Gluing stuff down

I usually brush on straight Elmers.  I usually start with the basic ground cover. Dirt, simulated gravel, fine cinders or earth. I cover all the glue then give it a mist of water with a drop of soap in it. After about a half hour I start adding various grasses,  ground foam, weeds, etc. . I place them. Give them a spritz of water and hit them with a small squirt of 50/50 glue using an eye dropper. For heavier Foliage I dip the piece in straight glue or give it a squirt of Tacky glue.

I model the Fall. A lot of my scenes involve fine leaf material that’s come down off the trees. These I add when I’m satisfied with everything else. I don’t want to saturate these with glue as there’s really not much there and not much is needed to hold them in place. I usually spritz them with glue. Hair Spray would probably work. I used to use Scenery Cement. Of late I’ve switched to Mod Podge which is available in a Matt spray.

@Papa Dave posted:

I have read about how to glue scenery, ballast, ground cover, etc using a mixture of white glue, dish soap and water.  I have also read that some folks use the glue straight and then spray the water/dish soap mix over that.  Just curious how you experienced folks are doing it, and what proportions you use in your mix.  Thanks!

Just my opinion but, I never really cared for the "white glue" process. When we did all the ballasting and scenery, we used nothing but Matte Medium, diluted with warm water to the consistency of whole milk. Prior to using the diluted Matte Medium, we moistened the ballast/scenery material with cheap 70% alcohol. Thus the Matte Medium went everywhere the alcohol went. Also, the up-side of using Matte Medium is, it can be softened/removed by simply soaking it with cheap 70% alcohol, should you desire to "change that scene".

I do a lot with scrap cardboard so the first thing I do is cut everything to fit the scene

Once it is fit I then seal the cardboard with spray paint - I use whatever the basic color is going to be for that particular piece of scenery. If you don't do this the wet glue on the raw cardboard will cause the cardboard to curl and buckle.

After it is dry I usually use a 25% water 75% Elmer's Glue mix, paint the glue on the surfaces in sections and immediately sprinkle on the basic ground cover.  I have several cheap brushes of various widths to apply the glue - immediately after the last application I rinse out the brushes and anything else that was holding the glue mix.

While everything is still wet I take a small piece of bathroom tissue and go over the surfaces and press everything down.  When that is dry I use a spray bottle with a 50/50 mix of water and Elmer's and lightly spray everything to lock any loose bits in place.

After the base is set up I move on to adding details like rocks, static grass, foliage clumps, etc,  For static grass I follow the instructions  and use a static grass applicator. For the rest I use small dabs of 100% Elmer's to lock everything in place.