QUOTE: Originally posted by richardksmith
Is it better to add detail parts to Locomotives, (stanchions, steps etc,) with crazy glue or old time testors model cement??? It's been a long time away from this hobby[?]
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CA is great stuff for quickly and strongly bonding parts, but as some readers of this forum from my recent posts know, handling and applying it can be tricky. Thin CA (as compared to gap filling CA) flows very freely on surfaces and wicks into joints very quickly, including if your not careful places where you don't want it, including fingers, tools and other surfaces. Surprise your bonded! I now carefully squeeze a very small amount from the container nozzle onto a piece of aluminum foil and carefuly use the thin end of a toothpick to dip and apply a small amount of the CA to the two surfaces I want to bond.
Working on joints where the joint is going to be visible needs particular care to avoid CA spreading where it shouldn't. Some paint finishes and plastics are sensitive to CA. Acetone or nail polish remover containing acetone can be used to remove CA, but at risk of damaging surfaces.
As an alternative to CA, when bonding plastics such as styrene, butyrate, abs and acrylic (lucite or plexiglas) another very quick and strong bonding agent you can use is a liquid plastic welder such as Ambroid's ProWeld, which comes in a bottle with a a brush applicator. Again like CA it wicks and spreads very quickly and has to be applied with care.
I've also used Lepage's two-part five-minute epoxy on my recent locomotive detailing project (comes in small tubes and you can make up in tiny amounts on a piece of foil) again using a tooth pick as an applicator. Epoxy is more easily controlled, takes a few minutes to bond to a reasonable strength, makes a bulkier joint (blobby if too much) and may not take some paint too well.
I use Testor's model cement on plastic kit parts when either CA or ProWeld would be tricky to control.
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