Is there a way to take apart ships that were badly glued together, in order to clean and reseat them? I'm specifically looking at HMS Ajax and HMAS Sydney. Pretty sure that if I tried to pry the superstructure off the main hull, I'd end up tearing things up badly.
This was common "back in the day." The best way most of us found was to put them under a hair dryer for several minutes to soften the glue then yank (pretty hard) on the part you are trying to remove. Use a pliers for grip, but place a piece of cloth (small kitchen towel works) between the jaws so you don't tear up the model part. The plastic can get pretty soft too. The hulls of the large ships are sometimes in a harder plastic, but the superstructures are usually in the softer plastic.
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On the old board some suggested going to a public restroom with an air blower hand dryer if you didn't have a hair dryer. I think you would draw some attention after the number of times you had to keep pushing the button to get it done though.
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If no hairdryer, then try the "cold" method. Place the model in the freezer for several hours. This will cause "tube" glue to become brittle and it should be easier to yank off.
I have only tried to dissaemble the backwards island of HMS Courageous, and ended up just cutting off the bridge, scraping the glue residue, then re-pinning. However, the glue used on Courageous was the tube kind, so the freezer method should work for other WAS models.
If CA super glue, then a CA debonder is required. If MEK type glue, then the parts are "welded" by melted plastic, and you'll have to cut. But I do not think WaS models were assembled with CA or MEK.