Resin and superglue

[Crizza]

Hey there,

I have a problem. Whenever I work with resin, glueing hands to arms is a real pain.
I mean, the arms have a dent, where the hands bulge should fit in, but FW always has the hands attached to the resinsprue at that location.
While watching Superbowl last night, I worked on Aquilon Terminatos... one went without a problem, but the second not at all.
The upperbody did not stick to the legs, the hands did not stick to the arms, the daggerthingy is a pain to glue.
Am I doing something wrong? Should I clean said model first... with what? Warm water and soap? Silicon cleaner?

[Major_Gilbear]

Always wash resin models with warm water, a toothbrush, and some dish detergent. Always.

 

In fact, I do it twice: once when I get the model (easier to wash small parts on sprues), and then again after I've cleaned off all the mould lines and such.

 

The next thing is to always sand the faces of any parts you're going to join. Not just for better fit, but to scratch them a little (so the superglue grips better), and to remove the very outer surface of resin so that you can be 100% confident that the glue holds without interference from any possible release agent. You can use small strips of fine sandpaper to get into any hard-to-reach areas.

 

Finally, I pin and putty any joints that are likely to be stressed in any way, or which are flimsy and have small surface contact for the glue to work. You don't always need huge pins; sometimes a few millimetres each side into a join is enough to improve the strength of even wrist-to-arm joints for example.

 

I realise that this means more work that you're probably used to with plastic models, but it's something I do routinely with most models (including metal ones) anyway. It's still pretty quick in the grand scheme of things, and it saves you a lot of frustration with parts breaking of later on. :)

[Crizza]

This would also explain why primer does not take to the miniature.
Even in summer, with the right temperature GWs black and white primer have sometimes problems to create a smooth surface...

Thx for the help, will give it a try.

[Arkhanist]

In addition to Major_Gilbear's steps - which are all great advice - it's worth getting a good super glue too. Loctite ultra gel control or gorilla super glue gel both work well for resin and metals - they have a little bit of rubber in them that stops it being so brittle, so it will resist knocks or impacts much better. The gel style also makes it easier to apply.

[sockwithaticket]

Also, on flat surfaces like a wrist/hand joint , scrape away a little bit to make sure you've got bare resin connecting with bare resing rather than any resin with mould release residue.

Pinning can also mititgate issues.

[Claws and Effect]

In addition to Major_Gilbear's steps - which are all great advice - it's worth getting a good super glue too. Loctite ultra gel control or gorilla super glue gel both work well for resin and metals - they have a little bit of rubber in them that stops it being so brittle, so it will resist knocks or impacts much better. The gel style also makes it easier to apply.

I use Gorilla Glue Gel and have had good results. With enough patience you can even get uncleaned resin to bond.

 

You should still clean it though.

[Crizza]

Yeah, I'm cleaning it now with a toothbrush and dish deterrent, while using a rasp to go over the faces... works pretty well. Thx for all the advices.

[battle captain corpus]

Working with both metal and resin is a big step up from the plastic sprues so naturally you do end up with more steps.

 

All the above advice is solid. I would add that when you have two flat resin surfaces that need to connect I've always found very lightly scoring them with the tip of a hobby knife helps as you are creating a little more surface area for the glue to work with.

 

Oh and bin the GW glue if you can...its generic and "ok". Nip to a good hardware store and buy Gorilla Superglue. It's the best I've used in 29 years of the hobby. ;)

 

BCC

[Semper Fortis]

Another vote for Gorilla or Locktite superglue, but I'm going to disagree about the gel formula.

 

I'm a firm believer in thin superglue. Like the Major, I pin and putty joints, making sure that the putty fills any void. Then I use a very small amount of thin superglue at the joint and let it wick into the joint by capillary action. In my experience, superglue makes a terrible gap filler. Less is more. Just my humble opinion.

[Claws and Effect]

Another vote for Gorilla or Locktite superglue, but I'm going to disagree about the gel formula.

 

I'm a firm believer in thin superglue. Like the Major, I pin and putty joints, making sure that the putty fills any void. Then I use a very small amount of thin superglue at the joint and let it wick into the joint by capillary action. In my experience, superglue makes a terrible gap filler. Less is more. Just my humble opinion.

I like the gel because if you goof and squeeze it too hard it's easy to dab the excess off with a bit of paper towel without getting it all over everything. Since I switched to the gel my incidents of accidentally gluing a part to my table or fingers has dropped to zero.

[Major_Gilbear]

I tend to use thinner glue, and then file/trim to get a better fit. I avoid the extra-thin stuff though, as I just end up gluing myself* to everything every time.

 

The strength of the join is normally in the closeness of the parts fit, and a pin if it's small or delicate. This is because superglue is almost always strongest when used sparingly to join two decently-sized non-flexing faces together. The pin in small joints acts as a stiffener for flimsy parts, as support for the joint to reduce stress on it, and to increase the surface area between the parts receiving the glue - which is why pinned joints are so effective.

 

Using superglue as a gap filler or to fudge two less-than-perfect-fit parts together can work, but more often leads to a brittle joint in my experience - even if you use a rubbery or specially-formulated gel superglue. I also find the same thing with the superglue-greenstuff-superglue technique that many favour. What's more, if the joint should break, the parts will never go back together again cleanly, which makes fixing breakages even more work. Lots of people swear by these however, so although it wouldn't be my first choice, it may still be worth investigating.

 

 

 

 

 

* Because of this, I usually keep a bottle of superglue debonder handy. Although it's seldom used, I've found it surprisingly good at releasing the occasional mis-glued joint. I simply apply it locally, give it a minute to work it's way in, and then tease the joint apart. Don't let it sit long (it damages glue, plastic and resin, and strips paint too), and be sure to clean the parts afterwards. For the £3-4 a bottle, I've found it worth having! ;)

[Semper Fortis]

Superglue debonder has pride of place on my painting table. I may not need it often, but when I need it I REALLY need it. :)

 

I have found that the best way to avoid those accidents where you squirt excess superglue on the mini is to not get the glue bottle near the mini in the first place. I put a little superglue in a jar lid, then apply it to the join with a tool called the glue looper. Works a charm.

[Demonl]

Major_Gilbear is correct, key is to sand each side of the join.