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I've brought this up in here before but still have had trouble getting a really nice electricity / energy effect through any kind of sculpting means. I've tried greenstuff, which winds up being too thick and does not give a very good arcing effect. I've tried roots, but they tend to be frail and don't hold up over time.

One Idea I thought of was to use wire by twisting it into the desired shape and then dipping it in resin to help solidify it. I'm not sure how well the resin would stick to bare wire so maybe a coat of glue or something could help?

Anyone have any other ideas that might help achieve the effect without creating something that's too frail?

I've actually pondered this before (Tyranid electroshock grubs) but Ive never seen anything done that looked 'right', unfortunately.

I had made this some time back, the energy/electricity eagle power was just done with some very bent and kinked up wire and a little bit of Apoxie sculpt for the eagle shape over some bent wire. If you just use some wire and bend it in appropriate ways and angles you should have decent looking arcing electricity. Just look at pics of lightning strikes for good reference.

The tough part is making the forking part of the lightning, but it's usually so fiddly and doesnt want to stay together. I just avoided it. Making a few "strands" of wire lightning together will do the trick.

Damn thats cool dude.

I like your idea of using roots, could you strengthen them with a paper clip and then coat with superglue?

GrimTeef wrote:

I had made this some time back, the energy/electricity eagle power was just done with some very bent and kinked up wire and a little bit of Apoxie sculpt for the eagle shape over some bent wire. If you just use some wire and bend it in appropriate ways and angles you should have decent looking arcing electricity. Just look at pics of lightning strikes for good reference.

The tough part is making the forking part of the lightning, but it's usually so fiddly and doesnt want to stay together. I just avoided it. Making a few "strands" of wire lightning together will do the trick.

I've seen that one before and it is absolutely amazing. I may try to merge techniques here and thicken up some resin with Talc. I think it would hold to the wire better and allow for a quick dip once I get the wire bent into shape. I'll post some pics of the results if It winds up working out.

Inflatable love badger wrote:I like your idea of using roots, could you strengthen them with a paper clip and then coat with superglue?

The roots definitely look the part, but I've never been too keen on using organic material in modeling. I've tried strengthening it with all kinds of stuff but it's always still too flimsy which is just a personal annoyance.

If you're dipping into resin, what about cutting zip ties with ragged, irregular edges, and twisting them to shapes? You could dip a couple of times.

I think they turned out pretty well but ill let you all be the judge. The wire is definately reinforced by the resin. I think with a little bit of tweaking you could get come pretty cool results

Those definitely work!
With a little GS work that would look perfect.