Sculptamold Same As ???

Its a mixture of plaster and paper mache. If you have an art supply store you should be able to find it. Its available on amazon too.

One of my favorite scenery-building materials, and has been for many years

Dear Don,

I have used Structolite sold at Lowes or Home Depot in 60-80 pound bag.

great to work with as it takes awhile to set up .

I have used it on my home layout and both of my club layouts.

Regards,

John P. Dunn Sr

Scale 2 Rail Promotions

Thanks for your replies guys! Helpful as always. I got a 25 pound bag at Blick for $52 with free shipping. I think I might try structolite next. A 50 pound bag is just $15 at Lowes!

Don Merz

What? Don't they sell asbestos any more?   How many here remember those days?  Proof that what you don't know CAN hurt you.   

Sculptamold is a bit unique in that you can mold it in shapes and it doesn't slump. You can do that with Plaster of Paris. I've gone through about 10 bags of the stuff building my railroad. My mountain is covered with Gypsolite soaked Bounty paper towels, but then used Sculptamold to do any further contouring. I also used Bragdon rock molds with Hydrocal casting plaster and again used Sculptamold to blend them into the surrounding terrain.

@Conductor Earl posted:

What? Don't they sell asbestos any more?   How many here remember those days?  Proof that what you don't know CAN hurt you.   

Been there...done that.

Told this before, but...  I was about 6 years young when Dad built a train table for me in the basement rec room.  Of course, we needed a tunnel.  (What's a train layout without a tunnel?)  So Dad pointed me to his box of scrap wood.  Hammer.  Few nails.  A glance or two into the Model Railroading Bantam book on 'How To'.   And we have the framework. (?)  Then Dad came up with some old window screen to cover the framework.  Tinsnips (wholly unwieldy for small hands), scratches, blood, ...done.

By now I was pretty sure I'd be gluing all of the Plasticville metropolis together!  Every hammer blow in constructing the tunnel on the plywood surface resulted in a collapsed PV building...or two...somewhere on the layout.  Trees toppled, folks flopped, autos/trucks bounced like they'd been tricked out with hydraulics!

We need plaster, Dad.  It says so here in the book.  Got any?

"Naw...I've got something better!"

And with that he disappeared into a dark corner of the basement where the oil burner furnace and wrapped hot water tank were located.  He emerged dragging a sack of....A-s-b-e-s-t-o-s.  Put a metal pail into the utility tub, poured a liberal amount of the asbestos into the pail...releasing a white cloud all over Mom's domain...washer, mangle, soap boxes, et al.  He added some water and then gave me instructions.

'Here!  Roll up your sleeves, stick your hands into the pail and mix it all up!"  Hey, for a kid, this was FUN!!  We might be building more tunnels at this rate!!  We carried the pail of glop to the layout.

"Now, take a handful and smear it around on the wire."  It took a few pails of glop to do the job.  Hard work.  Occasional wipe of the brow with the glop-covered hand to brush the hair out of the eyes and the family was quite amused by the asbestos cosmetics.

Well, the mountain was painted green, decorated with lichen and other stuff,  the trains roared through, ...the masterpiece was proudly shown to my neighborhood friends and visiting family relatives.

But wait!  We're not done with the asbestos story.  Again, the train layout occupied the basement rec room.  Problem: Older sister just entered her teens...wants to have a "Sock-Hop" party...you remember...endless playing of 45 rpm records, giggling, laughing, soda pop, chips, etc.,etc.  She needs the rec room.  The layout must be moved...to the attic!!!

Problem:  Table too big for negotiating the 3 stairways to the attic.  It'll be taken apart, cut down, reassembled in the attic.  IOW...THE mountain-tunnel must GOOOOOO!

No Problem.  Claw hammer, pliers, ...even Dad's crowbar for the stubborn elements.  The green-painted dried asbestos was everywhere...tracked through the basement, upstairs through the kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway, bathroom.  Brooms, vacuum cleaners, trashcans later...all gone...mostly.  Of course, the asbestos lingered long after here and there.  Hazmat techniques for removal?...unheard of back then.

So here we are, 70+ years later.  Asbestos survivor.  Not minimizing it's risk and hazards.  Lucky?...maybe.

It is, indeed, amazing that many of us...my generation...survived the age of ignorance.  To hear the ads on TV, read the newspapers, the claims of today, the "X-spurt" opinions, the admonitions, the declarations, ...How in the H___ did ANY of us survive back then??  Lots of wealthy attorneys, too.

Ah, but now we've reached the age of enlightenment!  There's hope!  Yeeee-ha!

Even during the Black Plague people survived. Asbestos is a killer, but injury lawyers probably make it worse that it is. G_d protects fools, drunks and little children…. Most of the time.

It isn't a matter of surviving, it is how many died. The people who got affected by asbestos worked around it for years, even the situation (humorously) told by dkdkrd would not likely result in any issues, it takes long term exposure to get the effects.  For many years cars didn't have seatbelts, safety glass, padded dashes , and it took laws to make seat belt usage common. Sure, people survived that era of car use, but the carnage was huge, too, 50,000 people a year died and many more were maimed, the death/miles driven ratio was a factor of 3 or 4 times what it is today.....

Me, I am surprised I survived, working with my dad around the house with his miracle chemicals du jour to clean engine parts and the like (ether aka starting fluid, lacquer thinner), wonder my kidneys and liver still work. Tjen growing up around a mom who smoked like a chimney, too.....I would say survival of the fittest, but I look at myself in the mirror and shake my head *lol*.

There's a product that Michael's has that's close to Sculpt-a-Mold. It's is available in gray and in white (the gray is not recommended for using with pigments). The consistency is a little thicker, the affect is close to the same when you are done. A large bag will run you about $30.00, be sure to get one of their coupons.

Scott Smith

@bigkid posted:

The person who dies with the best toys dies a happy person.

Yes, but preferably not FROM the toys.

As @bigkid suggests, asbestos is no joke.

When i built the layouts fot MTH i used plastercloth and drywall compound... bare handed, can you say dry skin. lol.