Wednesday 15 August 2018

Not so super - glue!

You guessed it, this is another one of those posts lamenting the results of a session trying to stick model soldiers together. I wanted a break from infantry so selected 4 of the 40mm Sash and Sabre British Light Dragoons as this weeks painting job, and as they come in several parts as you see below I bought a tube of Superglue from the local hardware shop for use on them. 'Gel' it said on the pack, and  I usually have more success with the gel, so I pierced the cap and prepared for a short relaxed session that turned into a bit of a sticky nightmare.

I started by attempting to stick the torsos to the legs, nice thing is that you can set them at slightly different angles, forwards, leaning back or turned to the side. I quickly realised that what ran from the tube was anything but gel and within less than a minute I had a pair of troopers legs firmly stuck to my finger that needed to be pulled off leaving my finger rock hard with glue. I then tried to attach the legs using my tweezers but that resulted in a torso glued to them that also had to be carefully removed. Refusing to abandoning the session - as I probably should have done at that point - I persevered, and eventually got the job done, although attaching the carbines to the slings was a bugger of a final challenge. The end result was worth it, once I had spent several minutes scrubbing the hardened glue off my fingers. What did surprise me was that when I undercoated them some time later some of the glue must have still not been set resulting in a ruined (luckily old) paint brush.

 

All in all it was a frustrating session, but I felt lucky to end up with no damage to the detail of the figures. I'm now looking out for a better quality gel superglue. Next question for me was how best to paint these mounted figures, given that I always generally prefer to paint cavalry with the troopers glued on now days. I have often found when sticking painted riders to mounts that scratch damage can occur that then needs to be touched, so I'm going with my 'one piece casting' method again and the result is as you see below, ready to get started on.

Photos show the undercoated dragoons with the single painted trooper that came with the lot I purchased from Andy. Wonderful paint job, I only hope that I can achieve something close to this.

All figures 40mm by Sash & Sabre USA, available in the UK via Andy of Old Glory.








17 comments:

  1. Those are handsome figures once all has been said and done. I too prefer to attached riders to horses before painting begins. It just makes sense. The less handling, once painted and glossed, the better.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. Thank you Stokes. I scratched numerous horses before deciding to tackle the cavalry as one piece castings and have been doing this for several years now. With a black undercoat what I can't get to can't be seen!

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  2. ..hah.. I sympathise - that is probably the same reason my ECW project has gone moriubund before even getting going... I hate sticking figures together... things are marginally better now I got a can of this stuff.. hope the link works, if it doesn't eBay "superglue accelerator"..

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUPERGLUE-ACTIVATOR-200ml-ACCELERATOR-SPRAY-CYANOACRYLATE-FAST-SETTING-AEROSOL/181107513492?epid=14016195064&hash=item2a2ad95894:g:fDcAAOSwxH1T8gDm

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    1. Cheers for that Steve, I have heard of the stuff and also other ideas such as bicarb of soda quite recently! I'll probably try the activator first to avoid future problems. Another issue is getting the parts to hold in place, even with superglue I find I need that tiny ball of white tack (as I found here) in the joint to hold things together, but I wonder if it weakens the join once set. All a bit of a pain though.

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  3. Enjoying watching your 40mm napoleonic collection grow.

    Always tricky to stick multi part figures together..

    If you don't mind waiting for it to harden you can use some green stuff or milliput, I use green stuff to fix riders to horses as it fills gaps between the uneven surfaces. For speed I use contact adhesive (Evo-Stick or similar) on one surface and super-glue on the other surface - they seem to react well together and the join holds [most of the time :) ]; I then let the glue go off and harden for a least 4 hours.

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    1. Thank you Allan. I might well try this suggestion - contact glue on one surface and superglue on the other. I do have some green stuff here, but tend to use a small ball of white tac when placing riders on horses to avoid those unsightly gaps that can occur, another reason for painting as one piece castings, it all disappears beneath the undercoat.

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  5. I do enjoy a bit of Schadenfreude after a day's work - been there myself many times so it's nice to see I'm not alone in my handling of super glue. That said I've never to stuck anything to my fingers or them to each other but pretty much stuck everything else together apart from the intended parts - also ruined a few paint brushes in this way.
    Anyway it's done now and we can sit back and await the results of your painting which I shall do with much anticipation - British Light Dragoons in Tarleton have always been a bit of a favourite with me, so much nicer than that Frenchified shako they adopted later.

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    1. Hello Rob - still not yet got back to the DIY store to get a shot of the lamp box, please bear with me.

      I agree re the Tarleton's a very distinctive and handsome piece of headgear. As for the superglue, this one was the worst I have used, bought from one of those cheap Chinese sells everything shop here in Spain, it said Gel on the tube but ran like water and covered my fingers before I even got started. I'll grab some better quality glue at Leroy Merlin, hopefully today or tomorrow.

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  6. I may be totally wrong on this, but my understanding is that water vapour acts as an accelerant to Super-Glue, and so I imagine the inverse of that (i.e. your air conditioning) may make the glue tardier to set.

    Breathing on it may help, but keep glue fumes away from your nose, as again my understanding (from a chemist) is that glue vapour will seek out nostrils as they are warm and wet. his advice was to glue with a very damp flannel next to you and the fumes will be naturally attracted to it. I have no idea whether he is right, only to add that he is a chemist and I am not :-)

    Glad you are enjoying your fine figures.

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    1. Hi Norm, I am putting it mainly down to being a poor quality product from a shop selling cheap everything! Lesson learned, don't stint on the superglue, it was just that I saw it and bought it. Good tip from your chemist friend re the fumes, I wonder if that works with plastic cement as that stuff really smells?

      Enjoyed your last AWI post Norm, great read, I'll leave a comment later.

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  7. Superglue on a paint brush is very annoying, I've done it more than once! I still tend to paint riders and horses separately as I find the horses head tends to get in the way. Looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

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    1. Hi Ian, I think perhaps in the larger scales painting the riders and horses together is less of a problem. I found a solitary HH French infantry figure here with broken bayonet - I think from when I was painting for Roy - and it surprised me how small those fine figures appear now I'm doing 40mm!

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  8. Hi Lee, sounds like cheap super glue is the problem, I've done the same thing in another country,I don't think I even got them stuck together,I just gave up and bought a better one next time out. I would suggest plenty of ventilation if you use accelerator,I know when I was using it a lot it turned out to contain cyanide and maybe cause cancer, that was something like 30years ago so you'd hope it's improved but it'll still be fumey, the less you breathe in the better, lovely figures btw!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain. Having now used the new more expensive superglue I can say that it's 100% better, it contains an applicator brush and is proper gel which I much prefer. It also sets faster, with a few minutes so no damaged brushed this time.

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  9. They look good once assembled.

    I don't get on well with superglues though I will use them for small bits. I have found some 90 second epoxy that works well but its messy and a pain and you need to hold the stuff together as it dries so I only use it for certain heavy or poorly fitting bits and continue to swear at my super glue.

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    1. Hi Ross, as said above this one is far better so I won't be buying any more of the cheap stuff. It's almost as though I purchased a counterfeit product!

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