hey so i am working on a huge, HUGE! project and i need help with styrene! (i have had no experience with it ) My questions: 1. What do you attach styrene to something with? (with apoxie or super glue?) 2. I am wondering if there is anything i need to do to the toy before i add styrene to it. 3. and lastly how do create pin joints with styrene? do you have to take them from other figures? Thanks! sorry im a noob when it comes to styrene
2. The usual cleaning and prep. Nothig specifically needs to be done for styrene. It's more about following the instructions for your chosen glue, making sure that adheres. 3. Use a Pin vise (aka Hand Drill). Personally would recommend you just take them from elsewhere, generally easier and cheaper.
If you have no experience with using styrene at all, my advice would be to stop what you are doing and do a thorough google search on building/working with styrene. The stuff is not cheap and to be successful working with it..... research and learning is 90% of the game.
I get it cheap. Dollar a sign at wal mart. If you don't want the paint, clean it off. Want it thicker then just glue sheets together after cutting. At least go that route for practicing. Styrene rods and tubes are nice for making scratch hinges but I see the more experienced guys using door hinges and such.
1 Depends on how strong you need it to be I always superglue and if it need to be really strong, add apoxie 2 just make sure your figure is clean so you aren't gluing little plastic bits into the seam. 3 There are two general ways. the first is to just drill hole through what ever you need the pin to run through, and screw them together. The other is to just use tubing and metal/styrene rods.
The best thing to use for pins, besides ripping them from other figures, are to get some brass rod the same size of the stock TF pins, and cut it to length.
^ this for #3. trying to find pins from existing figures would be alot more work. You can get brass (recomened) and aluminum rods and tubes from most hobby and train shops. #2 Question is a little vague. i'm assuming you mean prep work to attach styrene to a toy? Then just scuffing up the surface with sandpaper (to give the glue something to grip to) and then cleaning it with alcohol would be fine. #1 "Apoxie" is a brand name for epoxy sculpting material. Epoxy glue is something else. i try to use the liquied model glue when gluing styrene to styrene(it actually melts the two pieces of plastic together, making a much stonger bond, but can get messy and takes time to dry) When gluing styrene to anouther type of plastic, typically i'll use super glue (water, thin) for attaching sheets, and super glue gel (thick) for attaching other shapes. I sometimes like the extra bit of glue that can act as a filler when attaching some pieces. The 2 part Epoxy is great quick way to fill in large areas, but the type most people buy and use is the real cheap stuff at local stores. that stuff doesnt' seem to glue together as well, and can sometimes be brittle. Whenever using uncured epoxy, always wear gloves. Epoxy has this thing where it will go right to your bloodstream when touching your skin. not saying one touch and you'll be dead, but it's good to know that it's not your typical glue. Now, you mentioned it being a large project. One thing you need to know, is styrene isnt' that strong when holding up alot of weight. generally for larger things I go to ABS plastic (then layer styrebe on top of that for details). Since you aren't mentioning what type of project you're working on, your going to have to experiment and see what does and doesn't work. Hope that helps! Randy!
