Here's a discovery I made a few years ago.

I was making a model when some of acrylic thinner seeped into some sprues that I want to throw away. My brother was using acrylic thinner to paint something (not a model. I remember he was trying to put some designs on our wall near my workbench) and he was putting the thinner container near my junk sprues. Probably, he might have spilled a little of it into the sprues.

To my surprise, the sprues fused! I used them on my kit and the parts fuse together.

Now I use acrylic thinner as glue. First, it doesn't get thick and sticky when the glue in the bottle runs out, unlike in normal glues used in models. Second, due its almost watery consistency, it spreads really thin. In fact, it's even thinner than Tamiya Extra Thin Cement.Capilliary action is excellent. Third, it is very inexpensive. I bought mine for P25 (less than half a dollar). Lastly, in our country, it comes in bottles as big as a beer bottle....around 200 to 300ml. One can also buy acrylic thinner around P 100 (less than $2) in 1 or 2 gallon cans.

A few things though....

1) Acrylic thinner works like normal plastic glues. That means you cannot glue items made of different materials.
2) Acrylic thinner only works on styrene plastic. It won't work on other kinds of plastic.
3) Be careful that your fingers are not wet with acrylic thinner. It is a powerful solvent and it would leave great big fingerprints on your models.
4) Do not mix acrylic thinner with acrylic hobby paint, though. I tried that and the paint turns to film.

Just contributing something to the modeling world.

Angela :-)8

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a go.

thanks for sharing the tips Angie...

now can u tell us what is acrylic thinner?? if possible can u give the active ingredients inside those thinner..

Oh, I'm really sorry for the very late reply. I thought no one answered this thread.

Acrylic thinner contains a solvent, just like normal modeling cement. It fuses the matting edges of the plastic.

However, it does not have a "gel" like chemical which causes modeling cement to get thicker overtime. This makes it thin and easy to apply with.

DO NOT USE THE TAMIYA ACRYLIC THINNER. This is not the acrylic thiner I'm talking about.

Acrylic thinner...along with normal turpentine, lacquer and paint thinner...is found in any hardware store....at least in my country. I'm probably sure you have acrylic thinner there too.

Angela