Interesting heat effects on GS and FIMO

[Shawn R. L.]

Been doing a lot of work lately with FIMO and Green Stuff and I got myself a heatgun. Mix em up and things get interesting. Yesterday I did a thing out of Green Stuff. Seeing that it would be appropriate to have some sort of texture I took the heat gun and immediately after sculpting I blasted it with the heatgun (350-400F). It swelled up by about 15% and in just a few seconds it set with a sand blasted texture. FIMO and the heatgun ends up with a blistered bubbly texture. The FIMO doesn't swell up like the GS did.

Anyone else found any 'out of the box' techniques?

 

[Cyn]

can we have some photos? Sounds interesting.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I painted these so as to show the texture better.

These went from fresh to hard cured in about 20 seconds. The magic sculpt, in it's carving properties, gets real pouris (sp?) and sort of grainy. Not sure how the FIMO or GS is. Just started doing this.


View attachment 7728

 

[Einion]

Porous.

I think you're overheating these Shawn. If you move back a bit with the heatgun and maybe shoot in short blasts you should be able to set things up in only minutes without any negative side-effects. Obviously the surface textures you've gotten are neat, but they might be a bit too weak for some uses - useful to make texture tools from though.

Anyone else found any 'out of the box' techniques?

Since you mention GS and FIMO together first thing I thought of were blends. A mix of FIMO (and other polymer clays) with epoxies can give you a looooong working time, with a putty that will still self-harden. If the mix is heavily weighted towards the polymer clay you might need to boil/bake/shoot with heatgun to get it as tough as it can get, but at higher proportions of epoxy you can have decent strength without needing to heat.

Einion

 

[Noddwyr]

Einion, when you say higher proportion of epoxy are we talking 60% epoxy to 40% polymer or more like 80/20? I guess my question is how much polymer clay can you add without having to bake it?
I like the idea as epoxy clays dry to fast for me, but baking polymers is a pain sometimes.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Porous.

I think you're overheating these Shawn. If you move back a bit with the heatgun and maybe shoot in short blasts you should be able to set things up in only minutes without any negative side-effects. Obviously the surface textures you've gotten are neat, but they might be a bit too weak for some uses - useful to make texture tools from though.

Yes, I am overheating them.....freakin BLASTING them!! I have gotten better with the heat gun and am able to cure things real fast with no problems. Takes a light touch though as the line between curing and blistering can be narrow. The FIMO seems to set up just as strong as a 'proper' cooking. The polymers I would imagine are a bit, just a bit, weaker as the gas bubbles in it. Taking that into account, what I've done is to use these 'effects' as accents to other, normaly cured, sculpts. It makes a real nice contrast and doesn't look worked. I'm doing a man eating plant with magic sculpt. Sanded it real smooth. I added some tiny tenticles crawling over the plants surface out of GS. Blasted it with heat and they make a real good contrast with the smooth of the larger sculpt.

I like your idea of making texture tools.

 

[Einion]

Einion, when you say higher proportion of epoxy are we talking 60% epoxy to 40% polymer or more like 80/20? I guess my question is how much polymer clay can you add without having to bake it?

Really, you'll have to play with this yourself. Not being coy, it's just that with different polymer clays and epoxies it's likely to vary a lot, plus the requirement for how hard or tough the finished piece ends up will vary hugely depending on what you need out of the sculpt - if it's a standalone piece that's pretty beefy, then only a small proportion of epoxy will get the blend to set up. But if you needed to be able to pull moulds from it, if the piece is smaller or more delicate then you'd want to be more careful.

See post#7 in this thread on pF for some starting points but play around with it, see what works for you.

I like the idea as epoxy clays dry to fast for me, but baking polymers is a pain sometimes.

I'll say! And that's even without the "Do I risk baking this in my normal oven?" thing.

Have you tried boiling?

The FIMO seems to set up just as strong as a 'proper' cooking.

Not surprised given how much variation there is in how people cure their polymer clays (longer at lower temps, less time at higher temps). As long as you avoid the scorching point I'm sure it's going to end up pretty much the same as if you'd baked at 110°C for an hour or whatever it is.

Einion

 

[Noddwyr]

Thank Einion. Ill have a read through.
Havent tried boiling, though I have read about it. Never really wrapped my head around how you do it though, do you just drop it in the pot? Will have to give it a go sometime.
Thanks again.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I've boiled stuff with good success. Make sure the water covers the piece completely. You could set it in the pot, then fill with water, if it's an unweildly peice or just drop it in if it's a simple shape.

 

[Noddwyr]

Thanks.