Back after 50 years Posted October 21, 2017 Posted October 21, 2017 Want to try the embossing powder for my interior carpet. My wife is into crafting. She says you need to heat the embossing powder after applying to make it stand out. Has anybody done this? Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
Miatatom Posted October 21, 2017 Posted October 21, 2017 Try it on some spare styrene with and without heat and see what effect it has. Let us know how it comes out.
BigTallDad Posted October 21, 2017 Posted October 21, 2017 Plastic spoons are free at the Golden Arches.
ScottH454 Posted October 21, 2017 Posted October 21, 2017 I did do it for floormats with thier versamark adheasive an the heat gun designed for it, girlfriend already had the setup. It works but the colored powder I used turned white where it lost it's coloring. Stuck pretty good an it was a rubber look. I did record a video but since it whited out I didn't post it. With any other heatgun or even embossing heater I still would put the part on a wet cloth to help. Just use heat that can focus on a small area.
Xingu Posted October 21, 2017 Posted October 21, 2017 My wife has used heat on embossing powders in her crafting. She says it is what she does to "set" the embossing powder. She uses what she calls "special" adhesive with the powder. Working in small sections,I just use paint (roughly the same color as the powder I am using) and pour the powder onto it. Continue with small sections until everything is done. It stays in place very well when the paint dries. Modelers and crafters use embossing powders for different reasons. Generally, we don't mess with ours too much after the model is complete. Here is an example of embossing powder over paint.
Modelbuilder Mark Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 First time I used it I tried heat. It warped the piece, now just use paint.
StevenGuthmiller Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 Embossing powder is a craft product that is designed to be set by heating. It is by chance that some industrious modeler discovered that it makes a realistic looking carpet for scale models. Heat doesn't play well with polystyrene plastic, so heat is not an option for us. I personally use slightly thinned white glue, (Elmer's) to apply mine. Steve
MrObsessive Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 I'll echo what everyone else has said on here about embossing powder. It looks much more in scale than flocking------especially for 1/24-25th scale. No, heat against plastic is never a good idea, unless you like nice and warped parts! I try to use first a paint that's close to what I'm going to be using, then apply the flocking in blocks. I'll then go back and touch up any thin spots as needed. Sometimes I'll paint (airbrush) over the powder if I want a certain shade for instance that the powder doesn't have------in this case the '59 Chevy I did, I wanted a somewhat duller red than what the powder was showing. BTW, I've had no problem with the powder "shedding" and such after I put it on. It's a good idea to apply it with your paint as wet as possible, and then dump away any excess.
Back after 50 years Posted October 22, 2017 Author Posted October 22, 2017 For those of you that answered my question about the heat and the embossing powder, I thank you. For those of you that replied try it and let us know or free spoons at the golden arches shame on you. As you can see from the number of posts I am somewhat new to the site. I also am very intimidated by what you guys can accomplish. I am just trying to learn so that maybe some day I can approach the perfection displayed on here. In the past I would private message Harry P and he always graciously answered and never made me feel bad. This is the first time to ask a question publicly. I'm not sure about asking again.
Foxer Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 I found this thread a good description of a product used one way in other crafts has found another use as carpeting in model cars. And that heat should probably not be used.Just some real world experiences with it.
ScottH454 Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 (edited) For those of you that answered my question about the heat and the embossing powder, I thank you. For those of you that replied try it and let us know or free spoons at the golden arches shame on you. As you can see from the number of posts I am somewhat new to the site. I also am very intimidated by what you guys can accomplish. I am just trying to learn so that maybe some day I can approach the perfection displayed on here. In the past I would private message Harry P and he always graciously answered and never made me feel bad. This is the first time to ask a question publicly. I'm not sure about asking again.I will see if I can make a video with the footage I took using heat. While it didn't look right because the coloring separated it still worked. I have noticed how the members of this forum respond an they have done the same to me. As I read your original question an hopefully addressed it that should encourage you to keep asking so you might get that one intelligent response. The one post that I remember the most was when they wrote I would fail as a resin caster because I didn't know who Modelhaus was. If you need more help I am action-modeler.com also on Facebook an Youtube. Edited October 22, 2017 by ScottH454
Xingu Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 I will see if I can make a video with the footage I took using heat. While it didn't look right because the coloring separated it still worked. I have noticed how the members of this forum respond an they have done the same to me. As I read your original question an hopefully addressed it that should encourage you to keep asking so you might get that one intelligent response. The one post that I remember the most was when they wrote I would fail as a resin caster because I didn't know who Modelhaus was. If you need more help I am action-modeler.com also on Facebook an Youtube.There was only one comment that didn't directly address the original question, but it did expand on the previous comment of trying it on a spare piece of styrene (although stealing the spoons is not the way to do it).
StevenGuthmiller Posted October 22, 2017 Posted October 22, 2017 (edited) For those of you that answered my question about the heat and the embossing powder, I thank you. For those of you that replied try it and let us know or free spoons at the golden arches shame on you. As you can see from the number of posts I am somewhat new to the site. I also am very intimidated by what you guys can accomplish. I am just trying to learn so that maybe some day I can approach the perfection displayed on here. In the past I would private message Harry P and he always graciously answered and never made me feel bad. This is the first time to ask a question publicly. I'm not sure about asking again.You can't be too thin skinned around here.There is always the possibility that you will receive some unhelpful or snide comments, but that doesn't mean that you should stop asking.Just let them roll off of your back & move on.Amid the unaccommodating remarks, you will find some applicable responses.Although, in this circumstance, I really didn't see too much to be defensive about.Just disregard the posts that aren't valuable to you. Steve Edited October 22, 2017 by StevenGuthmiller
randyc Posted October 26, 2017 Posted October 26, 2017 My undestanding is thaqt heating it causes it to melt into a shiny solid, instead of the fibrous appearance we are after for "carpet". I apply it to paint or clear glue. Heavy paint application, then dump a bunch on there - use a model kit box to catch it all. Mash it into the paint. Set aside and let dry. Then dump the excess into box, pour excess from box back to original container. use again later. Do not halde or rub the powder or flocking too much after done or it may come off. And plan. Don't use this or flocking before you airbrush or spray paint in same room on same day. The particles will get in air and eventually find their way into your fresh paint. Found that out the hard way.
peteski Posted October 30, 2017 Posted October 30, 2017 As others had said, when we use embossing powders to simulate carpeting in model car kits we are not using it for its intended purpose. That is why we do nto use the conventional way to get it to adhere to the plastic model. Craft people who use embossing powders for scrapbooking do need to use het to melt the powder into paper. But we use the powder cold and use an adhesive to make it stick to plastic. Modelers are a very creative bunch. For example, many of us use Future Floor Finish (or whatever its name is currently) as a clear coat for paint, for making clear windshields even clearer, and as an adhesive for small parts and photetched scripts (just to name few modeling application). But if you asked your wife about the Future Floor Finish, she would tell you that it is for making the kitchen floor shiny.
Art Anderson Posted October 31, 2017 Posted October 31, 2017 For those of you that answered my question about the heat and the embossing powder, I thank you. For those of you that replied try it and let us know or free spoons at the golden arches shame on you. As you can see from the number of posts I am somewhat new to the site. I also am very intimidated by what you guys can accomplish. I am just trying to learn so that maybe some day I can approach the perfection displayed on here. In the past I would private message Harry P and he always graciously answered and never made me feel bad. This is the first time to ask a question publicly. I'm not sure about asking again.Uh, never give up, just because some fellow modelers spin back less-than-desirable answers! In all this discussion, be it embossing powders, or whatever, bear in mind that when using materials that weren't necessarily created for our model car hobby--experimentation may well be the answer. Just because embossing powders are meant to be used one way (heat in this instance) in crafting, does NOT necessarily mean that they cannot be used (off the chart or grid so to speak) by us in different ways.As some have mentioned, the good old standby "spoon test" is a great idea--as would be testing on some surplus model car part that you'd likely NEVER use.FWIW (or not!), I suspect I am one of the longest-tenured model car builders on this, or any other model car forum--been building constantly since August 1952--in other words, more than 65 years. I've tested many things, many techniques over all that time, and have had my successes and my failures. But one thing I have never adopted, is to give up on model car clubs (my experience with those goes way back, into the 1960's) or online model car forums (since 1995).No matter the situaton (model car wise), our's can be a "trial and error" thing--Edison remarked that every failure in his quest for the electric light just showed him another way NOT to do it). Be not intimidated, my friend--even as a toddler, you had to discover that walking is a series of "controlled falls" (you fell from one foot to the other, repeated the process until you figured it out, then you WON!). So, please don't give up, and please don't give up, because "instant gratification" only happens in a very few of the activities we engage in.Art
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