Vacuum Form Graf Zeppelin Assembly

[jcabsep]

I have the old Hawk 1/245 scale Graf Zeppelin model and saw a comment in another thread mentioning that model glue does not bond the pieces together. Is this a true statement and if so, what is the best material to use to join vacuum formed pieces?

[jcabsep]

Seems the liquid model cement (bottle) works very well--- haven't had any problems yet with excess buildup at the joints. Ready to mate the two hull halves soon, may need advice on finishing the seam.

[Emden 7]

How did you go about cutting the Graf's hull from the sheets? Any advice on that?
Emden 7

[trekkist]

I've not seen the Graf kit, but vacform construction is described in the reference section of donsmodelworks.com. I imagine seperating parts as large as the Graf's would be a bit of a chore using those techniques, though. Years back, I saw a suggestion in an old hobby manual of building "walls" to support vac parts (hollow sides up) so to apply a power sander to the sheet plastic. Sounded a bit chancy to me then, and still does.

[maltedfalcon]

I made this one years ago, (1978ish) it was pretty simple
you scored around the part a hair big with an exacto blade. then bent it back and forth til it came out.
sand the parts with a block sander to fit.
glue using liquid styrene glue applied with a brush.
and then ever so sparingly use filler greenstuff to fill any spaces.

then sand again.

if you needed to you could put a tabs of styrene (cut from the excess plastic)
along the seam to help align the pieces.

actually the alignment was atrocious as one side of the zeppelin was longer then the other. but you just cut it off and made it match the short side...

The hull went together easily-

[maltedfalcon]

when I say block sander, I mean a block of wood with sand paper wrapped around it....