It isn't a bad idea really, the only thing about scratch sculpting (especially with Greenstuff) is that it's a very time consuming process. Especially if you plan on sculpting the entire thing out of
GS with no base model or armature out of something else.
That being said, no it's actually a great idea but perhaps outside your current level of skill!
The main thing is that you don't have any experience working with
GS, so going straight to scratch sculpting your own models is abit like opening a restaurant before you know how to cook!
Now, as for what you asked for. Here are some tips from my experiences with greenstuff. I haven't done alot of scratch building, but I've used it alot for conversions etc.
- Green stuff is composed of two parts, putty and catalyst. So, one part is the actual stuff that you are working with, the other is what makes it eventually harden. You'll want equal amounts of blue and yellow.
-If your hands are naturally very warm it can be abit annoying to work with greenstuff, it gets sticky and refuses to co-operate if its too warm.
- Use a sculpting tool made of metal or plastic, as smooth as you can get it. This is to prevent the green stuff sticking to the tool. Wood is propably the worst thing in the world for this, unless its laminated or really really smooth. Find whatever works best for you. I tend to use a length of florist wire for basic stuff, but I have some sculpting tools as well.
- When you are mixing green stuff, dipping your hand in water
(or just licking your fingers ^^) will prevent it from sticking to you as easily. Same applies for your tools. A wet tool is better for manipulating wet putty. Dab away excess water on the greenstuff with a paper towel if required. Most of the warhammer modellers around here tend to just keep the wad of greenstuff in their mouth if they need to work on something else for a while! I can't exactly endorse this kind of thing, but if it helps then great ^^
- Greenstuff will hold fingerprints. Smoothen them out by making your finger or smooth sculpting tool wet and smoothening them out. This is the most common thing I see when people are new to sculpting, lots and lots of fingerprints
- The cure time for greenstuff is several hours, but affected by the ratio of your putty mix, the temperature and humidity in your workspace as well as the age of your green stuff! Something radiant warm like a lamp can really speed up the cure time of green stuff. I tend to park mine around 5-8" away from a desk lamp I have here and that speeds things up alot!
- A trick I use when I need to hustle and get done with my greenstuff work and move on to painting is to 'paint' over the area with some super glue. I wouldn't recommend doing this on a large scale, but for a joint or a small area of greenstuff this works fine. Just remember that the greenstuff hasn't actually hardened all the way through, the top layer has just been sealed. This is important if you're pinning a model or otherwise making that joint bear weight.
- Yet another trick involving glue, affectionately named "Super Stuffing" is used when you need to set a proplematic joint that doesn't take well to pinning. Just yesterday I did this with the arms of a Ushabti I had. You take the appropriate amount of greenstuff, attach it to one side, then apply glue to the other. Press together and quickly scrape away any excess green stuff. The green stuff will harden almost immediately and bond to both sides. Mind you, this does give you a bond that is more brittle than proper green stuffing, but it bonds better and takes seconds!
Scratch building tips - Use an armature. A length of wire and small plastic bits or whatever, anything that's abit smaller than your intended piece. This is to get away from having to sculpt the entire thing out of greenstuff (which is fine for small things, but full models its abit much) and also to lend strength to your sculpt. A tube of green stuff is more durable if it has a 'skeleton' made of wire inside it.
- Take your time. Scratch sculpting really tests your patience. You'll need to sculpt in layers and must allot appropriate cure time for each layer so you don't accidentally ruin it when you start work on the next one. Remember to smoothen out any fingerprints on your top layers, they're annoying to go back to and fix later.
There are thousands of guides on how to work with green stuff and how to build your own models. Search around on this site and you'll find some great ones one I've referenced before is
this one. But really, a quick search will net you loads of sites!
Hope this wall of text doesn't scare you off, try your hand at sculpting and see how it works. The suggestions already made about different materials to work with are great as they have different textures once dry, and have different strengths!
Keep us updated on your progress!
