is gum paste sugarpaste/fondant with that "hardening powder" added or is gum paste a completly different thing??

i need a paste that will dry hard to make a little stand up bike and was wondering if gumpaste is the thing to use for this??

OH and do i make individual pieces and glue them together when they are dry or stick the paste together before leaving to dry?

how long is gumpaste edible for too......i know it doesn't taste very nice but when is it completely inedible??......... im making a cake for a kid and he want to eat EVERYTHING!!

X

Gumpaste is different then just adding Tylose (the hardening powder) to it. Gumpaste dries much harder. I'm not sure if the kid could eat it...it's that hard.
Here is a link on how to make gumpaste:

how hard depends on how thick you could easily eat a flower.

gumpaste does not taste bad it just does not taste great.... kinda just like sugar.

Gumpaste is hard but fragile it will easily break if dropped.

the best way is to assemble with gum glue as you make it.

I made the motorcysle in my pics from fondant w/ tylose powder added.
I prefer it to gumpaste.
I assembled and let it dry as one piece.
Gumpaste will dry faster however.
I made some bow loops the other night for a emergency bow, used gumpaste and they were dry enough to assemble in about 6 hours.

As mentioned, gp doesn't really "spoil" so I wouldn't worry about how far in advance you make it. It will still technically be edible, but don't forget, he might love it so much he actually wants to keep it. Wishful thinking anyway