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[justboatonic]

Getting on for 50 years ago when I was 13 or 14, I built a couple of Airfix 1\144 scale kits of the Saturn V and Saturn IVB plastic models. 50 years ago, I didnt tend to be that careful when building and painting these things. Ive still got them along with many of my old toys, boxed up in the loft.
Now Im older, wiser, have time on my hands and, I hope a better builder with an airbrush, Ive been thinking of dismantling the S IVB as a starter, stripping the paint off with Detol (after testing it doesnt eat the plastic!), rebuilding and painting it. Depending how that goes, perhaps do the same on the Saturn V.

I know with superglued parts, if you leave them in the freezer overnight, you can clean 'break' the glued bits apart without damage. However, good old poly cement was used so I dont think that would work as the glue welds the plastic to form a joint. I dont fancy applying surplus poly cement to again weaken the joints as this could be messy as well as using up even more glue.
The question is, does anyone have any good ideas how to cleanly 'unglue' component parts stuck together for 50 years with poly cement?

[MartinL]

Good luck with that, as you say they are welded together. I think you will have to cut them apart unless someone knows better.
Martin

[tigertiger]

If you glued the parts together poorly, not enough glue and not cleaning the parts, it is possible that the joints are weak. I discovered this as a child, when flying kits into walls, or just down the garden.
You could try this out by inflating a balloon, or folded bike inner tube, into the fuselage, assuming you can prise the boosters off first.
However, be careful, I think polystyrene goes brittle with age as it reacts with both UV and oxygen. 

[TheLongBuild]

when flying kits into walls.

 


When younger I launched so many models off the bridge over the canal which was near us with the small 10p rockets you used to get.  Not to mention the old models ships I had recreating dramatic battles with bangers. They seemed to come apart quite well, although I did have 1 Japanese carrier model which took several attempts to send it to the bottom of the Canal..   

[redpmg]

Heard many years ago of Brake Fluid being used to split pieces apart. Not sure if they were soaked in it or it was painted on the joint . Have a Cessna O2 Airfix kit which was claimed to have been dismantled that way.
Never tried the method personally - perhaps trying it on scrap material first might be a good idea...........

[RST]

I can't go back as far as you but 35 years ago I built a lot of airfix kits (father and son thing etc).  Suffice to say nothing survived because the horrid cement gue just went dry and broke up since over the last 35 years and most of the PS parts distorted and fell apart.  So I'm impressed you still have faith in it.  Nowadays I'm surprised they stil sell it, but I guess the chemicals have changed.

If your models are still stuck is it worth disassembly or a re-furb?  "Do no damage" is what I'm thinking.  Is there any way you could think laterally and cut with a raor saw elsewhere?

The model rail guys use brake fluid, dettol etc etc, there's just heaps of info out on the web on stripping models, but no guarantees etc.  You have to experiment.

Good luck!

Rich

[redpmg]

Larry - off the subject a bit - but penny Ronden Flash Bombs worked well on Keil Kraft planes enacting bomber shoot downs ................... Same applied to cheap rockets with flash bomb attached to emulate flak.......

[TheLongBuild]

That should dismantle it quite well..  

[Plastic - RIP]

There's plenty of older kits on ebay - leave your old models alone and buy new ones.