Scale & Plastic Low Odour Review

Filla-Glu 'Low Odour' CA's

• 20 gram Low Odour
• 10 gram Clear ‘Sensitive’

After the last adhesives I received from the good guys at Filla-Glu, I was delighted to receive 2 extra adhesives from their growing range; one of them being a very new product(Clear ‘Sensitive’). For modellers, having CA which is low/zero-bloom is a very important addition to our arsenal of tools, and Filla-Glu have filled that market nicely with these 2 products. Firstly, the 20 gram Low Odour ‘does just what is says on the tin’, or in this case, the soft bottles which seem to be impervious to clogging. The formulation of this CA means that any fumes from it whilst curing, are negligible. I have taken a drop of each of these CA’s and put it on a glass slide to prove its claims to be low odour and low bloom. The two photos below are taken 2 hours apart from each other, showing almost zero bloom shadow from them. Usually a CA will emit fumes as it cures, and once set can leave transparencies on a model looking white, and totally ruin them. The same goes for those final parts which need affixing after a model has been painted, again, leaving a nasty bloom across your hard work.

As a bonus, these Low Odour CA’s, although a little more expensive than the other adhesives in the Filla-Glu range, have the positive effect of not causing irritation to either breathing or the eyes. I have had more than my fair share of knock out fumes from CA over the years, but these products have almost zero noticeable odours, meaning we can work more extensively with them, and for longer periods than regular CA.

The ‘Sensitive’ CA is slightly flexible, having Filla-Glu’s ‘rubber-toughened’ formulation behind it. This is ideal if the materials you are using have different coefficients of expansion. You can be assured that your joint won’t crack, even if subjected to a variation of high and low temperatures. Filla-Glu’s spec says that the CA is also resistant to water, humidity and saltspray. I can’t personally test that, but I certainly have no reason to doubt the scientific clout of the people who design these glues. I am aware that the formulation though was designed to be used in the automotive industry where the applications would be rigorously tested.


These are pictures of glass slides which I both butt-joined and sandwich joined. The butt-joint was absolutely rigid, and the sandwich join was so transparent that the refractive index of this stuff must be near that of glass, as no distortion was present. An absolutely perfect join. You could swear you were only looking through a single glass slide.

Butt-Join



Sandwich Joint

I thought I would try my hand at gluing a spare Spitfire canopy I had to hand, onto a dissimilar material, using the Sensitive formulation, and after setting, the result can be seen in the picture below. As you see, no fuming. I do like this stuff! As a test of faith, I also fixed the canopy onto the Spitfire that I am in the current stages of finishing. 24 hours later, and the joint is good, and bloom free.

So what do we think?

Simply said, these CA’s are VERY highly recommended. Problem is that once you start to use them, you wonder how you worked without them!


Overall 10/10 

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