Dear Colleagues,

Last February I bought several different photoeched brass kits from Eduard Model and, having holidays I decided to start with the T34/76 kit (for Tamiya).
This is the first time I work with photo etched brass and I'm experiencing some problems when gluing two brass parts together. I use super glue (games workshop brand) and it takes a long time to glue these two parts together! And even in some cases I wasn't able to glue them at all! :-(
On the other hand when gluing a brass part to a plastic part, the super glue I use, seems to work fine.
What's the problem? The brand I use of superglue? Shall I change it and then, which is the best brand?
Or, it's me doing something wrong?? Too much glue???
Any help will be greatly appreciated because I feel very disappointed!

My second questions is related to the original rubber tracks (awful!) from the T-34 , as I read in this forum there are better tracks that can be bought to "Macquete"? Where can I found the link of this seller or other sellers?


Thanks in advance,

Lluís (Barcelona)

Hi Lluís i cant help with the glue part, i use a generic brand CA that works fine so maybe just try another brand? as far as maquette tracks squadron stock them, i have used these tracks before and they are a much better alternative to the terrible Tamiya ones.

Ron.

http://www.squadron.com/HotDeals.htm

Hi Luiìs,

when I first used superglue (or CA) I encountered probs as you do, too.
By the time I worked out my way to apply CA:
First I store the CA in the refrigerator! CA hates warm temp's to be stored in! (I even put fresh CA-bottles in the freezer!)
Then you'll find CA in different viscosities from liquid as water to creamy as toothpaste (don't swap;-)). For glueing surfaces I prefer the liquid ones.
As far as the amount concernes, very little goes a long way. Don't try to achiev a stronger bond with more glue, it won't work. Use a small amount and apply slightly more if needed.
For application I use a toothpick for "point-glueing" and an older rounded x-acto blade for applying along edges. Both applicators should be "sharpend" (remove dryed CA) during your work!
The more you work with PE-sets, the more practice you get and you may find that glueing with CA has it's pros but also cons. For example fenders: you may want to add some battle damage to them, ie. to bend them. Therefore CA-glue doesn't always provide a bond strong enough! Then soldering PE to PE enters the stage. By soldering you'll get a very strong bond and with a little practice you'll get clean joints with no or a very small amount of solder visible (can be sanded). I myself did my first soldering on Eduards T-34 front fenders and was happy to have added this technique to my range (in fact CA wasn't strong enough for this!).

So good luck and don't be disapointed if it doesn't work at the first time, practice will come!

Volker

To get CA to set faster, buy a bottle of accelerator. It should be in any well supplied hobby shop, and even some HobbyTown USA shops!