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Plasticweld


DaveCromie

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Evening ladies and gents

In an effort to get my modelling mojo back I thought to myself, "I know, why don't I go and start that lovely 1/72 Airfix rag-wing Hurricane I bought?". So, wings, undercarriage, carb intake and radiator, lower cockpit and upper cockpit all assembled and where necessary painted/shaded etc. "Now to join the fuselage halves together, what better adhesive to reduce join lines, particularly when the inside of the fuselage is so accessible, than Plastic weld?" thought I. Plastic weld carefully opened, carefully brushed into the joint of the fuselage spine, fuselage carefully positioned to ensure maximum compression on the joint and all I have to do is put the lid back on the Plasticweld, what could possibly go wrong? I bet you can see what happens next? Yup, my normal cack handedness decided to make an unexpected return and I knocked the bottle over spilling a goodly quantity all over the work space, some of which struck the fuselage.

I have managed to clear up the worst of the spillage before it ate ALL of the cutting mat surface, but I doubt I will ever get my micro drill box open again. The question I have though is: how much damage can this stuff do to surface detailing? Knowing that if I touched the affected areas I would leave lovely big finger prints engraved into the surface so I simply put the fuselage somewhere safe to let the Plasticweld do its worst without my making it worse. Please tell me that no serious damage will occur to my lovely little Hurricane!

DC with the rapidly waning modelling mojo :badmood: :badmood: :badmood: :badmood: :badmood:

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It'll probably melt the details and soften their look, so I suspect the kit might be a future spray-hulk. I've lost 2-3 keyboards, 3 or more cutting mats, and a couple of mice to the horror of glue spillage, sadly. Anything other than Tamiya Extra Thin, which is a squat and sturdy bottle gets a blutak ring around its bottom to help stabilise it.

Start a new kit in the meantime... and keep your glue stable in a Blutak skirt ;)

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Done the same to an Airfix Spitfire Vb kit. The damage to main parts was repairable but a lot of the little bits perished by the time they were removed from the puddle. My bottle now resides in a foam block for security - lessons learnt the hard way are lessons learnt well :(

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  • 3 months later...

Dave..

its like real life. .. you get kicked and knocked down or even disappointed. .. what do you do..you dust the mess off and stand tall

and get back to what you were doing before...

So come on...... you will be fine .... take stock and start again..

regards HOUSTON :popcorn:

(Yep being literally kicked and punched to the ground so I know what I said is SO true.) :thumbsup:

Edited by HOUSTON
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Get a piece of wood approx. 15cm x15cm and approx. 2cm deep. Drill a hole through it's centre the diameter of the plasticweld bottle. Put bottle in hole and use some blu-tac to hold it round the edge. You'll never knock it over again. I'd lost count of how many bottles I'd knocked over in the past, I've never knocked any over since making this simple holder . Simples :)

HTH
Andy

Edited by andym
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Been there and done that! All over a Trumpeter Lightning (so it was no great lose in the end :yahoo: ). I mostly use Tamiya Extra thin now which is difficult to knock over however Mike's advice is very sound should you feel the urge to use a bottle that is taller than it is broad.

Duncan B

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Col, Houston, Andym (a fellow Jambo?) and Duncan B

Thanks gents, all good advice gratefully received, and soon to be acted on! As an aside, I seem to have been EXTREMELY lucky as the damage seems to be limited to a very slight softening of the stretched fabric effect on one side. A quick swipe with a nice soft sanding sponge to the other side and it seems I might get away with it after all :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: The Hurricane is currently under a coat of Humbrol Acrylic primer and a coat of Xtracrylic Dark Brown and looks not too bad at all!

Cheers all

DC

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The good thing about knocking over a bottle of PlasticWeld, is that you'll never do it again!

It's nasty stuff when let loose on its own, a holder of some description is order of the day.

Another tip, get yourself a Touch n Flow applicator (glass tube with a needle on the end), load it up, put the lid back on the bottle. It uses capilliary action to apply, and doesn't need refilling as often as a brush.

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  • 1 month later...

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