Can someone help? I don’t have a LHS where I live and was wondering what would be a good substitue for Woodland Scenics scenic glue (The watery stuff)? I want to finish my track but have no way to glue the ballast down.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Jacob
50-50 Elmer’s glue and water- for the glue, preceded by water with a couple drops dishwashing liquid so it can penetrate.
I never buy anything with a hobby manufacturer’s brand name on it when an equivalent product is available at Wal-mart, K-mart, etc., for 1/10th the price.
In this case, Elmer’s or other brand of white glue. I dilute it with rubbing alcohol instead of water because alcohol evaporates faster than water.
I use 1 part white glue to 3 parts water and find it works fine.
“Scenic cement” is really nothing more than diluted white glue. The only question seems to be how much water to add. That’s up to you.
What ratio of mix do you use when using rubbing alcohol?
For scenery I use first a spray of water with a few drops of dish-washing liquid followed by a spray of 50/50 white glue and water. For ballast I first soak the ballast by dripping on alcohol then drip on the 50/50 white glue/water mix.
A couple of words or caution and correction.
Woodland Scenics scenery cement is not simply watered down white glue, it is matte meduim that is prethinned (watered down) and “wetted.”
There are better options that white glue , matte medium is of them though slightly more expensive.
A caution about using alcohol instead of water to thin your white glue - alcohol in too great a concentration, such as when used alone as a thinning agent, not only thins the glue but breaksdown the glue so it will not work nearly as well.
My preference is to avoid using dishwashing detergent. You end up with too many bubbles from mixing, spraying and/or applying with a dropper. The ballast will then float in the bubble and leave circular marks in the ballast when it dries.
Use water to thin the glue agent and make approx 5-10% of the solution be alcohol. The reason for the detergent or alcohol is to break the surface tension of the water and allow it to soak into the scenery material. It doesn’t take much to break the surface tension.
Also, one last tip - use warm water to mix the solution. It will dissolve the glue better
wait, jk, you put the alcohol in with the glue and water? I’ve been wondering about that, seeing as it would save a step in the process.
Absolutely! The alcohol is a better wetting agent than detergent - no bubbles from mixing, shaking or applying with a dropper. I still like to mist the ballast with alcohol before applying the glue mixture. This makes certain that the glue mixture will completely flow through and soak the ballast. One last point, I don’t use white glue, it dries too hard and is not completely clear when dry.
Agreed. You can also use matte medium, available from any Hobby Lobby or craft store.
While the matte-medium seems a better solution, you will in all probability destroy your track when/if you try to pull it up in the future. Some say that soaking it with alcohol works but it never did for me.
I was surprised to see the wide spread use of rubbing alcohol as a paint reducer, wetting agent. I would read up on Isopropyl rubbing alcohol and rubbing alcohol U.S.P. before shooting it everywhere like this. Wikipedia has a good write up and links.
I used 50/50 water/white glue and few drops of detergent years ago. When I tore the layout down, man the ballast was hard to remove. Just a few drops breaks the surface tension of water. Or you can use a few drops of dishwasher rinsing agent if you’re affraid of the bubbles.
I would not use any rubbing alcohol unless the area was well ventilated to the great outdoors. My health (and yours) are far more important that the train scenery.
Marc
Folks:
I tried using alcohol but I kept getting ballast everywhere it wasn’t supposed to be.
…
Whaddya mean it’s supposed to go into the glue bottle?
Daniels, Beam or Charter? [(-D]
Banker’s Club. I was using a light color of ballast.
Talk about your model railroading headaches.
Matte Modge Podge is a cheaper version of Matte Medium.
Dave H.