Yesterday I was dusting the model display unit, and I realized how weak some of these get over time. I gnd the planes to be the worst and the ship’s and subs to be the strongest. Some of my models are at least 12 years old. When I picked up the planes to dust them off they all creaked and a few got broken landing gears. However all the ships and subs were solid like the day I put tthem on the shelf. Note it’s not the first time in 12 years I’ve dusted 
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Thanks for the warning. Never thought of this. It’s good to know.
Also good to know you keep a clean house!
Part of that depends upon the type of glue used in assembly. But yes, aircraft models with their split fuselage halves, wing joints, etc. do have more places to go wrong. Ships can vary depending upon if the hull is single piece or split, and again dependent upon glue type used.
I had a wooden sailing ship model that finally fell apart- after all, it was only 50+ years old, so I guess it was time!
Are we talking the glue joints being weak, or the plastic getting weak? The former is common, the later is rare, unless you have a model sitting in direct sunlight for years.
Some of my very old tank models’ tracks start to split and break at stress points like along the sprocket and idler wheel. Sometimes the glue is weak and items like the tools will fall off after years.
Don, in my experience, it is the glue joints. Especially the kits I built as a youngster using tube cement.
I’ve seen it with super glued joints, like landing gear and pylons. It’s like the glue gets brittle.
Sorry about the bad spelling in the first post. Blame it on the wine It’s kind of sad to know they aren’t holding up over time. I’ve always used proper glue, it seems even the finish tends to get old as well. A really old diorama of a sub in water has just broken down, it’s probably 22 years old, all the water is cracked and has gone yellow. I had to throw it out. Guess nothing lasts forever. But as I was cleaning them I could rememeber building each one. Man I’m sounding like I’m 90 years old lol.
Paint under the glue is a common culprit too. I have learned the hard way.
As far as glue goes, Testors black bottle cement is my go to for major joints, it really welds. Tamiya extra thin is good too if you press the parts together to get them to fuse. For real durability I add small pins from brass craft wire, and remake fragile things like pitots from metal.
HTH
Konrad
I’ve long considered models to have a shelf life, and have decided that’s really not such a bad thing. It’s a good excuse to build those particular subjects again - and try to make them better than the previous.
I’ve never seen Testors black bottle glue, I use Humbrol which welds nicely. Some models I will rebuild, others I can’t part with. When I’ve invested 100’s of hours into a model it’s hard to even think about doing it again.
Just imagine the heartache for all those people who used Baking Soda for snow…OY VEY! The heartbreak: immediate or impending!! [:'(]
The dust and dirt protects them and makes them stronger! [;)]
I wonder if light and temperature have any impact??
I’ve got some 40 year old monogram toy 1/48 scale planes and they’re still holding up. Dust them off quite a bit and still play with the moving parts.
I’ve torn a couple apart and rebuilt them using new paints and decals. And they didn’t come apart very easy.
If I remember, I used testors tube cement way back when. I might have used liquid cement also but I never really like it when I was a kid.
matt
I’ve got a Matchbox flower class corvette that is 25 years old and R/C to boot. It is holding up pretty well except for the damage cause by a Canada goose attack which I repaired using stronger materials, like bras tubing for the mast.
I used normal plastic cement and 90% of the joints are holding only a very few had to be re-glued
I noticed how easy the plastic can break and become brittle on very old models. A couple of months back I was building a Tamiya kit from the early 70’s and had to be careful with some of the parts cause they had become very brittle. I also had to go very light with the cement cause it crazed and cracked a couple of parts. But then I recently built a Revell P-26 that was in its factory sealed box from 1966 and the plastic was fine.