the drill bits for it. I suggest a dremel to save your hands and sanity. Start the hole with the pin vice & finish it with the dremel.

There are hundreds of tutorials available via a Google search, I'm sure.


Good luck.



Eric

I've been using Zip Kicker for.... years, same bottle actually, lasts and lasts. Never had a problem with the glue being fragile from using the catalyst. Ever, period, ever. I've used a plethora of different brand glues, some name brand, some industrial, others knock offs (I've never actually finished off a bottle properly, they all just seem to dry out eventually or become sappy. Either from cheap containers/poor seals, or just plain age). Though I've never used it with GW glue, so maybe it has a problem with their glue.

Khairnus wrote:Hey yall,
Very noob question I know but i am havin trouble putting him together, nothing will hold..
Ive tried:
Crazy glue
Metal modeling cement
plastic modeling cement

any response is appriciated

Wash the metal.
Use a vary sparing amount of green stuff in the joint.
Watch it turn to concrete.

i'll second the problem with glue accelerants.
using them doesn't allow the proper set for the glue, and creates a more fragile bond on a molecular level that is easily broken and tends to simply crumble over time.

I use the green stuff to tack things together and ooze
the super-glue around it. Green stuff holds the bond in
place long enough to get a good join.

ok
pinning is the strongest join you will get, but not necessarily viable (tiny joins, awkward angles, etc).
you need to rough the surface up (scratch some cross hatching on both sides of the join with your hobby knife, increase surface area to bond)
I am a big fan of the H&D's own accelerant with GW super glue. BUT - I glue the join using one of the above techniques, hold it for 10-20 seconds, then accelerate it. at that point, the glue has started to set, and the accelerant only "cures" the very outside of the glue, giving it some suport while the rest of the glue sets.
Most accelerants you want to clean after, before priming, as they leave a film.

An example of pinning.

Don't be put off by those who say pinning is difficult, it really isn't. I use a simple archimedes screw type drill and no vice whatsoever.
Now that's possibly the worst combo ever, as the push/pull action of the drill coupled with no vice can lead to the occaisional drilled finger, but if I can pin figs like that then doing it with a nicer drill and a pin vice has got to be the easiest thing since making sandwiches with pre-sliced bread, no?

Khairnus wrote:i am havin trouble putting him together, nothing will hold..

You haven't specified in particular what items you're actually trying to put together e.g. arm and body, body and legs or legs and base. You'll generally if you need to pin that it often needs to do be done in tandem with a bit of GS to tidy up the joins between the parts too. So you're in a position where a combination of pinning, superglue and GS should provide a rock-solid join forever, so make sure it's just how you want it. If you're just gluing, just ensure both surfaces are clean (small wire wool brush is useful) and that you apply a reasonable amount of pressure, or elasticated rope tied around the model, and leave it for a couple of hours. I normally try to do a batch of figures requiring the same level of preparation work, then my lack of patience doesn't mean I'm prodding the first model while it dries (just to see if it's ready yet). Good luck.