I’m building the Tamiya 1/16 Tiger I full option kit. The instruction call for synthetic rubber cement in a few steps. The pieces it needs to cement are an LED lite into its housing plus the optical fiber into the machine gun barrel. Also, the main gun flash unit to the muzzle of ABS plastic, which regular plastic cement won’t work. I have looked for this product in Hobby, Hardware and Home Improvement Stores with no luck. I even Googled “Synthetic Rubber Cement” and got wet suit repairs. Is there such a product out there or can anyone suggest an alternative adhesive.
I think normal Rubber Cement actually is a synthetic rubber. You should be able to find that at any home improvement store.
There is a product called ‘Household Amazing Goop’, funny name I know, but this stuff really is amazing. It’s very much like an rtv-type sealant and would work great in your situation. It dries flexible, but very strong, and it has the consistancy of very thick rubber cement before it cures (which it does quickly). Most hardware stores carry it.
Thanks for your reply. I’ve got regular rubber cement and will try it out.
I’m not familiar with Household Goop, but I’m quite familiar with ordinary rubber cement. Except for a few specialized (and temporary) uses, it’s a lousy adhesive for model building. It works beautifully for its intended purpose, which is holding pieces of paper together without wrinkling for a relatively brief period. But after a month or less it starts to turn brown, and within two or three months it shrivels up and comes loose. Great for working with plans, templates, and even applying paper masks to a surface before spray painting - but not for anything that’s to be permanently attached to a model.
jtilley, that goop stuff is bulletproof once it dries. It comes in a tube that you squeeze out, and it starts to set up within minutes. I’ve seen it used by the electronics industry where it is applied inside power amplifiers to prevent tampering with adjustments and other discrete components. I think it’s perfect for the application posed on this thread.
Sounds like Household Goop is a completely different substance than traditional rubber cement. I think I’ve seen Goop for sale in stores, but it hadn’t occurred to me to try it. Next time I see it I’ll buy a tube.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m a big fan of traditional rubber cement. I’ve used gallons of it in conjunction with drawing and other graphics projects over the years. But I also remember using it once to assemble a paper model - one of those excellent German warships from Wilhelmshaven models. Fortunately the one I picked was the simplest in the range: a U-boat. If it had been the Bismarck (which has, I suspect, upwards of a thousand paper parts) I probably would have committed hari-kiri. My U-boat, on which I labored for the better part of a Sunday afternoon, fell apart completely within three months.
Irecently used Gorilla Glue to mount my LED into a kit where it is right out in the open. The Gorrilla glue dries in a few hours to an amber yellow state,and is very tough. If you get it wet, it expands about 300 %,but justglue alone does not seem to expand much.
I have used it as well to mount magnets into my figures for mounting, etc. Good stuff, just dont get it on your clothing or anything you want to keep!
David
Would it be possible to use the “rubber” glue that is issued in cycle repair kits and is used to stick the patch’s on pushbike inner-tubes… ??
Afterall that is a rubber cement, still has flex in it to cope with the inflation of the tube…
Just want you all to know that I tried using rubber cement to the parts mentioned, let it set the reqiured time,but it did not hold. Ended up using super glue(Kraze glue) to fix the parts. Thank you all for the replies