Friday, February 12, 2010

40K: Removing Super Glue from Models - Epilogue

I tried soaking the model in warm water, as suggested on the super glue manufacturer's website. No luck - either the water couldn't get to the bond, or the magnet was just wedged to tightly into the torso that it would not come out.

At this point, I decided to do something drastic:

Since I had not glued the front of the torso on the model, I was able to use a wire-gauge pin vise and drill in behind the magnet - pushing it out.

It turns out that that particular setting was simply wedged in too tight. Even when I went to re-glue the magnet in correctly, I had to use a bit more pressure to get it back into the hole.

I guess the lesson here is to always give yourself at least a tiny bit of wiggle room. It makes things easier to work with. Well, that and rubbing alcohol seems to work for removing super glue bonds between metal and plastic.

4 comments:

  1. Hey there Paul, this is Louis from your Google Wave D&D 4E game here.

    Awhile back I was having similar problems removing dried super glue from a pewter Reaper miniature and I wanted to chime in with my own experience.

    I too tried the warm water method (and even soaked the miniature in a Simple Green solution, which didn't do much at all but remove some of the finish). In the end I had to just chip away at the remaining gunk with an X-acto knife I had laying around, and while it wasn't the most graceful of methods I can't deny that it did the job.

    Another problem with the miniature I have is there's this nasty gap between the two segments I want to connect. I asked around a bit and it sounds like epoxy glue would work nicely for both sticking the pieces together and filling the gap, and hopefully I can paint over it later to mask the glue.

    Of course I'm not very experienced with miniatures at all, so I was wondering if you had any tips on the matter. Thanks in advance!

    - Louis

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  2. Hey Louis!

    I find that removing a bond between two metal pieces is the easiest. Usually you can just snap them apart and, like you said, use your hobby knife to clean it up. I would add using a file, as well. I have a nice set of jeweler's files I picked up at Michael's on the cheap, as well as an old nail file with a finer grit. They work well on both plastic and the soft pewter metal.

    If the to parts are pinned to together, it's a bit harder to separate, but still pretty much the same process. Just make sure you like the position before you pin!

    As for gaps, I use the "Green Stuff" epoxy (Kneadatite) that Games Workshop advertises. You can get a variety of quantities at better prices from different places - just look around. Ebay and Amazon are good places to start. Having a sculpting tool is useful here, but certainly not necessary.

    The incredibly talented Dave Taylor uses a Bondo filler on his scratch built models, but I don't have any personal experience with the stuff. Check out: http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/10/expanding-motor-pool.html for some models he used it on.

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