Ye Olde Inn

Whats everyones favourite glue for glueing plastic/resin parts together. I have been using Contacta glue up until now but wonder if there is a better glue out there?

First thing to know:
You don't glue resin with plastic glue. Importantly, within our hobby, resin is not plastic and vice versa,
whatever a professor in chemistry might try to explain to me.

Plastic on plastic: plastic glue
Plastic glue has the unique property that it melts two plastic parts together which is why it only works with two plastic parts.
If even one of the two parts is not plastic, you use superglue/cyanacrylate or whatever it may be called in any given language/country
PVC (like in Reaper models or D&D Minis) is also glued with superglue.

This is very important.

There's finer differences like the thickness within the various glue types,
like thick superglue that can be used to overflow and thus fill gaps,
extra thin cement for tiny plastic parts and so on and so on...

To answer the favortite part of the question,
Tamiya Extra Thin Cement for plastic (or really any other thin plastic cement that has a brush in it or a very thin nozzle like the Revell Contacta Professional),
and cheap dollar-store superglue for everything else.
White glue for basing.
But I have about 15,000 other glues for various purposes, too, like Uhu Alleskleber to model gloopy stuff.

Thanks for the sound advice. I always thought resin were a posh name for plastic. Might explain why my Zealot bases sometimes break away from plastic minis of mine.
I will get myself sorted with some superglue. I guess superglue is best for lead parts then?

Yes, it is.
And here's a trick for using superglue. Use it on one part and moisten the other with water.
The water will accelerate the bonding time considerably.

knightkrawler wrote:Yes, it is.
And here's a trick for using superglue. Use it on one part and moisten the other with water.
The water will accelerate the bonding time considerably.

Is that right. You would think it wouldnt stick. I'll remember that one.

I agree with what KK. It's the water in the air, from wikipedia: In general, cyanoacrylate is an acrylic resin that rapidly polymerises in the presence of water (specifically hydroxide ions), forming long, strong chains, joining the bonded surfaces together.

For a definitive answer your best bet is to find out what works best with you.

knightkrawler wrote:Yes, it is.
And here's a trick for using superglue. Use it on one part and moisten the other with water.
The water will accelerate the bonding time considerably.

I did not know this. Thank you.

Plastic glue is in fact acetone with some additional stuff to make it thicker, so it can be applied easier with a brush or from a tube.
You can buy pure acetone at the hardware store by the gallon, much cheaper than buying plastic glue flasks.
It's as thin and fluid as water and somewhat tricky to apply, but it works well.

The water will accelerate the bonding time considerably.

This works also with alcohol, but the glue will become opaque white and and somewhat grainy.

Big Bene wrote:You can buy pure acetone at the hardware store by the gallon.

If you know exactly what you're doing. Acetone goes into the body (via the skin, not through breathing!) and won't leave again.

knightkrawler wrote:

Big Bene wrote:You can buy pure acetone at the hardware store by the gallon.

If you know exactly what you're doing. Acetone goes into the body (via the skin, not through breathing!) and won't leave again.

Heh i buy acetone by the gallon here (only thing that cleans resin) xD only today did i find out it's commonly used by terrorists to make home made explosives! Some were arrested a few days ago because they purchased a lot of acetone and it got looked into by government intelligence
Made me wonder if im now on the "watch list" since i often talk about making guns, tanks and swords for people over email albeit 30mm scale...

Someone mentioned super glue and bicarbonate of soda a while ago also?