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jgragg
at Tue Feb 9 20:21:21 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jgragg ]
Thanks Chris. Actually I've tried both of those too - you turned me onto drylok years ago in some of your posts about sealing wood cages. Works great! Kinda ugly...works great! Ha ha...
So, I've used drylok on GS because as I said earlier that product breaks down to goo with long-term exposure to moisture. And drylok is bullet-proof water-proof.
Aside - drylok also has a concrete- or rock-like texture, that's a plus for some applications.
I found drylok a little hard to paint over, compared to grout. (I agree on setting your base tone - just tint & go). Maybe I should be more specific and say "less versatile". With drylok you're painting right on paint, so the edges of your colors are pretty distinct (of course, sometimes that's what you want). With grout, before you seal it you can use various degrees of thinning of your paints (I use acrylic stuff from hobby shops), and the grout absorbs your watery paint to a certain extent, so you get some really cool watercolor effects. And if you want distinct edges between colors, just don't thin your paint, apply it full-strength directly to the grout.
White non-sanded grout is dirt cheap, I just tint it like the drylok when I whip up my top coat.
As for the acrylic copolymer + coco vs silicone + coco - in Europe that's called the flevopol method. Actually you can apply the acrylic/coco blend onto drylok-coated foam (or grout). That can be a wise move because the acrylic/coco blend is fairly water-retentive (the degree depends on your mix ratio) and that will melt a GS sculpture pretty quick. Additionally, drylok is easier to adhere to (for the coco mix) than raw foam (whether -styrene or -urethane). Raw foam is pretty slick, as you see when trying to get that first runny coat of grout to stick to it.
Another aside - flevopol still breaks down over a few years - I think sometimes it'll go up to 5. I have some that's about 3 years old. Some patches have fallen off. But they can be re-patched easily enough.
I've also mixed acrylic copolymer with coarse sand. Might as well use mortar. Except the acrylic dries clear instead of mortar-grey, if you want to retain the sand color without further pigment.
Hope this stokes some creative play out there. Go for it guys, this stuff is cheap. You get better fast, too. And it's so much better looking, and I think many herps do a lot better on it (normal-behaviorally speaking), than on lab-style "sterile" setups.
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RE: DIY Backgrounds: Great stuff or Styro? - jgragg, Tue Feb 9 20:21:21 2010