Sculpting material?

[PTS]

Was curious to see the ratio of people who use green stuff type of material vs. oven baked sculpey? I\'ve just started working with mini conversions, and am currently using both.

I far prefer sculpey for it\'s clay like texture and infinite working time, but the obvious disadvantage is you can\'t bake it when attached to a plastic mini due to melting. I accidentally found this out by sculpting terrain on a 40k base and putting it in at a moderate temperate for a few minutes. The base shrunk, but the sculpey was fine... lol

I\'m assuming metal minis are more tolerant to the oven, as long as you don\'t over do it. I\'d like to get some sculpey drying techniques if anyone wants to share?

Green stuff I find more difficult - at times it feels more like hard chewing gum than sculpting material. I\'m putting this down to my lack of sculpting experience though, as some people get wonderful results. Maybe I need to incorporate water into the mix?

 

[freakinacage]

try boiling the sculpey. it works for fimo, not sure if will melt the plastic though.

i only ever use fimo for the basis of something, usually larger stuff. if it\'s small, i will use gs, milliput, apoxie sculpt, magic sculp, procreate or a mix of the some of them

 

[PTS]

Hmm, boiling - that\'s not a bad idea. I\'ll try it out on a scrap of sprue plastic and some sculpey.

I remember milliput from when I lived in the UK, good stuff - don\'t think you can get it stateside.

Am curious about the other three you mentioned, will check details online...

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by PTS
I far prefer sculpey for it\'s clay like texture and infinite working time, but the obvious disadvantage is you can\'t bake it when attached to a plastic mini due to melting.

As mentioned you can harden by boiling/simmering. Most any polymer clay can be hardened successfully by boiling although it may take longer than the baking time due to the lower temp, obviously; results can be slightly better as there\'s no danger of scorching and I think there\'s less chance of cracks forming but you\'ll want to check up on that.

Originally posted by PTS
I\'m assuming metal minis are more tolerant to the oven, as long as you don\'t over do it.

They are generally, not always. But you still come up against problems with shrinkage, while the base material doesn\'t. This is one reason why polymer clays in general are not recommended for conversion work; better to stick to (obvious pun) epoxy putties and learn to deal with their hardening process. Much better adhesion, no cracking danger, no baking required. Also, not mentioned often, not having stuff that stays workable indefinitely is a big help in not faffing about too much!

Originally posted by PTS
Green stuff I find more difficult - at times it feels more like hard chewing gum than sculpting material.

Ribbon type or the newer pack with the two separate rolls? If it\'s cold GS is a lot stiffer than when it\'s warm so you do have to bear this in mind but if you have good fresh stuff it being too stiff is definitely not a problem.

You can also mix it with less blue and more yellow to deliberately make a softer putty, as well as blending it with other epoxy putties to get various consistencies and working properties.

Lots and lots of prior threads worth hunting down on sculpting materials, characteristics, strengths/weaknesses and so on.

Einion

 

[GreenOne]

I started using fimo recently, it\'s easier to find in my area and I find it less frustrating to use than GS. Baking is the main con about it, but I never thought about boiling :idea:

 

[mickc22]

there\'s loads of polymer clay advice here:
Elvenworks forum
and also at the OOAK Guild, just click the little blue banner in my sig

 

[cybersquig]

can you bake this stuff more than once? how about boiling?

 

[junior elf]

Is milliput the same as grey stuff?

 

[falela]

Originally posted by junior elf
Is milliput the same as grey stuff?

If it is this one from GF9 you are talking about, it is ProCreate.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by cybersquig
can you bake this stuff more than once? how about boiling?

You can bake more than once but it comes with an increasing risk of cracks forming. Not sure about when boiling.

Einion

 

[junior elf]

Thanx falela. So how does ProCreate compare to green stuff? (sorry if you feel I\'m hijacking the thread, if you do tell me and I\'ll make a new one )

 

[cybersquig]

cheers Einion

 

[falela]

Originally posted by junior elf
Thanx falela. So how does ProCreate compare to green stuff? (sorry if you feel I\'m hijacking the thread, if you do tell me and I\'ll make a new one )

I only bought a pack of PC recently to try out, so doesn\'t have much expereince to make any comment, Someone else may be able to answer your question.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by junior elf
Thanx falela. So how does ProCreate compare to green stuff?

Do a search, a few recent threads cover some of the differences.

I think in many ways this is a \'horses for courses\' thing, since many pros obviously have no trouble at all using Kneadatite but some wanted to try ProCreate as soon as they had the chance and then switched over to it.

Then of course there are the half-dozen or so other epoxy putties that are all used by someone.

Einion