Found in "Dollar Tree" (a dollar store chain) in the US:
According to the side, it's made of glass microbaloons in an acrylic binder:
Did some tests:
My initial intent was to see if it would be useful as a general gap-filler and texturing agent for foam and/or cardboard, but on testing it, the real gold is that it seems to be a really good snow.
Has a smooth powdery feel when wet, sort of like damp/wet sand, but finer, super low inertia, and with more binding. Very, VERY soft, so a feather-light touch is need to shape it, but mechanically it behaves a lot like scale snow. Very easy to push around into nice looking drifts and clumps, and you can see my attempt to make a 28mm scale footprint with a ball tool. Apologies for not getting a better photo of that, BTW. I think my next project is going to have to be finally sorting out some decent photo lighting kit.
When dry it has a finely porous powdery look with a touch of subsurface scattering, and is surprisingly firm. It flexes slightly, and takes fingernail impressions, but holds together solidly; rather similar to EPS foam, actually. It lacks the "glitter" of real snow, but otherwise looks really, really good!
The "wetness" visible around the edges of the cardboard sample in the pic is not part of the spackle, but rather results from my attempt to give it a little bit of "shine" using Future. The spackle itself doesn't soak or puddle substrates like that.
The Future experiment didn't really work. It soaked in, and looked good at first, but once it dried, it didn't really change the spackle's appearance at all, aside from that bit of gloss on the cardboard itself. The Future also seemed to rewet the spackle a bit, making is soft (not re-dissolved, just squishy like soft rubber) until the Future dried. Pure water also has this effect. The major takeaways from this experiment were 1) that the dried spackle is fully porous like an open-celled foam, and 2) it may be worth repeating the experiment with a non-water based clear. Would want to make sure it's a non-yellowing clear though.
The label says you can soften it with a little water if it's too dry. I tried that, and although it works, it seems to cut the acrylic binder unevenly, causing the Spackle to dry with a much coarser porosity. Not good for regular snow, but good for slushy, partly melted snow. Strength seems unaffected though.
Although the label says "paintable in 30 minutes", this was not the case with my tests. In my experience, you really want to let it dry overnight. Very, very thin applications are safe to handle within an hour or two, but anything with any thickness needs to be carefully set aside and not touched 'till the next day. By said next day though, it'll be completely safe to handle or paint or whatever.
Oh, and it does work well as a gap filler and texturing agent. It's even sculptable as such, and could be used to add nice 3D stonework to cardboard and other things like that. Though as previously noted, it really takes a feather-light touch to sculpt.
16 August 2016, 05:36:33 PM
