Sculpting mediums

[tonydawe]

Tim & Dan,

Thanks for your comments guys.

I had a fantastic response to my question and everyone has been very helpful.

I've made lots of enquiries with manufacturers and distributors of various products and spoke this morning with a very friendly and helpful bloke called Al McDivitt from Arms ModelIT in Queensland, who are the Australian distributors for a wide range of sculpting materials.

After speaking to Al, and taking on board all the comments from fellow sculptors here on pF, I've decided to try the Sculpey range of polymer clay products. It will require me to adapt to a new medium, but hey, its either that, or give up sculpting, and I'm certainly not going to do that. I'll have to learn how to use the oven now

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed to this thread and has been so helpful and encouraging. I can't wait to start sculpting again.

 

[darkeye]

Hell No, I aint Talkin' !!!!!!!

#### well i am no expert but i do like to experiment from time to time. i remember tjat back in my green Days, i once mixed GS with green Sculpey 3 and that was interesting! had the properties of both. recently as i told Tony i have tried and liked the Firm Gray which the Pros use. having upscaled to 1/6 so i can usee my airbrush, i spend a fair time on the clubhouse and this where i first heard of this stuff. The first Sculpey i ever had was the Supersculpey having talked to a Forgeworld guy at Golden Demon. he used it 'pure'. Seems that alot of the clubhouse crew mix SS and SSFG in varying amounts. tried this and its cool; i have also used 'pure' SSFG and it was cool too.
i used to use White Spirit but now use nothing but Vaseline, my tools have dropped down to about three to five but Fingers used most of the time; gives a softer look to the finish which is cool if you are doing anatomy.
I don't want to hijack the thread, but would really like to hear more from you and from others who are using mixes of polyclays and, more particularly, why and for what features of the figure, etc. What mixes seem to work well to do what things?
Saw a tip in Katherine Deweys book which used Talc to Polish the surface before baking- takes out fingermarks very well.
i found one myself recently based on Clayshapers- i had some Sil-putty which i had use for some 30mm Dollies but the venting was off so i cut down the length of the mold to make a Silicone Mat, 1" by 3", its vey soft and floppy and smooth to boot. i found that it leaves a Flawless finish, looks like untouched Polyclay! but wear Vinyl gloves as i found these leave no prints on the clay vs rubber ones.
that's it. that's all i can tell ya so far other than i dont Series bake , i work with un-cured till the end. hope this was of use mate. ) ###########

i may be making too much of this, but, just trying to learn.
aren't we all ! i still am. now my focus is on Anatomy and getting better both with the Disipline and with the Clay while trying to avoid the temptation to do a finished piece till i am happy with my skills so you are not alone!!!!
any way enough from me!
all the best Dan! ------------ tim. )

 

[Drebil]

Dear Gentlemen !

Is there any sculpting video tutorial somewhere around? Just reading the posts, and seeing some of the pics of excellent modellers, made me wish to try it myself.

Peter

 

[Dan Morton]

Drebil - Don't know of a sculpting video per se, but there are one or two short movies on Youtube.com. Not tutorials exactly but good examples of technique. The one of Alan Ball carving a head is superb!

Suggest you go back and look at the online tutorial that Gary did. Great stuff.

For the staff - Could somebody provide a link to the whole tutorial under the Quick Links section?

All the best,
Dan

 

[darkeye]

DVDs

any one looking for Sculpting dvd should check out John Browns' series; there 7 so far and you can see clips on Youtube and order them from GNOMON WORKSHOP.COM.
hope this helps you all.

best regards --- tim.

 

[kaz6120]

Hello, Itchy Club members, I think I'm now one of you.

This is an old thread but your comments and info are really helpful.

Here's my story:

I started sculpting November last year 2010, and shortly after started sculpting I started using Magic Sculpt.
I notice the problem last month, after sculpting 6 hours and I feel an itch on the most important part of all men on this earth.(you know what I mean)

next morning....I woke up and found my important part is twice as big as usual in size. Without itch it is maybe all men's dream(don't laugh guys), but that was terrible. Really. I looked at it carefully and I found allergic reaction was seen only on the skin, not inside (very important) part. Reaction was gone 3 days after. I didn't notice that that was the allergic reaction to epoxy putty at that time.

After that, I felt an small itch sometimes but not always and not heavy ones so I just kept ignoring it.

And yesterday I used Magic Sculpt whole day, almost 10 hours, and today I had a same kind of the allergic reaction to my skin, very very very itchy around the neck and eyelid this time. I now understand what is happening to me. It is certain that this is an allergic reaction to Magic Sculpt.

It seems that it happens only when I use MS for a long time, like more than 3 hours, but I now decided to switch my sculpt medium and looking for an alternative one.
I'm thinking about using Super Sculpey but I never tried baking stuff so I want to know the thoughts and impression of people who use it.

And I also want to know about ProCreate, If I can use it like Magic Sculp, and also I'd like to know if there are someone who had any kind of allergic reaction to it.

 

[mil-mart]

QUOTE ;- I woke up and found my important part is twice as big as usual in size.

Well thank you very much Kaz, that's the price of MS just gone through the roof and no doubt a world shortage once everyone learns of the magical powers of MS. Thank God I've got some in.

Cheers Ken

 

[1969]

Kaz I agree long periods of using magicsculp can cause certain irritation, if I use it for long hours I get an itchy back of the neck but nothing more serious and I have been using it daily for about the past four years or so.
One thing I do religiously is always wash my hands well during and after use, if I need to use the toilet and touch certain more sensitive areas of the anatomy I give them an extra wash before, no way I am entering that region with Apoxy contamination, even if you get a larger Penis which I am sure the wife would appreciate .

Maybe try some polymer clays, you can get just as good results and learning the new technique with them is fairly easy and quick. You do not necessarily need to bake polymers, you can place in boiling water for about five minutes to harden.

Steve

 

[Mark S]

"next morning....I woke up and found my important part is twice as big as usual in size."

...And here I've been just rubbing the stuff between my fingers every time!!?!!
I can feel a whole new appreciation of the hobby coming on.....'yes dear I'm sculpting now'.
Thanks Kaz.

 

[kaz6120]

Thanks Ken, Steve, Mark, for your warm comments.

>touch certain more sensitive areas of the anatomy I give them an extra wash before

Ahh, I see. bu Yesterday session I tried not to touch the sensitive areas and wash my hands regularly, I still got itchy neck so maybe fume causes my problems too.

>You do not necessarily need to bake polymers, you can place in boiling water for about five minutes to harden.

That's a great tips good to know that. It's safer than bake without worrying about burning it. Thanks for the info!

>Thanks Kaz.

haha you're welcome, friend.

But we can see something funny reaction, don't you think? everyone got the allergic reaction in the neck. Among some Japanese modelers I read about it in some blog or twitter posts that they got same reactions to neck, cheek, eyelid, and...penis.

Penis is like the neck of the bottom, both very important parts, both got its "head", itch comes to the roots of them. they have a lot in common.

 

[Einion]

Kaz, now that you're experiencing problems with MS it's unlikely that preventative steps will prevent adverse reactions in future, at least when it comes to direct contact with the skin. You could try mixing the putty using gloves (or finger cots if you blend just with your fingertips) but it's possible that you're sensitised enough that this still won't help - the problem can get bad enough that someone can't even be in the same room as uncured epoxy putties without a reaction being set off as I think is mentioned earlier in this thread.

In terms of alternatives, epoxy clays work on similar chemistries (sometimes the same) so unfortunately it's also possible that one or more of the others will give you similar problems. But you may be lucky, different things can be just different enough that you'll be okay, however it would be best to be ultra-cautious from now on in your working practices.

...

For normal users it's advisable to mix the putty, then wash your hands thoroughly before continuing (as recommended by some of the manufacturers). Past that I've recommended that, as much as possible, to try not to touch the putty with the fingers during the sculpting process as a precautionary measure; a lot of the time this only requires a small modification to technique and once you get used to it you shouldn't notice that it restricts you much.

Einion

 

[kaz6120]

Thank you very much Einion, great help.

It's strange fact here that I use several types of 2 part epoxy butty, such as Duro, Tamiya, 3 different types of Cemedine epoxy putty, but I don't get the same allergic reaction while using them. I got the reaction only when I use Magic Sculpt.

So I'm not immune to something included only in MS, some kind of the chemical reaction while mixing MS or maybe fumes, causes the problem. I'm not sure though.

I will follow your advice and try to use globe next time I use MS and try not to use it for a long time as possible as I can. MS is really great material and I love using it so I'm so sad to know that it doesn't fit me. I've just got 5 pound set recently!

I ordered Super Sculpey yesterday and I don't know if it is good for me and I need to learn different skill, but I don't want to quit sculpting by such reason.