What kind of glue tabs is preferable

[Vidious]

Hi all i have seen many different types of glue tabs being used on models and wanted to know if there's any advantage to using glue tabs that are separate from the model and in what situations is shark teeth preferred.


I have also started a poll to see which glue tabs is preferred.

[Viator]

How can I choose one option?
If the part is flat and the edge is straight, a solid tab is better.
If the part is to be rounded, shark teeth (or none at all) will be better. But sometimes (for example two coaxial cyllinders glued together) the flat tab will be okay for rounded parts too.
If the part is valley folded or made of thin paper, integral tabs will be okay.
In case of thick (layered) parts and especially when angles are equal to 90 degrees or greater, the separate tabs are far better.

According to my experience the most important tips regarding the gluing tabs are the following:
1) avoid them at all if they aren't absolutely necessary. As a rule I remove some 80% of gluing tabs from the model and try to glue the parts applying the glue directly on edges. Of course, I am focusing on architecture. In case of aeroplanes perhaps more than 80% of all the tabs will be necessary.
2) think thrice if the tabs are properly located. Some authors of the models print them in such manner that the proper and clean gluing is really impossible. For example, avoid alternating tabs along the polygonal edge. It helpes the vertices to meet one another but the seam looks really bad due to the shadows and the process of gluing is very tiring if you want to make it clean and get the good adhesion in the same time.
3) avoid applying glue on gluing tabs! Apply the glue on the reverse of the part which will be connected to the tab. And don't forget to paint not only the edges of the parts but, in case of integral gluing tabs, do paint some 1-2 mm wide strip of the tab if the tab itself is not colored.

[Siwi]

Horses for courses. On a simple model it is easier to have the tabs connected, and in small parts it may be difficult to attach a seperate tab accurately. On the other hand, these tabs then make one section sit higher than the other which looks less good and can cause fit issues. In other situations there might not be room in a small corner to put a worthwhile tab.
- Take into account the effect folding a tab will have on a corner edge, especially a valley fold. It might cause an inadvertant seam line or bulge where the paper is bent.

- If the paper walls are thick enough then tabs aren't needed. Same goes for very small structures where one piece can happily be glued to the edge of another.
- Tabs can cause issues with unevenness or just being visible if a model has any kind of interior or interal space.
- Avoid using tabs to connect joins which are essential to place accurately for a good fit in the overall model. Right now I am making some designs which use tabs in a different way; tab-and-slot frames which often don't even require gluing, but guarentee a good straight and strong structure.

[Dave Pete]

The answer is highly dependent upon the model subject and shape. I think the cleanest results are separate tabs since the edges can have the closest fit.

[mbauer]

When I design models they are for flight. Anything to keep the weight down works best.

For static display the separated tab is best.

For flight use the shark teeth and longer tabs as needed. I put the root airfoil shape on the fuselage, with several glue tabs to insert to maintain the shape as well as give a positive structural load capability.

Mike