Recently, I recieved a box load of Imperial Guard, Tau, Tyranids and some Lord of the Rings minis from a firend of mine for my hobby store, Monster Hobbies.
It’s a challenge because the original builder of these models glued them together with Clear Fish Tank Silicon!
Luckily, the glue didn’t melt the plastic, like GW glue or Testors Liquid Cement would, but the darn stuff is EVERYWHERE and the only way to get it out is to chip it out!
It’s also rubbery like Rubber Cement and nothing seems to melt the stuff down either.
And dang, you mentioning clear fish tank silicon gave me a brilliant idea: painting up models (still not glued together) then making small cubes, filling them with a bit of this silicon and then throwing in the parts. afterwards top it up with more silicon to create
Commercially lye dissolved in tetra hydro furan is used to remove cured silicon rubber. This is extremely nasty stuff !!! I stress the NASTY. What does work freezing your models in the deep freeze and it will peel off in sheets far faster than chipping off wiht a exacto.
Maybe but thats nothing super glue dont fix. Besides you try and heat the silicone off then the model will melt before you get anywhere near touching the surface of the silicone.
Not to mention that freezing the plastic will shrink the models smaller to give you a little more play. The silicone isnt designed to be kept so cold in operational use but will not freeze at domestic refridgeration temperatures at the same level of temperature as the plastic will, The only other thing guarenteed to take Silicone off a surface is Naphtha, VM &P.
Without incredable money spent on respirators ventilation and the likes not to mention safety equiptment often will cause respiratory tract irritation, central nervous system effects including excitation, euphoria, contracted eye pupils, dizziness, drowsiness, blurred vision, fatigue, nausea, headache, loss of reflexes, tremors, convulsions, seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, respiratory arrest and sudden death could occur as a result of improper use.
One other thing that contains Naphtha is Colemans Camp Fuel looking througth the supplies I have in the garage does contain high percentage of Naphtha but I am unsure the result if you put models in it. As it is a petrochemical It probably will kill plastics your trying to strip.
....central nervous system effects including excitation, euphoria, contracted eye pupils, dizziness, drowsiness, blurred vision, fatigue, nausea, headache, loss of reflexes, tremors, convulsions, seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, respiratory arrest and sudden death could occur as a result of improper use.
...One other thing that contains Naphtha is Colemans Camp Fuel looking througth the supplies I have in the garage does contain high percentage of Naphtha but I am unsure the result if you put models in it. As it is a petrochemical It probably will kill plastics your trying to strip.
Thorne
most lighter fuels have Naphtha in them aswell (as in lighter fuel for your Zippo haha)
But I wouldn't try that, probably will end up very wrongly.
Freezing is the way to go I guess, and if that doesnt work, you can still always do as I stated all the way in post #2, put them in "clear fish tank silicone ice cubes" haha.
I have a second Chimera that was another built up trade in, but the builder of that one glued the treads in correctly. I’ll just size up these treads and build it to match. I’m missing four of the small wheels, but I glued the detailed wheels along the bottom edge. The top wheels will be made from Evergreen Styrene 3/8" inch tube and they won’t have any detail. This doesn’t matter as the right side will be glued together as a solid piece. I’m going to make the left side tread shield removeable so that you can see the wheels and detail the blank areas with some model car and model tank parts.
Most of the really kool parts to finish the chimera are missing, but there’s enough of the tank to finish it off with some Evergreen Styrene for the 4 missing inner wheels and the missing doors, etc. I also have a busted lasgun at the back - 1 out of 6.
The turret hatch is missing, as are the two top rear doors. The driver’s window is also gone.
Here’s a link to the WIP Imperial Guard Chimera tank model I am working on. This was the kit that I recieved as a trade-in at Monster Hobbies that was glued together using clear fish tank silicone. It was a pain to get appart, but a joy to put back together!
