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Pat Olson

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
9
Location
Minnesota
Hello I am brand new to the miniature world of militaria and need some advice. I would like to know some basics on sculpting . What clays or medium do most modelers use? How to "scale" my sculptures. Tools, tips shortcuts how to hold item while working on it. Planning your figure etc etc....Hope to hear from someone. I am a little late to the party at 61 but have a great interest. Pat
 
Welcome to the Planet, Pat. :)

As for sculpting, there are a lot of different brands and types of material out there. A lot of sculptors use a two part epoxy putty like Magic Sculpt, Aves, ProCreate, Kneadatite, Green Stuff, etc which hardens a given amount of time after the two parts are mixed (usually around two hours). Each have different properties to them and who uses what really come down to personal preference. There's also Sculpey which needs to be baked for the putty to harden.

It's good to start with a wire armature for support and as a guideline for how big you want the sculpt to be. There are even mannequins you can buy as a starting point for sculpting a figure.

Tools can be as simple as toothpicks carved down to the shapes you want and coated with super glue to an exacto knife to "real" sculpting tools. (I like the cheap options myself. :D)

I've just dipped my toe in the sculpting pool and there are a lot more experienced sculptors than I here, so I'll let them add to this. :)

The most important thing is to have fun with it. :cool:
 
Thanks Wendy, I am brand new to miniature sculpting and have seen on this site and other links that this is a fine art not just a hobby of "toy soldier" painters. I have tried the sculpy product the hassle is baking it. I will try and find this epoxy product there is not much in craft stores here in Minnesota directed towards this venture. Even the art stores had just a sample of sculpy do you know of any sources for sculpting supplies? Thanks Pat
 
Hi Pat, for sculpting most people use a two-part epoxy; the commonest choices are Kneadatite (also called Duro, greenstuff or GS), MagicSculp, Apoxie Sculpt, A+B, Milliput and .

Some people also sculpt in polymer clays, that require hardening by heating - Sculpey, Super Sculpey, Fimo, Cernit and Kato Polyclay.

Unless you've sculpted before I would recommend starting out by working on conversions rather than diving straight in and sculpting from scratch.

Pat Olson said:
How to "scale" my sculptures.
Click to expand...
Know the actual dimensions of an item then divide by the scale, e.g. at 1/32 scale (54mm) a sword that's 37" / 94cm long will become 1.16" / 29.4mm long, at 1/19 (90mm) the same item is 1/95" / 49.5mm.

Scales v. nominal heights.

Pat Olson said:
Tools, tips shortcuts how to hold item while working on it.
Click to expand...
Have a look at the Tools of the trade thread I began a while ago to act as a reference for this kind of thing. Sculpting tools can be as simple as shaped cocktail sticks coated in superglue; with the addition of a couple of needles and a craft knife or two you can accomplish a huge range of work.

For holding smaller parts during sculpting and painting I've used a pin-vice to hold the wire, but as I've gotten older I get hand cramps holding pieces for long periods because of how narrow these are (especially for anything with a bit of weight). So I've long been meaning to make something with a larger-diameter handle and I now mostly use a set of custom clamps similar to one or two from the thread above. Mine are made from approximately 6" of wooden dowel/curtain rail with a plastic cabinet clip mounted on top as the vice. You can see one in these photos of a recent conversion:

Mage_02.jpg
Mage_03.jpg


The green compound is mostly Kneadatite, blended with more yellow than blue which I prefer the feel of. The staff surface is a blend of Kneadatite and MagicSculp which is better for creating irregular, organic textures like bark than pure GS.

Einion
 
 
hope this help

and to start you on the path, check out JMD miniatures who do Resin 54mm mannequins which are inexpesive and a good place to start as is Bill Horans Military Modelling Book and Andrea miniatures Converting and Scratchbuilding Military Figures which are the two i started with.
its worth getting in to anatomy books and starting to draw, this will underline your learning and make the sculpting process easier in the long run.
have fun and enjoy the journey!


all the best ---- tim:)
 
Thanks to Wendy, Anders,Einion,GaryJD, and Darkeye

For help to get me started. I am going to start on a bust for my first projectof George A. Custer period of the Yellowstone expedition buckskins and long hair I only wish I knew how to put up a picture of my project for critiques.
 
Pat Olson said:
I only wish I knew how to put up a picture of my project for critiques.
Click to expand...
From a recent thread:
Einion said:
The simplest way is probably to use an imagehost like Photobucket. Create an account - it's free - upload the pics to there and it automatically generates the code you need for the image to show in forums. And a single click copies it, so no need to even select and Ctrl-C.
Click to expand...

Einion
 

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