Sculpting Putties

[diddy lemon1]

I was looking at making a few bust and stuff to try and improve my sculpting skills.

which would be the best putty/putties to use, how much are they and how much do u get in a pack?

thanks in advance

 

[Baz]

Well different people swear by different putties. Some seem able to turn out the smoothest sculpts in green stuff whilst others do amazingly detailed work in milliput.

Large mini sculptors (bust, 1/12th scale and above and large scale prop makers) tend to use sculpey and it\'s variants as it gives good detail, is relatively cheap and comes in large packs (500-5000g). It also has an indefinite working time as it has to be baked to cure it. 500g will set you back about $8

Green stuff and brown stuff seem to be the mini sculptors weapon of choice around these parts. It has a good consistency and can be made harder or softer to work with the application of the blue strip. Drawbacks are a limited working time and difficulty in obtaining a smooth finish, also a lot of people have difficulty in layering this putty. Green stuff comes in relatively small quantities from GW (about 25ishgrams for $10) but from real modelling suppliers (where it goes by the name of Duro) it comes in large packs of 100g or so for about $12.

Fimo is another possibility. I\'ve not used this for years and when I did it wasn\'t the greatest although I\'ve heard that it has improved a lot. This also has to be baked to cure. Comes in small quantities (25g ish) and compared to other brands of non air drying clay is quite expensive. about $5 a pack.

Milliput is pretty much the same as green stuff. It has a longer drying time and keeps detail a bit better. It doesnt have the elasticity of GS and can be a bit brittle. About $4 for 100g.

Well the bottom line is if you\'re looking to improve your sculpting skills you want something that is easy to work(ie soft) has a long working time is definitely non air drying, not nylon reinforced and is cheap. Don\'t rule out Plasticine! It works well, is dirt cheap, can be reused and has infinite working time. Do you really want to go mixing up putty to practice making hands when you may do 20 or 30 pieces?

 

[freakinacage]

i\'d have a go at fimo firts for a bust. i find i works pretty well on larger scale stuff. make an amature out of scrunched up tin foil and then put some gs on top. then when the gs is still \'wet\' put a layer of fimo on top. you can then take your time sculpting the rest. it works out fairly cheap for larger stuff

 

[DaN]

I hate to bring up the obvious, but why putty?

Why not practice with modelling clay - uber cheap.

 

[Thunderhawker]

Apoxie sculpt is my current fave.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by diddy lemon1
which would be the best putty/putties to use

Depends on what you like/get used to.

Originally posted by diddy lemon1
...how much are they...

Depends on where you buy it/them.

Originally posted by diddy lemon1
...and how much do u get in a pack?

Depends on the size you get.



Kneadatite/Greenstuff/GS is always worth having around so regardless of whether you\'ll use it as your main medium I would highly recommend getting a pack (and why not buy it from the CMON shop to help support the site). A lot of sculptors wouldn\'t use it for work on a large scale but you could use it for portions - where flexibility is needed, for certain kinds of detail, for its good adhesion or any combination of those - plus it\'s also useful to blend with other things to alter their working characteristics, although not everyone needs to do this.

MagicSculp and Apoxie Sculpt are similar, hard to recommend one over the other; really neither is better than the other, I prefer MS myself probably because it\'s the one that I used first (and have a lot more time with). If you think you\'ll want to do much carving once the putty has hardened, or any major amounts of reshaping really, then MS might have an edge since it\'s not quite as hard when set, and AS is hard.

Personally I\'d skip Milliput entirely with the other things available these days, although it has its adherents.

If you haven\'t used one yet it\'s probably a good idea to get at least one pack of a polymer clay (Fimo, Sculpey, Super Sculpey, Kato Polyclay, Premo, Cernit). Not everyone can get the knack of using these for sculpting miniatures but they have the advantage of an essentially unlimited working period (which is, honestly, both a good and bad thing).

There is a mountain of information out there on the web on using polymer clays so there\'s no shortage of tips and SBSs to find if you buy some and have trouble getting used to it.

Einion

 

[diddy lemon1]

thanks guys

im trying to convince my dear papa to let me get some fimo off ebay because it is really cheap and i can keep retrying until i get it right

i will post some of my attempts up at some point

 

[Baz]

Here\'s some good info - Putty types