and have been surprised by the number of posts describing a build process encompassing the e-bay purchase and rebuilding of glue bombs; the impression is also that of a “Money is No Object” process.
As most of the kits are OOP, I can understand folks would buy glue bombs as a last resort.
I can’t recall any posts on FSM regarding this sort of process.
The question I have is :
Is re-building glue bombs mostly car oriented or do the aircraft. ship and armor folks frequently do this as well?
I just buy new production kits. Too many of those to purchase as is… [:'(]
I think other modelers also do this but it does seem to be far more common with car builders.
I think one big reason may be due to there being more OOP kits in that particular segment. There are lots of old promo models of cars otherwise unrepresented in a kit, one off custom cars that haven’t been re-issued in a very long time and the trend at one time to modify the tooling of a kit making a re-issue of the original version impossible without a whole new tool. At least with aircraft and armor except for some really unusual subjects there is usually a current kit available, maybe not the exact version you want to build but at least something to use for the base.
Also, not limited to car modelers, but large parts boxes seem to be more common among car modelers. Probably due to the more free ranging build it how you like nature of cars. Glue bombs and junk yard boxes are popular buys for all the parts, and sometimes they provide a salvageable model. The general nature of custom cars is combining bits from different cars, dropping a modern engine, custom bucket seats and wheels onto an antique car for example.
One other factor may be the relative ease of disassembly of a car model vs an aircraft or armor model.Imagine trying to separate a fuselage seam without damaging the fuselage halves.Whereas most of the time the body is one piece so removing it from the chassis with minimal damage is easier.
Aaron’s got a good point. Back when, say forty or fifty years ago, new car kits came out as fast as new cars did. But they didn’t stay in production, and no ones going to go back and repop them now.
Aircraft, the opposite. The older we get the further back we seem to look for subjects, and the manufacturers production follows. I’ve never bought an old glue bomb, but the idea intrigues me.
One other factor may be the relative ease of disassembly of a car model vs an aircraft or armor model.Imagine trying to separate a fuselage seam without damaging the fuselage halves.Whereas most of the time the body is one piece so removing it from the chassis with minimal damage is easier.
[/quote user=" aaronw"]-
There are lots of old promo models of cars otherwise unrepresented in a kit, one off custom cars that haven’t been re-issued in a very long time and the trend at one time to modify the tooling of a kit making a re-issue of the original version impossible without a whole new tool.
philo426.
Your comment made me think of my attempt at prying old wing halves apart some years ago.
The kit ended up in the scrap heap anyway as parts of the wing tore off during separation.
aaronw:
I see what you mean re: re-issues. I was not aware the kits were modified for re-issue.
bondoman: Yes, the manufacturers go back for more kits because we have more money to spend on kits.
Somehow, though, I always feel 12 years old when I open the box for the first time. [proplr][:D]
I have dontit a few times on some of my older armor models. I think armor lends it self better to this than most aircraft. I currently ahve about three tank kits under verying stages of rebuild, but it a glacialy slow process with me. It is often easier and less frustrating to buy a new tooled kit of the same subject aircraft than rebuild an aircraft. I have a few old Sci Fi kits I hope to rebuild someday as well.
Lots of good points have been brought up, but I have another theory. The “show rod” kits often had huge appeal to children–especially Monogram’s Tom Daniel kits, which were eye-catching, pretty simple, and had a low parts count. I never built a show rod as a kid, but I did my share of awful land vehicle builds, including a Scania T142 that got some hand-painted “graphics” (would that I could find another today!). Aircraft, armor, and ships, on the whole, seem to appeal more to adult builders.
Back when annual kits based off promos for car dealers were common, the tooling was frequently modified year to year unless there was a major redesign of the car, so usually the only version of the kit that can still be issued is the last year of that body style. Over the years many of these kits were also modified into better selling race cars, hot rods and customs, making the original kits hard to find.
Licensing also plays a part with cars, AMT and Johan started out doing promo models for the car manufacturers. Which ever company won the bid got an exclusive contract for that year to model that manufacturers cars. Johan did a lot of Cadillacs and AMC cars, also many of the early 70s Ford economy cars like the Pinto and Maverick. When Johan went out of buisness many of the molds vanished, so all the cars they did are hard to come by and unlikely to be kitted again. There is some hope for the more popular cars like Cadillacs or the performance AMC cars (Javelin, AMX), but the odds of a manufacturer kitting a new Pinto, Gremlin or Pacer are pretty slim. If you don’t want to pay the high ebay prices for an unbuilt, glue bombs offer an cheaper alternative.
Hi folks, I’m new to the forum. I’m very excited to see all the fantastic works and advice by everyone here.
I’ve recently taken up resurrecting gluebomb models for an extra challenge. I’ve always wanted an original Land of the Giants Spindrift spacecraft by Aurora, and got one off eBay for $13. Attached is the “after” picture. I learned that 56-year-old plastic is quite brittle, so you tend to break more than you planned when disassembling. I did get an aftermarket or two for decals and top bubble, but ended up scratchbuilding a lot too.Processing: 1000074309.jpg…
Welcome to the forum Tvs1. I would like to see the picture you posted but unfortunately it did not post. Could you try again? Anyway, I can’t wait to see some of your resurrections.
I’ve resurrected models of all kinds of subjects also. The most important issue is the type of glue originally used and quality of build. If it was old tube glue that was used, it tends to leave gaps that can be exploited for taking pieces apart. Newer glues like Tamiya, etc tend to be more difficult to separate without damage. Some rebuilds I can leave some pieces together and work around those.
Frozin, yeah, tube glue was generously used for most of the joints. For some of the joints a sort of rubber cement was used. It does remove easier, but there’s a LOT of it.
