How to get SE coarse ground foam to adhere to tree armatures? I tried using Elmer’s white glue, but likely made it too watery and put it in a spray bottle. I have seen that some “dip” the armatures into the Elmer’s. Frary suggested using matte medium in his book. Won’t that have the same problem as the elmer’s if I spray it on the trees? I am diluting that mixture now.
TIA!
Lee
Lee,
There’s a product called Hob-E-Tac that looks just like white glue but dries “sticky”:
Apply the Hob-E-Tac to the armature tips BUT…let it dry completely BEFORE adding your green foam. (If the Hob-E-Tac is still wet, the foam will NOT stay on the armature.) The Hob-E-Tac will definitely feel sticky when it’s dry. Cost: $5/bottle.
And, if someone has a homemade version that is more economical, I’d be interested in hearing about it.
Tom
One suggestion
Use a 50/50 mixture of white glue to water; coat the armature with the mixture then liberally pour fine or medium ground foam to the armature (or dunk the whole thing in a tub with ground foam). Allow to dry and then spray with the cheapest hair spray you can find to help fix things in place.
Matte medium (found online or in art supply stores) dries somewhat flexible rather than rigid as does white glue (making it better for ballast).
You ain’t gonna find a better hair spray for this purpose than something called Final Net®.
Personally, for hundreds of background trees, I find that double end sharpened thin stained wooden skewers make good trunks that can be pushed into foam. I like to push green or black stained circles of furnace filters onto the skewers and then spray with adhesive spray or hair spray. I then sprinkle on fine varigated green ground foam, or twirl the adhesive covered skewered circles in a plastic bag of green or Fall colored foam. Note my AVATAR I only use branches of weeds for trunk armatures for foreground trees. For the canopy of background hillside forest stained double-ended toothpicks with wads of filter scraps, can be sprayed with adhesive and then sprinkled with fine gree foam. Bob Hahn
Good item to try for this and lots of other things - Aleene’s Tacky Glue. It’s like a sticky thick white glue, and real cheap. I’ve done lots of things with it including building entire wood structures.
Larry
For large detailed foreground trees. I spray with an adhesive spray then use Noch leaves.
I use contact adhesive.
I use hairspray. But that’s for scenic express super trees not the hefty WS trees. I suspect it would work the same though.
I smear Aleene’s Tacky Glue (Hob-e-Tac would work just as well) generously on the armatures then press on WS foliage and scenery net (I think it’s called) into the glue. After the glue dries, I trim the ragged edges with scissors then sprinkle on ground foam (I keep my ground foam in spice jars) and spray the whole thing thoroughly with cheap hair spray. Works for me.