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I have some conversions in the planning stages and Ive found green stuff is a great for filling cracks but my skill to shape it is not so great.

I have however had excellent results with Super Sculpy and some of the other bakeable polymer clay products. They are extremely easy to sculpt and hold detail well. The problem I have run into is that I want to sculpt some pieces to a metal/pewter figure and I want a nice fit. In the past, I have sculpted onto a part convered in tinfoil to get the contours and then just pulled it away from the part to bake it. This time, I want to see if I can bake it right on the metal part itself. The clay itself requires appx 275 F /130 C for appx 15 minutes. Im hoping this is not too hot for the metal figure itself. The part itself has very little detail and what is does have, will be covered with the clay.

My question is if any has had experiece with this process of baking onto a metal part as apposed to baking and applying with glue later. I dont have any spare junk to experiement with at the moment.

I love sculpting in super sculpey, but having to pull it off your model and bake it is a huge disadvantage.

As for baking it on a metal figure, it depends on what kind of metal it really is. Figures can be cast from a variety of alloys with different melting points. The lowest temp on that list is 140C, which translates to 284F, kind of close but you can always bake your sculpey a little longer at a slightly lower temp.

Thanks Terra. I was hoping for good melting point and not have it start to drip like solder. Its the standard metal of the GW figures. I held a torch to it for about a minute on a small chunk of sprue and it did nothing so I think the oven should be safe for what I intend but I will keep an eye on while its in there.

Rick

It should be noted that the melting point (starts to deform) and sublimation point (puddle) on many white metal alloys isn't that different. It can still look solid UNTIL something shifts, or it is bumped, whereupon it will slump into a puddle.

I learned this from countless casting sessions back in the early 90s and became intimately familiar with the properties of the various alloys that GW (and other makers, like Reaper and Ral Partha) used.

One way around this is to boil the Super Sculpey rather than bake it. I've done this (mostly to avoid that Sculpey-baking smell) without issues. You need to boil for longer than you would bake, but it cures just as hard as far as I can tell. I doubt 100 °C/212 °F is high enough to endanger the metal.