I had this tutorial about ground cover where someone mixed in elmers glue. I can't find it anywhere. Anyone know of it or other tutorials about goundfoam. [ October 14, 2005, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: cripp12 ]
Applying ground foam with with Elmer's glue/white craft is a hands-on experience. Just try it out and see how it looks. Stay cool and run steam....
Applying ground foam with with Elmer's glue/white craft is a hands-on experience. Just try it out and see how it looks. Stay cool and run steam.... </font>[/QUOTE]I agree with PSG. My tutorial would have about three steps: spread it, wet it, glue it. If you don't like it, do it again. An alternate method, which we use on big flat areas, has four steps: spray it with glue, spread it, wet it, glue it again. On nearly vertical areas: spray it with glue, put some ground foam on a creased card, blow it off the card with a quick puff, leave it to dry, collect the foam that didn't stick, do it over again. I use about a 1:4 ratio of glue to water, one part glue, four parts water. Others like it thinner; still others like it thicker. I use a wetting agent--one drop of liquid detergent like Dawn per 8 ounces of mixture. The only "trick" is making sure you get it wet enough. When I was teaching my wife the technique--which also applies to ballasting track--I told her to wet it once until you think it's REALLY wet, wait a few minutes, then wet it again, with even more. Then wait a few minutes more, and wet it again, with even more than the second time. If your diluted glue/water mixture puddles--forms drops rather than sinking in--it's not wet enough! I also use isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent.
This all sounds very easy. But what do you use as ground cover. Is it actually a foam. I have read people use insulation foam, Dirt, burnt lumber, a mix of elmers glue and something.... I am sure woodland scenics has something out there but it could get expensive.
1. Trial and error on the methodology. Instead of blowing as Nolan suggests, try a turkey baster as someone suggested to me. 2. As to material- for the final areas, and I have posted some pictures on what I have done at railimages, you cna use twigs, whatever, to get the final touch effect. For the ground cover itself, I heartily recommend Woodland Scenics products. On your layout, one with which I am intimately familiar, expect to go for about $200 or more by the time you are ready for the opening day on the line party.
Cripp- Look at it this way- My scenicking took several months. You need not purchase all materials at the beginning. Going to a few bars or a concert will cost the $200 anyway and will be a memory in short order. Your layout will not so be.
There is a way to apply great base scenery on a budget, If you have $20 to blow. Go to home depot or the like, and get a quart of cheap latex paint, mixed to an earth color. Also buy a quart of white glue, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a bag of spanish moss from the garden department. From the kitchen, find an old sieve, or strainer, and swirl/grind the spanish moss into a powder through it. Leave in the sun, spread out to fully dry, then sift it again to make great looking natural ground cover. Dig up some dirt from the yard, and sift it too, as well as some decomposed rocks (kind of like sand but different sizes of chunks) you can find in gutters, at the base of hillsides, etc. Paint on a layer of your earth colored latex paint, and sprinkle on layers of the moss, real dirt, and decomposed rocks, building up natural layers. Mix white glue 70% glue to 30% water for your glue mix. Mix up 70% water, with 30% rubbing alcohol (wetting agent) and spray over everyhting until it is fairly moist, then drip on the glue/water mix over all the ground cover. Lightly mist any glue that is not spreading well with more water/alcohol spray. Let set over night outside to dry. The next day go over it again with more layers of Moss, Dirt, and Decomposed Rock, mist with the wetting agent, then dribble on more glue if needed to build up a great looking base ground cover. Now, you want to really make it look great? Buy 2 or 3 colors of small bags of woodland scenics ground foam, and lightly sprinkle over areas until a nice natural look is achieved. If you don't like the look, sprinkle the other materials over it until everything looks good to you. Easy, and cheap! -Robert
Hey Prey59, That sounds like an idea. Something to Definitely investigate. I have plenty of dirt. I have to sneak the strainer out of the kitchen.
Don't worry about sneaking out the strainer or getting permission. I had some coffee today from a coffee grinder that I had used for chewing up mesquite wood for scenery. Little different flavor, but not bad! Also, try the scenery first on anything handy. Shingle, small piece of wood, etc. Just a little practice will help. With pray59s idea, I am going to grind up some of that clunky looking lichen that I don't like. I will try that for ground cover. Wonder how the coffee will taste tomorrow?
Mesquite wood? Yummie. I actually have a bag of that stuff. I have to take that into consideration also.
Make sure you bake all earth materials at 450 degrees for a half hour. There are seeds and other live things in the dirt, and they will grow.
For those of you with topsoil, which I don't have, make sure you get to the subsoil. Here's what I posted on another thread here in N scale: My dirt in Albuquerque is mostly decomposed granite. It's perfect for making adobes that are nearly as hard as concrete. I've used it many times on the railroad. Here's an easy method to get what you need. Fill a big pickle jar about 2/3rd full of dirt. Add water to nearly the top. Shake/stir jar contents vigorously. Let stand for 48 hours or until clear bands form. The top band will be silt and clay--pour it off. The middle bands will be fine particles--scoop them out, as this is what you want. The bottom band will be coarse particles--discard them. I'm thinking this probably won't work with loam, or topsoil, in other parts of the country. But it should work with subsoil. I found this out when I was making adobes for a wall. You looked for a thin band of silt (perhaps 3-5%), very little clay, about 60% fine particles and the rest (about 35% or so) coarse particles. The silt is actually the glue that hold adobe together. I'll tell you that their surface hardness rivals concrete, although they do lack even the limited tensile strength of concrete. It was a whole lot easier using this method than trying to screen the stuff. And probably more accurate. It formed ballast that was nearly impossible to remove. And it formed nice dirt for fields!
I read through a scenery mag and saw this mixture and wondered if anyone heard of it. 1 cup Celluclay 1 cup Permascene 1 cup paint(you choose color) 1/2 cup glue 1 capful of lysol (prevent mildew) sounds yummie.
