I want to make a mix of "ground goop."

[Anonymous]

Posted - 01/05/2008 :  23:01:12         Folks, I'm about to begin the scenery on my layout (freelance display on a 4'x 8' benchwork, with a mountain & tunnel, two loops, two bridges, one river, a town and a forest). I had made up my mind about using the concoction known as "ground goop," which a lot of you probably know (1 part Celluclay, 1 part Permascene, 1 part earth-colored flat latex paint and 3/4 part of Elmer's white glue). It seemed prety easy to make but the Permascene is no longer available and Vermiculite has been suggested to substitute it. However, I'm concerned with what has been said about vermiculite having asbestos. Do you have any suggestions on what can I use instead of Permascene? Any tip will be greatly appreciated.

[concretelackey]

http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1316259/ShowPost.aspx

The beginning of the thread is about your topic, the next few posts became slightly "off-topic" but if you follow it the next few days I'm sure you will get your answers.

[wickman]

I use it just like the recipe suggests , I just mix mine in a gallon bucket cuz I use lots so triple up the portions , I like mine more runny so add more water .

[pcarrell]

Pearlite can be used instead of vermiculite from what I've heard.

[johncpo]

 eca_martinez,

 Try this combination; Latex or acrylic paint in the basic color, wood glue, and acrylic caulking. Thinned with water to soak paper towels to place over forms. Also you  can paint this goop as you add layers to your ground work.

 I just discovered yet another method by accident and used it today;

  Latex house paint dried onto aluminum foil. You can work the whole thing into shapes and the foil looks like rock outcroppings.  Add the ground goop as you call it to the foil to blend the shapes into flat areas around the tracks, etc. It's really cool to work with acrylic products and as you might have read some of my posts I refer to this several times.

 Best of luck,

 johncpo

[gthomp10]

I couldn't even find vermiculite in my area; let alone Permascene.  So, in desperation, I just used sand in place of the Permascene.  It works great.  I dries like concrete though.  There's no such thing as poking a hole in it to plant a tree.  You have to use a drill and a bit that you don't care about.

[larak]

Some of use use a brown coat plaster that goes by the trade name of structolyte or gypsolite. It contains vermiculite and is great.

Do a search of the forum. You should find more information.

Karl 

[wickman]

Something I've tried , and this was a tip from someone else , was to get a 5 gallon bucket fill it with water and break up some old 2x4 suspended cieling tiles and let them soke in the bucket until they go to mush then dry it out and mix with the glue and paint , this works quite fine and although I only made a small batch it works.

[mononguy63]

Posted - 01/05/2008 :  23:01:12         However, I'm concerned with what has been said about vermiculite having asbestos.

Use the fine vermiculite used for potting plants. There's not asbestos in it. In fact, I don't know why any company in their right mind would add such a taboo material as asbestos to any product they produce. 

I've used the same recipe,but actually stopped using the glue altogether. The latex paint by itself works fine as a binder, and the concoction dries to a stiff yet slightly pliable mass. It's been consuming a disproportionate amount of paint though. I've been thinking for my next batch I'll use diluted glue as the primary binder/wetting agent and add just enough paint to get the color.

Jim