People were wondering about the transparant visor for Lara's Extreme Depth Suit.Transparant parts are great for things like these because you can see through them, but of course they also show things that you would rather hide; like glueing tabs...
The best solution is not to have glueing tabs underneath the transparant parts of course, so that's what I did: I only kept the glueing tabs around the edges and cut off the two in the center.
So you need a different way to have the visor keep its shape. And you can do that with tension.
The transparant sheet is a bit stiff and rigid, and because I made nice, sharp folds, it already kept most of its shape (that's why scoring and pre-shaping are so important on models like these).
Then you can "lock" the edges of the visor in place by glueing them to the other parts. When you pull them nice and tight so you get some tension in the sheet, the "loose edges" will be pulled together automatically and if you made clean, straight cuts, you can hardly tell that there's a gap between them!
Or you can use the opaque visor and keep it simple(r). ;o)
Woah! That looks great! What type of glue did you use? I had to resort to using super glue when I used the same material on a previous build of mine. It worked, but it left some obvious white marks.
ReplyDeleteI always just use the same glue for everything: "Tesa hobbyglue". You can see a picture in the instructions for Buffy for example: http://ninjatoes.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/buffy-summers-the-vampire-slayer/)
ReplyDeleteBut the main reason why you don't see glue, is because the only parts where I used glue, are covered up by other parts. ;o)
Ah, I thought you used a different glue to get it to work. The tacky glue I'm using doesn't seem to work with transparencies. I would've tried other stuff, but that would be a waste to buy new glue just for this instance. So the Mighty Bond I had on hand had to be my last and only resort.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info though!
Transparancies are basically just plastic, does it say on the bottle whether the glue is suited for plastic?
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you roughen up the surface you want to glue with your knife, it works a bit better (instead of applying the glue to a completely smooth surface).
Yeah, it says it can bond plastic. That's why I was surprised it didn't work even if I left it to dry overnight. Maybe there's a non-stick coating.... LOL
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll give that another try when I build Lara, or maybe when I have another model that requires transparencies. May also use the finest grain sand paper as well for the tabs, that should work.
If you want to roughen up the sheet to make the glue "take" better, it's better to use the roughest sand paper you can find; the finer the sand paper you use, the less rough you will make the sheet.
ReplyDeleteIn reality though, there are lots of ways to "roughen" up the glueing tabs if you want to, if you have some sand paper lying around (any kind) it will do just fine I think! ;o)
You might want to test it first though, instead of trying it out on an actual model. ;o)