Scale & Plastic Kit Review

Filla-Glu Kit (10 grams)

I’ve been lucky enough this week to receive the Filla-Glu kit of Cyanoacrylate adhesives (CA) from Filla-Glu of Barry, in South Wales. Sometimes when we look at the variety of kits available, we forget the importance of some of the staple requirements of our hobby, i.e. adhesives.

Filla-Glu are a subsidiary of War Game Adhesives of Barry, Wales, and recently held their inaugural model show stall at the IPMS show at Telford in November this year. I did try to get some photos of the event, but this stall was bursting to the gills with customers watching these products being exhibited. Anyway, onto business. This Filla-Glu kit comprises of the following items:

We are now living in a world where CA is becoming as important as regular plastic adhesives; especially with the advent of resin and photo etch materials. It’s so easy to pop down to the newsagents or supermarkets and pick up one of the cheap brands of 10 tubes for a quid, and I do know of people who do this, but what is the longevity of what they are building?

As luck would have it, I have a 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.1 in the process of having its larger parts assembled, so thought I would try the various CA’s on different areas.

I’ve been using CA in various forms for my modelling for about 20 years, so I do have a confidence in using new items such as this. The secret is taking your time and preparing what you are about to do, and don’t rush. With CA, you have a real ability to screw up....big time.

In the past, I’ve been very used to the Zap CA’s, for which you can buy capillary tubes to get a more precise application. The real problem with this is that the glue needed to have its nozzle trimmed back to fit this in. This means that CA can flow around the capillary if not properly inserted, then down it until it forms a large drip. My experience is that capillaries are difficult to remove and replace constantly, and they also clog up too easily. With this neat kit, 2 Dosing Tips are supplied which simply ‘click’ over the top of the CA nozzle when the cap is unscrewed. Yes....you ‘unscrew’ these caps...no awkward trimming here which causes those problem drips. Also, the bottles in which these glues are provided are very squeezable and not as rigid as other contemporary brands. The dosing tips can be removed after use and cleaned in some of the ‘Un-do’ solution to increase their longevity.

Each variety of these CA’s I tested on my model did the job admirably. I varied the type dependent upon the sort of joint they were to tackle.

First up was Instant – HV for the straps. This was chosen as I didn’t want any thin CA inside the cockpit area, with the possibility that it could run, nor did I want it to take an age to set.Applied with a cocktail stick, as I would normally do, the tin to plastic joint was set in a second or so and allowed me to play with the tin in order to shape the straps.

Next up was the fuselage. Knowing that a perfect seam was needed along the joint so no seam would result through a paintjob, I opted for Black. This just simply allows you to see where the glue is and where, perhaps, you need to add a little more. This type isn’t instant so you don’t have to rush the job; all the better with such relatively large parts. The halves were jointed together easily, and allowed that important period of time to adjust the fit to get a precise point. This is a Tamiya kit after all, and the kit was already well fitting, so it was a good test.

On the mat next was the wicking grade. Again, I used this because of the good fit of the Tamiya kit. When the wing is attached to the fuselage, the dry fit is so good that no gaps result. This is perfect for wicking grade where a good joint is required to start off. I added the dosing tip to get this right and applied the adhesive at either end of the wing join. The CA sucked right around the joint and securely fastened the wing in place. Marvellous......

Last up is the Filla-Glu Clear, which I used to apply the tail surfaces. This was applied with a cocktail stick and when jointed, allowed me time to adjust the height of the surfaces until they were level in relation to the wing.

This model provided no chance to use the Filla-Glu Powda, but nevertheless, I tried it on an old hole I accidentally drilled into my worktop. First of all, I snipped the end of the ‘Powda’ bottle and drizzled the mineral powder into the hole. The filled hole was then levelled off with a steel rule, and some Wicking Grade CA dripped onto the surface using aDosing Tip. Don’t touch the powder and the tip together. I did initially and made a mess of the job. Second time round, I did it properly and the CA wicked right through the powder due to its incredibly ‘thin’ nature and set in a fraction of a second. From here, I could use a little sandpaper to level the hole.

This stuff is wonderful and would allow you to fill some pretty bad gaps on a model, providing you either add a plasticard base to work to if no base is present, or if it is, that you work in layers in order to build up.

I never got the chance to use the Kicka-Pen, but this is basically the equivalent of a Zip-Kicker, but in a felt marker body. To use it, you ‘paint’ each side of the joint and let it dry before glue application. Pretty much anything should then bond to anything else, according to the Filla-Glu website. After seeing how these perform, who I am to argue with that.


So what do we think?

For £24.99, you get a CA for every occasion. I have tried all of these CA’s subsequently, and they perform beautifully. I have tried some of the instant HV to glue a lump of brass to an expanded polystyrene cup (strangely enough!) and the bond was rock solid. I’m in love with this stuff.


Overall 9/10

Overall, the only reason I’m giving this wonderful value set a 9 and not 10 is because I would have liked to have seen the Low Odour CA in there as it’s perfect for transparencies and would have made this complete. Otherwise...a total thumbs up!

Many thanks to Filla-Glu for the sample set used for this review.