I am and having been building a Sterling American Scout C-2 freighter, about 1/96th scale or close to HO, (for almost ten years, on and off, off time to regroup for patience) and was able to obtain a fiberglass hull for it and have installed R/C equipment in it and I’m way past the maiden voyage stage. In the process of building the upper deck part of the ship, I purchased laser cut brass handrails and I’m having difficulty finding a solution to attaching the handrails to the deck. I’ve never worked with any laser etched brass parts before and am unsure how to secure it to anything like plastic, plexiglass, wood, etc,. Any ideas or advice would certainly come in handy.
Thanks
First things first - welcome to the Forum! I think you’ll find it a fun and useful place. It’s inhabited by some decidedly odd people, but most of us are relatively harmless.
I’ve never worked with fiberglass hulls or laser-cut brass railings, but I imagine the latter are similar to photo-etched brass parts. If so, the two adhesives that come to mind are epoxy and cyano-acrylate (otherwise known as “superglue”). Both come in several varieties, with different viscosities and drying times. I imagine you’ll be drilling holes in the deck and plugging the rail stanchions into them. If the underside of the deck in question isn’t going to be visible, I’d think a blob of stiff, slow-drying epoxy resin on the bottom would hold the stanchion in for the rest of our lifetime. If the underside of the deck is going to be visible, I guess the approach would depend on how thick the decking material is. Trial and error should establish whether the stanchions will have a tendency to wobble. If not, a drop of medium-fast-drying CA should do the job. If they do tend to wobble, you may have to figure out some means of supporting them.
I’m only able to talk in extreme generalities here, because I’ve never done a project like this. I suspect some Forum members who’ve got experience in RC models will be able to help more intelligently.
Good luck.