Questions on Glue, putty, etc...

[Bucksnort101]

After a 20-25 year hiatus from plastic model building I am getting back into it. Need to get started on the P-47 Group Build I commited to build in the Heavy Hitters Thread, but have some questions on glue, putty etc...
Planning on hitting the Hobby shop and picking up new glue, putty, paint, thinners, etc... Plan is to use Tamiya paints through an airbrush as I think it will be the least obtrusive to spray indoors?
Question is what types of glues and putty should I pick up and what tasks to use them for.
In the past I've used pretty much the Testors glue that comes in the toothpaste like tubes, but find it messy and waste a lot of it. Any other glues I should look into for general assembly, putting together Fuselage sides, wings Etc?
Any suggestions on what works, what to avoid?

 

[B-17engineer]

Hi Buck.

Putty wise, most can agree that Squadron Putty is probably the best (green or white). Avoid Testors Contour putty.

Paint, I like enamels, I use Model Master paints. They were referred to me by Les and I love them!

Get super glue (Gel and Liquid) as well as plastic cement in a bottle and/or tubes.

Liquid super glue I learned to use for small parts, gel super glue for the wings and fuselage. Plastic cement I have only used for the rudder of my Ju-87 so far.

Hope it helps

 

[piet]

green Squadron Putty,

Plastic cement, thin ,normal..... tamiya or revell or........, superglue only for photo etched parts
Liquid glue for clear parts allways handy... many brands out there
Micro Sol, softening solution for Decals
Paint Tamiya ,mr hobby acryl paint for airbrush..... enamel for brush painting
tamiya tape

 

[kgambit]

This is my stock and trade:

1 ) Squadron Putty (white)
2 ) Model Master glue (designed for styrene) - use for general assembly
3 ) Model Master Clear Parts glue (for canopies) or Elmer's white glue
4 ) Jet CA - not just for PE but also useful for gap filling - I much prefer the Slow Jet variety is much easier to work with as it doesn't set up quickly and allows you to position parts
5 ) Jet De-solv -Dissolves CA - I've only used it twice but it's great stuff.
6 ) Micro-Sol and Micro-Set for decals; Future if you do NOT use enamels as a gloss clear coat as a base for decals
7 ) Polly scale, Tamiya Acrylic, Model Master Acryl, LifeColor (especially for Italian planes) and Gunze Sangyo acrylic paints have all worked well for me with airbrushing - all of them work reasonably well for drybrushing but it can vary depending on the manufacturer and the color -

8 ) Thinners depend on the brand of paint - here's my go-by chart. I don't use enamels so someone else will have to help you there.

Life Color - water
Polly Scale - Windex or Model Master Thinner
Gunze Sangyo - Isopropyl alcohol
Tamiya - Tamiya thinner or Isopropyl Alcohol
Model Master Acryl - Windex or Model Master Thinner

Note: I just started using the Life Color acrylics and they are fantastic. Can be thinned and cleaned up with plain water, and have a really fine pigment suspension that airbrushes wonderfully.

9 ) Tamiya tape and/or Micro Mask masking liquid and Bostic Blue Tac for all masking

 

[Crimea_River]

I'm like you Buck and got back into this obsession after a 25 year hiatus. I don't use tube glue any more. For glue I have:

Zap CA glue - fast flowing glue that fills all seam crevasses.
Zap a Gap CA glue - thicker, slow flowing, fills gaps and is good for gluing very small pieces
Ambroid Pro Weld lliquid cement. This stuff is great for seams. Just brush it on the seam while holding it together and it makes a fast bond and dries very quickly.

For the CA glues, see if you can get some very small plastic tubes that fit into the end of the applicator. These help with controlling where and how much glue you apply.

I have Squadron white putty for filling seams. One tube lasts forever. Get yourself some varying grits of wet sandpapaer as well between 300 and 1000 grit for smoothing puttied areas.

 

[Bucksnort101]

Curious what technique you use to glue fuselages and wings with CA/Superglue? Do you put a light bead of glue on the glueing surface (if so, one or both surfaces) and them put the two pieces together, or do you hold, say the fuselage together, like you would with the liquid style glue, and then run a thin bead of glue down the seam?
I have read that the liquid type glues shrink some over time and may show a slight seam mark after painting, particularly with a bare metal paint scheme so want to avoid that scenario with my "first" model.

 

[B-17engineer]

The only reason to run glue down the wing is if there is a gap. Otherwise you'll have to sand forever until you get a smooth edge. I normally put a drop in each hole that the tips go into and the end of the wing..

 

[vikingBerserker]

8 ) Thinners depend on the brand of paint - here's my go-by chart. I don't use enamels so someone else will have to help you there.

Life Color - water
Polly Scale - Windex or Model Master Thinner
Gunze Sangyo - Isopropyl alcohol
Tamiya - Tamiya thinner or Isopropyl Alcohol
Model Master Acryl - Windex or Model Master Thinner

First of all great tip. In regards to using Windex to thin Polly Scale, do you use the regular blue one and if so, does it impact the color of the paint at all???

 

[kgambit]

First of all great tip. In regards to using Windex to thin Polly Scale, do you use the regular blue one and if so, does it impact the color of the paint at all???

Yep. Just the regular blue Windex with Ammonia-D.

I haven't seen any impact on the paint color for Polly Scale at all and I've used it to thin a number of colors including RLM 04 Yellow and White - two colors that you might expect to be affected by a blue tint. And there was no color change that I noticed with the Acryl paints either when thinned with Windex.

I believe that Model Master Acryl now has a new paint formula. I've noticed that the paint behaves a little bit differently so I've tended to use the Model Master Thinner with the Acryl paints. But for Polly Scale, it's good ol' Windex!

 

[Crimea_River]

Greg, I have not used CA glue on the fuselage seams or for gluing wing halves togther. I hold the seams together and use the liquid glue. The stuff I use dries in less than a minute so what I do is hold the seam togther by hand, run the liquid cement along the part of the seam I'm holding, making sure the seam is aligned as much as possible (I hate puttying/sanding) and then moving along til it's done all the way around.

Be careful though - watch for the next post on my Me-262 Group Build for a big boo-boo.

Dwight, I had not heard of Windex for Polly Scale. Rather, I heard of distilled water but definitely not alcohol. Have you tried with distilled water and found Windex to be better? My LHS Owner recommended water with a bit of dish soap but I like the Windex idea.

I have not airbrushed acrylics beofre and just stocked up on a pile of Polly Scale. I hate the smell of oil paints and cleaners so want to switch over.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Yep. Just the regular blue Windex with Ammonia-D.

I haven't seen any impact on the paint color for Polly Scale at all and I've used it to thin a number of colors including RLM 04 Yellow and White - two colors that you might expect to be affected by a blue tint. And there was no color change that I noticed with the Acryl paints either when thinned with Windex.

I believe that Model Master Acryl now has a new paint formula. I've noticed that the paint behaves a little bit differently so I've tended to use the Model Master Thinner with the Acryl paints. But for Polly Scale, it's good ol' Windex!

Wow, that's pretty awesome. Thanks!

 

[kgambit]

Greg, I have not used CA glue on the fuselage seams or for gluing wing halves togther. I hold the seams together and use the liquid glue. The stuff I use dries in less than a minute so what I do is hold the seam togther by hand, run the liquid cement along the part of the seam I'm holding, making sure the seam is aligned as much as possible (I hate puttying/sanding) and then moving along til it's done all the way around.

Be careful though - watch for the next post on my Me-262 Group Build for a big boo-boo.

Dwight, I had not heard of Windex for Polly Scale. Rather, I heard of distilled water but definitely not alcohol. Have you tried with distilled water and found Windex to be better? My LHS Owner recommended water with a bit of dish soap but I like the Windex idea.

I have not airbrushed acrylics beofre and just stocked up on a pile of Polly Scale. I hate the smell of oil paints and cleaners so want to switch over.

I haven't tried distilled water with Polly Scale although I have read that some people have used that with success. And I definitely agree about NOT using alochol with it.

As for CA on seams, I've used it to fill small gaps and even to re-glue seams when they "pop". I have a nasty habit of putting too much pressure on seams and popping them.