Layouts and layout building

I see folks using diluted glue or scenic cement for scenery.  Same difference?  Any preference or cautions?

I saw someone ballasting the other day and used Windex to soak it before the diluted glue went on.  Good idea or is alcohol better?

A drop i dish soap in water to wet ballast?  Should i use water to wet scenery?

-Ron

"Scenic Cement" is basically diluted white glue.  I've got a gallon of white glue from a discount hardware place, and I mix my own, 1 part glue to 3 parts water.  Works for me, at a fraction of the price.

I apply alcohol straight from the bottle with an eyedropper.  I could dilute the alcohol, too, I suppose, but it's so cheap that it isn't worth the effort.

I prefer decanted matte medium 1:4 in water with a splash of alcohol. I presoak with 70% isopropyl.

This works for scenery and ballast. My water is quite hard, that may be the reason that some people prefer windex over water. (no minerals and the trace amount of ammonia may help wetting). Alcohol still wets better.

(Above) Here's my large area or lotsa track ballasting or scenery line-up: Top 91% Isopropyl Alcohol (no water mixing) in a mister for wetting and a 50/50 Elmers/h20 mix using the Elmers bottle & tip. One stop at Walmart and your ready to rock...literally :)

(Below) For tight and precise areas like in and around turnout parts or I use Elmers bottles for both wetting and applying the glue. The shape of the bottles is comfortable in the hand and the tips contol the flow as long as you have good clean heads. It's a cheap and easy set up. Hope my tip works for you.

Don't squirt the alcohol or glue mixture to hard or you'll wash your ballast away.

Good luck Ron & Have fun!

bakoart:

 (Below) For tight and precise areas like in and around turnout parts or I use Elmers bottles for both wetting and applying the glue. The shape of the bottles is comfortable in the hand and the tips contol the flow as long as you have good clean heads. It's a cheap and easy set up. Hope my tip works for you.

Don't squirt the alcohol or glue mixture to hard or you'll wash your ballast away.

Good luck Ron & Have fun!

I just happen to notice the  Elmer's "School" glue. I bought a dozen or so of those small bottles, mainly for the containers to use as you descibe.

I noticed that the "school glue" is not the same as the regular Elmer's white. Just dumped out the glue and washed the bottles. Just didn't figure these woulkd be a diferent formula. No matter though, they were like 4 or 5 ror a $1 at walmart.

I find that the diluted white glue and a mix of "wet water"/ alcohol mix is fine for ballasting. In place of  the $$$ WS scenery cement the diluted matte medium work great for scenery purposes. Following Dave Frary's direction on mixing the matte medium and allowing some filler to settle before it's use has really worked quite well. The final dilution of the matte medium for use ends up to be about 4-6:1 pending the scenery use. 1 quart of matte medium produces about 1 to 1 1/2 gal of scenery cement.

I may as well offer my 2 cents.  I asked much the same question.  I am currently trying the following:

1. soak with alcohol,

2. diluted glue mixed 1 part glue to 3 parts water.

I use a pippet for both.  Spray bottles go all over and blow the ballast away too.  Misting by spraying at an angle to simulate a soft rain may work for large areas but I have not tried this method.

Years ago I used wet water and diluted glue but this works better in my opinion.

Very helpful.  Thanks everyone.

Matte Medium dries into a somewhat rubbery finish, Elmer's glue dries very hard and kinda "crunchy" for lack of a better term, so the white glue is more likely to have a piece of grass or other scenery break off if it's bumped while working the layout.

But then white glue is much cheaper, the savings might be worth the potential of needing to make an occassional repair.

wjstix:

Matte Medium dries into a somewhat rubbery finish, Elmer's glue dries very hard and kinda "crunchy" for lack of a better term, so the white glue is more likely to have a piece of grass or other scenery break off if it's bumped while working the layout.

But then white glue is much cheaper, the savings might be worth the potential of needing to make an occassional repair.

My only reason for diuted white glue for ballast instead of matte medium is that white glue is removable by wetting for any track removal/repairs. Matte medium will not soften once cured.