The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Excuse me for trying to help.

A rather sad 'in-joke' re badgers, Edgar. Apologies and no offence intended.

Well impressed by your glue manufacture...do you have large vats of the stuff bubbling away bits from the abattoir, or is it more clinical chemist, perhaps with lightning bolts in the background. I'm sure your ingredients should remain private, but I am still intrigued. Little Carsd are a reputable business, so your product must be good.

Regards,
Bruce

Thanks everyone for your tips and input, particularly regarding thumbs and Badgers

First a question for Edgar. if you're based in the US, do you have a problem with shipping glues etc to the UK? I've tried ordering Gunze paints from the US before and have been told that customs won't let them be shipped abroad.

Secondly, I've had a reply from Microscale. They got back to me very promptly but I had to go to a meeting at Heathrow yesterday and haven't had time to report back until now. They say that they don't supply their products to eBay traders, which is a little discouraging, although I think the trader does actually have a bricks and mortar shop and he does sell other Microscale products. Micro metal foil adhesive IS sold in bottles with a sticky label rather than a printed bottle as is the norm for Microscale. This is, apparently, a shelf life issue (?). A certain white wood glue does tend to dry out over a few months, especially if stored in small quantities. On the contents side, they wouldn't be drawn, except to say that their foil adhesive is "white in appearance". So, in my opinion, it's PVA!

Now, given that there are about 28.5 ml in one fluid ounce and there are, therefore, 175 (approx) fluid ounces in 5 litres and that 5 litres of PVA costs £7, calculate how many times over the odds the Micro Metal Foil Adhesive costs, bearing in mind that I paid £5.35 for 1 fl oz.

Well. at that price, 5 litres would come to £938.59. That's 134 times the cost of buying it in bulk from a DIY store.

Nice profit margin if you can get it

Edgar Brooks wrote:Excuse me for trying to help.

Sorry Edgar it was me that started the bad joke about Badgers, no offence was ment.

Regards
Splash

Just put my reaction down to having recently received my gas & electricity bills.
1/. I live in the U.K., and tried to send some adhesive to the U.S., but it disappeared en route, impounded by anti-terrorist agencies somewhere, I guessed. Being water-based, I hope they had fun trying to make it explode.
2/. I found the formula by trial and error, over a period of about six months, just using work experience. The only two ingredients that I will divulge, are water and a small amount (3%) of washing-up liquid. To anyone who has ever done "real" photography, with film, and done their own processing, this is well-known as a "wetting agent" to stop surface tension and "puddling" of the water on the underlying surface.
One problem, with metal foil, is that the manufacturing process usually leaves an invisible film of oil on the surface, so I always advise modellers to first wipe it down with white spirit, which acts as a degreaser, then apply the adhesive.
Edgar

Edgar I picked up a bottle of your foil glue today from the Little Car stand at the Yeovilton model show.

All I can say is WOW great value and it works, this was my first attempt at using foil and it was so simple using your glue.



Regards Splash