Gluing a rubber coal load

[DGE-Railroad]

Happy New Year All!

I have a small stash of that GRS 'rubber' coal which I wanted to use up and add a bit more realism to a moulded tender load.

Anyone who has glued this stuff, can you recommend which glue you used? I've tried PVA and Uhu in the past but neither seemed to work spectacularly well. PVA worked a bit better but bits still fell off a while later on.

Should I be using something different with this?

Thank you
Darren

 

[trammayo]

Happy New Year All!

I have a small stash of that GRS 'rubber' coal which I wanted to use up and add a bit more realism to a moulded tender load.

Anyone who has glued this stuff, can you recommend which glue you used? I've tried PVA and Uhu in the past but neither seemed to work spectacularly well. PVA worked a bit better but bits still fell off a while later on.

Should I be using something different with this?

Thank you
Darren

Something really sticky - Evostik maybe?

 

[DGE-Railroad]

Thanks Mick. That makes sense. it's rubber so some kind of contact adhesive like Evostick should be perfect - I should have thought of that. I'll see what we've got and if I come up dry, get some ordered

 

[dunnyrail]

You say you used PVA but how?

For a coal load of whatever material I would use a bed of full strength PVA for the big lumps at the bottom. When that is dry I would then put a mix of smaller coal and dust to fill tye gaps and be on top but not entirely hiding all of the big lumps. Now you need PVA again but mixed 50/50 with water and a dab of washing up liquid. Slop this over coal do not worry it should all look white but after it has dried you will get your coal colour and should be pretty near rock solid. oh and depending on the material a spray of matt black to start with helps for if any thinning occurs.

I use the same process pretty well for securing track ballast.

 

[DGE-Railroad]

You say you used PVA but how?

For a coal load of whatever material I would use a bed of full strength PVA for the big lumps at the bottom. When that is dry I would then put a mix of smaller coal and dust to fill tye gaps and be on top but not entirely hiding all of the big lumps. Now you need PVA again but mixed 50/50 with water and a dab of washing up liquid. Slop this over coal do not worry it should all look white but after it has dried you will get your coal colour and should be pretty near rock solid. oh and depending on the material a spray of matt black to start with helps for if any thinning occurs.

I use the same process pretty well for securing track ballast.

Thanks for the tips Jon, I'm trying to recall how I tried it previously. It was definitely watered down and I think I just dribbled/dabbed that over the top.

I probably didn't use full strength for the base and definitely didn't try the washing up liquid trick. I'll definitely retry with this approach before buying anything in.

 

[PhilP]

I would be worried the solvent in Evostik might melt the plastics of the model, or 'rubber' coal?

I would do a test first??

Might Copydex (a rubber solution glue) be better? - it will have some 'give' in it. Not sure if it dries clear, though.

PhilP