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Hey, Dakka

I've rescently been very interested in gettin' good with this wierd substance we all know as Green Stuff (because it's green... And stuff!)

I've seen all kinds of conversions with this stuff - some better than others, but haven't had my luck with finding guides about how-to-whatever...

What i DID find, however, was some reviews of the GS, a few short articles on how to make cloth, fur, and capes. Also a few on how NOT to leave your fingerprints on it - doesn't look too great when having the finished result, anyways.

Well, the reason to why i need advice on this is mainly due the the work i've seen people managing to get out of it. I have even seen some making whole miniatures from the GS all alone! o.O

So... If any of you awesome converter-geeks feels like sharing your wisdom with the needy of heart (that'd be me, for starters.), now is the time to do so! <3


Regards
Bill'


Automatically Appended Next Post:
*bump*

An example i've stumbled upon some time ago, that really impressed me:






And the finished product:

Have you checked the Dakka P&M Tutorials section? I'm sure I recall a few specific tutorials (sculpting cloth, sculpting fur, etc.) that also gave general GS advice. There was one that rolled a few different specific tutorials into a nice overview of general GS skills. Forget who wrote it, but it won a tutorial contest Dakka ran a while ago.

Honestly, unless you're going to pay for a mini sculpting book (or .pdf), you're just going to have to practice with the stuff, taking what you've learned from each specific tutorial and adding them to a general skill set. I've glanced at the sculpting sections of a few of these (primarily painting) guides and they don't really cover anything you can't glean from Dakka threads and tutorials.

I've just started sculpting and though am not very experienced am getting quite OK at it. My best advice is to understand the properties of the material. You can't sculpt GS the same way you can Milliput for example.

You have to remember that working with GS is much like working with chewing gum or soft wax.

Some of the best little tips i read are -

- Push and pull it, coax it slowley... if you are to rough it will end up lumpy.

- Work it in the same direction, when you move it you also kind of create a grain and to then go against this grain comprimises the structural integrity.

- Keep you tools MOIST (not wet!!), i find the best way to do this is put a drop of water on your thumb meat then wipe your tool on that. Not tried vaseline yet though i hear good things.

- Above all be patient... sometimes you have to wait for a particular cure hardness till you can do a particular thing with it.

Hope that helps... Oh and check out the thread 'whatwhats green stuff tips and tricks...

FTL

http://www.sciborminiatures.com/en_,sculpting.php
http://www.miniaturementor.com/painting_tutorials.html (includes sculpting DVDs, scroll down)

This is an awesome thread because I'd been digging for GS tricks and tips myself and was not finding what I had hoped for. Thanks to OP and to all who replied.

Practice has a lot going for it.

I haven't read any tuts on GS but can make a passable cape/overcoat for my necro minis.

Its really easy to make GS stuff chainmail, I would show you now but I am out of GS. But I do have apoint that is VERY VERY VERY (insert more 'verys' here) important. Dont buy it from GW.
GW's is £6 for 6''. On ebay its £8 for 36 he is the link for it: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Green-Stuff-Kneadatite-36-inches-/310236159605?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item483b841e75

I echo what others have mentioned; keep it damp to work without it sticking to your fingers. Also I'd suggest rather than applying to a model straight away why not attach small squares to a board and practice what you intend to put on the model?

So i've just been using olive oil (though any kitchen type would do) as a lubricant... its works very well. Just don't flood your mini... lightly moist the tip of the tool... again its good to put some on your thumb meat first.

FTL

Wow, that's alot of help - thanks guys!

The main problem i've got it trying to keep the green stuff in the same place.

I was doing this conversion on an older tyranid model, trying to make The Parasite of Mortrex.

The main problems i encountered was, mainly, that i left prints all the time, from having too big fingers, too small a model and too wide an area to cover with the GS.

Oh, well, some people say it's easier posting images - hang on while i upload some i've taken to ImageShack! (why am i even posting my upload progress? Gees!)

...

Okay, so for starter, here's some pictures of the miniature, so you can see the work i've done.












And lastly, i've decorated the Base with a ripper popping out through the chest, Alien style:




It still needs alot of details to it. But frankly, what details to add is also amongst the details. The best approach would be to make them look natural (Like adding muscles and sinew-effects!).

Furthermore, i found some Dark Elf fantasy miniatures, and had my attempt at making a female farseer (never saw that coming, eh?). My inspiration? Well, none else than i ended up using too much GS for the hooters! ^_^


This is, of course, also a WIP - and it needs alot of attention aswell;










As you can probably see, some gaps needs to be filled, but as a first attempt at making a GS-cloak, i think it turned out okay. Being the perfectionist i am, i'm nothing near happy with it, but as a first approach, i'll accept it as a WIP!
Also woth mentioning, being a male -> female-conversion, the face needs to be altered. The cheekbones are too visible, so i thought about giving the holes some gs to straighten them out. But the nose, being too "sharp" are gonna be harder to fix. I'd perfeer it to have a softer-looking nose.


Well, that concludes my work and progress so far.
As said, i'm still in need of advice - any advice i can get from you champs out there. I've seen too great works, such as the 1st thread Tervigon, to stop practicing now!

Regards
Bill



EDIT:
Okay, i browsed through the pictures just now. The yellow light toned ones are kinda blurry, but the white light ones should be just fine. Just remember to enlarge them, once you've clicked the image-link!