Let's talk glue please!!!

[rybett]

I need to glue a clay unicorn horn onto a G1 head.   I have Tacky Glue, Triple Thick, hubby has a bunch of different glues that he uses with his RC airplanes.  Ideas?

[kaoskat]

I use super glue and I usually form the horn around a pin that I can stick into the head as extra assurance it will stay put.

[rybett]

Hmm, got something along the lines of a crazy glue.  Got straight pins around here somewhere.  And clay to make horn #2.  Too bad I can't pop the pin out through a hair plug hole and then attach the horn.  Or can I? 

[archidraca]

You probably can if the hole is in the right spot but I've always felt it stays better when stuck up straight through the plastic. If you're worried about too many holes, you can stick a pin real close to where you want it on the topside, where glue will cover your location, and use it as a locator for the straight pin you stick in through the neck. Helps quite a bit really. 

[mlp4me]

I've had this on my mind for awhile. I've had a few sculpted pieces break and have tried my husband's model glue but it just doesn't do the trick. I need something that dries fast. Does super glue set quickly?

[archidraca]

Some do but the super quick setting glues are always a brittle hold. For almost everything, I now use Loctite (their G02 gel glue) and whatever has to be properly held in place for a good bit but that extra bit of time seems to help in the long run. I do most of my gluing a little before bedtime so I can nearly be assured that I won't touch them for the hour or so that it needs to set.

[rybett]

I love my Gorilla glue for rehairing, but as it swells, not the best idea for sculpting. 

[Eluluu]

Like it was said before, id go with pinning it. A strait pin would do the trick, stab it into the horn so you can re-insert it into the hole youve marked, score the forehead of the pony with the butt end of the wire (or pin, whatever) where you want the horn to be, so you have a visual marker where the pin should come out at. Remove the wire and stab it thru the ponyface from the inside. Id reccommend bending the wire 90• and anchoring it with putty, cause, paranoid... I am it.

Once the putty cures overnight id glue the horn to the pin you have sticking out of yer ponyface. The putty will keep the pin wrom wiggling too much when youre pushing the horn on it again, and it will help keep the pin from getting pulled out. Gluewise, id go with maybe e6000, which seems to be the evil lovechild of tacky and gorilla glue. Tacky i think wouldnt be strong enough, and gorilla does seem to swell a bit. Apply it with a qtip or pin to both the wire and the base of the horn. Wipe away excess so you dont get stringers or a bubble.

For fixing broken sculpting id do much the same. Pin pin pin! (i grew up working on pewter dnd minis etc, so im a huge pinning advocate! No more broken wings and dropped swords! Want that sucker to stay there forever? Slap a pin in it! )

Id drill a super fine hole on both sides of the break with a teeny tiny drill bit for a dremel, or if you dont trust tools for tiny fixes (like me) i go with a pinning vise. Use a drillbit that is just barely wider than the wire youre going to use.

Strong wire makes your best hold, like the tough jewelers wire, straightpins, and-for one particularly misbehaved dragon-piano wire. BUT the tougher the wire, the harder it will be to bend and get the perfect join. Which makes it strong, yes, but if you dont get the angle of both of your holes perfect itll leave a gap or crack that will either need filling, or youll have to use pliers and try to bend the wire just right, which is super hard and annoying, and keep in mind, the more you muscle it the greater risk youll further damage the sculpt. So for a custom repair id go with a more easily bent wire. Its just there to give stability to the glue anyways.

How i usually get the best angle for both holes is drill one side, insert your wire and snip it off so theres a tiny nub sticking out (make sure you can fish it out with tweezers or something. It needs to be removable) position it where you want it and push the two pieces together, wiggle them a bit. You want to carefully score exactly where the wire will be. Remove the wire from side A. Discard. Drill a hole where you see the mark on side B. Be careful not to drill too deep and accidently punch all the way thru! Clip a wire thats long enough to fill both holes, test it out before glueing, trim tiny bits off at a time if its too long. Glue one side at a time and hold firmly in place til its set.

If this makes no sense just yell at me and ill try again, with pictures. =) i love pinning lol makes life so nice. A tiny bit of wire goes a long way!

***Elu

[rybett]

Elu, yup.  Having trouble visualizing some of that. Too early in the morning.  Good idea on securing it from the inside before starting. 

[kaoskat]

Hmm, got something along the lines of a crazy glue.  Got straight pins around here somewhere.  And clay to make horn #2.  Too bad I can't pop the pin out through a hair plug hole and then attach the horn.  Or can I? 

I've done it before with hair accessories, I imagine it would work with horns too. Though most plugs aren't in the right spot for a horn.