The One Scenery Product I can't Live Without!
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- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2021
- I use this on almost every project.... but what is it?
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Having seen this video I went to our local tile shop to see if they sold tile grout. They don’t, but I got talking to the owner & explained why I wanted it. He took me down to the store room, which was full of grout left over from jobs, every colour. Just told me to help myself, refused all payment & said I could come back any time. Worth checking out. All tilers are likely to accumulate the stuff .
That’s great! I’ll have to try that.
Hi Kathy, I've been a builder for many a year and done so so many bathrooms, kitchens and the like. I must have used a few tonnes of grout but now I'm retired and building my model railway I can't believe that I'm about to start using grout again, thanks to you !! I can see so many uses now that I never would have thought of. Many thanks for the tip. Love the video and will be watching more of you. Cheers.
Glad to convert you to its many uses outside of the bathroom!
For me, it's balsa wood. It's the greatest stuff ever! It's ultra light and soft so you can actually cut it with a sharp knife. I only have to get out my saw if it's 1 cm or thicker. Because you can cut it with a knife, you can also make really clean curves. I make dioramas with miniature horses which involves a lot of fences, show jumps, arenas, stables, etc. I have balsa wood in every shape and size which I color with my collection of wood stains or diluted ink for weathered wood.
You can even pin it down with sewing pins! I actually stick sewing pins into balsa wood structures while the glue is drying, saves me so much finicking with clips and blocks. PVA doesn't stick to metal so if you don't push the pins in all the way, you can remove them when the glue is dry and because balsa wood is so porous, the hole from the pin is hardly noticeable. I generally cover the base structure in little planks anyways so it's not a problem. Or, if you have a structure that just keeps collapsing, glue or not, you can just dip a pin in glue and stick it in permanently.
I need to try more balsa wood!! Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant Kathy!
Well done Kathy another top video
A little bit more glue on the tire tracks reminded me of Gordon Ramsay videos, when he says A GLUGG of olive oil, then empties half the bottle ^^
At least it wasn’t red wine like Keith Floyd!
@@KathyMillatt !
I've been using Tetrion for years. I usually mix with acrylic paint and PVA (and perhaps some texture like sand. It can be thinned with water, so I can paint it on to fill really fine small gaps... Or leave it dryer for textures like tree bark. It dries quickly and is easy to sand.
I wouldn't use it for large areas, it would be expensive, but for small surfaces, trees, walls, figures etc, it's perfect.
That’s great to know. Thank you.
Thank you.
- don't do modelling
- go do your weekend job
- come home
- stay up late
- wonder what to do ten minutes after midnight
- trust the RUclips algorithm for guidance
- realise that the recommended video has nothing to do with you
- still sit there and listen to a woman enthusiastically tell you about tile grout for eleven minutes straight
- learn to love tile grout
- ???
- profit
Very cool looking projects, though! I'm not partaking in this hobby, but whenever I happen upon somebody making models like this, I'm still amazed by what people come up with and I like seeing the results as well, I think what you and your fellows are doing is really cool. :)
Thank you so much!
Well Kathy you’ve done it again you’ve showed this old dog a new trick and forgotten step to terrain with tile grout. Hopefully I’ll remember on the new layout as I’m doing a rework of track and xps foam. Tks again for the helpful tips and getting me modeling again along with Mel The terrain tutor
I mix cellulose fibers (ground newspapers and such) from a hardware store - normally used to fill voids under floors and such for isolation - with plaster of Paris. You end up with Sculptamold at a fraction of the price (literally 500+ times cheaper). A single bag of this insulation fiber will last me a lifetime.
That’s something I really want to try so thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Roy, good idea.
Just hearing “plaster of Paris” makes me think…heavy.
I mail a lot of my projects so that’s why I’m constantly trying to find the lightest weight solution to everything. But, as Kathy notes, keeping the layers thin may be the best it’s going to get.
@@harrietcraig7817 adding PVA helps the thinner layers to stick and not crack.
@@harrietcraig7817 Sculptamold is basically the same: cellulose fibers with plaster. It takes some experimentation with ratios of fibers, plaster and water. I’m still using styrofoam to build the structure itself, and use a thin layer of DIY Sculptamold. Give it a try :)
👍🏻🙏
Hi Kathy. Let me start by saying thank you for all the tips, you are a Great inspiration. Many thanks 👍 All the Best Brian 🤗😎😍
Abandoned Miniatures sent me over and I’m thrilled that he did. You are amazing! I love your dioramas. They are amazing. ❤️
Thanks so much for coming over!
Kathy, thanks for this awesome video. I’ve only just found your channel and a few others and I’m just starting to try and make some terrain! (Literally just spread some plaster onto a piece of hard foam today) thanks for the extra tips and inspiration
Thank you for this! I’m in a crunch on my current project and have a good amount of ground cover to accomplish. This is very helpful!
Hiya Kathy I have used backing plaster or browning as it is sometimes called, it's very lumpy and does need to sieved but it only comes in one colour. I am quite keen to have a go with tile grout now though, the effects you create with it are outstanding, thanks for sharing the idea
Thanks Digger. Let me know how it goes.
I began using tile grout a few years ago and now that is all I use for dirt. I tried a number of other ways to create dirt but I find this to be the easiest and in my opinion the best way. I love tile grout and Kathy's video's.
Thanks Rick.
Great video and tips, thanks for sharing!
My fave is Durham's Water Putty - stronger than plaster, same drying time, thick or thin, pour it, sculpt it, add paint, add sand. The best.
I’ve heard it used a lot in the US but never seen it over here sadly.
Very well done, advice and how-to video. Thanks
New to the channel and this was great!
Have not used it yet, other than a quick test with Plaster of Paris, but the local hardware had big tubs of oxides, I suspect it's similar to what the modeling world has as weathering powders. That's how I plan to use it and to add to white tile grout (waiting for lockdown to lift so I can get into the shops) to colour it rather than needing to buy multiple grout colours. Colour what I need as I need it and have a good supply of white grout on hand.
Interesting. I’ve never seen those oxides here.
Excellent video, will certainly be looking into it. Eric Fox NZ
And you can grout tiles with it!😀 Very interesting, economic and works.
Brilliant compilation video on the uses of grout, I really must have a go and try it. Always enjoy your videos and always learn something keep them coming James 🙂👍
Thanks James.
I totally agree, I've used beige grout mixed into a 50/50 mix of water and white latex glue to make a gritty paint of a Mos Eisley inspired display stand for my Star Wars collection. Looks awesome!
It’s such a great product for Tatooine buildings!
Hi ya Kathy. Thanks for sharing so many wonderful tips and techniques about using tile grout. Great stuff.
Thanks Norm.
Those were great ideas and I will get some tile grout soon. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks John.
Fantastic video! Thank you for sharing. I want to try many of these techniques on my layout now, for sure. I will have to experiment with some of the varieties I have available at the home center.
I really appreciate your work and dedication to inform the masses with all your wonderful and insightful techniques. Thank you.
Thanks a lot!
Two colours already in stock! Very informative!
Thanks Timber.
Kathy as usual you have some great ideas and advice. This video is extremely helpful and I intend on trying it out. After this show stopper Sculpt a mode got really expensive so something to save money and get great results I'm in. Thank you again and keep having fun, Chris
Glad I could help!
Kathy, I can't live without your wisdom and tips LOL. I will now try using tile grout after watching that. It is so versatile. 😁
Thanks!
Thanks for a very thought provoking video. I am a wargamer in 20mm (1:72) I need three things because unlike diorama's my scenery has to change. None baked builders sand with a high clay content for the table. It dries hard enough to take armies and vehicles without disintegrating like dry beach sand. Secondly, PVA for ice, rivulettes neat thick, fixing semi- permeant sand features 10% in water solution sprayed and a miriad of coating and mixing of solutions. Finally, painters caulk. The uses for this stuff are legion. An invaluable one is spread on walls and streaked with an old comb for brick or wooden planks.
Nothing ground breaking but those are my 'must have' items. Parts of my blog show some scenery effects.
Great three choices!
good stuff i use lots of it my self
Thanks!
A very good video. I'll have to get some.
It's not a material I always use but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere. Paper ashes. I like the shapes it contains, the consistency, it's free.
That’s interesting. I have a bag somewhere to use as ash on my railway.
Fantastic tips thanks, still learning so only thing I cant live without for my modelling is channels likes yours 😀
Thank you!
This is a great tip, thanks Kathy! I'm only at the beginning of my modelling experience (to this degree) and I'm currently figuring out how to use tile grout as the road base for my faller car system. i noticed the cracking thing so maybe will have to experiment with adding the PVA to see if that helps! Great video, thank you!
Good luck with the Faller system and the tile grout. Adding glue may well help.
Very interesting approach!!
Next time I’m at Home Depot, I will check out their grout selections👍😁
Many Thanks!!✅
Tganks!
Great video Kathy! Tile grout is incredibly versatile and useful. I use three different colours and have never had a problem with it. Greetings from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
Hi Greg. Glad I’m not the only convert.
I do use tile grout in my scenery work as well (vanilla coloured), mixed with all sorts of things, including dirt. Spray with IPA to break the surface tension, then apply glue. But I cannot imagine not using airbrushed Tamiya paints (highly dilluted with IPA) to get the desired colouring. This I learned from Boomer Dioramas whose work truly inspires. Find the channel and check his latest video (scenery painting). I can't recommend Boomer enough. Even you will learn. And you are excellent! Thank you for sharing your work.
Thanks and I will definitely check him out. I do paint my vegetation but rarely my earth.
@@KathyMillatt ruclips.net/video/ZPy2oo0p1xA/видео.html
I’ve subscribed so thanks.
That is a superb tip and the stuff should be readily available locally as well which is good as I don't have any local model shops now.
That’s one reason I love it.
Hi Kathy long time no text
I've been under the weather because of the smoke from the California Fires .
GOOD NEWS .
Smokes gone .
Until some Idiot starts a new one .
Nice vid on the tile grout .
I've been using hydrocal for pretty much everything that you've been doing but not getting the texture like you've been getting .
If I ever get the tile floor down for my laundry room , I'll give this a try .
If I have any grout left .
Glad to hear your air’s clearing up and you get a longer working period with tile grout too.
Hi Kathy, thank-you for another inspiring video, in the past, I use polyfilla over expanded polystyrene on my landscaping, although it's quite messy, and the end result is heavy on a portable baseboard, recently, I started using wood filler from Homebase, but we don't have a Homebase in Elgin any more, something else I learned from my Dad was to use tiny blobs of white P.V.A to represent rivets on things like girder bridge sides , water tanks and other things,(he used them on a battleship he scratchbuilt, many years ago), it's a bit delicate, but if the model is not going to be disturbed, it should be fine, anyway, stay safe, all the best from Scotland, Stephen.
Stephen. I’ve used PVA for rivers too but I struggled to blob neatly enough.
Good Stuff!
Thanks John
Thank you, Wonderful tutorial. I use sifted garden soil, fine sand, builders sand sifted to separate the tiny pebbles which then get used elsewhere, I save my tea bags dry them out and use them a soil/dirt treating it with static grass of varying lengths. and believe it or not I keep dust from the vacuum cleaner makes a great tertiary colour for softening the hard track ballast . And along with many other powders fixed with a light dust of max hold hairspray I can get some nice effects.
Those are some great materials!
I just did a HO module with tile grout, I decided spraying wet water first then applying the grout with a fine sieve worked best for the first coat, I then went back over with more grout spraying more water as required. I didn't use any glue, it survived its first modular meeting with no problems. For roads I've used premixed grey grout, that worked well and takes paint and washes well. After this module grout will be my first choice for the future.
I do like that it has cement in it but I add the glue to prevent cracking in thicker layers. I guess it’s belt and braces.
I only went a couple of mm thick.
Great video - Grout's been a revelation on dios and my OO layout... I use Mapei - lots of great colours (anthracite and chocolate my favourites). Mix with your favourite ballast for grubby rail yard ballast and compacted muck - mist with IPA and dribble on ballast glue of choice... easy to blend into the surrounding scrubland, mix and tint to match earth or road colours... totally agree with you - best product ever...
Thanks Richard. I have some Mapei too. Great to see how much use you get out of it.
Have given grout a try after watching your a few of your videos, learning a little more each time.
The other thing I use everywhere is Mig Pigments and SMS Paints
I use MIG pigments and SMS too. Great choices.
hi kathy cool video as always .... thanks ...... i couldn't do without woodland scenics hobby tac, it sticks anything to anything .👍👍
I’ve never used that glue. I’ll have to look it out.
I've used a lot of ball diamond dust. The stuff you want is the loose powder around home plate or down in the dugouts. Lord help you if you actually dig. LOL (My kids made fun of me crawling around scooping up dust. btw)
Parents are made to embarrass kids! I’m glad you weren’t actually digging though.
I've kept meaning to try this stuff for a while after watching your videos. I'll be popping down to my local DIY shop and getting some tomorrow. Any brands or own brands better than others? (I've never done any tiling) I was thinking of trying Wicks?
I just buy according to colour. Taupe by Larsen is my favourite as it’s not too dark. You get basics at B&Q but Wickes may have more colours.
Makes great scale ballast for 1:160 modeling.
Great idea!
Great video, thanks. Have you used a combination of tile grout and fine sand for ballasting?
Hi Gary, yes, through my yard I used black and grey tile grout with some woodland Scenics cinders for variety.
Here’s a tip, go to Home Depot/Lowe’s and look around in the floor and you’ll find bags that are ripped. Just take it and ask worker for discount. I usually pay $1-2 for my bags of tile grout.
That is such a great idea. If you take a bag with you, you can get some quite badly torn ones I guess.
@@KathyMillatt they usually aren’t even torn bad. I also take a bag with me and collect saw dust.
Broken items are my favourite at any hardware store. The area with the longest planks of timber usually have a few snapped ones lying around which you can get for a steal
@@Scottagram they usually do. And I dunno but it doesn’t seem like they have any standard markdown. Just like they want it gone and any amount will do. I’ve even haggled on things.
You guys are an inspiration!
You should buy a continuous mist spray bottle! I used one in dog grooming but it may be an amazing thing to save your hand from all that squeezing of the spray bottle.
I did have one until it clogged. It was brilliant!
@@KathyMillatt darn! I wondered if they would be more prone to clogging
@@laurac2811 I was spraying a dilute paint through it! I always rinse with water and spray loads through at the end of every session to prolong the lives.
@@KathyMillatt it would probably work really well for your wet water :)
@@laurac2811 I’m sure it would. It’s a lovely fine mist.
Hi Cathy. Could you add strips of newspaper to tile grout paste to form a type of sculptamold - a sort of superior papier mache?
You could I guess. I use paper mache which is basically paper fibres which would give a smoother mix.
Kathy,
Love your videos! One question on tile grout. If you want to change the scene how do you get the grout up without ruining everything?
These scenery products are glued in place so they’re not made to be removable.
Hi Kathy
Very useful video. Great for On30 and HO, and noticed a comment that tile grout would make a good ballast for N Scale. Do you think it could be used forother purposes in N scale or would it be too course. If so what else would you suggest for this scale
Tile grout is very fine, it’s the added sand that gives it texture. You can therefore make it as smooth as you need. I see no problems using it in N scale but I probably wouldn’t ballast with it unless it was a buried track work look I was after.
Great tips Kathy! One question, do you use sanded or unsanded tile grout?
It’s almost all unsanded in the UK and we don’t label it like that. It’s just called grout here but generally, exterior grouts have more sand in.
Kathy,
As long as you asked: I can’t live without your videos when I’M modeling!!
This was superb; not just for the genius money-saving product idea, but its versatility puts tile grout into the stratosphere of must-haves. THANK YOU FOR THIS.
One concern I have with basing and ground cover products is the weight they add to the project. Even lightweight hydrocal is not very lightweight if you’re working even a medium-sized landscape.
I’ll definitely be experimenting with this asap, but in your experience, does the grout add an unduly amount of heft, compared to sculptamold?
Also, can you do any detailing with it like rock faces or tree roots?
Just curious.
Thanks again!!
Hi, weight is a real issue. I put tile grout on more thinly then Sculptamold so that does make it less heavy merely because there is less of it. I use foam to get most of the contours and that is very light.
You can add rock faces in. My latest video experiments with that but it’s not the best way to get detailed rock. You could certainly add roots into it using another product.
@@KathyMillatt thank you!
@@KathyMillatt thanks again. It’ll be fun experimenting anyway. You can almost never mess something up so badly it can’t be fixed somehow, or at least cannibalized for something else!
@@harrietcraig7817 So true!
Can you suggest good places to get cheap tile grout. At BnQ its 8 quid for a 2.5kg bag
That will go a long way but I get mine online or at builders merchants for the wider colour range.
Very helpful video. We have "un-sanded grout" and "sanded grout" Which do you use for HO scale ?
I add sand to unsanded grout or use sanded so either can work.
@@KathyMillatt Thanks! I find your videos interesting and provide ideas for my model railroad. The materials we have today are so much better than back in the 1960s playing with papier-mâché, plaster, paint and sawdust when I was a teen. Trying to figure out how to dye poly fiber 🙂
@@cattaraugustonawanda4426 so true! I dyed polyfibre using a brown dye for synthetics.
Thumbs up. Humble suggestion, add the word "grout" to the video title as I been searching for information on grout use in models and nearly skipped your video. Lucky RUclips pushed your video forward. saved your video to my modelling playlist
If I told people what it was, would they click? That’s the problem with RUclips, it rewards odd behaviour.
@@KathyMillatt true. PS "Wide joint" grout or most "Mapei" flexible wall and floor grout are sandy. the grout for thinner 1-3mm tile spacing are smoother and less sandy. Mapei is available anywhere in UK
@@BiodunOnipede I have a Mapei grout and I don't remember whether it was sandy or not but my original one with sand was Unibond for floor tiles.
what brands of tile grout would you recommend ?
I haven’t noticed much difference so I go by colour instead. I use Larsen at the moment because it has a wide range and Taupe is a great colour.
white glue, is that PVA you refer too or something else like the glue the kids use in school?
It’s also called PVA. I use a variety from DIY shops to hobby shops
Where do you buy your spray and glue bottles? They seem to work perfectly.
I get them on Amazon.
@@KathyMillatt Thankyou. Can you be more specific? The number of spray and glue bottles on amazon is astonishing. :-)
@@cmu3rd I buy different ones every time! I have such a range so I just choose whatever's cheap and available at the time.
Til Grout?
Hi Kathy I’m trying to figure out how to scale everything to a diorama I’m trying to do. I’m trying to model around some of the McFarland Halo 3/ Reach figures they usually are around 5.5-6 inches. And I’ve seen some stuff but I just can’t figure out how to model trees and other things around them. Any tips???? Thank you!
Scale can be a hard one but the good thing is that trees etc are different sizes in nature so you have a lot of flexibility. A 6” figure is 1/12 of the real thing so trees should be a 1/12 the size too. If the trees are too large for your diorama then consider using just the lower trunks, smaller ones or bushes.
@@KathyMillatt Oh okay thank you so much for your help. Love your videos
Do you prefer sanded or non sanded grout?
Either. I add sand to unsanded so there’s no difference to me. Most UK grout is unsanded.
20 years?
You started making dioramas when you were 5?!
Nice try!
I brush my teeth with it..........joking..
Hello again Kathy, I was wondering if you'd seen this short Wes Anderson set miniature work from the film French Dispatch? It's really amazing. ruclips.net/video/R6E6VtH5JcE/видео.html
I haven’t and thanks for sharing!