Modellers sizes

Browsing a hardware shop recently I found this hung on a rack. Liquid Nails glue in a tube.

While it might not strike anyone as that exciting, it's good enough to get me dipping my hand in my pocket. Liquid Nails is an excellent glue but usually only available in huge quantities. Coming from the building market where you splurge it on to attach skiting board to walls etc., normally the buyer finds themselves confronted with a cartridge of the stuff intended for one of those gun things. Even the smaller bottle version is a bit on the big side - it's pretty uncontrollable too. A tube is perfect though.

As model makers we have odd requirements. Even though glues and paints work out more expensive in smaller quantities we'll still snap them up this way. Most of the time this makes sense the residue will just go to waste. I can't be the only one who bought the biggest tube of UHU from a market and regretted it later. Of course I didn't know that in the heat it would explode in the bottom of my toolbox...

The trick is to realise when you need bulk. Baseboard making for example - get the big bottle of PVA as you'll use it eventually. Model boat hulls, if you can get the paint or varnish in a big pot, go for it. You'll save money on tinlets. It's not always necessary to employ the "propper" modelling version either. Many pros have been spraying Ronseal varnish from DIY stores for years. With each can costing the same as 5 tinlets and yet holding 20 times as much, if you can justify it the saving is there to be had.

Manufacturers of course wedge the price of the small quantities up a bit to cover the higher than normal packaging:contents ratio but even so I suspect the profit margins are higher too. Talking of packaging, the only thing I didn't like about this glue was the enormous clear plastic stand come wrapper. What's wrong with a cardboard box ?