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Well I've screwed up with the construction of one of my Rhinos. I used superglue to assemble it since I find it's just as effective as plastic glue (and it's much cheaper!).

Is there a way to take apart a super-glued model without breaking any of the components? I've heard you can freeze it, it it ok to do that?

Freezing it will make the superglue more brittle & therefore enable you to break apart easier.

Never heard of that... weird sounds like it shoudl work but probably better for pewter than for plastic. Normally this is why i prefer plastic glue is it takes time to set as opposed to super glue and it leaves far less "pooled gunk" on the seems. Let us know how that goes for you but personally i would just try an exacto knife and apply twisting pressure in the seems it should crack open unless you went overboard.

The problem is the bit I screwed up are the tracks . . . smart that wasn't it

Yes, a couple hours in the freezer will help break superglue.

So, now, what exactly did you do?

I glued the tracks the wrong way so that there is an ugly hole when I attach the top at the back.

 Big Mek Wurrzog wrote:
Never heard of that... weird sounds like it shoudl work but probably better for pewter than for plastic.

Why? It works equally well for either, in my experience, as it's primarily the glue that the temperature is affecting. It will still take mechanical force to separate the parts, the freezing just makes the glue even more brittle, which makes the separation easier. When trying to pry the tracks off, OP, remember that CA glues hold most strongly perpendicular to the plane of the join. Prying is better than pulling, and twisting is better, still. It's not possible with every part/joint, but whatever you can do to protect the parts is worthwhile. If you do use a lever of some sort, try to pry from places that will be hidden in the part's new position, in case you end up marring it.

Try and use some small point nosed pliers to do the twisting off/levering off, rather than the suggested knife blade... if your super glue is still a bit stronger than you hoped and the knife breaks, that little bit of blade could go anywhere, and chances are it'll be a heat-seeking bit of shrapnel and go straight in your eye.

 Nuclear Mekanik wrote:
Try and use some small point nosed pliers to do the twisting off/levering off, rather than the suggested knife blade... if your super glue is still a bit stronger than you hoped and the knife breaks, that little bit of blade could go anywhere, and chances are it'll be a heat-seeking bit of shrapnel and go straight in your eye.

Listen to this.

First hand experience with this. Tried opening a tiny model paint pot with my hobby knife and coped a broken bit of it to my right eyebrow. Quite scary.

Use pliers or anything thick.strong enough to take a decent amount of pressure.

Ahh science, you're a shrewd mistress. I wish this topic had come up last week when I messed up the ghost ark.

Freezing will work with super glue and most epoxies as well - wonderful bit of magic those coefficients of thermal expansion are. It doesn't really make the glue more or less brittle - but each material will expand (or in this case shrink) at different rates. Just enough to break the bond and loosen things up with plastic and superglue - though most metal figures will actually fall apart because the difference between the metal and the glue is even greater.

A friend of mine adds a second factor in the mix and will soak the model in water first. Gives them a shake and then sticks it in a big 1 gallon zip lock bag. When the cold does it's thing by shrinking the plastic, the water adds to it and since water expands when it freezes you have a thousand little crow bars of ice crystals forming in the cracks and crevices of the model pushing it apart. Normally the entire thing is in pieces when he takes it out of the freezer the next day.

I got it done, thanks guys for the help. I found the biggest bit came off the easiest whilst the small ones had quite a bit of trouble.

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
I got it done, thanks guys for the help. I found the biggest bit came off the easiest whilst the small ones had quite a bit of trouble.

The physics of leverage :3