17/03/2009

Celtic Commanders

Although I have a complete Ancient Briton or Gallic army already the purchase of the latest HaT Celtic Command and Warrior Queens sets were just a whim.

Although the figures are in the new horribly soft plastic I found that putting them in the dishwasher actually cleaned them so that acrylic paint would adhere so one step forward.
It also resulted in the superglue actually bonding the parts on the chariots, but still left the problem of parts not being completely square. I'll just have to wait and see how well the bond stands up to normal handling.

7 comments:

Hugh Walter said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this plastic has been a problem, I ended up mixing Araldite with super-glue and using poly cement as as activator!!?*!"&!!

I think it's going to hold....

Fire at Will said...

I've also resorted to welding along the joints with a hot pin.

Andrew said...

NIcely done!

I'm not sure how I feel about this new rubbery plastic. It cuts very nicely, and I haven't had a problem painting it. Plastic model glue sure doesn't work, but my super glue does. Still, I didn't see the problem with HAT's plastic used in their older Roman sets.

You put them in the dishwashing machine!? How did you keep them all from getting lost in there? My preparation is to spray them with a de-greasing cleanser, Simple Green (an American product). Then, I scrub with a toothbrush, and rinse.

I'm painting this same command set now. Hopefully, I'll have pictures to post soon. Did you see my Hat celtic slinger unit?

Chris Harrison said...

Loctite do a special superglue that works perfectly with these soft plastics. The glue comes as an activator felt pen plus a small tube of glue. You rub the pen on the surfaces to be glued, wait 30s, apply the glue and it works!

The activator pen actually works with other super glues and lasts for ages. I've had the same pen for about two years now and have used it successfully with several brands of super glue.

I've used the activator with these HaT chariots and they've glued perfectly. It forms a very strong bond. I've even used it to stick two part Zvezda pikes together end to end without using the ugly sleeves.

Fire at Will said...

Yes, I've tried the Loctite super plastic and it also failed before with these figures. I think the strong caustic action in the dishwasher really cleaned the figures better than any scrubbing with detergent.

To do it I just used bag ties to hold the sprues in place. I've now acquired a tight mesh bag that I'll try with loose figures.

Chris Harrison said...

I wonder why the loctite glue failed for you. I've used it on hundreds of figures without any problems, including the HaT Celtic chariot sets.

Perhaps the chemical composition of this glue is different in the US? I lived in the US for a few years and noticed that several household products had different chemical compositions in the US vs. the UK. Perhaps there's something toxic but effective in the UK version!

The only problem I've had with the loctite glus is applying too much glue and damaging part of the model.

Hugh Walter said...

I'm using Superglue Plastix with the activator, but they pulled apart in the morning. With the elephants heads I used a ton of styrene glue after HaT said that would be OK, they just fell off half-way through painting, the mix I made held them.

If you don't have a dishwasher - I knot them in long socks and put them in a normal (clothes) washing machine. If I've been stripping paint, it brings them up a treat, and then I re-wash the socks inside out to get rid of the paint remnants...where there's a will there's a way!!!!