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What would you recommend for a alternative to GS? After a lot of reading it seems that some folks like GS and some don't and with me being new to the sculpting world I would like something very easy and simple to work with, cheap, and not dry up on me too quick. I am wanting to nurgle-fie my vanilla CSMs and the flamers I am going to give my Plague Marines and vehicles and such.

I normal use a mix of Greenstuff, Brown Stuff, Magic Sculp and Pro Create.

Depends on the job i want it for i also use Squadron Green Putty but this is messy to use and isnt easy to sculpt with it has a gritty texture better for gap filling tbh.

Anyhow I buy most of it from here http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/scratch%20builders%20paradise/green%20stuff%20magic%20sculp%20milliput%20brown%20stuff.html or here http://www.heresyminiatures.com/tools.htm as the gs is so much cheeper than buying from gw.

oh and if its for sculpting make sure you invets in some clayshapers makes using gs and bs so much easyer.

Never used miliput but have seen others use it well.

Yeah I am thinking about the millput or maybe air drying clay but I am afraid the air drying clay will be too brittle

I tried air-dry clay (Crayola, I think). My advice is to avoid it. I was shocked to see that my model developed several cracks while I was sculpting it and afterwards as well. I made do, but ultimately had to use superglue to repair flaws and to reattach pieces that had crumbled off. I won't use it again - it might be better on the large scale, but for 20mm or so, it is pretty poor.

Solorg wrote:I tried air-dry clay (Crayola, I think). My advice is to avoid it. I was shocked to see that my model developed several cracks while I was sculpting it and afterwards as well. I made do, but ultimately had to use superglue to repair flaws and to reattach pieces that had crumbled off. I won't use it again - it might be better on the large scale, but for 20mm or so, it is pretty poor.

Excellent!(Well ok not really but then it steers my away from it at least....)

MrBestor wrote:I normal use a mix of Greenstuff, Brown Stuff, Magic Sculp and Pro Create.

Depends on the job i want it for i also use Squadron Green Putty but this is messy to use and isnt easy to sculpt with it has a gritty texture better for gap filling tbh.

Anyhow I buy most of it from here http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/scratch%20builders%20paradise/green%20stuff%20magic%20sculp%20milliput%20brown%20stuff.html or here http://www.heresyminiatures.com/tools.htm as the gs is so much cheeper than buying from gw.

oh and if its for sculpting make sure you invets in some clayshapers makes using gs and bs so much easyer.

Never used miliput but have seen others use it well.

Careful with Squadron Green Putty as it contains Toluene and melts plastic in a similar way as Plastic Model Glue. Not suitable for sculpting at all. Just seconding MrBestor.

To be honest I was skeptical about green stuff but now that I have used it a few times for sculpting minor bits, it is actually really easy to work with once you get the hang of it (which did not take long), IMO. Just check out the tutorials on DakkaDakka for pointers and try it out.

If your working on figures, there is a point where you need to pay for a quality product. I've done a little bit of sculpting and prefer ProCreate over GS.

For base work or terrain building - Apoxie sculpt is the way to go. You could try using it on figures, but the larger grain in the epoxy is going to return poorer results.

Hmmm ok what about milliput? Worth it?

Milliput is great for sculpting weapons (swords etc) as it sets rock hard - you can sand it, file it, scrape it to a fine edge. I use superfine white but haven't tried any of the other varieties.

One thing to note about GS is that you can mix in a bit of FIMO (at ~1:4 ratio fimo to GS) and it makes it much easier to smooth and work.


Stuart

The sad truth is that there really isn't any great way to keep any of this stuff from drying out if you let it sit around long enough. You should probably try keeping it in a ziplock bag or something, because, unless your projects are large, or you are extremely prolific, it'll start to become extremely stiff and difficult tor work long before you use it all up - at least that's my experience. However, I haven't been doing too much for a long time.
I'd buy some GS or Milliput and open it, use it to sculpt a head, or a hand, and then not work on anything for 6 months - Come to think of it - if there are any more suggestions as to how to soften up old GS, I wouldn't mind hearing about it myself - not to hijack your thread, te3b0r.

The other thing about squadron green putty (and squadron white putty) is that it's not really 'hand sculptable'. It's way too gooey a consistency to sculpt a mini with. It's okay for texturing bases - which is what I use it for. And it also makes some pretty convincing hair and fur once you spread it thin and let it firm up a little. But it gets brittle over time also, and can break after 5 years or so. You may also want to wear a gas mask while you're using it!

I have (although I am not a sculpting expert) the following putties:

Tamaya (grey in tube) : used for creating texture on bases. Can be scraped into rough shapes.

Testors (white in tube) : smooth and can be worked into cracks easily. Used for filling gaps in models.

Milliput (normal) : used for creating structure and larger modeling pieces.

Greenstuff (green two part epoxy - Duh!) : used for creating very fine fluid details.

Procreate (grey two part epoxy) : used for creating (with more hardener) sharp edges such as teeth and weapons. Can also be used just like green stuff.

HTH

mr. mxlflck wrote:The sad truth is that there really isn't any great way to keep any of this stuff from drying out if you let it sit around long enough. You should probably try keeping it in a ziplock bag or something, because, unless your projects are large, or you are extremely prolific, it'll start to become extremely stiff and difficult tor work long before you use it all up - at least that's my experience. However, I haven't been doing too much for a long time.
I'd buy some GS or Milliput and open it, use it to sculpt a head, or a hand, and then not work on anything for 6 months - Come to think of it - if there are any more suggestions as to how to soften up old GS, I wouldn't mind hearing about it myself - not to hijack your thread, te3b0r.

The other thing about squadron green putty (and squadron white putty) is that it's not really 'hand sculptable'. It's way too gooey a consistency to sculpt a mini with. It's okay for texturing bases - which is what I use it for. And it also makes some pretty convincing hair and fur once you spread it thin and let it firm up a little. But it gets brittle over time also, and can break after 5 years or so. You may also want to wear a gas mask while you're using it!

The thing with gs is it is a catalyzing epoxy the more you kneed it the softer it gets so it might take a while to get it to working consistency.

If you are talking about the ribbon type GS then yes it will be catalysing all the time it is sitting there (until you cut out the middle ~2mm and keep the two parts separate). I'd recommend using the tube type GS as it is easier to keep the blue and yellow parts separate, but whichever you use if you are only using it sporadically, keep your GS in the freezer as it slows the catalysing process down and keeps it fresher.


Stuart

cool - I hadn't heard about the freezer trick. I'll see what happens -
what about dried up milliput? I've got some of that, too. I dont' think that stuff's going to come back to life. It's in seperate tubes, but its still all hardened.

Ive had my two tubes of milliput for absolutly ages.

Ive kept mine in the two bags it was wrapped in the start with, and keeping both of those in a drawer in my desk. The yellow has kept really easily workable, but the grey isnt AS workable, I can cut a chuck off I need but ive noticed its abit harder . . . probable because it is the hardner

I prefer the pro-create and brown stuff over the Green stuff. They just seem to have a smoother finish in my opinion but maybe that is just me.

BTW what is FIMO?

can mix in a bit of FIMO (at ~1:4 ratio fimo to GS)

Has anyone tried mixing Yellow-gray milliput with Green-stuff? It seems to be the cheapest, therefore the least suited for sculpting I would think. Perhaps mixing it as you would with milliput and green stuff to get the best of both materials. I may have to be the one to try this

Hmmm... Apparently someone has microwaved their 10-yr. old milliput (sounds like a.... awwww...... ) and got it to be useable again. Honestly though this is not advisable, at the very least never use the microwave again.

Fimo is a polymer clay that, on it's own, needs to be baked to harden (but does not if mixed with GS).

Mixing GS with milliput is possible and I occasionally use this to pad out armatures before sculpting details on top. It is a bit more difficult to work with than just GS (in my opinion) but because milliput is water reactive you can smooth it down relatively easily. I just find it difficult to make details stick in milliput :(


Stuart

I was mainly talking about the Yellow-gray milliput as a mix with with Green-stuff. I went to the store and bought the Yellow-gray milliput and I was a bit surprised at the cost but I want to get my project started. It appears to be roughly the same cost if not more than Green-stuff. The instructions say all grades are useable for sculpting, If I were to describe it from it's look it seems to be slightly grittier and a lot more adhesive. It seems like a sponge tipped tool with a dab of water would easily smooth the Yellow-gray milliput to avoid future cracking and achieve a smooth texture without too much sanding. Is any of this stuff akin to wood fillers? I see a similarity in use, although the milliput would probably be much more effective on anything.

Here is an example of how I used the wood filler. I would advise against using this for anything besides terrain as it is VERY brittle when dry. But it is pretty cheap and makes some fantastic walls, bricks, rocks, and the like. It also responds well to stains, varnishes, and thin paints.