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Question on materials for all small scale/detail sculptors
13 years ago
General
I have several different potential materials on hand for making the positives which will eventually be moulded, cast and become resin doll parts. I was wondering if I could share my thoughts and ask what peoples thoughts were on the options, from personal experience
1) WED clay. Very cheap, easy to use, safe and water based. Does not require foil core for busts or limbs. Has trouble with capturing super fine detail as it is water based. Cracks when dry so time sensitive in terms of making the mould. Requires sealing
2) Chavant Belle Touche. Reasonably priced, reuseable, does not require sealing. Non drying so risk of damaging sculpt during mold making (can be mitigated by chilling sculpt to make it tougher). Adequate detail capture but can be hard to do smooth surfaces. Does not need foil core
3) Super Sculpey. Somewhat expensive. Excellent detail capture. Generally requires foil core due to price. I don't know if it's reclaimable (ie, if a cast can be taken without baking), if not, neither the clay nor the base can be reused. If baked, can be sanded for smooth surfaces. Brittle and weak
4) Apoxie Sculpt, milliput and other 2 part putties. Very expensive, limited working time. Good detail capture, slow drying nature allows different textures to be applied at different stages of drying. Stronger than Super Sculpey. Non cracking, can be worked with water.
at the moment, I'm leaning towards 1 and 2 for positives, mainly for cost. I'd like to use Super Sculpey more but I'm put off by the expense and inconvenience of having to bake. So anyone's personal experiences and opinions would be very welcome
1) WED clay. Very cheap, easy to use, safe and water based. Does not require foil core for busts or limbs. Has trouble with capturing super fine detail as it is water based. Cracks when dry so time sensitive in terms of making the mould. Requires sealing
2) Chavant Belle Touche. Reasonably priced, reuseable, does not require sealing. Non drying so risk of damaging sculpt during mold making (can be mitigated by chilling sculpt to make it tougher). Adequate detail capture but can be hard to do smooth surfaces. Does not need foil core
3) Super Sculpey. Somewhat expensive. Excellent detail capture. Generally requires foil core due to price. I don't know if it's reclaimable (ie, if a cast can be taken without baking), if not, neither the clay nor the base can be reused. If baked, can be sanded for smooth surfaces. Brittle and weak
4) Apoxie Sculpt, milliput and other 2 part putties. Very expensive, limited working time. Good detail capture, slow drying nature allows different textures to be applied at different stages of drying. Stronger than Super Sculpey. Non cracking, can be worked with water.
at the moment, I'm leaning towards 1 and 2 for positives, mainly for cost. I'd like to use Super Sculpey more but I'm put off by the expense and inconvenience of having to bake. So anyone's personal experiences and opinions would be very welcome
It sounds like PRIMA and Chavant are essentially the same thing from different companies, both are premium grade tan coloured sulfur free oil clays. I've used Chavant before with both the silicones I use and it's been fine with them.
I will experiment with apoxie sculpt when I next do a silicone run, thanks for thinking of that, it wouldn't have occurred to me. It smells like it might have some sulphur compounds in it when raw, but since it dries hard I don't know if that would affect things, I will do a test.
I think you can get it cheaper from cool mini or not.
I'm going for a scale quite a bit larger than miniatures, mainly parts for 12-16 inch hard headed dolls. I've used green stuff and similar putties and they're great for minis, but for the scales I'm working at they're not really affordable.
http://www.magicsculp.com/
Order able here:
http://www.mckenziesp.com/MGSN1-P11264.aspx
This seems to be more reasonable in price than kneadtite.
I know that 1, 2 and 3 can be used to successfully make silicone moulds, really the question is what are they like to *work*