General Discussion (Model Railroader)

 Hello everyone, I'm new to the MR forums.  I've been having this problem for some time now.  I had been using my own glue mixture of Elmer's white glue and water to glue down ground foam.  I would try several cominations of the mixture and apply it with an eye dropper.  What would happen is that the glue mixture would ball up and would only glue a ball of scenery.  On top of that, it would float some of the ground foam away.

Can anyone tell me how to glue scenery down, I'm completely lost!!!

 Thanks,

Andy

 Well,there are more ways then Carters got liver pills but here's how I do it. For ground cover I paint a small area with light brown or tan paint then sprinkle the green foam on it before is dries, then go to another patch and repeat the process. Then carefully vacuum the loose foam up. You could do the same with thinned down Elmers or white glue. Thats just my way, and others may have different ways. Ken

Just real quick here , I use a mix of 1/3 white glue (elmers of generic) 1/3 water and 1/3 rubbing alcohol. Some people use a drop or two of dish soap also. The alcohol and or soap breaks the surface tension of the water glue mix so it flows rather than balling up.  Lots more experts may chime in.

 Sounds like your glue mixture is failing to "wet" the surface or the ground foam.  Try wetting down the area with a spray bottle filled with water and a dash of dishwash detergent before applying the glue.  Go easy on the detergent, just enough to wet the scenery.  Too much and you get soap suds and or the detergent defeats the glue. 

Railfan Andy:

 Hello everyone, I'm new to the MR forums.  I've been having this problem for some time now.  I had been using my own glue mixture of Elmer's white glue and water to glue down ground foam.  I would try several cominations of the mixture and apply it with an eye dropper.  What would happen is that the glue mixture would ball up and would only glue a ball of scenery.  On top of that, it would float some of the ground foam away.

Add a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid to your glue mixture.

Then mist the areas you're working on with iso alcohol.

Presto! Glue soaks right in .

  Andy, if you are wanting to glue down a bush, put the glue on the bush then put the bush on the bench. I use straight glue for tress and bushes. I all so paint the bench with brown latex paint and add ground cover while it is still wet. For a little extra holding power I will brush on some white glue on top of the wet paint, then add ground foam.

           Cuda Ken

Okay, here is something I just started doing on this layout.

First, I paint my scenery base with a dark green paint. I use artist acrylic paint just becaue I happen to have them. I think just about any paint will do. I allow it to dry - which doesn't take long.

Next I take FULL strength Elmers and lay a thick bead (take the top off the bottle) of it down the middle of the area to be sceniced - maybe about a foot to 18 inches long.

Then I take a small paint brush (maybe 1" to 2" I use an artists brush, again, because I have one) dip it in a cup of regular ole tap water and use it to both dilute the bead of Elmers I laid on the scenery and spread the mixture around the area to be sceniced.

Once I have the glue everywhere I need to have it, I dust on ground foam, turf, real dirt - whatever I need.

What I really like about this method is the control I have over how much glue goes where. If I don't need a lot of holding power (in flat areas) I can really thin it out with water. On slopes, I don't thin it out as much so there is more glue to hold the scenic material in place.

Finally, if you see an area that needs more glue as you are spreading it around, it is an easy thing to add more to those troublesome areas "on the fly" so to speak.

-George 

I stain the scenery first with a mixture of thinned artists acrylics (depending on the particular color I'm looking for in that section of scenery), then after the color has dried, 'paint' on a mixture of thinned white glue with an old paintbrush.  Then I sprinkle on the ground cover, and mist it with water and about 2 drops of liquid detergent.  For bushes and undergrowth, I sprinkle them on randomly while the base cover is still wet, then mist them with the water, and use an eyedropper of thinned glue to fix them.  I repeat as necessary to build up the ground cover to what I want.  It's a form of "Zip" texturing.  Works pretty well for me. 

Tom

PA&ERR:

. If I don't need a lot of holding power (in flat areas) I can really thin it out with water.

 Just out of curiousity, what's the advantage to using less adhesive? In other words, why do you want to thin it with water?

try the following recipe...

2/3 elmers white glue...1/3 water...a teaspoon of isopropyl rubbing alcohol...a couple of drops of dishwashing soap...shaken, not stirred, [you can add an olive if you like...only kidding]

place your scenery material, [ground foam, dyed sawdust, etc] where you want it. use a cheap sprayer bottle, [i always steal my wife's hair mister], fill this with water and alcohol. use this to spray-gently mist the scenery material, [too hard a spray will blow it around], until it is wet...then apply the glue mixture, making sure to saturate the area thoroughly, add any lichen or bushes while this area is wet...i use a product called "tacky glue" sold in craft stores, applied full strength to the shrub press it down in the scenery that is wet....then the most important part is to walk away and not touch the area for at least 24 hours

you can always add extra layers of ground foam later on to build up the texture

check out the book on scenery by  model railroder contributor/author David Frary, even though it is a Kalmback book, i'm not sure if it counts as an advertisement in these forums.

I use a mixture of 1 part glue to 3 parts water.  I have a regular small Elmers container with the orange top, and I just keep re-filling it.  I've got a gallon jug of full-strength generic white glue for my source.  The small container is good for dispersing the glue.

Once I've got my scenic materials in place, I first use a pipette (like an eyedropper, but available at hobby shops instead of drug stores) and put on a few drops of full-strength isopropyl alcohol.  Yes, you can use diluted alcohol, but the stuff is so cheap that I don't bother.  I just get a big bottle and work from that.

Anyway, after you put on the alcohol, the glue will flow right into your scenic material.  It's a matter of breaking down the surface tension on the glue drops, and the alcohol does a great job of that.

I don't spray anything on my layout, by the way.  It just makes a mess when you do that.  Use the pipette and you can carefully control where everything goes.

MisterBeasley:

I don't spray anything on my layout, by the way.  It just makes a mess when you do that. 

...unless you're careful.

Midnight Railroader:

...unless you're careful.

What, me careful?

I started doing this with ballast, which, for most of us, is the final step in the scenery for an area.  It's awfully hard to hit only the areas you want, and when you're spraying with a soap solution or something else that won't completely evaporate, everywhere it goes other than where you want it is a problem.  Once I started using the full-strength alcohol from a pipette, it took most of the grief out of ballasting, and made applying scenic stuff a piece of cake.