celluclay shrinking in oven.....

If you sprinkle your wet celluclay with dirt to make your diorama base beware of mold growing on it. Oh yeah it was a panic... then I nuked it in the microwave to kill the little suckers (35-40 seconds at a time). White vinegar kills mold too.
Not that this will happen to ya, but if your using the celluclay to hold the dirt........
Oh yeah, you can also pre-color the celluclay with whatever shade of acrylic paint with the water and the glue. have fun.....
G.L.

I do the plaster thing but i use joint compound (and glue) instead.
Molding this stuff into the general shape and then covering it with a fine paper(Tissure paper) makes great packs and boundles.
CD

ok thanks

I would second the recommendation on keeping your Celluclay layer as thin as possible. No need to build mountains with it, just cover your clay or foam base and the results are stunning. And I couldn't agree more about adding the white glue. I have found this to be an integral part of keeping it together (stickier) when putting it on and it sticks to the base better.

I might try the plaster idea as well!

hey juniormodeler,

You don't need to put the celuclay in the oven. Just let it airdry. Takes longer but you won't get the curling.

The curling comes from the top of the celuclay drying faster than the underside. By allowing it to air dry, it will dry more evenly as the moisture will slowly wick its way to the surface (as the upper layers dry, it causes the moisture in the lower layers to wick up.) I mix in some plaster with mine and it gets harder as well as drys with a finish that makes for some really nice ground effects. The plaster will set a little faster than the celuclay but will not cause any distortion. As DougMauser suggested the glue works nice as it adds polymer to the celuclay, allows it to adhere to the base material as well as keeps any additional ground detrius (sand etc. ) stuck to the surface of the celuclay.

I rarely use a layer thicker than 1/4" and any other surface contouring gets built up underneath the celuclay. This keeps drying time to a minimum (usually a full 24 hours sometimes longer depending on humidity) and reduces the risk of any distortion like curling.

Good luck,
Mike

thanks and welcome to the site by the way

No problem. I actually knew the answer to someones question for once.

i feel special, your first post was answerd for me, thanks

Add a table spoon of white glue (Elmers) to a tennis ball sized celluclay ball. Add the glue after you have mixed the celluclay with water. Annother good hint is to add a dab of dish soap to the celluclay before you try to mix it with water. It mixes much easier.

Hope that helps, Doug