Well Actually - Plastic Cement

Plastic cement (plastic glue) uses some sort of chemical (usually lacquer-based) to weld styrene plastics together. This is what you want to use for Games Workshop plastic kits as well as most other “plastic models.” It only works with polystyrene plastic and will not work with metal, resin or other plastics. It melts/welds the plastic together and creates a very strong bond – it is also quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. Unlike superglue, plastic cement gives you lots of working time where the parts are stuck together but you can still nudge them around into the right position. Over a couple minutes, the bond slowly gets firmer as the plastic welds itself together making it harder and harder to adjust. At this point, you can keep handling the parts without worrying too much about them moving or coming apart. After an hour you will have a very strong bond, much stronger than anything you can achieve with superglue. Sometimes on tricky joints I will use a little dab of super glue, to hold the parts while the slower acting plastic cement does it’s thing.

These days I mostly use Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. The in-cap applicator brush works perfectly. For
small bonds, be sure to wipe most of it off the brush on the rim of the bottle. I use Faller Super-Expert “gloopier” and with a bit more wiggle-time. If you can still find Testors cement with a steel applicator tip and the steel clean-out rods, that is pretty much the same thing. For this kind of cement, I squirt a little on a palette and apply with the end of a paper clip. Having a steel applicator tip is great for this kind of glue because it is easy to unclog. You can either clear it out with the included clean-out rod (or a stick pin) or you can heat the metal tip up with a lighter, which will melt all the dried glue. Just note that the liquid glue is also quite flammable!

There are lots or other good plastic cements out there. Some are more or less “hot,” meaning they melt the plastic more or less. Less powerful stuff is good to have on hand for tiny parts. There are a number of products on the more powerful side of the spectrum that many people swear by. In my experience, most of these smell terrible and can't possibly be good for you. Lacquer-based cement works great for everything I do, so I'm sticking with that.

I recently learned that some folks refuse to use plastic cement and exclusively use superglue. This strikes me as a bit banaynays, and I think you are doing yourself a considerable disservice if you refuse to give plastic cement a chance. It’s just easier and more consistent, but you do you.