Local shop gave me a recipe for scenic cement. 10 parts white glue, 1 part alcohol, 1 drop dishsoap. Said it’s just as good as woodland scenics stuff. (She’s out of stock of woodlands) She said it’s what she used for her ballast and in a spray bottle for spraying grass, sand, whatever else.
I made it, and it’s not spraying. It seems way too thick. Is this recipe missing something? Should I just wait and get the woodland scenics spray somewhere else? Do you have a recipe you use to spray down grasses and sands and what not to keep them in place?
UPDATE**
The 50/50 glue water mix fix worked great. I can see where it is already starting to dry clear. I know better than to mess with it until tomorrow. Thanks!!!
Wow, what does she use for a spray bottle? An airbrush?
Seriously, that’s way, way too thick to spray. Typically, I do this kind of thing (same for grass and ballast, by the way) in two steps. First, I take a spray bottle (like a Windex bottle) and fill it with water, and then add 3 or 4 drops of dishwashing liquid. I spray that very gently over (not at) the surface, so it falls down like a fine rain and doesn’t blast the ballast or grass out of place. Then I take about a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water, and apply it with a pipette, which is just a cheap eyedropper. The glue mixture should wick right into the ballast, because the dish soap has made it very slippery and porous.
You can still use the mixture you’ve got, but I’d mix it up 50/50 with some more water. The alcohol and soap that’s already in it will be OK, and you might even try putting it on (with a pipette or eyedropper) without pre-wetting. That might work. By the way, as long as you keep the bottle sealed up tight, the mixture should keep for a long time without drying out.
By the way, this takes 2 to 3 days to dry on your layout. It may seem dry, but wait.
I do thirds. 1/3 white glue, 1/3 alcohol, and 1/3 water. I do take the spray head off and wash it when I am done. I use this for scenery, ballast, and what ever. No problems. The alcohol is a drying agent. The more you use the faster it will dry. You can spray or you can dribble.
I think she just forgot to write down the water. She was having a bad day yesterday when I was in there, and she wasn’t there today.
I used whatever your normal Target brand rubbing alcohol is. I just looked at it and felt a corner. It feels good and dry, it looks nice. You can’t even see where I sprayed.
I don’t want to pee in anybody’s soup, but you don’t need the alcohol. The dish soap, by itself, does a great job of breaking surface tension, even in soil. If water runs off your vegetable or flower beds when you water, you can pre-water with this “wet water” first, then do your normal watering. It will do the same on your layout.
Save the expense of alcohol, modest though it is, because it can be eliminated.
One advantage to using a mix w/ some alcohol is it’s quick drying and any totally soaked area won’t have any chance of warping underlying roadbed etc. A disadvantage is the fumes- they can get quite strong after a long session. Joe fugate uses something similar, I beleive, maybe he can tell us his receipe. Apparantly he has very good results with it.
That is only partly true. Since the amount of water is much more than the amount of alcohol, unless you are mixing a very high ratio of alcohol to water (in which case the costs, volatile vapours, and your household insurance agent’s eyebrows will rise concomitantly) there will be no appreciable difference in drying time.