THE BRM GUIDE TO... MODEL ADHESIVES

Sourcing and producing content for World of Railways and BRM magazine comes with a pitfall on the days I’m in the office – I’m the ‘go-to’ glue person! The conversation usually goes as follows, “Howard, do you have some glue?”. I ask, “What sort of glue?”. They reply, “I don’t know, I just need some glue to repair my… (headphones/cameratripod/shoe/deskornament/child’s toy) – select the relevant object. I’m sure you get the gist.

For a successful bond between materials, the type of materials must be known. This will give the bond a chance of lasting – or not, as the case may be if temporary adhesion is required. To the more experienced modeller with experience and knowledge, this will be obvious, but for the beginner, these two commodities are in short supply. Some plastics require specialist glues, for instance.

To many who don’t make or construct things, glue is a single substance capable of bonding anything to everything. While it would be great if