I have tried several different ways of gluing the basic foundation for my scenery (grass, dirt, small rocks, etc.) to include using diluted glue in a spray bottle, which doesn’t seem to work well. I tend to get glue everywhere I don’t need it and it also seems to create clumps with the material.
I found if I just slather on glue with my hand in a specific area and then sprinkle my grasses, dirt, etc. on top, covering the glue, the tamp it down lightly; that seems to work. I do need to remove some excess, which seems to be a waste to me, but I haven’t found a better and cleaner way of gluing the grasses, dirt, etc.
Anyone have some other ideas or thoughts my method??
I get my spay bottles a Sam’s Club you can find them with all the cleaning gear. As to put ballast down I use isopropyl alcohol to wet the ballast & a matte medium (do not get the glossy) mix in a bottle (looks like a catsup bottle) that I got at Micheals. Spays are ok if doing a large area if you wet it down good but for ballast I just let it dribble out.
If it’s fine stuff I apply the diluted glue mix with a small paint brush and then sprinkle on the material. Next I apply 70% isoprophyl alcohol, touch up if necessary and then another application of the glue mix. Doing it this way there is very little waste.
If the scenic material is real course eliminate the painting with the brush since it will stay put.
Individual shrubs, bushes, and trees will stick using tacky glue.
I don’t spay the glue-water mix because it does make a mess.
One way is to mix Elmer’s white glue with water. Use a 50-50 mix. Apply this to the basic scenery form with a paint brush, the brush size depending on the area you are working in. Next sprinkle on the ground foam. Don’t paint too large of an area or the glue-water mix will dry before you get the scenery materials on. Let this dry. For the next layer, if any, put down the coarser scenery materials then spray the area with ‘wet’ water. (Wet water is tap water that has a few drops of dish detergent added. This breaks the surface tension of the water so it doesn’t bead up, but soaks in.) Once the area and materials are wet (damp), apply more glue-water mix using an eye-dropper on the added scenery materials and let it soak in. It will take this layer about 24 hours to dry. Other details (rocks, shrubs, & trees) can be glued in place with white glue.
I do my first layer of ground foam scenery when I paint the layout surface with my earth tone interrior latex paint. Paint a square foot or so, then sprinkle on several different colors and textures of foam before the paint starts to dry. I have found an empty Elmers glue bottle a good applicator of diluted glue, mentioned above, as well as many other liquid applications. The tip can be adjusted so that very little comes out or opened to allow a good flow if you are doing a large relatively flat area.
I am a 50/50 glue water with foam brush person myself… and then when it is dry I will spray it with light coat of cheap hairspray. If I am filling in an existing area, then I just hit it with hairspray.
When you want to clean up the excess material, just stuff a nylon knee hi part way into the vac hose, tape the excess nylon to the outside of the hose then just go over the area with the vac after the "stuff"is dried.
Before you turn the vac off, put the end of the hose over a container, turn the vac off and the excess will fall into the container to be used again. It works really well.[8-|]
I think that you’re doing things backwards, and it’s not only taking the fun out of this operation, but it’s also making it much more difficult than it needs to be.
I apply all of the ground cover materials dry, layering them over one another in a logical order - loose dirt and rocks first, then fine vegetation, then coarser material. On level ground, there’s no limit to the depth to which such materials can be applied. Use whatever tools seem appropriate to make any needed adjustments, then use a good-quality sprayer to mist the entire area with “wet” water (water with a few drops of liquid dish detergent added). I find it best to aim the sprayer upwards, so that the mist simply falls on the loose scenic material. After it’s been dampened somewhat, you can spray it more directly, although don’t get so close that you start blowing foam all over the place. Continue spraying until the water has penetrated right down to the foundation of your scenery (foam, plaster, etc.) The whole area will look pretty gruesome at this point, but thorough wetting is the key to gett
I like to build up the ground cover in layers. I usually start with two coats of fine sand to get even coverage, and then add grass texture. I use brush coats of 50:50 thinned white glue for these steps, and allow the glue to dry thoroughly between applications. Anything that doesn’t adhere from the brushed glue gets a spray of “wet water” (I use plain tap water with some rubbing alcohol added to break surface tension), followed by more diluted glue dripped into place from the bottle (I recycle Elmer’s glue bottles for this). With each additional brush coat, there’s more material in place to hold the glue, and it dries more slowly. As such it becomes more effective for holding the next layer.
Anyplace I apply thicker material, like talus piles or built up rock and san for a railroad fill, I add it dry, then soak with water and glue. Brush coats are ineffective for this kind of thing.
Here’s the same scene before and after ground cover added per the above.
This scene has a combination of thinner ground cover attached purely with the brush coats of glue, and other things (like the rocks in the bottom of the dry wash, talus, the railroad embankment, ballast) which were applied dry and glued later. Other items like the larger bushes were added with full strength glue after the basic ground cover was complete.
I think that a lot of experienced modelers will have their basic scenery materials in place and then use either “wet water” (water with a few drops of Dawn liquid) or rubbing alcohol. Apply this with an eye dropper. Work in small areas at one time. I then use an eye dropper to apply Scenic Cement. The “wet water” and/or rubbing alcohol allows a more even coverage with the cementing material. One can use a 50/50 solution of water and Elmers Glue.[tup] I build scenery in layers. So, first I paint the area with an acrylic brown paint. Sometimes, I will apply the first layer of scenic material will the paint is still wet.[2c] Nothing in nature is uniform, so avoid making any area homogeneous. Good Luck!![:D]
Really, there are almost as many ways to do this as there are modellers, but there are probably very few of us who advocate the use of spray bottles.
As someone stated earlier, on tried and true method is to sprinkle on ground cover while the paint is still wet. While this does work well, my preferred method is to paint the area with undiluted matte medium, then sprinkle on the first layer of ground cover. When that is dry, I mist the area with dilute rubbing alcohol (35%) – and this is one place the spray bottle does work – then add more ground cover, and dribble on dilute matte medium with an old glue bottle. I mix some coarser stuff into this layer. Finally, larger bushes and trees are added individually.
