er than half an inch, see good old Mi- cro-Mark; they sell the little buggers down to ¹/₈″ long.
Pins or rods (brass wire) work just as well on styrene but require a little more preparation. Where the gluing surface is small or inadequate for the weight it must support, reinforcing pins can save the day. Drill .021″ or .022″ holes to fit .020″ wire pins, then use cyanoacrylate rather than styrene cement to firmly attach the wire to the plastic. That joint will be difficult to break. The .001″ or .002″ hole clearance will get filled with cyanoacrylate and will grip the daylights out of the pin. Even a short (¹/₁₆″ or so) pin will quadruple the strength of the joint. Re- gardless of the perceived shear strength (resistance to sideways move- ment) of a joint, one with a reinforcing pin will be almost impossible to break from sideways pressure. Where you can, give yourself as much
attachment surface as you can. The thin triangular roof bracing used on a lot of gable roof interiors is usually inade- quate for the task. Take the time to add some additional strips to both halves of the inner surface so the gussets have something to grab onto. Likewise, trian- gular corner braces need the interior bracing to be thick enough to provide some additional attachment surface. Think ahead a bit and note where the model is weakest. Perhaps a nar- row section of wall, created by a win- dow or door opening so close to the edge that you just know it is going to snap off, needs attention. Reinforce it if you can, even if it is merely making the wall thicker at the weak spot. Make other adjustments to the bracing as necessary. An additional brace or two is usually not a bad thing as long as it is not visible through a window. You just know how I found that out. Yes, it was
well after the building was done, and I had visitors when it was discovered. Speaking of “visible through a win-
dow,” interior lighting wiring works best if it is not apparent through the windows. Find a way to attach or tuck it in an unseen area without the use of an adhesive if possible. As soon as you glue the wires to the wall that little bulb is going to go “poof.” Now you have a job on your hands getting the darned thing out without wrecking the model, as well as getting its replacement back in. Do yourself a favor and make the wire attachment less than permanent. Most of the time I use small strips of tape that can be easily removed when (not if) that little critter goes to light bulb heaven. Where clearances are tight and getting to the edge of the tape would be a chore, I bend a “U” shaped piece of .020″ brass wire and cut the ends at a severe angle such that they are nice and pointed and use it as a staple to hold the wire in place. On basswood you can just press it in place. On styrene, drill two tight holes to accommodate the staple. If you can reach it to install it, you should be able to reach it to remove it.
Where the structure is large and the parts thick enough I am not above us- ing a few small wood screws where ap- propriate. Pre-drilling a pilot hole is a wise move, both for making the screw turn easier and for preventing the ma- terial from cracking. Drill the pilot hole the same size as the main body (not the threads) of the screw. That will give ample clearance and allow the whole surface of the thread to bite the mate- rial. Turn until snug; you are not bolt- ing in the seat of an F-16. Over-tight- ened screws with their holes stripped is not an “attachment” at all. It is just a poor way to store screws.
Arm yourself with a wide variety of
cements and adhesives so you can bond almost anything to almost anything else. Even the super strong engineering plastics (like acetal) now have their own adhesive: Mike’s Super Glue. It really does work on acetal, so be careful around your freight car trucks. It also works very well on fingers, so have some Super-solvent on hand as well. Acetone is a decent solvent for most cyanoacry- late type cements. As to other solvents, water works best for the yellow, white and PVA ce- ments, and most brands of rubber ce- ment and traditional contact cements dissolve in lacquer thinner. No matter how careful you are, sometimes you are going to need to remove an adhesive from the show surface of a model. Hav- ing the proper solvent (anti-glue?) around, plus a few cotton swabs, usual- ly assures the occurrences are kept to a minimum.
Most of the good builders will tell you to use minimal amounts of adhe- sive, just enough to get the job done. Well, sometimes it is hard to determine just what that minimal really is. First off, it is less than would ooze out onto the show surface. Less than you think you need in most cases. Every square millimeter of the parts in question need not be covered with adhesive. A few dots in strategic places are all that is really needed on most joints. Often, that little extra length of nut-bolt- washer sticking through part A with its little nubbin into part B will make all the difference. Again, that little “pin” increases the shear strength by a bunch. I don’t push my luck, though, and use a dot or two of glue as well. Better safe than sorry.
Like all things worth doing, there are some small complications at play here. Temper the “better safe than sor- ry” credo with some common sense, es- pecially where plastic solvent type ce- ments are concerned. Solvent, as in “dissolve,”
means just that. The
When wires need to hidden don’t rely on any kind of adhesives, especially super glues. If you ever have to move the wires to replace a bulb you will end up destroying your model. Instead,tape the wires inside a wall where they cannot be seen or hide them in a channel.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
volatiles in the stuff just keep gassing off, and if you have used too much it will distort your model. I found this lit- tle tidbit of knowledge out the hard way, as usual. I built a depot roof with individual chips of .010″ styrene to simulate shake shingles and was a tad (whatever that is) enthusiastic with the Testors. It looked great when I was done, so it was immediately painted and weathered. Up the stairs I went, having been summoned sweetly to sup- per (food is much more important to me than modeling). Upon my return the next day, every single shingle had a dent-like depression in it. It looked ter- rible! I used way too much solvent. So there you go folks. Make your own mis- takes—and learn from mine.
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