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I'm building one of the Knight Armiger Warglaives from the Forgebane box, and it's the first time I'm really doing something in sub-assemblies I'll paint first then glue afterwards. In this scenario, where I'll likely be connecting two painted surfaces, are there some glues that work better than others? Or do I really need to just sand down to bare plastic in limited areas before gluing together? Recommendations for both products and techniques would be appreciated, thanks!!!

Edit to add: I'm assuming that the answer is likely just "super glue"; I guess I'm curious to know if all super glues are created equally here, or if there are any types/brands that will work better when paint is already on the model.

The best path is to carefully scrape off the paint from the contact points and use the regular plastic weld like:
https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Cement-Plastics-1-oz/dp/B0006N6ODS


Even superglue is going to be relatively weak when gluing painted surfaces. And I never use superglue on plastic parts anyway. The glue joints are prone to failure.

Gotcha clively...I was hoping for a shortcut - someone in another thread ages ago mentioned something like "automotive super glue" that provided a solid connection over paint, but I never did find the stuff - but it sounds like if I'm gonna do the job, I'd best do it well...plastic cement it is!

Oh I understand.

I just know that the first time that model falls off a table then it’ll be in 3 pieces with a ruined paint job because the super glue fractured or the paint lost its adhesion.

I have an yncarne that a friend asked me to fix that this happened to. It has other problems as well - to the point that I’m probably going to tell him to just throw it away and start over.

Yeah, scrape off paint then glue.

I've tried many methods, but this is really the only way for effective, clean results.

ducki3x wrote:
Gotcha clively...I was hoping for a shortcut - someone in another thread ages ago mentioned something like "automotive super glue" that provided a solid connection over paint, but I never did find the stuff - but it sounds like if I'm gonna do the job, I'd best do it well...plastic cement it is!

Superglue is only ever going stick paint to paint, which means the weak point isn't the glue, it's the paint.

If you used really strong paint then maybe you could glue straight to it, maybe that's why you have "automotive" in mind because between their primers and tough layers of thick clear, car paint jobs tend to be quite strong (at least compared to a wargaming model).

Plastic cement will actually melt paint to an extent, so sometimes you can get away without scraping the paint off, but only if the paint is really thin and you risk squishing melted paint out of the side of the joint.

Scraping it off is the easiest and pretty quick to do. Another alternative is put blutack over the areas that need to be glued so they don't get paint on them in the first place.

Blutack or masking tape (I prefer blutack in sockets and masking tap over ball joints and flat surfaces). Trying to scrape paint out of a socket is a headache that is too easily avoided.

You could glue on a paint-on mask which then rubs off easy or tape-off edges you plan to glue later which could be less work.
Look up things like "masking disks" there are a few neat options out there.
Hystik blue 14 day 3M tape is a safer option where most green tape if left on too long become a bit more permanent.

revell contacta goes straight through paint without a worry

I've been scoring the surfaces w a razor down thru the paint and I've not really had any problems.

make sure to use a thicker superglue, as the thin stuff just runs out of any gap.