Assembling and gluing

A tunnel liner is a sheet of scale brickwork, often moulded for detail and constructed from plastic, used to represent the internal wall of a model railway tunnel.Tunnel liners are designed to fit onto a special lip on the back of most tunnel...

Many model kits, whether they be of buildings, coaches, aeroplanes or any other type of vehicle, will likely have glazing to attach at some point during the build. Your choice of glue when installing the glazing is an important one because many...

Plastic cement is a formula that temporarily softens and melts the surface of most plastics. This makes it very useful for constructing plastic kits because two surfaces can be bonded together permanently and neatly without the use of messier...

Deciding which glue to use when attaching plastic models to a baseboard is tricky enough at the best of times, but when your baseboard is covered with scatter, it can be a real head-scratcher.Fortunately, this is one time when there is no big...

The best glue to use for setting ballast in place is one specifically designed for that purpose, such as Noch's Ballast Glue or Deluxe Materials' Ballast Bond.Whether or not it is really necessary to use such a product is another question, and...

There are many occasions when modellers need to strip down a model or reclaim parts that have been previously glued together, and the temptation is often to apply a little force, maybe combined with a spot of sharp knife blade wriggling, to try...

There are many types of glue available to modellers, all of which are good at adhering to different materials. But which should you use for photoetched parts? Quite simply, you should use a cyanoacrylate adhesive (Superglue). There are many...

Glue is a brush killer, so when using a brush to apply glue, you should always use a brush that you don't care too much about. Strangely, the fact that brushes are pretty much useless after being used with glue, is a good thing! It gives them one...

Any modeller who claims they have never accidentally stuck their fingers together should hang their head in shame and promise to stop telling fibs. But why do fingers stick so easily and some model parts don't?It may be the case that the...

A model clamp is a lightweight clamp (or series of smaller clamps) designed to hold the parts of a model together or in place while you work on it.The difference between a model clamp and a regular clamp is often apparent in the size of the clamp...

There are a number of ways to cut expanded foam or polystyrene when modelling, but which way is best?As with many modelling techniques, the answer is subjective and what may be right for one modeller may not be for another. When it comes to...

The hot wire foam and polystyrene cutter is a tool designed specifically to allow modellers to cut foam, polystyrene and other similar materials to specific shapes. It works using a heated wire, secured between the frame arms of the cutter,...