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So its been a long time since I last logged in, but it is a personal emergency. A Warhammer emergency.

I haven't tested all my minis, but the deal is-
My 5 terminators had been sitting on my desk, built with full GW stuff, for a good few months. After deciding to FINALLY paint them, the force of the large-used-100-times-before drybrush caused the terminator to fall apart where it had originally been glued. Upon further testing (VERY mild tugs, pushes, and even foan carry cases) I found that they had become weak, and have had to rebuild many of them. It has happened again to some repaired minis but others stayed fixed.

The only theory I have is prolonged exposure to the sun (I have a large window that focuses where the termies were most of the day), but this seemed to be out of the window after testing my Lizard army, who is under that sun all day and has been for 6 months.

PLEASE HELP! I'm scared to touch my minis!

What sort of glue did you use to build them?

Are the termies metal or plastic?

super glue and pins my friend, super glue and pins

sounds pretty odd though, I've never heard of any one have their models fall apart due to time :3

Bad batch of GW super glue? Not that it could ever happen...

I use Gorilla Glue. Stuff held together a Desolator battleship I flung across a room against a cement wall.

BaronIveagh wrote:I use Gorilla Glue. Stuff held together a Desolator battleship I flung across a room against a cement wall.

O_o

What's the story there?

Zuul wrote:

BaronIveagh wrote:I use Gorilla Glue. Stuff held together a Desolator battleship I flung across a room against a cement wall.

O_o

What's the story there?

Oh, was a tester for BFG FAQ 2010.

The process was...trying. By which I mean rage inducing. By which I mean Matt Ward and CS Goto write Codex: Female Loyalist Chaos Space Marines and GW publishes it levels of rage inducing.

And the best part was GW doing a 180 on us and deciding that they didn't want a FAQ that conflicted with the printed books. (Which is sort of what a FAQ does is correct the printed books. Which are mostly no longer in print)

I use epoxy cement for assembling metal models. Either Araldite or E-6000.

The sun will fade the paint on your lizards.

If using plastic models, I recommend switching to a plastic solvent glue which will actually fuse the parts together.
For Plastic solvent, I prefer Plastruct "Plastic Weld" which smells bad but works really well and is easy to control with the brush applicator.

For metal, models that aren't too large, a rubberized superglue will give you a bit of impact resistance. BSI "IC-2000" or Gorilla "Impact Tough" are two good rubberized superglues. FOr larger metal models (especially those with small connections) Epoxy is a good option as well.

Eilif wrote:If using plastic models, I recommend switching to a plastic solvent glue which will actually fuse the parts together.
For Plastic solvent, I prefer Plastruct "Plastic Weld" which smells bad but works really well and is easy to control with the brush applicator.

For metal, models that aren't too large, a rubberized superglue will give you a bit of impact resistance. BSI "IC-2000" or Gorilla "Impact Tough" are two good rubberized superglues. FOr larger metal models (especially those with small connections) Epoxy is a good option as well.

Testors plastic cement is a good one for this as well.

Definitely pins and super glue. If I have a model that isn't plastic, always gets pinned aaaalways.

BaronIveagh wrote:I use Gorilla Glue. Stuff held together a Desolator battleship I flung across a room against a cement wall.

Ahh been through that...

BaronIveagh wrote:I use Gorilla Glue. Stuff held together a Desolator battleship I flung across a room against a cement wall.

I have a friend who justs used super glue and it did not survive that particular punishment to its broadside. . (pun intended )

ON TOPIC:
I will put money on super glue and accelerators is the cause of the breakdown. If you use and accelerator with a small amount of super glue it gets a brittle bond.

I know of this because I have used to put mini's together that are not painted for a game and then tear them back down to finish painting after the game. It also helps to get positioning for conversions which I am heavy in.

BaronIveagh wrote:I use Gorilla Glue. Stuff held together a Desolator battleship I flung across a room against a cement wall.

Presume you mean gorilla super glue? Gorilla glue is a foaming polyurethane adhesive that i cant see working well with models.

I should have mentioned (And a lot earlier) that these models are plastic, and I used GW plastic glue. It has now happened with their thick and thin glue (One tub of each) but the Blood Angels army I have which was built with the same glue tub is fine, but at a different location. This leads to to assume its an environmental factor, maybe even the plastic...

Wow, Necro.

I know, but sitting in a corner and not thinking about it isn't working. +Making a new thread is effort.

Are the models painted when you glued them? Make sure the joint is clean and you're gluing plastic to plastic (ie. no paint). You can even go to the extreme of washing the models in soapy water first to remove the release agent, but I that would be going to an unnecessary extreme.

You could try NOT using GW plastic cement. I've never used it myself, but I've used both Revell and Testors plastic cement for almost 20 years now and am struggling to think of any problems I've had in all those years.

I glue them before painting in any way, never had this problem before. Even if I do find my solution, I'd still like to know what's causing this..

Am I the only one who's had this issue?

Gorilla Glue requires water as a catalyst. Most people miss rhat little detail and stuff falls apart.

Why use an all-purpose glue instead of super glue?

Perhaps the joint area wasn't cleaned? or a less than perfect fit?
I have had glued joins come apart with citadel plastic glue before, I just figured 3i had'nt applied enough to get a good bond, Or I had a little gap being filled by glue instead of perfect contact between the pieces.
Since I have swapped brand and had no problems since.
Personally I found citadel poly cement to have a much weaker hold than Humbrol Poly Cement, which was about 5 times cheaper. For superglue I use Loctite Gel Superflex, I very rarely find it to be unsuitable compared to fluid superglue and it has become my go to superglue (mostly because of the squeeze bottle applicator I think)

It's probably just the fact that GW glues are watery garbage. The only thing I've seen their glue adhere together is the lids to the bottles.
I agree with Hairy's assessment of Loctite superglue, its awesome stuff and ditto for the Humbrol Poly Cement.

I use Gorilla glue to pin miniatures to bases. I don't use water for the catalyst though, just a little dab of the good stuff, and put tape over the hole under the base to make sure it doesn't expand too much in the wrong direction. After, I file it level and off I go.

I've never been a big fan of plastic glue, but that's just because of my fear of putting something together, and finding out it isn't what I was looking for (eg. move from 5th to 6th edi. changed my power weapons. Gotcha?)

I prefer Loctite Ultra Control Gel super-glue. And for particularly pesky points I pin them (as was suggested earlier). Grab a pin vice (or the smallest dremel drill bit you can buy) and a standard to jumbo sized paper clip (the kind with the indented lines in it seems to work quite nicely). Drill, snip the clip to the appropriate length, super-glue them all together, and you won't have a "falling apart" issue again. That is, unless you're throwing it against a cement wall...

The stuff I use is called Zap a Gap. They have two types. one in a green lable, and one in a purple/pink one.


Theres the Testors stuff, that melts the plastic together, and then Tamiya has a verson of it as well.

this stuff is kinda ... good. it will glue your fingers together in about 2 seconds. Use nail polish remover to get it off your hands with.


Hope that helps.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Gorilla Glue requires water as a catalyst. Most people miss rhat little detail and stuff falls apart.

Why use an all-purpose glue instead of super glue?

Gorilla makes a super glue, I know because I use it. They make a couple kinds actually...the one I get is "impact tough" or something like that, its got a flex additive that allows the joint to absorb impacts instead of shearing instantly like most super glue.

In the case of plastic cement, Ive used Testors (orange & white tube) for over 20 years. Ive still got an M4 Sherman model that I built 19 years ago.

 Mad4Minis wrote:

Gorilla makes a super glue, I know because I use it. They make a couple kinds actually...the one I get is "impact tough" or something like that, its got a flex additive that allows the joint to absorb impacts instead of shearing instantly like most super glue.

In the case of plastic cement, Ive used Testors (orange & white tube) for over 20 years. Ive still got an M4 Sherman model that I built 19 years ago.

2nded. The Gorilla Glue super glue is tough stuff. See the example I gave earlier.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Gorilla Glue requires water as a catalyst. Most people miss rhat little detail and stuff falls apart.

Why use an all-purpose glue instead of super glue?

Every cyanoacrylate (a.k.a. superglue) glue uses water as a catalyst. Almost everything in this world has trace amounts of water: you don't need to wet the surface of something before gluing them.

 heartserenade wrote:

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
Gorilla Glue requires water as a catalyst. Most people miss rhat little detail and stuff falls apart.

Why use an all-purpose glue instead of super glue?

Every cyanoacrylate (a.k.a. superglue) glue uses water as a catalyst. Almost everything in this world has trace amounts of water: you don't need to wet the surface of something before gluing them.

Nah, what he meant was the original Gorilla Glue required a couple things. 1: dampen both sides. 2: apply gorrila glue to 1 side. 3: clamp together. Safe to handle in 1 hr, fully cured in 24hrs. You are correct about cyanoacrylate though.

This stuff:


Not meaning to step on toes, just catching a miscommunication

I suggest you try Humbrol poly cement, never had any problems with it.