Matte Medium

[Anonymous]

I have just purchased a bag of Woodlands Sagebru***rees, & upon opening it there are instructions on how to dress up these trees by puting different covering on them.

In a warning box, it states "do not use thinned down white glues or hair spray on this product use only Matte Medium". No reason is given for this warning.

Coming from Australia some products redily available in the States are not available over here, even from the hobby shop where I primarilly deal with, who majors in U.S prototype.

Matte Medium is one such product, no one in the shop knows about it, nor why thinned down white glue could not be used. Whilst I could ask Woodlands & I am sure that they would advise me of the reason behind what they say, I would appreciate if any modellor out their could give me sound reasons why thinned down white glue, or even spray on craft glue could not be used

[Anonymous]

Matte Medium is a craft/painting item, perhaps could be found in shops that carry art supplies.

Bob Boudreau
(Is the opposite of "down under" "up and over"?)
Canada

[turbine682]

Yes, Matte Medium should be available in art / craft supply. Make sure it is ACRYLIC matte medium.

Don't understand why Woodland's doesn't promote its own Scenic Cement with this product.


To all... Isn't Scenic Cement just an expensive version of thinned down white glue???

HTH --Ed

[MAbruce]

I have made “Supertrees” by Scenic Express, and they make the same recommendation to use only Matte Medium (thinned). If I recall correctly from their directions, their basic reason behind using Matte Medium is that it will hold up better over time. However, I’ve heard from people that used hairspray and they have had no issues. While I have no reason to doubt their experiences, if the manufacturer recommends to use something (that is commonly available anyway), then I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they know of what they say. After making over 300 trees, I’d rather error on the side of caution.

[Anonymous]

Big cans of matte medium cast about $7.00 in Adelaide: look in the two dollar shops...

Allan Lees

[Marc_Magnus]

I dont understand why woodland scenics and other want the only use of Matte Medium for the construction of their supertrees.

I have made a lot of them with....diluted white glue (a 50/50 mix with water) and some are more than 10 years old without problems.

For scenery I had use Matte Medium some times ago but I am now back with thinned white glue, cheaper, that's the only reason I must agree but with the same results.

Marc, Belgium

[selector]

I, and many others, use 3M's Super-77. You may find it in your hardware store (I did).

It is not good to breath in the aerosol, so use it outdoors. Point is, thought, that it is highly effective in keeping the ground foam on your trees, as opposed to falling onto your layout. I spray thoroughly, wait 15 seconds, then immerse the trunk and limbs into ground foam that has been chopped for a few seconds in a blade-type coffee grinder (go ahead, she'll never know..if you don't count the green ring left behind). When covered to your liking, I then spritz the foam with maximum hold hair spray.

[mondotrains]

Hi Folks,
I used to be a stubborn proponent of Elmer's Glue and water, both for making trees and for ballasting. However, I finally followed instructions with the Scenic Express trees and tried matte medium. The matte medium dries without that "waxy" look you can get with dilluted Elmer's glue. And, I like cheap and have discovered that if you buy the concentrated acryllic matte medium at art supply stores or from Scenic Express, it actually costs less to glue your ballast or trees because you can dilute the matte medium to about 4:1. I made a gallon of diluted matte medium for less than it costs to make 50:50 concentrated Elmer's.
Hope this helps.
Mondo

[Anonymous]

Many thanks to those who answered my post. After much searching without much success, I was able to find Matte Medium at Dymoks bookshop, craft section in SYdney. The price was $13.00 for 250mls.

However I had more fortune when I found a product at a Paint wholesallor in West Ryde. The product is called PERMA PLASTIC made by Clourmaker Industries at Brookvale Sydney. 1litre cost $21.00 & it also comes in 4 litre tins as well.

I post this for those in OZ who may also need this product..

[jwar]

Matte medium works great for making rapid and fast moving water. Also the Gloss medium works for either ponds or slow moving water as its shinyer. With gloss one can dab it a touch to repesent air curent on smooth water

Glad you found it, works great

Mondotrains..Thanks for the tip will use it to ballast...John

[Anonymous]

How do you use it for making water? Its something that I have not heard of before. But that's not surprising as I had not heard of Matte Medium before the instructions in the Woodlands super tree kits. But, now I have found that it is used for many other items as well.

Will be talking to the Paint supplier who is a modeller as well. Perhaps I should have purchased to 4 ltre tin

[jfugate]

a6:

You use *gloss medium* for making water. Matte medium would look awful as water ... like a dusty non-glossy surface. That's what *matte* medium does among other things -- it removes all the gloss from acrylic paint.

Gloss medium, on the other hand, is a great material to use in your scenery bag of tricks to make water. It's not the best choice in all cases, but if you need a thin layer of glossy rippled water somewhere, it's great. I'll be posting on the Scenery Clinic thread more details soon.

[jfugate]

Another brand to look for is MOD PODGE. It's sold as a decoupage product, but it's essentially an acrylic medium you can get in gloss or matte form.

The matte form of Mod Podge is acrylic matte medium, and the gloss form is acrylic gloss medium.

I find Mod Podge easier to get in the craft sections of general department stores (Target, Walmart, Kmart, etc.) than artist's acrylic matte or gloss medium. Artist's acrylic matte and gloss medium are most easily found by going to an artist's supply store.