Murphy's Law of Model Railroader Magazine...... For over a year I had a copy of MR in the throne room that had a nice article about a fellow Michigan Foamer who had created what he called, "Oatmeal Scenery" which was a mix of three items that produced a wonderful paste like scenery base that you could apply over your base (foam or wood), build up into hills or other landscape, and smooth down. You could stick trees into it right away, and also apply foam or lichen. It took several days to dry, which meant if you did not like how something looked after a day or two, you could move it without damage to the base. The newer mix of this was white glue, Lysol detergent (or any detergent with an anti-microbial additive) and something else that you get from the craft store (Celluclay?). Of course, now that I need to use this formula, I can't find the magazine. It's not in my select pile of mags I keep next to the work table...the one I ORGANIZED last year so I could find items like this easily and quickly. It's not in my big collection of magazines...nor fallen behind the throne. Nope...it done vanished. If any of y'all know this recipe and can share it, I would be greatly obliged. -Mark
Oatmeal Scenery was a combination of Celluclay and Perma-Scene. Perma-Scene is , unfortunately, no longer available. However, there has been reference on this site - I think - to it's substitute or homemade version: Ground Goop.
Correction to my post: Ground Goop also used Perma-Scene as one of it's ingregients. Perma-Scene was nothing more than Vermiculite (available at any garden supply shop; i.e. Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) and powdered white glue. Ground Goop is not a homemade substitute for Perma-Scene. My misstatement.
It's one of those days! Here's an answer to your question. Sort of. Lou Sassi's recipe (from his book Basic Scenery) is 1 cup Celluclay, 1 cup Perma-Scene, 1 cup latex paint (for color), 1/3 cup of liquid white glue, 1 capful Lysol (to retard mold and fungus growth if you don't use all of the mixture straight away) and enough water to yield a peanut butter consistency. I've had success with using an extra cup of Celluclay to replace the unavailable Permascene, or adding 1 cup of Vermiculite and extra white glue (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup) as makeshift Perma-Scene. I suspect that one could do the same with the Celluclay and Vermiculite (50/50 ratio I'm guessing) to get Qatmeal Scenery. Whether one would need to add some liquid white glue is anyone's guess.
I was reading Lou Sassi's scenery book from Kalmbach and he painted the base and also added color to his Ground Goop. Why bother painting and adding color to the GOOP and just paint the GOOP later? I am a newbie in this part of the process and need to cover up my foam so all suggestions are welcomed.
You add color to the goop in case it gets damaged in the future. If you left the goop white it would stick out every time you dented it, cracked it or added new scenery to it. Same reason to paint the foam base. If some goop or scenery gets damaged or removed, you don't have bright blue or pink staring back at you. It is far easier to cover the base before scenery than it is to come in and try and repair the base after scenery. A minor thing is the more variation you can get in your base coat and subsequent scenery the better it looks. Slight color changes are far more realistic in landscape modeling than is a solid color (think grass matts-ugh!). That is why a dark liquid acrylic paint is recommend to tint the goop. You can vary the amount of tint by adding more tint as you go. This actually works out well because it is best to use lighter colors for the distant areas of you landscape, and darken the colors as you get closer to the viewing area. Mark
