Has anyone tried to use the fast setting drywall material for mountians instead of hydrocal? I know it comes in different speed setting of 5 min., 20 min., 45 min., and 90 min. It is a lot cheaper than hydrocal and easier to get. I have to special order hydrocal. Any discussion would be appreciated
I’ve never tried it, but you might try building a small moutain for a test and see how it works. If you do let us know the out come. Ken
Joint compound is made to fill shallow depressions and small holes in drywall (sheetrock). When applied too thick it will shrink and crack - might work for some types of rock you may want to model. It is cheap, and can be used for small/shallow areas. I’ve mixed dry tempera colors into it for repairs in the past, and it would be suitable for roads with brown or black mixed into it. Happy Thanksgiving from a retired carpenter/contractor.
We used pre-mixed lightweight spackling compound called “Patch-N-Paint”, available from all the local home improvement stores. We started with a quart sized jug, about $4 worth, because we wanted the small container. That ran out pretty quick, and from then on we used gallon jugs, which run $12 each.
There are pro’s and con’s to this approach as follows:
Cons:
- This stuff sticks to what IT wants to stick to, which usually isn’t what YOU want it to stick to. It prefers tools to plaster cloth, and it prefers fingers to dried layers of itself, already on the layout. The trick here is to use your finger or knife to scoop up a blob of the right sizer, scrape it off on the edge of the container, then barely touch the tool to it before placing it on the layout with a bit of a “smear” to make it stick. Then dab around the edges of the blob to really stick it to the layout, and repeat until enough material is in place to sculpt or carve as needed. Clean tools and fingers work best, sticky, plastered tools covered with half dried plaster are much harder to work with. A bowl of water or nearby sink and frequent cleanings take care of this.
That’s it for the cons.
Pros:
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This stuff is LIGHT. You’ll think they’re ripping you off when you heft a full gallon of the stuff, relax, there really is something inside there, a full gallon of it.
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It stiffens within 15 to 20 minutes, about perfect for the size area I like doing at one time, it still carves when stiffening, and, for that matter, you can still carve it (with an exacto) easily when it’s totally dry.
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It’s water soluble, clean-up is a snap, even if you forgot to clean a tool a week ago (steel on steel, plaster loses).
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It’s water soluble, you can adjust the texture and thickness of it, and a damp 1" paint brush on 15 to 20 minute old plaster smooths down to a very uniform surface, good for non-planar terrain. I doubt I could make a parking
The material I am talking about comes in a 25 pd bag and is very easy to mix. I am a disabled drywall finisher and we used the stuff all the time and it gets hard but not hard enough you can’t work with it. The material is called durabond or quickset. I used it all the time to fix big holes and in places you need a lot of mud to fill in a bad spot. It’s quality is that it does not shrink. I just thought someone might have tried it since it gets hard but not as hard as hydrocal and you have longer time to work with it. Thanks to everyone who answered my question. Some of your comments gave me a good laugh. Thanks a lot. Larry
Ok.
I’ve hung a lot of fire rock, for some reason the framers hang that, I have no idea why, but I always left the mud-work to the mud-men. It’s a black art, with elements of voodoo to it, better avoided by the unwary.
The lightweight spackle does crack when you trowel it on, big deal. Fixing a crack is a 27 second job with a putty knife. It also did a good job fixing a hole in the wall where an errant screwdriver came to rest near the layout some years back.
Slightly OT, but why on earth does ANYBODY use slotted screws for anything anymore? Squareheads are the best, Phillips heads will work in a pinch, I think slot head screws ought to be outlawed, fed into a blast furnace, and used to make garbage cans and metal toilets.
Anyway, spackle not only works on train layouts, it doubles to fix ballistic tool damage too.
Would you consider using Joe Fugate’s formula? It is a hardshell type of goop, but there is no reason it cannot be spread over any surface that will keep it in place for the three seconds it takes to semi-set. By that I mean it goes on like a slurry or batter, but after just a few seconds, it seems to get semi-rigid and will stay in place very well even on moderately steep grades. It is lightweight and very easy to carve after a few minutes, and even when completely dry.
1 part portland cement, 3 parts plaster of paris, 4 parts fine grind vermiculite. I added masonary dyes, about half a teaspoon or so to each two-quart batch. I used straight brown and mesa.
The product, Durabond, in 45 and 90 is what I believe you are refering to. Even the 90 min won’t give you ample working time for scenery use. I use this for all my DW first coat, corner bead and taped seams. I am rather experienced with these products and would never consider it for hardshell.
If you want to vary from Hydrocal itself and don’t want to use any of the Perlite or Gypsolite ground goop concoctions, any of the veneering plasters (Unical or Diamond) work very good. I use a layer of dyed Unical over plastercloth for strength when applying over wire screening.
Such a strong base for hardshell is not really nec. for most layouts. I am working on a club layout that could see some more severe abuse than your pride and joy at home.
[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto][#ditto] I couldn’t agree with you more. They’re called Robertson screws. That’s just about all I’ll buy any more. Maybe, if appearance is important, I’ll use a Phillips screw, or even (shudder) a slot head screw. The Robertson screws will stick on the end of the screwdriver allowing one hand operation and you can apply lots of torque to them without the driver slipping. Every screw in my benchwork and every screw holding something to it is a Robertson. As an aside, the Robertson screw was invented by a Canadian about the same time as the Phillips screw was invented by an American, and both were named after their inventors. The reason the Phillips screw became so popular was that Mr. Phillips was able to convince one of the big 3 auto makers to use them in their cars in the early 1930s and they’ve been used almost exclusively in cars since then.
As a matter of fact, I just finished using drywall compound on my layout for the first time. I made a tutorial about it and I have to admit, that when mixed with the stone I used etc it went on perfectly and took hours to dry. This made it great for carving it and making my mountains out of those molehills.
I really really like the stuff and HIGHLY recommend it.
I hope my tutorial can help you decide if it is also what you are looking for as well. 