Parkside wagon kits

[Sweet pea]

Just need some advice on which glue to use on Parkside wagon kits.

[ikcdab]

Standard mekpak.  Also known as butanone.

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

I just use Humbrol Liquid Poly and never had any problems. Bit more readily available,

 

 

 

Jason

[brossard]

Combination of Testor's gel and liquid.  I've built loads of the things.

 

John

[Siberian Snooper]

Revel.

 

 

[Hal Nail]

I've always used whatever bog standard liquid poly I happened to have at the time. 

 

ps, a bigger issue for most people seems to be getting the brakes the right way round!

Edited December 5, 2023 by Hal Nail

[RexAshton]

Some years ago Parkside started moulding their chassis in ABS as its stronger. This would make MEK or Butanone more suitable but it appears that Peco now mould them in styrene so any decent solvent will work.

[Downer]

Plastic Weld, sparingly.

[jjnewitt]

I've got a bottle of Revell liquid cement which I use sparingly to tack the parts together intially. When I'm happy that everything is square I then use Butanone over the joints to 'weld' everything in place. If I'm not hapy with how they've gone together you can get everything apart if you use liquid cement and try again which is impossible if the joints have been welded solid using MEK or Butanone. 

 

Justin

[Captain Kernow]

10 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

I just use Humbrol Liquid Poly and never had any problems. Bit more readily available,

 

 

 

Jason

I will just say that I had problems getting MekPak in a local model shop but was easily able to order a few bottles on line, which arrived a day or so later.

 

[Hal Nail]

Amazing how many different replies there are. I've been building these for years and never given it a moments thought (or had any problems), so suspect its not massively critical?

[cctransuk]

12 hours ago, ikcdab said:

Standard mekpak.  Also known as butanone.

 

I buy generic butanone, in bulk, from the internet - many orders of magnitude cheaper, and you never run out at a critical point.

 

It has many other uses apart from welding styrene - brush and tool cleaning being the obvious ones.

 

CJI.

Edited December 5, 2023 by cctransuk

[Wheatley]

2 hours ago, RexAshton said:

Some years ago Parkside started moulding their chassis in ABS as its stronger. This would make MEK or Butanone more suitable but it appears that Peco now mould them in styrene so any decent solvent will work.

 

Some more easily broken sticky out bits were moulded in ABS, the buffers and door brackets sprue in the Pavan kit for example, and the door springs in some of the newer open kits. I don't think I've found a whole chassis in ABS yet but I haven't built all of them (yet). 

 

57 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

Amazing how many different replies there are. I've been building these for years and never given it a moments thought (or had any problems), so suspect its not massively critical?

 

Any old polystyrene cement will do, but some will give neater results than others. Revell Contacta personally. 

 

[GMKAT7]

Good afternoon Kevin,

 

I have always used Revell Contacta liquid styrene cement, which can be available with a tube/nozzle applicator.

 

Easy to use and some of my Parkside and Ratio wagon kits are now getting on for 10 years + old. No joint failure detected yet.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[Sweet pea]

Thank you all for all the informative replies. I'm going to go with Revell Contacta as my local model shop supplies it.😊

[ikcdab]

10 hours ago, Downer said:

Plastic Weld, sparingly.

Yes.  Years ago I used to live in Feltham and EMA model supplies had a shop in the precinct.  They sold plasticweld under their own brand.  It is several orders of magnitude stronger than mekpak and if you use too much, it will just melt your kit.

[cctransuk]

37 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Yes.  Years ago I used to live in Feltham and EMA model supplies had a shop in the precinct.  They sold plasticweld under their own brand.  It is several orders of magnitude stronger than mekpak and if you use too much, it will just melt your kit.

 

...... but is essential for Plastruct EMA ABS products.

 

CJI.

[Hal Nail]

4 hours ago, Kevin Johnson said:

Thank you all for all the informative replies. I'm going to go with Revell Contacta as my local model shop supplies it.😊

Having suggested earlier it probably doesn't matter, I would definitely recommend a brush on type. Far less likely to make a mess of body corners, for example, as it flows into joints by capilliary action and you can control the amount more easily.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Hal Nail

[The Johnster]

I agree, except that I find that a heavy-handed approach to loadin the brush is needed to counter the speed at which the glue evaporates if it is free running enough to capillarate into joints, or not enough will make it into the corner, and the heavily-loaded brush is capable of making as much of a mess as the gloopy stuff

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

I agree, except that I find that a heavy-handed approach to loadin the brush is needed to counter the speed at which the glue evaporates if it is free running enough to capillarate into joints, or not enough will make it into the corner, and the heavily-loaded brush is capable of making as much of a mess as the gloopy stuff

 

If you use the correct long bristle brush, as supplied as an "official" mekpak brush by Slaters, you don't need to load it and can control the amount going into a joint.

 

Mike.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Technically, of liquid solvents you want the fastest evaporating type that makes a sufficiently strong bond. This is because the moulding material is a blend of polymers, and you want to minimally alter the composition around the bond. So the solvent needs to do its job and - GONE!  (Assuming here that the kit maker has carefully specified the most appropriate formulation for the purpose!) Dependent on the temperature range through the seasons this may mean a slower evaporating solvent is necessary when the weather is hot. (Opinion of a sometime chief analyst of ICI Plastics Division and president of the analytical section of the RSC; truly a man who knew his stuff.)

 

I simply don't trust the gel 'goops', rejected a fair number of assembled otherwise desireable plastic kits from the 1970s because of evident embrittlement and distortion, following experience of plastic axleguards fatigue cracking after a few months in operation.

 

 

[CKPR]

I've come to use a combination of Revell Contacta Professional for big joints such as solebars to floors [don't forget to sand the top of Parkside solebars level as there's usually a pronounced moulding seam on them] and the various Mr Cement liquid cements beloved of aircraft and military modellers. With the latter, I would suggest cutting the brush off the cap and using a small paintbrush for precise application. If you do this, then it's a good idea to anchor the bottle down (e.g. using blu-tak) as it's very easy to knock it over, even with a small brush.

Edited December 6, 2023 by CKPR

[Wheatley]

Nothing to do with the original question, but a good way to revive a slightly clogged paint brush is to use it as the mekpak / liquid poly brush for a bit. 

[Hal Nail]

Ive been using Tamiya ultra thin. The brush in the lid is pretty fine and does the job - I remove the excess first and drag along the joint.

 

I have got some Revell contacta liquid, (again mine came with a brush in the lid) and is a lot thicker. I occasionally use if its a major joint but it is messier than the Tamiya.

 

I do clean up all parts for a precise fit first (and tend to thin brake gear etc to look better).

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Hal Nail

[NBL]

1 hour ago, Hal Nail said:

Ive been using Tamiya ultra thin. The brush in the lid is pretty fine and does the job - I remove the excess first and drag along the joint.

 

I have got some Revell contacta liquid, (again mine came with a brush in the lid) and is a lot thicker. I occasionally use if its a major joint but it is messier than the Tamiya.

 

I do clean up all parts for a precise fit first (and tend to thin brake gear etc to look better).

 

Tamiya ultra thin for me too, been using it for a good few years now and won't use anything else