Gluing Painted Plastic Parts

Hi Don,

Typically, you don't want to glue parts with paint on the attachment points. Paint can interfere with both solvent and superglues and how well they work. The best bet is to scrape the paint at the attachement points down to bare plastic and then glue. Some solvent glues are tenacious to eat right through a thin layer of paint and still make a strong join, but there's no replacing best practices.

Welcome to the Forum!

Tim

Hi BuckeyeDon, welcome! I am also new to model building. This community has an abundance of master model makers who are eager to help. As a new model builder, I encourage you to look at the discussion topics and get information.

Master model builders tend to be perfectionists. They have to be in order to create the amazingly beautiful models you see in this community. However, that is not me. I simply don't have the time, patience, or skill to get to that level. So I look for shortcuts and take them. I have recently completed my first build, a Me-262. You can take a look at my discussion Practical Tips for Casual, Lazy, Cheap, Beginning Modelers.

I anm working on my next build, a P-38. I painted the cockpit with a cheap acrylic olive green to simulate zinc chromate. I just glued the painted parts together. I simply did not feel like sanding the glued areas. You can see the completed cockpit near the bottom of my Practical tips discussion. Imo these parts will have low stress and don't need a strong joint.

So my technique is to glue painted parts. The exception is if I feel the location needs high strength, then I will sand the paint from the glued surfaces.

Btw Tamiya extra thin liquid cement is great. You can get 40 mL for about $10 incl shipping. But Tamiya airbrush cleaner 250 mL is about $20 incl shipping. I got a tip that these are the same product, so I got some and tried it. So far, so good. More details in my Practical Tips discussion.

In addition to scraping paint away, another good method I use occasionally is a Q-tip that is just barely damp with isopropyl alcohol.  You want to make sure you blot the Q-tip on a paper towel so there is barely any alcohol left on it, and that will make it so you don't have alcohol running to other places where you don't want it.

It won't work. You might dissolve enough paint to get the plastic to melt together through it, but it will be a mess.

Tim and others are right- simply scape the paint off where the edges meet.

Bill