Gluesticks

What kind of clay should i use if im making a model of small buildings, and i can glue them easily on a board?

I just want a clay that hardens and i cant paint on it with ease. I want it to stick with hot glue on foam board. Im mainly looking for hardening coloring and able to be glued.

Public Comments

1. That depends somewhat on what you want to end up with, how you're creating the buildings and their size, and how much you want to spend, etc. The cheapest clays would be "air-dry" clays, but those range from paper pulp and papier mache (usually put over a base of some kind--perhaps a box), to doughs and clays you can make at home (salt dough clay, or bread clay, etc), to air dry clays you can buy (Celluclay--add water to that one at home, Creative Paperclay, Crayola Air Dry Clay, Model Magic, etc.), and even epoxy-type clays. The cheapest of those (esp. if your buildings won't be fairly small) would be Celluclay or salt dough (or perhaps papier mache). Celluclay comes in white and gray and will leave a somewhat bumpy surface (but can be sanded smoother). Creative Paperclay and Crayola's Air Dry Clay come in white and will leave a very smooth surface if you make it smooth before drying --or can be sanded. You could put the clays over armatures like boxes or wire mesh, or create freestanding buildings, or you could make freestanding walls and roof panels which you paint and glue together after drying. All of those clays would be easily paintable after they dry (usually around 24 hrs.), and could be glued to foam boards, etc. (TIP... you could use just hot glue, but if you also put a few lines or dots of a permanent white glue like Elmer's GlueAll next to and around the hot glue, the bond will be even stronger). Be aware that air-dry clays do dry by losing their water so they can also shrink some (so don't glue anything that's wet to anything dry before drying, and perhaps make the structure a little larger so it won't end up smaller than you might want). You can also use "polymer clays" in pretty much the same ways as above. Polymer clays won't ever dry out, and have to be baked in a (regular home) oven to harden--that will take only 15-30 minutes or so though, not 24 hrs like air-dry clays. Polymer clays are paintable (use acrylics or latex, no "enamels") but may require two coats or a coat of gesso first (they're also sandable, drillable, carvable, etc.) If you go the polymer clay route, I'd suggest using one of the bulk polymer clays that's strong after baking --like Sculpey's Ultralight (white), or SuperSculpey-Firm (gray). HTH, Diane B.