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Okay so my predicament is I was planning to put structolite over my plaster cloth on my mountain. The only problem is not one store has it near me. My Home Depot doesn't stock it and Menards you have to order a whole skid and I don't need 1000 lbs of it LOL. None of the drywall stores or hardware stores have it either. I think the closest Menards that had ONE bag in stock was 75 minutes away and not worth the drive for me. Neither one had any comparable products either. All that they had was the PoP.

So back to my question, can I use PoP over the hard cloth? I know it sets up fast but I could work in small batches. I have 100 lbs of PoP in the garage so just was wondering.

The only thing I can think of to get Structolite is to have someone figure out a way to seal some in a bag and fit as much in a flat rate box as possible. I just don't want it breaking open and the post office going nuts thinking its drugs or something lol.
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Why not use something like TrueScene or Sculptamold?  They're available in smaller quantities and they take longer to set, at least Sculptamold does for sure, than PoP.  If you already have plaster cloth in place it sounds like your structure is pretty well formed. If you're just looking for surface contour-type stuff I would try using either of those two.

 

- Mike

Since you already have the PoP, and plenty of it.... use it. Just work with small areas at a time, and use ice water to mix it. That will slow the drying time down a LITTLE bit. They say a table spoon of vinegar works too but never tried that. No reason to let 100 lbs of Pop go to waste.

 

Sculpt-a-mold is great to work with, longer setting time, but it's still not a very long time. It's much softer when dry too, so you can carve and cut away at it. I like to use it in between rock molds to blend them together. 

If you're just using it as a base ground cover, yeah, just mix it up like a pancake batter and spread it around with a brush. You can even throw in some paint in the mix if you want to make it a dirt color instead of stark white. Otherwise just paint over it later, it just saves a step to do it all at once  

Last edited by Former Member

Lancer:  It looks like you and I are on parallel paths.  I am redoing my ground base scenery and putting plaster cloth down.  I guess I will also coat it all with a thin layer of plaster to smooth out some areas.  In the past, I have used "pop" dipped in towels for the main layer over my framework and doubled up on some for larger mountains.  I had just painted over that without the overcoat with rattle can paints.  But now I am reading all the posts, current and past, on this process and it appears that the majority of modelers here coat the plaster cloth with something. Hope you can post photos of your progress. 

The Plaster of Paris should work fine. It's been a long time since I worked with plaster. From what I remember after the initials hard shell was complete I covered it with a skim coat of plaster. One important step I remember. Spritz water over the scenic towels before you begin. It will try to absorb all the water out of the plaster you mixed and cause it not to set right. Will have a powdery feel to it rather than a hard as a rock feel. Whenever you complete a section. Wet that area before preceding to the next batch.

 I used a plaster called Special White. A layout built in my area featured in MR used it and it was available locally. Used about 8 bags. I think any plaster will work well in this application. I think a lot of times modelers get caught up in fancy names on the bags.

 If you haven't begun yet. You may want to look at a thing called Ground Goop. It's a concoction you mix yourself. Spreads easily. You can pre color it. Won't work for rock formations and such. But seems great at hills and such. Lou Sassi who writes for MR and has written a few books came up with it. If you Google him I'm sure there's info available. I think it's main ingrediants are Sculptamold and Latex Paint. iBest part you can mix a large batch and use it as you need it. Just keep it in a sealed container.

 If you go the plaster route. It goes a lot easier with a helper and 2 bowls. My daughter who was about 10 at the time thought it was fun. While your working out of one bowl. Your helper can be cleaning and prepping the next one.

 My layout has used just about every method of making mountains ever devised. Early on I used the old wire screen over wood struts method where newspaper strips were dipped in plaster and applied. Then I began to modernize using plaster cloth over a frame of insulation foam and finally settled on the simpler plaster cloth over cardboard strips method. For top coatings I used Plaster of Paris, Sculptamold, and a product sold at the craft stores called Celluclay. All produced good results but if you are casting rocks  Plaster of Paris seemed to work best.

I would say PoP over plaster cloth would work very well.

I also used the Plaster Cloth on my 1st Mountain. It was a dream to work with and I am very happy with the results. After the mountain hardened I add some DAP Lightweight Joint Compound to fill in any cracks or just touch up work. DAP goes on PINK and dries White.

Home Depot at $15.00 for a Gallon Bucket Pre-Mixed and ready to use.

 

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Thanks guys. The PoP is going on not too bad. Using quart sized containers per batch and I picked up a woodland scenics plaster brush. Most of my mountain will be of a grey tone so I went ahead like some suggested and mixed in some paint with the plaster. It's a little lighter when it dries but I'm liking how it sets up. This picture shows a wet coat I just applied. imageimageimage

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Last edited by Lancer

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