The Little World

Waitin’ for the gluetoset. Is there a more agonising time?

Waitin’ for the paintoset has been suggested, but at least while you are doing that you have something to look at. And you are trying to keep the rain/flies/dust/fingers off the new colour so you are occupied. But waiting for the gluetoset? Millenial boredom.

Those who use superglue to stick things together have it a bit easier – though they pay for it later when their prized model’s wing cracks off or the canopy goes white and powdery. The 5-minute epoxy people are good, but the first 5 minutes means only set to a certain degree. You then need another 1435 minutes for the wretched stuff to actually go hard enough to trust.

People who work in metal, rather than styrene or other plastics, have a much better time of it – though they have to work harder at several stages. Soldering or silver-soldering brass takes a good deal of preparation – welding steel even more. But when all the steps have been gotten through and the metal joins metal, it is only a small time for cooling and the structure is sound. And it can be sound for decades after a plastic glue joint cracks open.

I would welcome more of the UV-cure cements. I used a Kulzer light curing unit as a dentist and found it delightful – things could be built up in 30-second increments wherever the UV rays could be induced to travel. I’d bet it still works, but the cost of a Kulzer curing unit would be horrendous, and the cost of plastic capsules of glue equally bad.

And then there is PVA glue. I love it as it is a discrete way to re-enforce joints and seams that are going to be somewhat visible. All my landing gear gets a dob. But it is the slowest set of all, and I arrange all my PVA work for the end of the evening so that it has a night to cure.