Joe Fugate's scenery plaster mixture, Swedish edition (step by step with pictures)

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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I decided to try Joe Fugate’s scenery plaster mixture and this is what I came up with.

I live in Sweden and the hard part for me was to find the right material. After many questions and a lot of thinking I found similar products here in Sweden. Not that easy but I did it. And I want to share it with you all, if it happens to be a Swede listening [:D]

Where did I get the material?

Vermiculite 1-2 mm, use 1 mm if you can find it. What a nightmare!

http://www.althea.se

It cost around 1-2 USD for 1 litre (10 SEK/liter) and looks like this.

Patching plaster. I found it at a wellknown store called COOP.

http://www.coop.se

It cost around 11-12 USD for 5 kg (89 SEK för 5 kg, kallas gipsbruk, danogips) and looks like this.

Cement, also found at COOP. It cost around 5-6 USD for 25 kg (45 SEK för 25 kg) and looks like this.

How do you mix it?

First of all, protect your eyes, you don’t want plaster or cement powder in your eyes!

Use 4 parts of vermiculite, 3 parts of patching plaster and 1 part cement.

I don’t know what this is called in english (scoop?), but I used it, and it worked.

Put the vermiculite, patching plaster and cement in a plastic box and shake well for a minute or two.

Mix it with 3-4 parts of water. You must try this out yourself. All I can say is that you wa

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Very informative post electro. I can’t wait until Sweden has a little Rocky mountain railroad action going on! [8D]

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Good thoughts for you, EL. You sound like you are having FUNNNNN!!!

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Very nicely detailed Electro and most informative, grest photos. Many thanks. Cant wait to see what you do with it on the layout.

Keep having fun,
Karl.

PS. yes it is called a scoop in English [:D]

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Wow, electro, very nice!

As you can see, the mix has a nice gray color to it, instead of the stark white of plaster. Even if you do need to drill holes for trees, you won’t get the stark white plaster powder all over, but instead a dull gray powder. I find you can poke holes in the material with a sharp awl to plant trees in it.

You should also find the sample you mixed up is relatively light.

I’m interested in hearing more from you as to how you like the stuff. I’m sure not everyone will like this scenery mix, but I like it a lot!

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Joe:

Thanks for all the kind words. It really makes everything so much greater when a pro like you like my experiment. Thanks to everyone else as well.

I have some question for you Joe.

The mix will dry on the surface in about 2 hours. But it seems that my mix will take maybe 1-2 days to fully dry. Is that normal?

The mix sets up little to quick for me, should I decrease the cement part a little?

How strong is this mix when it’s fully dry? Is it easy or hard to crack? I have not tested yet, but I will as soon it’s fully dry [:D]

Yes, I like it as much as you do Joe. I can tell that this mix is MUCH easier to work with then plaster dipped paper towels. That was really a big mess, with paper towels, water and plaster everywhere. This mix is really only 2 steps. Mix & Use. And it’s light as you said. And it will be even lighter when all the water is gone.

Feel free to ask questions. I did this for all of you!

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Nice!

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Thanks Aggro, appreciated.

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electro:

Yes, the mix takes a couple of days to dry completely, but does set up in about two hours.

And yes, as you surmised, the secret to altering the setup time is to vary the amount of cement in the mix … more cement makes it set up quicker, less cement makes it set up slower.

Great postings … I’m sure others are getting a lot out of this as well.

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One other thing, electro:

Once the mix completely dries, it shrinks. You may notice small cracks after a couple of days – that’s because of the shrinkage.

I find the other qualities of the mix to be ideal, so I put up with the shrinkage and cracks. Just come back in with a thinner one part cement 3 parts plaster mix and patch the cracks.

It’s easy to patch the cracks this way, so don’t be concerned over any cracks you may get. Just patch them!

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Thanks Joe. Good to hear that my experiences is like yours. I will wait a couple of days to let it fully dry and see if it cracks… I will also make a new batch with less cement and see what happens with the working time.

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Joe:

I used only a half part of cement this time and my working time is now around 10 minutes. After that it started to thicken and was hard to spread out with my putty knife. Is that your experience too?

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I just tried the mix with no cement at all, just vermiculite and patching plaster. Working time is now at least 50 minutes. So it’s pretty clear that cement is importent…

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electro:

Yep, it’s the cement that makes it set up fast. It’s also the cement that gives it its wonderful gray color, as opposed to the stark white of plaster.

I find the mix starts to thicken in about 15 minutes, but I keep a spray bottle handy and spray a half dozen good sprays into the bucket, stir in the water, and keep going with the re-thinned mixture.

Of course, you can control this to a certain degree by how much you mix. My typical batch is probably about 4 cups worth. I find I can mix and spread this in about 10-15 minutes and I’m all set for the next batch.

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And by the way, once you know you like this mix and have a formula you like, you can premix several gallons of powder at a time and store it, all ready to use.

Make sure you get a large bucket with a lid to store it in, so it doesn’t absorb moisture, otherwise it will get lumpy over time.

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I think this little goodie needs a bump :slight_smile: For the Swedish modellers on this forum.

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Even for the Americans… I haven’t read through Joes clinic so it may be answered there…

  1. What is Vermiculite? What does it do for the mix??
  2. Is the cement there primarily as a coloring agent??

Jeff
[8D]

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Vermiculite is a mineral that is very light. So the thing it does in the mix is to make the mix light.

The cement makes the mix a nice gray color instead of white, if you use more cement the mix dries faster. Less cement and it dries slower.

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I was thinking I should ask how you got on…
Do you “hate” Sweden a bit less now?

The thingy is called a “scoop”… looks like a measuring spoon from the wife’s kitchen… hope you got it back before she found out…
If you don’t know (or can’t recall) what the English is then anything is called a “wotsit”, a “thingy”, a “doobry”, a “thingumigig”, a “doofer”, a -blank expression and several clicks of the fingers… doesn’t work so well as text… guess you could use [%-)]… Don’t know what the North American’s would call it in their language though… [:-^][:-,][swg]

Hillside looks good. Why aren’t you putting a base colour (mud) into the mix?

Don’t know what vermaculite is but gardeners use tons of it in flower pots to reduce the weight and help drainage… so we can usually get great big bags of it at garden centres.

I noticed that you comment on protecting your eyes… YES DEFINITELY!

IF YOU ARE BREAKING DOWN FROM A LARGES BAG OF CEMENT… WEAR GOGGLES (CHEMICAL HANDLING GRADE), NOSE/MOUTH RESPIRATOR AND GLOVES MINIMUM. CHANGE ANY CLOTHES YOU GET HOT IN STRAIGHT AWAY AS WELL.

EXCESSIVE? MAYBE… THE STUFF BURNS…ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING… NO NOT WITH FLAMES… JUST A QUIET CHEMICAL BURN…WORSE THAN BAD SUNBURN IF YOU GET A BAD REACTION. IT WILL DO IT IN YOUR LUNGS AND INSIDE YOUR EYE SOCKETS BEHIND THE EYEBALL…
OKAY, IT’S NOT LIKE THAT IF YOU’RE MIXING CONCRETE IN THE YARD… WELL IT IS …BUT YOU ARE OUT DOORS AND AT SHOVEL LENGTH. CLOSE UP IT IS VICIOUS.
IF YOU ARE STORING EITHER CEMENT OR THE MIX YOU NEED TO KEEP IT IN A PLASTIC TUB WITH AN AIRTIGHT LID. Personally I would keep the cement seperate and add it only when I’m working… saves any reaction in storage and wasting the other parts if the cement goes off… it has a pretty short shelf life.

Don’t know how much you’d notice the effect in the mix but cement has an exothermic reaction when

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I was going to say that I wouldn’t correct your grammar but…

Do you “hate” Sweden a bit less now? Yes, today is a nice day in Sweden and I’m a happy man…

I only have to play Abba and think of Agnetha and who’sit/what’s’er-name and I’m a happy man… (and there’s NOTHING sad about that [:P] …better looking than Meatloaf’s young lady).

Why aren’t you putting a base colour (mud) into the mix wotsit ? [:)]
Has anyone tried colouring the mix thingy ? [:)]

What’s the life span of the finished product so far please? doobry [xx(]

Does it travel well on modules or crack easily? thingumigig [xx(]

Sorry for the totally useless answer
Wasn’t useless… gave me an excuse to work Abba into a thread… oh, and those weird words are stand in nouns… which I know about 'cos I’m old … so I had some English grammar thumped into me… by a Wel***eacher we all detested.

Any chance of you teaching me Swedish?? …or would that be “Off Topic”?[:-,][%-)]
(Couldn’t even learn French [D)]… but eventually found out why… my decoder isn’t wired that way [:)][:)] ).

Have a nice day