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So im trying to make a few terrain pieces with a focus around Tau, but i dont have enough of a type of bit to finish what i want to do. But someone suggested i get decently large ball of green stuff squish it into a circle then imprint the bit into it, then after that green stuff has dried (day or two) just press a small amount of green stuff into the "mold" then wait a day or so then pull it out and you have a copy of it. Does this work? or if anyone has an suggestions on how to do this better? and im not trying to make a character just small parts of a gun or half of a drones top ect...

Might work if you coat the item with Vaseline so it doesn't stick.
Then coat the mould with it as well, would be interested to see how this works

Hmm didnt think of that, ill try that, thanks.

First off something on replicating bitz: I don't know what terrain you have in mind and what bitz you want to replicate. But i'd highly advise you not to do it. Go to a bitz side or convert/sculpt your own details to replicate as - depending on your countries law - replicating GW bitz isn't legal.

Secondly: It can be done. But like soitra already said GS sticks to GS. So you need something to keep them apart. Vaseline might work but the problem will be to get it on without clogging to much details. I used a thin coat of cooking oil as it flows and doesn't clog as easy for my GS pressmoulds.
Also a thicker GS mould is rather inflexible and you might need some force to get the pieces out.

Another thing is that GS is hard to get into finer details so expect some loss of detail. A better alternative would be either blue stuff or instant mould.
Fromthewarp has an article that might be interesting if you want to invest in blue stuff: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.de/2011/11/molding-and-casting-shoulderpads.html

And i personally have used instant mould to try and replicate stuff like custom bases and a few sculpts of mine. The advantage of the stuff is that it can be reused and GS comes out of it easily without sticking. Also instant mould is flexible enough so that you can bent it to get the results out of it.
If you build a frame for pressing into (just like normal two piece resin casting) you can use instant mould with accepteable loss of detail. Just build a lego frame, press a bit of instant mould in and then push whatever you want to replicate in. After cooled down (if using cold water get it out of the mould before continuing) press the other side in. With useing the lego frame you'll have the advantage that most of the pressure you apply will stay inside the frame and the amount of distortion in the mould is reduced.


A few results what you can get using that. (I used a mix of milliput and GS as a material for the pieces.)

I'm not selling the molded bits. And the bits are just being added to the terrain to just add detail. And not really needing much detail with e ones I want to copy.and don't want to spend a fortune to copy a dozen bits or so

I second the InstaMold suggestion. I use it a lot and love it.

Wow instamold is the coolest ever. Now id just have to find something better then greenstuff, its tough to use some times. So you suggest blue stuff?

Tough to use for what? Sculpting? Or as medium for the press molded pieces?

Blue Stuff isn't like Green Stuff. As far as i've read it is softer but hardens rather fast. It is ment as a mould making material not as a sculpting putty. So i assume that it will stay somewhat rubbery for easy of mould removal. Pieces created from it will probably be to soft to use.
An alternative for Instant Mould but not for GS.

What i use for my press moulding is a mixture of GS and milliput. Milliput isn't as soft as GS and cures harder. It is more like a clay in consitency and much more cheaper. The Milliput standard is dirt cheap compared to GS.
Mixing GS into it creates a hybrid. A 1:1 mixing ratio might work for you.
Pure Milliput would be cheaper but it tends to be a bit brittle and you might create artefacts. Also you will dirty your Instand Mould rather quickly. It still works like normal but you'll loose the transparency of the medium if you don't clean it often.

What i do for my two piece pressmolds is press the putty into both pieces sperately and make sure that all details are filled. The transparency of instant mould can help you there.
You don't need to fill in both sides completely. Just make sure that the inside walls of the moulds and the edge a fully covered before you press both sides together. You might have some hollow areas this way but they won't be seen afterwards.

If you search for an alternative in sculpting only it highly depends on what your problems with GS are. Whatever you use - it mostly comes down to experience with the used medium. There are differences but as a beginner i think GS isn't a bad medium to use.

But if you could specifiy what you think is tough me or other user might help you further.

 btldoomhammer wrote:


Beat me to it
.

I would recommend instamould too. As a beginner in the sculpting department I have had extremely good success right off the bat. youtube has some great vids of people doing exactly what you are saying. I use instamould to create two part moulds with ease, takes a few attempts to get used to how much GS/milliput to put into the mould, but its an easy trick once you've done it a couple times. I also use a mix of 50:50 GS to milliput, its not so brittle but also fileable or sandable.

Maybe mine is just going bad but trying to combine gs together and then trying to make it plyable is tough. It's almost trying to combine two rocks. (Sight exaggeration but closest thing I can describe it)

Does it stay that tough even after kneading it? Are you useing the GS stripes or the bottles where both colors come seperate? Because if you have the stripes the middle part where both components meet will have already hardened bits in it. Cut the middle bit away before mixing.

Also if GS is too cold it can be tougher to knead. So if that should be the case hold the gs in your hand a bit before mixing both parts so that it gets hand-warm.

Also how old is your GS?

It gets a little easier to mold after their combined but not by much. And I'll try cutting the center away, have not tried that. And it's maybe a year old. I rarely used it till now.