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I have a number of the hybrid Griffon Mortars assembled and want to rip them apart to make wheeled mortar carriers.

I've got the tube off the model, but the legs & the metal back of the chimera are solidly glued together. Worse, the legs sunk into a large square recess in the metal plate.
I've been soaking the assembly in Simple Green, but no luck so far. Any suggestions of what to use? Or is this a job for tin snips and razor saw?

Thanks for the input

Move up to something a little more potent than Simple Green like Power Purple. Does a much better job of breaking the CA joints than SG. You can also put the model in the freezer to pop the joints.

Theres seriously an upgrade to Simple Green called Power Purple? Thats kind of cool. Learn something new every day.
As for removing the model, I'd try freezing, but this power purple sounds...powerful. Since its a metal model, the freezing should work.

 Aeroroot wrote:
Theres seriously an upgrade to Simple Green called Power Purple? Thats kind of cool. Learn something new every day.
As for removing the model, I'd try freezing, but this power purple sounds...powerful. Since its a metal model, the freezing should work.

Freezing was my first thought too. Is Purple Power new, or is it what used to be called "Castrol Sperclean"?

This is a tough one, depending on what glue you used the parts may be fuzed together between the metal and plastic. Metal and metal can't fuze I believe but don't quote me on that.

One trick I have used is to take an exacto and scrape at the joint you want to break, try to get holes through it if you can, then get some water on the joint (into the holes if you can) then freeze the whole thing, the water will expand and hopefully pop the parts out, just be very careful not to get water into anything you don't want to break apart. Also be very sparing with the water in case it gets into the body of the tank or treads, it can easily warp the plastic if you have a basin of it inside the hull.

Metal cannot fuse to metal. Not in a modelling perspective. Unless they used industrial strength Epoxy used in automobile construction.

If you are going to be doing work on them, don't be afraid to make cuts if you have to.

I have the opposite problem in that mine keeps coming loose lol, if you dont value the chimera chassis that much you could throw it at something? otherwise yeah apparently freezing is good.

Thanks for the advice. I got running it under hot water on another forum so I'll run it through water for awhile and then freeze it if that doesn't work.

The problem isn't the plastic/metal joins. I just ripped the chimera aprt for those (wreck marker ahoy!). The open back of the griffon is a metal plate with a large square hole to set the mortar legs in. The legs seem to form a U with the bottom of that U resting at the bottom of the hole, so it has two large flat surfaces touching in a recess. I got this secondhand, but I think superglue was used.

Got pictures?

if it is a metal plastic assembly then it is most likely superglue. (unless your the most unlucky person in the world and managed to get them epoxied together.)

Super clean works really well at breaking super glue as above stated. if the griffon back part as you stated contain no plastic pieces, acetone will melt all the glue off quickly. but cant really say unless we get some pics. otherwise a detergent, and freezing is the way to go.

If the plastic is of no value, Acetone might be the way to go. Eats through super glue, but melts plastic too.
Make sure you have gloves, eye protection, etc...

 HisDivineShadow wrote:
Metal cannot fuse to metal. Not in a modelling perspective. Unless they used industrial strength Epoxy used in automobile construction.

If you are going to be doing work on them, don't be afraid to make cuts if you have to.

If it's superglued - likely - then acetone will dissolve the bond without hurting the metal parts (but WILL destroy plastic parts).
If it's plastic and metal bonded with superglue, freezing will work well. Especially given the different properties of the materials - the metal/plastics will expand/contract at different rates, and should weaken the bond even faster.

With many araldite/epoxies, the bond will start to degrade at around 70*c. If it's metal, pop it into boiling water (carefully) and let it sit. The bond will weaken and you will be able to separate the parts. If there's any plastic, the boiling water WILL soften it and you will probably lose those bits as a result.

If it's just the metal parts, use acetone. That will actually dissolve the CA.

The Mortar legs are separate pieces and now free! Question for the day is...

Is the shape in the center part of the plate or another removable piece? My google fu was defeated searching for a components pic and my memory is hazy.

Pic on the blog-spot

http://formlineofbattle.blogspot.com/

The floor plate is one piece iirc.

rustproof wrote:
The floor plate is one piece iirc.

Sweet, then I am done. With luck and free time, I might have something finished to post soon.

May the force be with you.

Try Super Clean. Works just like Purple Power.