The Little World

Are probably only half the things that I don’t know yet.

This has never been the case so much as in scale modelling, and particularly in the adhesives. Until I started adult modelling I had no idea of the possibilities for success or failure of PVA glue when I tried to use it on a radio controlled racing boat.

In the water.

With water-soluble glue. You can see where this is heading, right? I couldn’t, until my Speed Queen flew apart in front of me in the twentieth lap. You wanna learn a lesson quick?

The next encounters were with model railroading and they were successes. I used the PVA to assemble buildings, coaches, and benchwork. As long as it was fibrous and dry, PVA was the go-to glue. I’ll bet some of those old buildings still survive on someone else’s layout.

When I got to scale plastic again I laid the stuff aside, remembering childhood warnings that it would not stick styrene. Newer cements in tubes and eventually brush bottles made the assembly that much better. And then someone suggested that I attach a canopy with PVA rather than solvent cement – and I have been enchanted all over again with the goo.

I now use it for the canopies, for lights, for constructing impossibly fine windows, for re-enforcing landing gear legs…anywhere that the brittle little cyanoacrylate or solvent join may flex and snap, PVA is the long stop.

I now use it to attach things that might need to come apart in the future for cleaning or maintenance.

What did I miss all those years? What do I still miss now? Is it time to give Tarzan’s Grip a whirl?