Sculpy, Fimo, GS - adding some heat?

[Deadite]

Yeah, the title is probably misleading, but... couldn\'t really figure out the best title to describe my question in less than 10 words.

I\'m working on what I would consider an adventurous sculpt project for someone of my skill level (that is, rather poor). I\'ve tried to glean tips and tricks from as many sculpting articles as I could find, but really haven\'t seen my question answered, so....

I have started my project with a base of super sculpey (baking clay, like Fimo). I\'ve since added some GS to \"glue\" portions of a metal figure I intended to use to add to the super sculpey (have also used a bit of super glue to keep the metal figure in place while the GS cured).
I had intended to add all the details I needed with GS, but I\'m getting thoroughly frustrated with the curing time of GS. I\'ll make some GS mix, try to sculpt what I need and have plenty left over . I pick up, or drop the piece and I have finger-prints or smashed details. It\'s getting infuriating the amounts of wasted time and effort. It\'s really taxed the limited patience I do have.

I feel I can do a better job, if I can do more pieces with Fimo or Sculpey (these also sand better), but I don\'t know how Fimo, Sculpey, or GS reacts to repeated baking.
Can you bake a form, add detail with more fimo/sculpey and rebake the entire piece?
Will it burn?
Does GS melt or separate, or become unusable when heated?
Is it toxic?
What of the glue already used?

Any thoughts?

 

[Marmoset]

Hello I don\'t know anything about Fimo or Sculpey, but green Stuff I do. If you heat it with a hairdryer it melts, and if you put it in the oven it expands and goes puffy, like a lovely green cake :] This may come in useful for a few effects I suppose... but I warn you, it\'s not pretty when you\'ve spent ages sculpting a model!

Hope I helped!

Bill

 

[Deadite]

Originally posted by Marmoset

Hope I helped!

Bill

That does. Thanks!
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Please excuse me while I go beat my head into a brick wall. *stupid, stupid, stupid* Damn greenstuff. Looks like I\'ll be spending some time ripping it all off if I can repeatedly bake sculpey or fimo.

 

[Ogrebane]

Wit GS this is how I get it to dry quicker. I get a tin can and remove the top and bottom. Place this over the mini and then use a desk lamp on top of the can to heat it up. Its like an oven of sorts. Leave it 10 minutes then take it out. Give it 5 minutes to cool and the GS is cured.

Hope that helps.

 

[freakinacage]

heating gs from a lamp is a great way to speed up the drying time. just make sure you don\'t get it too hot ie close to the bulb or it\'ll cock up (done that PLENTY of times!) or you could invest in a putty oven or mini fridge. i got one for abou £10. it\'s supposed to be a portable beer fridge but i t has a heat setting as well. it doesn\'t get hot just warm so it speeds up the curing time nicely without fear of getting too hot

 

[darkartminiatures]

Yep a lamp works for me with gs.
I\'ve always wanted to know about reheating fimo. Can anyone answer this?

 

[Shawn R. L.]

One way to \'cook\' fimo is to boil it (5 minuets should be enough). I have done it with no problems. The good thing about boiling is there is no risk of burning.

 

[EArkham]

Here\'s a trick for sculpey. Be warned, it carries a bit of risk since it\'s easy to burn the piece if you\'re not careful!

When you need to layer several pieces, but don\'t want to turn on the oven and bake it each step (which also would burn the earlier baked stages anyway), use a candle. Carefully rotate the piece over the candle -- only heat until the \"shine\" goes away and NO more.

This is not a full cure, but it\'ll make it firm enough to put additional layers over. You\'ll still need to bake the whole thing later.

Kep

 

[freakinacage]

oooh thats a good tip there.

shawn\'s tip is a good one too. it works for greenstuff as well although it does tend to enlarge and bubbles in the putty. as a result, i only use this technique for the 1st few stages ie. no detail work. for fimo it works great though - thanks for that one shawn

 

[Sophia]

With green stuff, patience is the best thing. I used to cook the green-stuff under a lamp to quicken the cure time, but I no longer do that as I was loosing fine detail. It made the green stuff puffy, as was mentioned earlier. Just allow the proper time for it to cure, and sculpt green stuff in layers.

With Fimo, I use a hairdrier to cure it, on max heat. You can not really overcook Fimo this way, or at least I have not yet. Just hit it until it hardens a little, then keep adding Fimo and keep sculpting. Do a final bake in the oven.

I find that boiling Fimo tends to make it slightly brittle, but not much. It is a great way to cook certain sculptures, but I find a hairdrier works great on smaller sculptures.

Sculpey has to be baked for a longer period of time than Fimo, and at a slightly higher heat. Ovens work best for this. I usually make an armature in inexpensive sculpey, and then do a final \"skin\" of detail in either green stuff or Fimo. Best of each world. No hassle.

Lastly, there is Aves Apoxie Scupt. Hardens like green stuff, but is one tenth the cost. You get tons of it! It hardens even harder than green stuff, and is less flexable. It sculpts with no elastic memory, and has the same ammount of cure time. Not the best for small detailed bits, but probabl one of the best armature and large-scale materials out there for the cost. I love this stuff, and only started using it recently. No heat needed, only patience.

 

[minimaker]

but I no longer do that as I was loosing fine detail

That sounds like it was too warm. Green stuff will first soften when exposed to heat and then cure. I think that it\'s in the softening phase that memory effects may have affected the details.
My setup is a 25 Watt (or 15 Watt if I can get it) bulb in a upside down metal cookie can. The lid acts as a tray and during cooking it\'s fully closed. I leave the lamp on till the can feels hot to my touch without burning my fingers (in 10 minutes or so). I put the light on again if it cools off too much.
Figures where I worry about details are left flat on the lid (10-15cm from bulb) while others stand on their sculpting handle (2-3 cm from bulb). I\'ve not had any problems with details softening this way.

 

[QuietiManes]

You should be able to bake sculpey and fimo multiple times. It is what the companies suggest doing for thicker pieces, baking them in layers. I\'ve baked sculpey multiple times on multiple occassions with no problem. I sculpted this 6-7\" elephant (head to arse, no trunk or tail in measurement) a couple years ago, never finished it, but baked it half a dozen times while I was still working on it. Fimo I only bake once since I hardly ever use it and only for small little things so I cant guarantee what will happen. Even though I like it more, it\'s a fair bit more expensive.

If you cover the greenstuff in sculpey or fimo you should be able to bake it too. I havent done it but I\'ve read articles by a few sculptors who do that all the time. Use the GS to fix the joints in the armature and such, because it adheres better.

I think I need a GW oven, all this talk about them.