I’m having a struggle with one of the landing gear struts on a Spit that I’m working on. I used Testors liquid glue and it seems to dry rather gummy and not firm. This has caused one of the struts to not hold well and bend out when weight is placed on it. Is there a glue that will dry and give a firm hold? If I could find one that will do that I think I can fix the problem.
Mek, Tamiya super thin and other solvent glues will do fine for styrene on styrene glueing.
for plastic I prefer straight elmers white glue. Holds the strongest, a lot better than the dangerous full of chemicals the solvents have.
Elmer’s holds stronger than Tenax or Plast I Weld? They actually melt the plastic of both matting surfaces creating a solid piece. I just recently fixed a friend’s model that had the main gears broken off during shipping. I used Plast I Weld on the gears and they are as strong as before they were snapped off. let it cure over night and will be good as new.
Any liquid cement can use a few small bits of plastic sprue added to the bottle which gives it a firm hold and aide as a filler when dried.The plastic bits of plastic melts into the cement .
Shake the cement bottle up after an hour then it will fog up .Then it is ready .Shake well before every application.
I have a drill that makes a very small hole. In a situation where it doesn’t harden, I’ll drill through the landing gear and tire and insert a metal rod through to reenforce it.
I had a similar problem and realized that the glue (Testor’s Black ) was simply old, and had probably lost it’s strength. A new bottle was the answer. FYI, for faster joins I also like Tamiya thin glue and Ambroid Proweld. I’m sure Tenax is also a good choice, just haven’t used it yet.
Mike