Mikec6201Really, really cheap hairspray works also. Use the CHEAPEST stuff in the areasol cans and hit the tree from all directions. Haven't had any "falling leaf " problems yet..Mike
I agree hairpspray is a really handy adhesive although several years ago I started to think of it as more of a temporary thing as on my layout it seemed to break down over time. I still use hairspray a lot but now just to tack things in place short term. I then follow up later with a spray of dilute matte medium to permanently nail it. The nice thing is you can use the hairspray to get a project done and come back a day, week, or month later with the matte medium.
Lance
Visit Miami's Downtown Spur at www.lancemindheim.com
Jim made a good point about the Matte Medium staying flexible with age. White glue and hair spray may not do that. Plus Matte Medium won't yellow and it stays... well... Matte. White glue will sometimes be a little more glossy.
Medina1128For hairspray, I use the "ultra-hold" stuff in a pump bottle - NO CFCs!
Same here, and it has the added benefit that none goes to waste: when the stuff left is below the reach of the pick-up tube, simply dump it into the next new bottle, and spray away.
Wayne
for most things i use Elmers white glue , deluted just like matte medium. works great , is cheap , and you can use the glue for lots of other stuff
I buy Matte Medium (usually Liquitex) in bulk (1 gallon) and dilute it 4:1 (water to medium) in smaller batches for scenery applications. I also use an additive: 1 drop dishwashing liquid to each cup of solution. If you use warm water to mix it, you shouldn't have any trouble with lumps. If you let it sit for a while, it does tend to settle, but this is easily fixed with a quick stir or shake.
For tree armatures, if they're plant-based (sedum stalks, for instance), I dip them in the mixture and let them soak for about 30 minutes, then pull them out and let them drip dry for a while. While the mixture is still tacky, I add poly fiber, then mist it with the dilute medium, and add ground foam. Works very well. Once it's try, I mist it with Dullcote to seal it.
If I'm using plastic armatures, I (obviously) don't have to soak them, but proceed as above after a quick dip.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
HoosierLineAllegheny, For quite awhile I mixed my own dilute matte medium using the Mod Podge product picked up at Michaels or AC Moore. It did the trick but was lumpy at times and a pain to mix. Now I use pre-mixed matte medium from Scenic Express. Part no. ex0020 http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EX0020 It's a dream to work with as they put additives in it. The cost is reasonable and they usually ship same day. I found it made my life a lot easier. Lance Visit Miami's Downtown Spur at www.lancemindheim.com
Allegheny,
For quite awhile I mixed my own dilute matte medium using the Mod Podge product picked up at Michaels or AC Moore. It did the trick but was lumpy at times and a pain to mix.
Now I use pre-mixed matte medium from Scenic Express. Part no. ex0020
http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EX0020
It's a dream to work with as they put additives in it. The cost is reasonable and they usually ship same day. I found it made my life a lot easier.
Lance, Yeah thats what I've always used with great success well as great as I get anyway and I know a lot of the guys here tout that you can get Matte medium cheaper in the crafts stores but at $20/gallon I think it's a pretty good buy. It's just the shipping that kills me. Their really nice people there at SE so I'll have to find what train show their going to be at next I usually hit their table first thing.
Thanks again.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I like to use the thicker Mat Medium right from the bottle & brush it on the branches of the trees. When I spray or dip & shake the ground foam on some of it sticks to the trunk & large branches, which, IMHO, takes away from the overall look of the tree
I have quite a few old 'bottle brush' trees I acquired from 'somewhere'. I re-flocked them with a mixture of W/S blended foam. I just sprayed them with cheap hair spray and tossed them in a zip-lock bag of the bended turf - then 'shake' it. There is about 40 of them mixed in with other trees in a river area - I have not been losing foam over the past 3 years. I think many aerosol cans are CFC free now.
I have been to Regional Clinics and I seem to remember a guy dipping armatures in a large cup of matte medium that had been thinned 1:1 with water. He mentioned that it needs to be thicker than what you use for ballast. I have found 2:1(water/matte medium) works great for ballasting(and seems to be what the W/S stuff is). Since trees are somewhat 'flexible', I would think matte medium may be better than diluted white glue. I have used diluted white glue on scenery with no issue, but I like the 'flexible' properties of matte medium when it dries. Hobby Lobby used to have 40% off coupons, good on any item. Now their weekly 40% off coupon is targeted to a certain product area that they rotate every week. One time it may be flowers, the next time it is wood plaques - The ones that are for 'art supplies' are the ones you can use for matte medium. They have gotten rid of most of their train supplies in the past couple of months(at least in my area). I cleaned them out of W/S materials when they were clearing out the train stuff. They still have some small W/S trees for the 'war gamer' dioramas. Michaels or Walmart may also be a good source for Matte Medium.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Yes, Mod Podge Matte is exactly the same stuff, but comes less thinned out.
Liquitex's acrylic matte medium (available at art supply stores) is available in larger quantities (up to a one gallon pail). I haven't had the chance to compare pricing, though.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
I think Modge Podge is the same stuff. Comes in both matte and gloss.
Good luck,
Most all craft stores sell Mat Medium as , you guessed it, MAT MEDIUM. If you were using the Woodland Scenics product, you will have to dilute the "real" Mat Medium, because it is a lot thicker than what WS sells. I usually use the real stuff & dilute it myself because it is cheaper especially if you use the 40 or 50 % off coupon.
I was messing around in the work shop in the wee hours of the morning experimenting making bottle brush conifers, well lets just say it's a work in progress. The "traditional" way from what I understand was to spray the armature with hairspray and then roll them in ground foam. Well after speaking to one of the senior guys down at the club he advised me that was an old way of doing it and not a good one for several reasons #1 of course the CFC's or what ever it is that harmful when you spray that junk and #2 after a while the hairspray drys out and you have bare armatures with piles of ground foam at the base. I've read where some guys use spray glues but I know that stuff can be nasty so I tend to shy way form using anything like that.
He told me he likes either spraying or dipping the armatures in matt medium and then applying the ground foam by throwing them in a plastic box full of ground foam and just shaking the box a bit or some times just sprinkling on the foam. I tried the Matte medium method and it worked pretty well. So of course after doing a couple of trees I am now out of Matte medium. Do any of you have any substitute methods or alternatives to Matte medium? Maybe something I can p/u at the local AC Moore or craft store.
Thanks