Many say glue woodland scenics foam with caulk. There are many kinds of caulk, some smell bad, some dry very slow. What have you used with sucess?
Don’t know what others do but I’ve always used white glue for clump foliage and diluted white glue for ground foam. Been doing it for many years and never had a problem or a smell. Not sure how you would use caulk without a mess or high visability afterwards. I may have misunderstood your question since I’ve never used caulk when scenicing. If your talking about foam sheets as used to make mountains, etc, use either Liquid Nails for Projects or white glue - both work equally well (that statement will start an argument with the caulk users).
Ron K.
I use yellow carpenters glue fot gluing up foam board. I find it easier to work with than liquid nails, and I think it’s a bit stronger than white glue. That’s just my preference, any off the 3 will work.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins
I second what Tom just said about Carpenters glue. Just finished glueing 3 inches of foam to plywood. Holds like a rock. Be generous with it.
DON
For gluing my extruded foam to the wood benchwork - carpenter’s glue.
For gluing everything else - latex caulk. That’s the kind that doesn’t smell bad. Dries quickly - spread thing for track or roadbed, it is tacky immediately, dries completely in about a half hour to an hour. You have 10-15 minutes to shift things around, but you can always peel things apart even after it’s been in place for days.
I use clear - it comes out of the gun white but dries clear. Easy to tell when it’s dry - the white goes away.
Some people say they’ve had no problem with silicon caulk, but I’d be concerned about paint and glue (for ballast) adhering, plus it smells nasty. Plain latex caulk is cheaper, too.
–Randy
I used Liquid nails carpenters glue, bonds fast… worked great with my risers, it will eat away at cheaper foam but all in all I used it to glue down most of my foam layout base.
I use wood glue for all general construction, latex caulk (no silicone) to lay track, and white glue to add scenery. It’s all readily available, inexpensive, and works as well as any of the fancier adhesives.
The most important thing of all, READ THE LABELS! Make sure you buy a glue that is safe to use on foam board. Many adhesives are solvent based and therfore will desolve the foam.
As has been stated already, each one has it’s merits, some dry fast, some dry slower and allow for adjusting, some are easily removable for changing, but most all of them are strong. After all, are you gonna grab ahold of your hill, and try to lift that layout module and carry it? NO! so as long as it holds it in place, not allowing movement from a casual bump of placing of trees and such, then it is strong.
For what it is worth, I used PL300, but got lazy and did not spread it with a spatula, as we are advised in most of the How-To’s. I found it to be difficult to spread when I did try. So, as i changed my approach and had to undo, it required more work to break the beads.
I would recommend white or carpenter’s glue since others who have a lot of experience building layouts say they use it. No spreading required if the layers of foam are slide in several directions before lining them up in their final spot and then weighting them in several places to assure a flat fit.
I like white glue for pretty well everything. I dilute it 50/50 with water for securing ballast and scenery. It sticks to almost everything and doesn’t eat foam like solvent-based glues do. The best thing about white glue is that you can undo it. Removing scenery or ballast? Just soak it with water (with a few drops of detergent added), wait a few minutes, and scrape it up. The only down side is that, being water-based, it will be absorbed by paper and cardstock and warp it.
I’m a painter by trade and use caulk for everthing. I call it chemical carpentry.
I use any brand siliconized latex caulk, Dap is the most common brand in the midwest.
I use it to glue foam board, wood, various scenery materials.
It dries fast, has high tackquality, does’nt run on vertical surfaces, fills gaps.
Same here. I use Liquid Nails for fastening wood, but for everything else I use Aleene’s Tacky Glue (from the craft section at Wally World). Use it straight for general purpose stuff, and dilute it with water and a smidge of rubbing alcohol and spray it for everything else.
Ray out.
I use silicon latex caulking for adhering sections and pieces of foam insulation board together. Elmer’s (whie) glue - diluted 50/50 works well for ballast - groundcover and other scenic materials.
My layout is now approaching 18 months since completion and everything is as “tight” as when first completed.
As suggested earlier - be sure to read the labels for the caulking and any other adhesive, for some do “melt” the foam.
I use Woodland Scenics low temp glue gun. I have used latex glue in the past but found you had a long wait for it to dry. What I like about the glue gun is that you can use it on any kind of foam, extruded or the white stuff that WS uses to make their risers. The great thing about it is you can keep on working because its dry in just a minute or two.
Uptown