Scenic Cement. By Woodland Scenics. Geez… no wonder there aren’t as many people taking up this hobby as there should be. This stuff comes in all of their starter scenery kits, and is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.
Okay. First off, what I got was their scenery starter kit thing that covers like a 2 square foot area. Okay. They give you a bottle of Scenic Cement. Then they give you a spray nozzle. Except the nozzle doesn’t fit the bottle!!! whoaaahhh thats a smart one.
blah. I guess I deserve what I got for painting my base, letting it dry, and THEN applying ground cover. But regardless, Scenic Cement sucks. The stuff doesn’t “spray”. It shoots gobs that clumps up your Fine Turf to make it look like Coarse Turf.
Is there ANY other way of easily securing the initial layer of ground cover, other than sprinkling it on when the paint is wet? In a desperate attempt at salvaging my work, I ran upstairs and got my Ballast Kit (70% isopropyl, and my 50/50 glue water mix) and frantically soaked the turf and dropped glue on it. I am now out of both. Thankfully i don’t have any more ballasting to do.
i think I now know why my first layout as a kid never got past the initial attempts at scenery…
Wet latex paint is the best scenic cement I’ve ever used. Spread it on, sprinkle the scenery, let dry. May need a touch of a 50/50 glue mixture (don’t forget the drop or two of dish soap) afterwards. I also usually use an eye-dropper on the flat areas. Keeps from getting the glue on everything around.
I gather that somebody just went into the high ultra-violet on the frustration meter…[(-D]
FWIW, how many of my fellow Spanish-American Citizens (must be Spanish-American, being addressed as Senor) remember the wood-and-card kits that came with a little tin tube containing about two drops of acetate cement?[%-)]
Moral of the story? Use the adhesive that’s best for the job, not whatever the kit supplier put in the box.[8D]
Paint the area with white glue and water mix, then apply the fine ground foam. If you already have the fine ground foam down, spray or eye-dropper the white glue and water on it. Then reapply the fine ground foam in the areas that get washed away while still wet. (Wetting the area first with an alcohol mist may help it from being dislodged.)
Once you have the first layer on and dry, you can then apply the coarser stuff and spray it. My choice is to use an eye dropper or other non-spray applicator for the glue mix. That way it doesn’t go all over the place.
I bought a larger WS kit (closeout 20.00) , since the WS scenic cement was included, I used until it was gone, the went to my usual white glue/ water mix. I had no problems with it at all, but I prefer the to use an eye dropper vs spraying. Spraying makes more of a mess than is needed IMHO. Did you shake it up well before use?
I have had good success with WS’s Scenic Cement either applied with an eye dropped for ballast, or in an old (men’s) hair spray container – it seems like a finer and more intense mist than the sprutz that comes out of WS’s own spray bottle, which is like what you’d use to water down house plants.
Their cement works fine, but the other alternatives mentioned are cheaper and work just as good. I like the Mod Podge Matte medium because it dries with a flatter finish than white glue.
Throw the WS spray nozzle away and go to the dollar store and get a pump bottle of hair spray. (not the aerosol) Spritz a few in the store to see which one has the finest spray pattern. They work great for spraying scenic cement. Shake your glue mix up REAL good and pour it through a fine strainer first to get any chunks out that WILL clog your sprayer.
I just paint watered down 50/50 glue mix first and sprinkle my ground foam on that.
(I don’t get what is wrong with the title unless it was changed before I saw it??[%-)])
I have found that any thinned glue whether, white, matte medium or the WS stuff, just will not spray properly. Yes if really watered down, to the point of soaking mess of the scenery product a good sprayer will work. As many have already said, I also find it better to paint on a diluted white glue and spread the first/ base layers of ground foam etc. Additonal scenery layers are secured by wet watered (alcohol, water detergent) then dribble on the diluted glue.
If you follow Dave Frary’s suggestion of thinning matte medium a quart will make over 4-6 quarts of scenery cement once diluted. A much better bargain than the pint of WS scenery cement. It ends up a toss up to me whether I use the white glue or matte medium. If areas will tend to show a slight shine from the white glue, I will use the diluted matte medium instead.
You need to remember that matte medium once set is not water soluable as is white glue. This is why many won’t use it for ballasting. Any track removal once ballasted is near impossible. Some also feel that matte medium used on ballast is noisier, I can’t tell any difference, however, the construction of the club layout is wood spline/ roadbed not foam based.
I used matte medium for securing ballast only once and never again since. From a 10x12 layout I was able to salvage seven pieces of flex track and two turnouts. The rest was destroyed in the attempt to salvage it.
You know, thats a really good idea. I didn’t think of that. Its not that the Scenic Cement itself sucks, its the joke of a spray nozzle they give you. and it doesn’t even go with the bottle of the stuff!!! how retarded is that?
Heating it makes sense, though, because that would help the water initially disolve the glue more effectively, and thus have it precipitate out once sprayed onto the layout.
Haha, beat you to it. That was the first thing I did when I finished my work that I did haha.
I thought about using just regular hair spray, but I didn’t; I figure that would leave a shiny sheen over everything.
The only thing is that I really didn’t like how the stuff looked once I had soaked it with alcohol and then dribbled the glue on… it made everything look really weird; maybe it will have dried looking better.
The latex paint seemed to have dried too quickly to use as an adhesive… I mean, I did paint a 1x2 foot area all at once tho so maybe thats why. Its funny, tho, because once I sprayed my first spritz of the scenic cement, I immediately said “Damnit. Why didn’t I do it Pelle’s way?” lol
I just use yellow glue for everything. I dilute it about 6-10/1 (nope, that’s right), add the mandatory two drops of liquid detergent, and mix it well. I spray it with your garden store $2.00 spray bottle. BTW, if you find your spray nozzle won’t work after many weeks, and feel that it is clogged, simply remove the top, tube included, and immerse it all in hot water. Leave for an hour, come back, dip the tube bottom in some water, and spray until you get clear water coming through the nozzle. Yer back in bizniss.
Ditto many of the above replies about sprayers. The WS sprayer, either with the pre-packaged scenery kits or the seperate sprayer / bottle product, are awful. All of the sprayers I use now for various purposes are salvaged from hair spray bottles discarded by family members. I test 'em and if they do a good job at that “just right atomizing” its a keeper. One bottle I keep close at hand contains a 50:50 mix of alcohol and water - a heavy dose to wet things down before applying WS Cement does absolute wonders for keeping things in place while spraying cement.
I use the WS Scenic Cement, but not in the WS spray bottle (which doesn’t work at all). I head to the nearest supermarket and get one of their dollar spritzer bottles, fill it with water and about four drops of liquid detergent, spray-soak the area I’m scenicking with that, then use the Scenic Cement in drops to flow into the foam, or rocks, or ballast, or whatever the project is. Give the area a light misting with the water/detergent and leave it for a couple of hours. Any further corrections I have to make, I just repeat the process.
Thinned Elmer’s white or yellow glue (1/4 glue, 3/4 water) works just as well. And is cheaper in the long run. But I’ve had good success at both. I’ve tried the alcohol mixture, but for some strange reason (could be the dry climate around here) it doesn’t work for me. Good old liquid detergent works a lot better.
