Fusing butt and kidney help?

[Algie44]

I currently have ANH armor, and building an incinerator, but other builds require fusing of butt and kidney, as well. I'm looking for advice from anyone who has fused these pieces as required in the CRL. I do realize that I could just get a ROTJ fused piece, but I want to see if I can do with what I have first.

[Tray[TK]]

just take a wide strip of plastic and glue it along the inside between the two pieces. Maybe 2" wide by the length so you have 1" of glue per side to insure proper hold. This should do a good job of fusing them together. You'll need to insure clean edges. straight lines and then you can paint it afterwards.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Tray nailed it.  That will keep them together.  If you want to take it to the next level and physically fuse them so they appear to be one seamless piece on the outside, then after the strip is glued in as Tray described, you can fill the remaining outside gap between the two with ABS paste.

[Plasma]

I used strips and the acrylic paste - no problems since.

[Algie44]

Just so I'm clear, remove the inside edge (bottom of kidney and top of butt), and glue some plastic stripping inside? I have some extra ABS sheets that I can use, or did you use something a little more flexible? Thanks for the replies.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

You may have to use the boiling water technique to bend it and help it conform to the shape of the butt/kidney, Algie, but I would stick with the ABS.

[Algie44]

Thanks so much, Joseph. That seems reasonable. This will be my plan:<br>

1. Remove most/all of the upper return edge on the butt and the lower one on the kidney<br>

2. Heat and bend 5-6cm wide strip of ABS to join the two<br>

3. Glue them together, bolstering as needed<br>

4. Run the U shaped molding around the combined piece<br>

Anything else? Different plan altogether?

Edited March 4, 2016 by Algie44

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

I do think that using ABS paste/slurry is a better approach than gluing them together.

[Algie44]

Okay. I have some of that.