HOBBY: A Glue by Any Other Name Would Stick as Sweet?

Hobby Town USA Insta Cure

 

Hobby Town USA Super-Gold

Hobby Town USA Maxi Cure

Great Planes Pro Ca Thick

Gorilla Super Glue

I assembled models using all of these different glues, all of them on the same model if possible. The First four bottles I got at Hobby Town, all for 6 bucks or less I think. I got the Gorilla Glue off Amazon, you can find it here. 

Which did I prefer the most? Well, I have to say it quickly came down to two that I liked.  The Hobby Town Maxi Cure and the Gorilla Glue.  Firstly though, all 5 of the brands had nice bottles. The Gorilla Glue was an exact copy of the old GW bottle – we are all familiar with that one. Some of the draw backs: sometimes the glue gets into the screw threads, and the applicator point is not quite as fine as the others. The Pro Ca had the finest applicator point. Only the Gorilla bottle has a clog stopper metal pin inside the cap to prevent clogging. The other four bottles were very prone to clogging up, and each needed to have the applicator cut to clear it up, which reduced it’s effectiveness because each time I cut it the hole got wider.

I will save my preferred for last.  So, the Insta-cure from Hobby Town first vs the Pro CA:

First test was small metal models on plastic base. I used HTInstaCure and GP Pro CA.

The PCA was on the alien dude and the HTIC was on the monkey.

After 20 seconds, the alien dude popped right off the base while the monkey held!

Then I tried them both on some old termies I am retooling for sale. HTIC on left and PCA on right.

After 20 seconds, this was the result from Great Plains Pro CA.

And here was HT Insta Cure.

I don’t think you can argue much with that! In both metal and plastic bonding the Hobby Town glue beat the Great Planes as far as quick setting, and frankly, that is good enough for me. My hands cramp up and are aged beyond their time, so assembling models is painful. If I can hold models for less time while they dry, even for just a few seconds, that is enough for me to make the choice.  But I wanted to be thorough in this comparison so I lined up three more models and compared all three Hobby Town products at once.

Here are the three lined up. The first two stood instantly while the third, 

though a bit front heavy, needed to be propped.  

But before I could even get them stood, their advantages showed. The Super Gold is like water.

It poured out all over this finished model’s leg…

And onto the floor. The void on the right of the spill is where my toe was.  Annoying.

The test! After 20 seconds. Maxi-cure held for a second but failed. 

After letting it sit for another few seconds it held.

Insta-cure held first try.

Super-gold… well… when I moved the support bottle it failed.

It should be noted that after a minute, all three of these glues held strong, with Maxi-cure, true to it’s name, taking the most amount of force to free the model from the base.  

Well there you have it. Maxi Cure and Insta Cure win the comparison here. Super Gold claims to be odorless and foam safe. That might be a bonus for those of you who glue onto foam. I encountered problems with this last week when I forgot that super glue eats foam and I tried to glue some bases down to my foam display. But due to the fact that I ruined a model with it while doing this article, it earned a spot in my trash.  

Where does that leave us? Maxi Cure and Insta Cure both are good. Maxi cure seems to bond stronger while Insta Cure works a little faster. But what is my choice? The Gorilla Glue. It is the one that gets the nod to ride in my tool kit. Why? It is the identical twin to the old GW product, but with a fancy blue cap and a gorilla on the bottle.  I liked the viscosity of the Gorilla more, and I am familiar most with its properties.  

A link again for those of you who are too lazy to scroll up:

Oh and if you are looking for a price comparison, Gorilla Glue wins. VS the other four bottles in this comparison, you get about a gram more product, and it is roughly the same cost.  

Hope that was helpful to you all!

Jawaballs

What kind of glue to you use?