Securing Ground Cover

[bagal]

I'm pretty much as Unclebutch. Only diffence is I brush the painted surface with full strength pva first. Overkill maybe?

Bagal

[UNCLEBUTCH]

You would have to apply the G.C. right after the brush,and then about half might stick.

 What I do;

Wet water= tap water,and alcohol, 50/50 by guess, spray bottle camr out of the trash

  Glue mix=50/50 by guess, water and white glue.I use a small plastic bottle with a long neck. I belive it came from the wife's hair color set.

 Paint the surface,let dry. Apply you ground cover any way you like.Sand or gravel roads/paths, green stuff ect.

When you got what you want; spray with the wet water. Mist at first so as not blow the stuff away. Then get it soaked, just befor you see water running.

 Then dribble on the glue mix. You should see the mix  disapere into the stuff.

Then don't touch, at least aday. When dry all should be stuck. You can then, add more, the same way, or rewet scrape it up and start over

  If ''some'' of your stuff is glued, you can go right over it using this method. No need to remove

[richhotrain]

B & O Bob

I am an old (77) newcomer to this.  I painted my plywood benchwork with latex paint then sprinkled ground cover on it, thinking it would stick.  Most of it didn't stick.  I would appreciate it if someone would tell me what I did wrong.

Thanks,  Bob  

You didn't do anything wrong, Bob. Ground cover doesn't stick all that well to paint which begins to dry almost immediately upon application.

What I do is to paint the layout surface a shade of green as a starter. Then, I sprinkle ground cover on top of the painted surface and glue it down. The glue can consist of a 4:1 mixture between water (4 parts) and white glue (1 part), To encourage the glue mix absorption, first "pre-wet" the area to be glued by spraying 70% isopropyl alcohol.

Rich

[wp8thsub]

Paint can only do so much.  Usually some kind of additional adhesive is needed, like white glue diluted 50:50 with water.

Kalmbach has some excellent publications on learning about scenery, including the book "How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery" https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12216 .  There are other resources on the site here https://mrr.trains.com/how-to/realistic-scenery and elsewhere.

[MisterBeasley]

What kind of ground cover?  I would expect fine turf to stick, but I would be wary of ground foam.

I usually wait for paint to dry, then attach scenic materials with thinned white glue, basically the same technique as ballasting.

[B & O Bob]

I am an old (77) newcomer to this.  I painted my plywood benchwork with latex paint then sprinkled ground cover on it, thinking it would stick.  Most of it didn't stick.  I would appreciate it if someone would tell me what I did wrong.

Thanks,  Bob