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Hello guys,
is there any way to to glue metal models without using the drill and pin ?
A friend of mine who has been doing warhammer models for a long time said he himself doesn't, he just glues them together.
However my glue doesn't simply seem to work at all on those metal models ! Do I need to get a special glue or something ?

Is your glue old? I ran into that recently where my glue was old and seemed to not be nearly as effective.

No glue will be as strong as pinning plus glue, but you can get something serviceable depending upon the actual figure.

A 2 part epoxy glue is likely to hold reasonably well together. Gap filling superglue can also work well, as you end up with a better bond than usual superglue.

Cheers

I agree with tim. I use a gel super glue for almost all my plastics and any small metal bits. It works pretty good until something hits the floor...

Any larger plastics get model glue for a more effective bond and if I'm putting metal bits together, I'll pin them with gel super glue unless they're large. That's where I like to use a 5 minute 2-part epoxy.

Your glue may not be holding because you've painted or primed over the join, or the join may have oil or dirt on it. Try giving your model a good scrub in soapy water before gluing and make sure to assemble before painting or priming so you have a good contact surface for the glue to bond with.

If your superglue is not holding the most common problem is using too much glue. You only need the tiniest amount to make it work, failing that, try Zip Kicker.

The problem with metal is it is smooth. If possible take your exacto or a file and put shallow lines on say the arm and shoulder join. Not huge just rough it up a little the lines give it extra surface area for the glue to grab to, and zip kicker is your friend.

Two part epoxy is the answer to your troubles. It's far more effective if you drill and pin, but even so, there isn't much that holds better than epoxy.

tuatha1337 wrote:Two part epoxy is the answer to your troubles. It's far more effective if you drill and pin, but even so, there isn't much that holds better than epoxy.

This is pretty much true, though the problem with epoxy is that it lacks the insta-stick ability of the superglue, so you're stuck holding the pieces for minutes at a time, unless pins are used.

sonofruss wrote:The problem with metal is it is smooth. If possible take your exacto or a file and put shallow lines on say the arm and shoulder join. Not huge just rough it up a little the lines give it extra surface area for the glue to grab to, and zip kicker is your friend.

thats exactly what i do and i have never had a problem

Bugger glue use rubber cement!

Metal_days wrote:Hello guys,
is there any way to to glue metal models without using the drill and pin ?
A friend of mine who has been doing warhammer models for a long time said he himself doesn't, he just glues them together.
However my glue doesn't simply seem to work at all on those metal models ! Do I need to get a special glue or something ?

You mention that your glue doesn't work at all, are you trying to glue metal models with plastic glue by any chance? Because for metal to metal or metal to plastic you need at least regular powerglue.

I can only recomend to pin as well. Pinning + glueing creates a very strong bond and it should only give up when models fall on the floor.

Yup what russ said. When I first started playing ALOT of minis were metal, and I didnt know of the nice pin trick yet. Thats what I did too, some thin gouges or even some small holes work great. It gives the glue somewhere to go and hold to

you could also try a dab of glue, than a teeny tiny nubbin of greenstuff, and a little bit more glue, and then put the other part on. . . That's worked for me a few times.