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Tryin to sculpt with solder started
I've made a tree and stump
but want to know best kind of solder is the best
if any one has any tips or helpful hints
i will be adding pictures soon

Most solder is tres' bad for you. Try lead free stuff though there may still be concentrations of cadmium mercury and other nasty chemicals. I cannot recommend stopping highly enough.

way to be creative though!

I've tried it when I was bored at work. I manged to get a paperclip man out of the deal, but decided that the fumes from the flux really didn't help anything.

That said, if you want to get into metal working, there are a lot less toxic materials you could be working with, such as bismuth.

If you ever soldered a metal model together you will have realised that soldering would not be an effective method for sculpting.

I soldered the chaos daemon prince and man oh man, trying to keep that solder hot enough for it to fill all the holes was a pain; the rest of the metal parts sucked the heat from it very quickly. I had to have the whole thing heated while i soldered, and it really is not energy efficient. If presented with the daemon prince again, I would still solder it because that model is a piece of junk and needs to be soldered

here are the pics of the three and stump

Usually, when you're in the world of metal trees, what you start out by doing is by making the tree out of various gauges of wrapped wire as the frame.

Once the armature is down, then it's only a matter of achieving the particular texture you want. Solder could work (as I can plainly see), but so would greenstuff in this case. GS would also form a pretty permanent bond, but it wouldn't be nearly so futzy or toxic.

Bad idea imo. Poor control, impossible to work with, unhealthy to work with, impossible to refine. No good reason to use it over actual modeling putty.

well its a shame its bad for your health , i didnt actually know that , because that tre is pure art , i wouldnt ever paint it. good job.

I'm impressed with what you ended up with given that you made it from solder, but I think that you probably could have achieved something equally as good with Ailaros' method, and without the risk of burns and fume inhalation.

You don't get that seductively sweet scent of molten flux, though...

Ailaros wrote:You don't get that seductively sweet scent of molten flux, though...

Nor do you feel the sweet kiss of molten metal on your hands.

One guy I know reached up to itch a scratch on the corner of his mouth absently using his solder iron hand.

!!!!

Really nice tree and stump actually, would like to see it primed/black wash, or better yet, painted!

I saw this thread on the painting and modelling page. I was like-WHAAATTT!!!!!

Nice work on the tree though. Keep at it, or don't, if you want to, you know,like, not die?

Very nice!
Try to remove more of the flux though, it can be hard to paint.
Solder isn't that big of a health risk as log as you don't deliberatly breath in the flux fumes and was your hands well after use.

I solder with the kitchen extractor fan on.
I also have a variable power, temperature controllable soldering station (but I've been doing electronics longer than I've been gaming - and I've been gaming for 25 years).

I used to clean the tip with a wet finger and thumb at school (The teacher used to smell something and look up, asking "What's burning?" - my classmates would point to me. I have calloused index fingers and thumbs, though - and copious scarring on them, too).

Nice work on the stump.

You know, I as soon as I read the title, I thought, "Seriously? How could anyone ever think that is a good idea (and not for the namby-pamby health warnings others have given )?" I still think there are about a billion easier ways to go about sculpting, but those two pieces are badass, plain and simple.