Weld Glues/Plastic Glue

[Lior'Lec]

     I just watched the WHtv video about building a Deathwatch Veterns team, in the video Duncan talks about using Citadel Plastic Glue to pose the models after a few minutes and the glue taking 30 minutes to cure. Is the citadel plastic glue a weld glue or a CA type?

     I’ve been using Taymia Extra Thin plastic glue and don’t seem to have the same work time/cure times. When building, the glue seems to set in about 10 seconds and I have about another 30 seconds to try and get the pose right before I cannot work it without breaking the bond. Adding a little more glue to the seam tends to restart the entire clock and is generally how I’ve been trying to work with it so far.

     Has anyone got any experience they’d like to share comparing the two products? Would a different brand of weld/plastic glue give me a better result or work time for posing? If so what glues (readily available in the US) would be recommended? Am I simply using too much/too little of the current weld glue?

     Note that the glue does give me a good bond when cured, I just have a very limited time frame for getting poses right.  If I use a different glue it would mostly just be used for bonding the torso to legs and arms to torso when trying to pose the miniatures. 

[zedatkinszed]

I used Plastic glue (aka polystyrene cement) once in 2001. I have never (and I mean NEVER) used it again. I swear by Super Glue Gel and use nothing else. Occasionally I use ordinary SG and PVA for terrain and bases but honestly I have NEVER seen a reason to use polystyrene cement / plastic glue.

[Overread]

Plastic glues all mostly work the same way in that they melt the plastic of both parts, then the active ingredient evaporates which causes the plastic to set again.

Now like many things the full curing time can be longer than expected, paints, glues and even greenstuff can cure to appear done, but will take longer to fully dry/set. So he might well be right that it takes 30mins for the glue to fully 100% cure solid. However you are right that after the first minute or so the cure is good enough that it tears/breaks/leaves and utter mess if separated. I would wager he's abusing the fact that he only talks about the torso to legs, where the join area (glue surface) is hidden up inside the underside of the body and thus is invisible and also quite enclosed so likely can be separated later and moved abit and the resulting mess will be all hidden anyway. 

[Lior'Lec]

@zedatkinszed sorry, maybe I wasn’t clear enough in my statement. I am only interested in a comparison of the two different weld glues, not a weld to CA glue comparison. I use several different glues because they each serve a different purpose including four different CA glues. My primary glue is weld glue because unlike CA it is permanent, but I was curious if a different brand might give me a longer work life for posing.

@Overread Thanks, I’m familiar with the work cycle/process of weld glue but am/was curious if there is any noticeable difference in the work life between the two brands. If they use a different chemical solvent or formula it *could* result in a different time scale. 

     This is all kind of moot now anyway, I ended up raining out at work today so just went to my local shop and grabbed a bottle of citadel glue to test it. Unfortunately the bottle I bought was clogged; I tried using a needle, flipping  the nozzle around, and even fire but couldn’t get it unclogged. I finally just chunked it in the trash and I may pick up a bottle of the Model Masters to test next.