Last year I wrote about finding the vinyl inserts of the road wheels of my Merkava (Academy) has melted and melting with it in the process were the road wheels as well. Yesterday, to my dismay, it happened again. Whlie cleaning my airplane collection I discovered that it happened again, this time to my P38-J (Academy again!). The reason I am writng this is I am concerned that it might happen again to my Stryker with again, its vinyl insert tires. I am now thinking of getting those resin tires my Masters Productions. What could be causing this meltdown? Has this happened to AFV?
Wow, BUMMER, man! [sigh]
It’s gotta be some sort of reaction between whatever glues you used, or possibly the paint? Are you using enamels?
I would write to the manufacturer of the glue and ask them if they have any idea of their glue’s reactivity to vinyl. I really couldn’t think of anything else it could be?
It’s caused by a reaction between the different types of plastic in the tyres and the styrene in the wheels. I saw this originally in the old Airfix bagged kits where the tracks appeared to melt into the other kit parts in the bags. Funnily enough paint actually slows this down by acting as a barrier between tracks/tyres and wheels. When I was much younger(with hair !) I used to stick the tracks on with tube cement and had no problems ,the cement acting as a barrier .Now being much more sophisticated , I have suffered .The other thing the tyres do is shrink and split , this has happened on my Tamiya LRDG truck and a number of Dragon Russian AFVs . The simple answer is the tyres should be of the type plastic as the rest of the kit. You can get some nice aftermarket resin replacements.
I use enamel paints but someone told me that it is the culprit so I did not paint the vinyl inserts and the the surface of the wheels which will touch the inserts but still it happened. I know that enamel paints really affects vinyl because when I experimented painting a vinyl material it never dried and became sticky. I think they should use the same material they are using on the tracks because the tracks never got affected by paints. You should have seen what happened to my Merkava!
Vinyl has a chemical called plasticizers that keeps the vinyl pliable. The problem is that the plasticizers leech into bare styrene plastic and cause the plastic to melt. It is a common problem in older Airfix and Aurora kits. My wife collects Barbie dolls and the vintage ones had the same problem where the vinyl arms and legs would melt where the pivot at the plastic torso.
The best way is to make sure you fully paint the vinyl tires with an acrylic paint (or use Future). Make sure you also paint the styrene plastic where it may come into contact with the vinyl as well.
I have heard people use adheasive backed foil to make a barrier on the rims or coat the rim with a thin coat of super glue to make a barrier between the tires and rim.
Is this happening to the inserts in the center of the road wheels for attachment or to the road wheel “rubber” rim tires that are one feature of Academy kits? Is this a thing that only happens to anyones Academy kits. I have some very old Tamiya kits that show no sign of this effect. I know about the Dragon and Tamiya rubber tire splitting problems. [censored] My LRDG Chevy, BTR-80, and BRDMs, are all suffering from this affliction.
All I can say is “WOW!, am I glad this bit of info came up!”
I woulda been PO’d BIG TIME if all my hard work was ruined by not knowing this!
As an answer to stikpusher, it happened to all my academy models with the “rubber” vinyl inserts. In my Merkava, all the wheels were melted by the vinyl inserts also my M-60 and now I found out it also happened to my P-38. So far it has only happened to my Academy Models. But not with their vinyl tracks. Only the tires. The "splitting happens when the rubber gets to dry and becomes very hard but not melting.
This happens all the time with car modelers. If the vinyl tires are left loose in the box they “melt” into the remainder of the kit parts. It is as stated, the plasticizers react with regular styrene as they want to bond.
…can you say, “class action lawsuit”?
Herr Manstein, probably not. All I want is for them to replace the material they are using for future models which they will design with inserts or even simpler mold everything in plastic, then we dont have to buy replacement parts.
…if they don’t replace, let me know and I’ll form a special Kampfgruppe…
Does anyone have any pictures of the end result? I’m curious as to how destructive the melting is/can be.
I wonder if the Tamiya “polycaps” that are so widespread in their kits suffers from this phenomenon? If I remember correctly they are made of a “harder” plastic/vinyl? You’d think that companies that are in the PLASTICS business would know these things…
Scroll down to the Jeep done about 3/4 of the way down the page: http://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=101130&page=1
Here’s where this subect came up recently: /forums/798542/ShowPost.aspx
Yikes! So does the reaction of the agent in the tires with the plastic cause any heat like a ticking time bomb, or is it just the slow liquification of the plastic until they drip off?
I wonder if the Tamiya “polycaps” that are so widespread in their kits suffers from this phenomenon? If I remember correctly they are made of a “harder” plastic/vinyl? You’d think that companies that are in the PLASTICS business would know these things…
No heat, it just starts to melt the plastic, much like cement, but does not really effect the vinyl tires.
I have not noticed any problem with the hard vinyl poly caps, and I own several Tamiya kits that are over 20-25 years old. Both built and unbuilt. I also do not have any problems with vinyl Tamiya wheels on my ancient built LRDG kit.
Re: Glamdring. I will send photos as soon as I am able to. You can see for yourself how terrible it looks.