I’m new at modeling (took it up as a retirement hobby - ex-naval airman, seemed to fit?) and I know nothing about modeling except what I’ve picked up on this forum. So, today I went out and bought two models by Hasegawa: Spitfire Mk.Vb and Typhoon Mk.IB, and two tubes of the old reliable Testors Cement in the red tube. That I remembered from my teen years when I did, I think, three Airfix kits. So, imagine my surprise when I opened my Hasegawa kits and read the instructions which said (Under “Cleaning and Preparing Resin Parts for Use”)that the correct cement to use was Cyanoacrylate!!! Now I’ve got a problem! I’ve got a bit of a tremor and I’ve tried to use CA in the past but my hand is just not steady enough to hold the dang-fangled tip of the tube on the seam. I’ve ended up welding my hand to the toilet seat, car rear view mirror, and my wife’s porcelain dolls. Before I go any further and ruin the kits, I’m asking you pros, 'Can I use Testors on these kits?
Second question: How the heck do you know if your buying a resin kit or a plain plastic kit? There is nothing on the boxes to indicate these are resin and the parts themselves look exactly like the same old grey plastic in the Airfix kit I just finished. How’s a guy to know?
Since I’m relatively new as well, just wanted to check on whether your experience was that quick setting epoxy was required, or whether some of the slower-setting (30-60 min) epoxies might work as well (so long as the pieces were stabilized and held in place)?
Rick, How do I know if I have a plastic or resin kit? There is nothing on the exterior of the box to differentiate. For instance, are they different colours? Do certain mfg’s only make resin models? Is there a simple test?
All of the “mainstream” manufacturers (eg. Hasegawa, Dragon, Tamiya, Revell, Italeri etc) produce kits using styrene.
On the odd occasion, they may include bonus resin parts. If this is the case, it will more than likely be indicated on the box.
On the other hand, where photoetched parts were once considered “after-market” options, many manufacturers now include some PE parts in the box in recent releases. (again, you will need either CA or epoxy for these parts)
Well, most models are the normal plastic (polystyrene) The smaller companies that make limited run kits, especially the Czech Republic manufacturers (Czech Model, Czech Master Resin) are usually all resin. The main brands are plastic…Revell Mono, Revell Germany, Hasegawa-but I think the resin parts in your kit are detail parts, not the whole kit? -Tamiya, Trumpeter, Dragon, Airfix…No, the Testors orange tube stuff won’t bond resin, I would use Medium or Slow setting CA. Some brands say stuff like resin detail parts or mixed media on the side/front/back etc.
Actually, the two Hasegawa kits you have are in fact styrene. They may include some resin add on or replacement parts to model a particular variant, but all of the major components are styrene. An easy test is to snip off a small length of sprue (the runners the parts are attached to) & apply the plastic glue on the sprue. If it melts or softens the sprue, it’s styrene.
No Ben1227, all the pieces in my Hasegawa kits are resin and it was not marked on the box. Not a clue anywhere. I opened both boxes a cut off a couple pieces of sprue and experiemented. Testers would not bond, but strangely enough, I could not get Pacers Zap-a-Gap to form a bond. As expected it ran out over the sides and jammed up my fingers, but sat for about 20 seconds on/in the joint and did not bond. I tried to join a couple of scrap pieces of sprue that I cut up and had no success. I must be doing something terribly wrong here.
I would like to find a CA in a Jell form that I can apply with a toothpick or some such applicator, make my join, and clamp in tight. I would also like to have a product that would allow me to attach small parts to the main body of the plane without having to try and hold then in place for 20 seconds. I just cannot do that. I’m really frustrated here guys.
I’m a vet and I was left with a couple of pieces of shrapnel in my spine that cause a constant tremor and sometimes, spontaneous jerks or contractions of my fingers. I’ve had nearly completed jobs ruined in a second because of an attack. I take a lot of drugs for the pain, 500 mg morphine a day plus a lot of muscle relaxants and that helps a lot but it leaves me with a lot of ground to cover if I’m going to make a go of this hobby.
I’ve failed at so many ways to occupy my days. It’s pretty depressing. The VA gives me a pretty good disability pension - 100% plus additional special allowances so I have the money to be able to buy some toys, but a lot of the stuff available to you guys, I can’t get shipped into Canada.
I’ve tried ‘Zap-a-Gap’ but I find it is so slow, which is good on one hand as it gives lots of wiggle room, but it’s a complete failure at trying to attach the small bits.
Could some of you Canucks recommend any product, available in Canada, that I can order in and try. I’d really like to find a fast acting CA paste. I guess what I’m asking for is a CA that acts like the old Testors or close to it.
Can anybody help me. Otherwise, I’ve got to take these kits back and spend my life watching the idiot box from my VA provided luxury chair. Sorry to be so depressed. I’m just really disappointed as I wanted to make a go of this great past time.
I would like to make a few suggestions that I hope can help.
Don’t use the applicator that comes with the CA adhesive. CA cures faster when you use much smaller amounts. From your post it sounds like you may be globbing the CA into the joint. Get yourself an old X-Acto knife handle, or an old pencil with a good eraser; then take a piece of paper clip or old guitar/piano string, or a sewing needle, and insert it into the knife handle or the pencil eraser. Voila! You now have a CA applicator. Squeeze a little CA from the bottle onto the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil, or even an old CD. Then dip your applicator tip and pick up a small drop and apply that to the joint to be bonded.
If the humidity where you live is dry, CA can take much longer to bond. After applying the drops to the joint you can do a couple things: A) Wait until it finally cures. B)Blow on it gently with your mouth. The water vapor from your breath will help cure it quicker. C) Purchase some CA accelerator (e.g., “Zip Kicker”). This is a material that contains a basic substance (usually an amine) and a carrier solvent. After applying the CA, dip a small paint brush into the accelerator and apply a drop to where you applied the CA. Instant set! D) Instead of accelerator, you can also use baking soda to accomplish the same thing, provided the amount of CA you use is minimal.
I learned this from several surgeons on controlling the shakes (I’m an old Navy corpsman.) Hope you can find it helpful as well: A) Use and hold the CA applicator you made as you would a pencil. As you approach the model, extend your little finger slightly, and use the outside of it on your work surface to support your hand as you apply the adhesive, or rest the entire hand on your desk as you move the applicator using your index finger and thumb (as if you were trying to write with your applicator). B) Holding the applicator as a pencil, rest your other hand/arm on your work surface. You can now rest your applicator hand on your forearm/wrist for application–OR–Use your other hand to gently hold or even interlock your applicator hand. Once again, the other hand is steadied on the work surface. Consider using things like rolls of paper towels or a couple small blocks of wood as support structures for your hands as your model gains in height. The principle is to avoid using your shoulder or elbow as the primary support point.
Instead of tube cement for styrene, I would recommend either Testors Liquid Cement, or Tamiya’s Cements (I like the extra thin variety). Both of these substances “weld” the plastic together, instead of simply holding them together the way tube cement does. In addition, the application process is similar to that of CA, except you would use a small paint brush instead of your CA applicator. The Tamiya cement actually comes with a fine applicator attached to the bottle cap that works quite well. As a passing note: Other modelers may recommend using Tenax or Ambroid glues, but I would avoid substances that contain methylene chloride as the primary ingredient (just my opinion).
Please listen to Gip, he’s a real pro when it comes to solvents, and I concur with each of his points (without having to be ex-Navy! [;)]). The tube glues require time to bond which is why the tests didn’t work.
Testors Liquid, Tamiya Super Thin, Tenax 7, or Ambroid Pro-Weld are solvent glues that will work much better. You can still glue fingers together, but they are much easier to apply and work with!
As far as I know Hasegawa do not make an all resin kit, but may contain optional parts that are resin. They do not have to be used.
I hope our suggestions help. No-one, NO-ONE! should be forced to spend their lives staring at the idiot box!
For resin bits, I only use 2 part epoxy. Personally, I hate CA, but realize it does have it’s uses (PE parts are just about the only time I use it). I find it’s stronger and usually cheaper than CA.
2 part epoxy can be purchased in any hardware store. It comes in 5, 15, 30 and 60 minute drying times. I prefer 5 minute because I tend to be a bit impatient when it comes to gluing things together. But obviously, the longer setting glues give you more time to work.
Out of curiosity, which hasegawa kits (which kit number) did you get? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a full resin kit from hase.
Gip, Thanks a million for all your help. Some things never change - here I am taking medical advice from a navy corpsman again after 40 years!!
A few things you said make sense: One, I now realize why the Zap I have isn’t working like it did - we’ve had a real cold spell here (-19) and I’ve had the furnace boosted all the way up. The result is the house is dry as a bone - I can feel it in my nose!!
Second, I rolled up a towel and put it under my forearm and made an effort not to put the strain on my shoulder - your right, it helps a lot. I have to be careful where I lay my elbow because of damage to the ulnar nerve, I’m scheduled for surgery in March to have a new chanel for the nerve created, but until then, its jumpy as all get out. It’s like having hit your funny bone 24/7 - not funny at all.
Could it be that I’ve jumped the gun about these kits being resin? All I’m going by is an insert in the package that has a list of ‘to do’ items: like “Affixing Tire Decals” - (there are none), “How to Prepare Etched Metal Parts” - (there are none), “Preparing Soft Metal Parts” - (there are none), “Correct Method for Applying Decals” - (there are lots), “Cleaning and Preparing Resin Parts for Use” - here’s where I think I ‘assumed’ these are resin kits. There is a para that reads “Parts holes in the resin are too shallow and require deepening using the proper sized drill in a pinvise.” In the schematic there are instructions for drilling out parts holes, and I guess I just sort of went from there.
From what all you guys are saying, these must be Styrene. Everything is the same colour, and on three sprues.
I’ll go back and do a test with a few pieces of sprue again and see what happens.
Again guys, thanks for all your help, advice, and ‘pick-me-ups’.
I did some real quick research on those kits and neither of them appear to be resin. It’s just a really good possibility that Hasegawa includes generic instructions for things like that so they don’t have to keep rewriting them for all of their kits.
Now, for the glue, the orange tube testors stuff won’t melt the styrene like the new stuff does. It’ll hold for a while (a few years at least), but for an absolute permanent bond, you need the stuff that’s going to melt the styrene. There’s Ambroid ProWeld, IPS Weld-On #3, Testors liquid solvent (in the black squeeze bottle), Tenax 7-R, Tamiya (in the 6 sided orange-capped bottle) and a few others. They work by melting the styrene and actually causing it to become one solid piece.
My personal favorite is the Tamiya in the 6 sided, orange-capped bottle. It works as well as the others, but has a longer working time. I just started using ProWeld, but don’t have enough experience to really comment on it.
I haven’t been able to tell where you are located by the posts…so I don’t know your shopping availability…over in the ‘Tools’ forum are many threads discussing all aspects of solvent type glues…including hazards and safety…and where find them.
[#welcome] to the forums and the hobby…ex-Navy here too!