Buono estente.
dastardlyfi wrote:I am about to venture into the world of greenstuff, as I have put it off for as long as I can. Does anyone have any general tips?
Read this. 
Green stuff can have trouble with sharp details and edges, but mixing more yellow as standard, as per one of the tips there, helps a lot with that problem.
If you have a strip of
GS, rather than a tube, cut out a few
mm from the middle where the blue and yellow parts meet. The two parts will cure where they touch, creating hard lumps in your mixed putty, and it'll make your
GS go off quicker. On that note, store it somewhere cool if you're not going to use it for a while.
Games Workshop sculpting tools are a bit naff because they have no fine points or edges. Lots of things can be and are used as sculpting tools: needles, toothpicks, hobby knife/scalpel blades, bamboo skewers or chopsticks etc., all of which can be modified for better use. (Necessary for the bamboo stuff) Wax carvers (dental tools) are the go-to purpose-made tools. The cheaper sets of wax carvers can be okay but can often have a rushed finish, leaving some chunky or otherwise wonky edges.
I'd recommend dental
quality wax carvers, which can be individually bought for surprisingly cheap prices on ebay and elsewhere. Not as cheap per item as hobby wax carvers, and you don't get the variety of a walletful of the latter; but they're very finely finished, and one with the right shapes and qualities will do you for most jobs - pushing, prodding, cutting, marking, spreading, smoothing. Different types of wax carver actually have different names. Do a search for 'zahle wax carver', 'lecron', 'hylin' and 'vehe' for a look at what I think are some of the more handy types.
Clay shapers are like silicone-tipped 'paintbrushes'. The smaller types are useful in mini sculpting, though maybe more for smoothing the putty.
Use water, vaseline or vegetable oil to lightly lubricate your sculpting tools. Lots of people swear by the oil-based options, but they'll need washed off between sessions. I use water, but the problem there is that too much will get everywhere and prevent the putty from sticking to anything. I get around it by just patting tools on a bit of moist sponge in a shallow dish. (I still have an impressive stock from when
GW put sponge in their blister packs)
On the subject of sticking, there's a time and a place for pushing hard on the putty, but most of the time you'll want repetitive short, quick presses to shape the putty. Even with lube, there's little more frustrating having the putty stick to the tool and peel off the model or sculpt because you pressed too hard.
Build up in layers. Start with a wire armature if you're doing a complete sculpt, or part of a model that'll need to be supported as it cures. Bulk out rough shapes and refine them. Do the same with final surface layers, smooth out the general shapes before marking in details. Tweak, primp and refine as you go.
Also, if anyone has any specific tips for the following I'd appreciate it.
Yeah, maybe try something other than green stuff. You've got a lot of plans for mechanical objects there, and other putties might be better suited to achieve the sharp edges and smooth surfaces you need. Literally
any other putty: procreate, brown stuff (now Privateer Press' putty), milliput, magic sculp, apoxie sculpt, Tamiya smooth surface or quick type, A+B, etc. etc... take your pick. Most of them can be carved, scraped and sanded better than
GS's rubbery texture too. (Procreate is one exception, IME) The more claylike types like milliput and apoxie sculpt can benefit from a little
GS mixed into them - you still get the smoothing and sanding qualities, but the
GS elasticity helps bind their softer, more grainy consistency. (Grainy as in more easily torn than stretched, rather than 'gritty')
Although... are there bits you could use? I wouldn't fancy tackling the particular shape of a psychic hood or the details of a grav gun myself, not if I wasn't particularly desperate and if there was a handy piece of plastic resting among some bits seller's stock. Getting a lot of consistent IF logos seems a bit daunting too, unless you want to go with press moulds. (Or Forgeworld etched brass) I get it if you've lined up some projects specifically for starting and practising sculpting, but it seems you've picked some doozies.
Apart from the gap filling.
