Question about Hob-E-Tac adhesive

11290 Apr 18, 2013

  1. 11290

    11290 TrainBoard Member

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    Anyone have problems with this stuff "drying"? Watched the WS video about making trees and they say to wait 15 minutes for it to dry. I've waited up to 45 minutes and it is still white on the armature. Then they show just pushing it into a bowl of "green" and presto, a tree comes out. Not so in my case anyway. Half of the green doesn't stick and on some "test trees" I made last fall the Hob-E-Tac is still sticky, never having "dried". Any comments or help?? Gotta get going on trees soon and not having much luck with my test trees.
     
  2. MRLdave

    MRLdave TrainBoard Member

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    I had similar results...........my trees are still dropping foliage. You can still push the loose pieces back into place.......this is after several years. I used coarse foliage which may be a factor......finer material may have stuck better. And my trees are on NTRAK modules, so thet get banged around more than average. But as far as drying......same results as you.

    If you are careful with the application, I've had decent results using clear silicone....you need to put the silicone on very thin, and the foliage on pretty heavy, but it WILL dry. I also tried spray adhesive, which worked but remains sticky forever.....not a big factor on a home layout, but picks up everything that comes past when transporting modules.
     
  3. 11290

    11290 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, never thought about silicone. Tried some Aileens tacky glue but it was just to runny for vertical application like a tree and took a LONG time to actually dry. Ran all over my foam board along with some foliage. Just can't think of anything else right offhand to use.
     
  4. Mike C

    Mike C TrainBoard Member

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    I use 3M spray adhesive For my homemade Sedum trees. Haven't noticed that its still sticky, but I did cover it pretty well with foam........ Mike
     
  5. Logtrain

    Logtrain TrainBoard Member

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    Hob-E-Tac is not supposed to completely dry. This stuff is specifically designed for figures and scenes where you want to maybe change things up once in a while. It is designed to put on the legs of figures and when you want to ever move them, you simply remove the figure and wipe off the Hob-E-Tac glue and it leaves no residual.

    I have never heard of anyone using this stuff for trees. In my club we have a member that teaches a clinic and he uses non-scented hair spray. He sprays the hair spray on the tree armature, sprinkles on the WS ground foam then applies more hair spray. He repeats this process until he has a tree that meets his desire.

    Ryan
     
  6. 11290

    11290 TrainBoard Member

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  7. paperkite

    paperkite TrainBoard Member

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    I have noticed that sticky not so much as well , believing the " batch " they made may not have passed muster and shipped it anyway ... I have been using hair spray and get good results. I mix medium coarse and fine together to get a better over all effect . Use in a plastic bag and then insert the armiture . This works pretty good on furnace filter material as well ... spray - and shake on over a drop cloth to resuse the overage . JIC you have not made furnace filters see this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClCwvzT2VG4
    I get large sections of FF at Wally world ( comes in large size so you can cut to fit ) is not fiberglass and cleans up ok with the vacum.
     
  8. 11290

    11290 TrainBoard Member

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    Interesting video. Biggest problem for me at least, I am modelling in N scale and these materials may be too large for me to use. Also, the video relates primarily to "conifer" style trees and I can use some but not all of that style. Thanks for the link though.
     
  9. NCDaveD

    NCDaveD TrainBoard Supporter

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    Several years back I noticed that they changed the composition of "Hobby Tac". It used to be more like a semi-clear rubber type cement than the now "thickened white glue". That older stuff was INCREDIBLY sticky, and did work the way the video shows. Since they changed the composition, it is nowhere near as sticky, and exhibits the drying characterisitics you noticed. I have gone to using Aileen's "Quik Hold" type glue. While not as good as the early Hobby Tac, it does work. I tried Elmer's rubber cement as it was the closest to the old composition, but it did not seem to work as well as the Aileen's.

    NCDaveD
     

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