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Just a quick question for the experienced green-stuffers out there:

How long does green stuff take to harden fully (cure?)

Previously I've just used blue-tac coated with superglue, but seeing as I'm using GS for the ankles of a model, I needed something that would stand up to a bit of stress.

Thanks

Depends - thickness and percentages of the mix will impact the cure time. You can also accelerate it with a heat lamp/hot box. Normally though, you will want to wait a good 24 hours before painting it. You can add more GS over old GS much sooner than that though.

Ah... so painting it before it was set was a bad idea? Well, that's impatience for you...

Cheers Sean

It "can" be a bad idea. Sometimes nothing happens which is odd.

The chemicals are still all doing their thing - you normally want to make sure that the process is complete before trying to add more variables into it. Granted, that is one of the way you get effects like crackle finishes - so it isn't all bad.

Also, I didn't mention it - and it may seem counter intuitive...but thicker GS will cure faster than thin GS. The chemical reaction creates heat. The heat cures the putty. The more putty, the more heat, the faster the cure.

It massively depends on temperature. If it's a cold winter it can take a very long time. Personally I have a 40W lamp (don't use the energy savers because they don't generate heat!) and just stick my models under that while they cure and they only take a few hours to go solid. Just be aware that while heated, it will actually feel softer, but it'll be curing faster (the chemical bonds which make it go hard will be created faster).

Usually you don't want to paint any sort of, well, anything, before it's properly cured because as curing it releases gases. If you paint over it, it inhibits the release of those gases. I honestly couldn't tell you if the same applies to green stuff, I know it applies to regular epoxy resin.

And yeah, as Sean said, it goes off really fast when you have more of it... one time I was making a carbon fibre composite piece with epoxy resin and we mixed up an epic container and it heated up so much it melted through the container and then cured in a big blob in about half the time we were expecting. Greenstuff isn't quite as impressive, but it's a similar concept.

Well, it's quite warm here right now (by england standards) so hopefully if I leave it in the sun it'll be ok by tomorrrow.
Thanks for the help