Bonding (gluing) with cling film (food wrap). IT WORKS!

[jagolden01]

This is a fascinating process. Wonder at the strength and long term durability.
Good for quick laminating without waiting for the drying or worrying about warping.

It amazes me what some people think up and are willing to try!

[jagolden01]

Originally Posted by airdave

EDITED ...when first reading this, I was confused. I thought you were describing a way
to make glossy paper. But I could not figure out how to separate the card from
the middle layer of cling film.

On that topic, I bought a roll of laminating plastic. Rather than sheets, you can
get self sticking rolls...its much thinner...and its pretty easy to apply with a squeegee.
Makes nice glossy lamination on cardstock.
But...the cardstock is more than doubled in thickness and the glossy surface is
not very glueable. You have to cut and peel off the laminate where you want to
apply glue. It turned out to be a bit of a pain.

Yup, I can see that lamination being difficult to glue. I have used gloss photo paper on a couple of models in the past for a hi-gloss finish. Like the laminating, very difficult to glue, and it attracts stray glue marks like a flame gathers moths. Same thing with the luster finish.
When I had my line of TinPAPER tanks, I used to print them on the gloss photo paper. Looked like real tin toys. To "glue" the parts, I used something called CelloTak. It was a thin sheet with adhesive on both side. Permanent. Once it was stuck down it would only come up using rubber cement thinner and even then left a mess behind.
Don't know if it's still available ut it's great to use in strips on long joins.

Joe

[Leif Ohlsson]

I now believe this idea is the most innovative one since white glue came to be used for paper modeling (in spite of it being water-based, which still is frowned upon among some modelers...).

I made a quick ten-minute test on a couple of scrap superfluous details:





• The former was glued to foam - the interesting result was that the foam melted down to almost nothing. I will have to investigate techniques for this further - the result is interesting in itself, since my foam sheets are too thick, and I've sanded a few of them down mechanically, with a lot of dust resulting. Controlled ironing for thinning foam will be my next step here, possibly at the same time as laminating with household wrap.

• One of the bellcranks was laminated to a thickness of four layers of 200g paper (thus three layers of household plastic foil). No problems.

• The other bellcrank was made as a fold-up part with 0.5mm black card inserted. Excellent result.

The technique in all cases when laminating with multiple layers is to fold the household wrap around the insert (e.g. the black 0.5 mm card), then stick it into the fold-up part (typically something with pattern on both back and front).

If you want a clean process, cut away protruding plastic foil, then iron away between two pieces of scrap paper.

If you want double strength, fold the household wrap foil to a double layer. Double thickness glue. (Although the glue thickness in this case is near negligible; I can't really measure it).

If the part shows signs of delaminating (glue not holding), just iron it again. I tried it; worked just fine. Don't forget to iron from both sides, to let the heat come through both ways. The process is very quick - a couple of strokes with the iron, turn over, a few more strokes. Done. Go cut your detail, no drying time. Instant glue, no thickness, no smell, no glue marks - what else could you wish for?

I really look forward to an opportunity to try this on laminating large sheets of paper which can be a pain, always risking bending and shrinking with water-based glue (I've given that up; can't paint the surfaces with glue quick enough without shrinking or otherwise causing deformation when drying, no matter how much pressure is applied). The other alternative is spray glue, which forces me out into the stairways, and it's still messy and smelly and generally unpleasant.

This process promises a clean, controlled, no-shrink, no-bend alternative. I now look upon household plastic wrap foil as a thin layer of glue waiting-to-be-applied.

I cannot thank you enough Necroscope (please, a name to know you by, and some geographical location - Russia?). I believe everybody in the paper modeling community will have reason to thank you very, very much when this revelation really hits home. I know I do already.

Warm regards,

Leif

[Tex]

Howdy y'all!
Just a side-thought here:
All that is mighty fascinating and fine, but ain't that a bit in the direction of turning "genuine" cardstock into PLASTIC?
Just wondering ...
- Tex (who appreciates all the efforts and thoughts on here a lot, but is left a tad bumfuzzled ...)

[SCEtoAUX]

Leif,
Thanks for trying it out and giving a report. Easy to see how that could be a good alternative to using a spray adhesive to laminate parts to thicker stock.

[Zakopious]

Originally Posted by Tex

Howdy y'all!
Just a side-thought here:
All that is mighty fascinating and fine, but ain't that a bit in the direction of turning "genuine" cardstock into PLASTIC?
Just wondering ...
- Tex (who appreciates all the efforts and thoughts on here a lot, but is left a tad bumfuzzled ...)

Glue is not cardstock.
The cling wrap is simply a different kind of glue.

[jagolden01]

Originally Posted by Zakopious

Glue is not cardstock.
The cling wrap is simply a different kind of glue.

Agree. I can't wait to try this out on a model.

[Texman]

Hmmm, I'm going to be needing to do some wing ribs, this might be the ticket!

[Tapcho]

If you look for scrapbooking materials at hobby shops you might find glue sheets (sheet glue and maybe even in rolls too). Works fine with iron too though I used that material with a heat press when mounting photographs (it's still done the same way by the way). In this tip the plastic melts and therefore bonds the layers together but so does glue. I prefer glue.

Tappi

[Necroscope]

Dear Leif,
thank you very much for such detailed try-out and kind words!
My name is Denis, and yes, Russia is my home. ... but I do not have tame bear.

From my side I believe this technique will kickstart my Tu-22. Currently I stuck with wings' skin parts as far they are huge.