Top 10 Household Chemicals For Plastic Models. Tutorial Level: Beginner

[sandiego89]

Hmm, Mrs Sandiego89 might not appreciate finding her hair spray on the bench.....

[Rick Lowe]

Instead of CA, baking soda and lead combo in a couple of models I just used scrap plastic to make a sort of bulkhead or box to hold the weights in place. That's if there is room for it. Other times there has been a cramped space and I just let it rattle around.
I don't know how folks use PVA glue as it must take forever to dry and it would run all over inside the model.
I do have one aircraft on a shelf that after a few years is now leaching a light brown substance at the underside of the nose. Nothing disastrous yet.

Good quality PVA can dry surprisingly quickly; in small quantities or thin layers, less than 24 hours - while you do something else.
You have to support the plane nose down while it does, though. And yes, you'll find out whether the seam is properly glued...

[Charlie_c67]

I use Uhu glue. Not sure what type it falls in to, but it seems to work with no problem and holds reasonably quickly.

[kerick]

I had to look it up. With the CA and baking soda with lead combo the long story short is the lead corrodes into lead carbonate. This forms a crystal which takes up more space than what the three components did. Much like when water freezes it forms a crystal we call ice which takes up more space.  This is what can force the model parts apart. I never imagined this can be accelerated by the acetic acid which is off gassed by the wood in many of the display cabinets we use. Even well seasoned wood will do this. The one I have that is starting to show lead carbonate has been stored in oak cabinetry for a few years now. I'm beginning to consider using steel nuts and bolts or sand with CA glue on top.

[Rick Lowe]

Sand would work. However if you're going for steel, I'd say stainless would be a better bet - rust...
I've had a few bottles of acrylic paint die, due to me dropping in a couple of steel BBs as agitators, and they've rusted badly. 

As an alternative, lead and epoxy glue should be ok long term?

With all this talk, I now wonder how some of the things they've done on youtube, with CA and cotton wool will go over time...

[zenrat]

When I came back to the hobby and started building model cars again in 2006 THE gloss clear coat of choice to get a nice shiny finish was Future floor polish (AKA Pledge with Future Shine).
Now those builds are 20 years old the gloss has worn off and they exhibit a dull, patchy finish.

.

[PR19_Kit]

My airliner collection, all of which were Kleared to the max, still look shiny even now. Have your models been on display all this time Fred, or under some sort of cover?

[Accidental Loggie]

I do have one aircraft on a shelf that after a few years is now leaching a light brown substance at the underside of the nose. Nothing disastrous yet.

Perhaps this could be interpreted as a scaled-down aviation fluids leak? And that you cleverly intended for this to happen, for added authenticity?!

[kerick]

I do have one aircraft on a shelf that after a few years is now leaching a light brown substance at the underside of the nose. Nothing disastrous yet.

Perhaps this could be interpreted as a scaled-down aviation fluids leak? And that you cleverly intended for this to happen, for added authenticity?!

I'm afraid it's the underside of the radome. Not much fluid leakage in that area. Now the engine area or heal bay would be a different story!

[Andrew Gorman]

I took a peek inside the belly radome of an EC-121 Warning Star on the back  lot of a museum. It was filled with old couch cushions and empty beer cans.

[PR19_Kit]

I paddled in the belly radome of an RAF Neptune once. 

I was only 7 at the time, and it was a hot day and they'd filled it with water for some reason, and it was EXACTLY right as a paddling pool.

[zenrat]

My airliner collection, all of which were Kleared to the max, still look shiny even now. Have your models been on display all this time Fred, or under some sort of cover?

Display cases.  In the shed.  Not in direct sunlight.

[PR19_Kit]

Hmmm, that's odd. I'd have thought not being in sunlight would have been OK.

Mine are stored in large boxes, in a bed of foam chips, so they're in TOTAL darkness, which may be the key I guess.

[zenrat]

Mine have been handled as well.  Maybe that affects their durability.
I would have brushed the Future on over automotive touch-up paint out of a rattle can which would have been matt or satin to start with.

[PR19_Kit]

That's pretty well what I did with my airliners. There's a Ford colour that's a dead match for Boeing Grey, and Ford Starfire Silver is great for NMF panels etc etc.