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I'm familiar, at least passingly, with the usual greenstuff, milliput, etc. as sculpting materials. But are there any materials out there that dry clear or translucent? Ability to take dyes would be a plus, but hardly necessary. I have some translucent sculpey, but it's not nearly as translucent as I'd like and as I'd more than likely be sculpting pieces on to some plastic minis, I'd rather not mess around with putting those in the oven.

What I'm really wanting to do the most is use it to make things like flames and glowing wisps of energy, although making other things like glasses/windows would also be cool. Other thoughts I'd had were to sculpt in GS and then cast in clear resin, although that could make things difficult depending on geometry. Now that I'm thinking about it though, would something like water effects work for this? I've never tried them, so I don't really know what kind of consistency they come in.

Sooo...are there any secrets that I'm missing out on, or are any of these methods highly encouraged/discouraged, or am I just SOL? Tried searching this and the tutorials section to no avail.

Hmmm an interesting question and apart from clear resin I don't have any answers but I'm keen to find out?

Maybe you could search for and mess around with some water effects (dosen't have to be GWs) that model makers use for their cities and landscapes, it's usually pretty transparent and most can take dyes. My mom is into those villages you can make and a few years back she made a red river of blood for her halloween one. Maybe make a mold of GS then fill it with the water effect mixture.

If it didn't stick to everything I'd suggest using hot glue but it would just stick to the mold so you'd have to find some way to keep it from sticking.

And I know some people have melted down flying stands and bases and put those into molds.

Just a few ideas

I don't know about clear epoxy putties, but I could swear I've seen transparent polymer clays other than clear sculpey. Might be able to find something if you keep looking. Honestly, I think sculpting in your medium of choice and casting in resin would be the way to go for most projects.

If it's any help, Testors makes "clear parts cement and window maker". The bottle says it can be used as an adhesive or to make windows on models and dries to be as clear as glass. I picked up a bottle from a local model shop about a month ago, but I still have not had the time to test it out unfortunately.

Krystal Klear does a similar job to the Testors product though I haven't used it myself.

For small flames etc.
Clear sprue from model aircraft transparencies can be stretched over a tea candle. It tapers off so could be used and will take trasnparent washes.
(I use Johnsons Klear/Futur floorpolish + acrylic paint for navigation lights)

Look at acrylic media. There are some which are very dense and can be formed into waves. That ought to work for your flames and stuff. It can be tinted with acrylic paint.

I don't know if they would work for sculpting an entire figure. If you want to do that, you should think about sculpting it the normal way, to use the parts to make moulds for casting in clear resin.

There is clear resin that can be dyed in any colour: You have to make a mould for this.
Some 2 component water effects also use this material, some getting hot in the process (1 component water effects tend to shrink quite a lot while drying)..
A different thing is small clear surfaces lke windows with Krystall Clear being a good souce.

Someone posted this a while ago.

http://www.hlj.com/product/KME08300

Google clear clay.

FTL

There is a water effect by woodland scenics that can be sculpted into watre falls and waves etc.. i have the normal liquid version, but the other version is like a thick cream that dries transparent linky http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/C1212/page/1

Wow, lots of great stuff to look into. Thanks all!