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Anyone have any advice / tutorials on wrapping putty around a thin brass rod?

The goal is to create a couple spears to hang off a Juggerlord. I want to sculpt details into the handles going down the haft. The rod is about 4cm in length and 1.19mm in diameter - really thin. The putty should go the length of the rod and the finished spear should be about 2.5mm in width.

Achieving a consistently smooth and thick surface is tricky. The putty bunches up in areas after I apply it, making the spears look thicker on certain parts. It also flattens near the seams, making it so the haft is not convincingly round. Each time I fix one problem, the other crops up, and eventually the putty cures before I'm done sculpting.

The mediums I've tried are Green Stuff and Procreate. I figure someone else has had to deal with this before. Any thoughts on how to make it work?

So the first thing that occurred to me has probably already occurred to you, but I would try laying out a flat rectangle of GS, lay the rod in the middle, fold the GS over the rod and then roll it into a tube.

This is a very hard thing because sculpting with GS doesn't work the way common thought thinks. GS is PUSHED about. therefore, at any point you are creating inward detail, another point is being pushed outward. GS does not, in a sense, compact (you can carve out GS, it is just much harder to remove all you need perfectly because of it's sticky nature). Doing what you are trying is in reality working against the very medium you are trying to use. I have done a lot of GS sculpting, even my own minis, and do not claim greatness, but have a lot of experience. Here are the only suggestions I have and they aren't great;
If your goal is to create a uniform shaft, buy a thicker wire and add only the extra detail (such as streamers, handles etc). I did this with rough riders. If you look closely here you can see, but what I did is minimal, so you may need more.
https://edwardmystcreations.weebly.com/imperial-guard-sisters-of-steel-roughriders.html

If you want more than that (details like power cables or filigree carved in, which it sounds like) You have to sculpt GS in stages. Some ideas; Try to pick a single detail along the spear, get it right, and let it harden. This will allow you to smooth the lumps created by your sculpting down the wire. Worry about perfect shape and cylinder etc down the length AFTER you have put your detail on. Do not try to make a cylinder of GS around the spear, then carve into it. Carving one side will deform the other (plus, not sure how at this thinness and shape you will merge where it wraps together)
So, in a sense, try to do this in strips down one side of the spear, then the other later. Plan your details carefully, and sculpt on one side of the spear at a time, allowing you to slice off excess etc. Then sculpt the other side, filling in the gap that may exist between the two sides as a very last step. (Sorry, kind of made a meal of this)

I wish I could help more. Your idea sounds cool and I am always in favor of modeling/converting attempts.

PS: You might hear a bunch of suggestions on mixing your GS etc. Please just remember people's opinions are that. Mix to the consistency you like. I go about 60/40 yellow/blue. I have had people on Dakka tell me I'm insane for not going 80/20. I like my GS firmer. They clearly like it softer. More blue equals firmer, more yellow equals softer.
Another tip. A bit of super glue on a surface, sticks GS to it almost instantly. When I do say a streamer on a spear, I roll it out, cut it to shape, then use a drop of super glue to stick one end to the spear (usually to the tip) then roll it down. Letting it harden before I add the attachment sculpt. This may help you at least start your strips.

Edit: found a few pics here, not great but show my streamer idea.

Like this, but straight?



I'd advise doing the rod in stages for the reason edwardmyst mentioned. You can achieve a pretty smooth finish around a rod by rolling out green stuff to the length of the rod, affix it to one side by presssing down on it, and then lapping the sides around the rod. The trick here is to leave a channel open in the back so that you can smooth the green stuff to the same thickness and give it room in the back to spread out. Once that's cured, you can fill in the back in a second session.

Another thing to consider is that success in sculpting doesn't just mean building up but also taking away. You can scrape over green stuff with a sharp scalpel and level it out like that. Ideally that's just a finish and the actual sculpting takes you close to that already. Scraping down large lumps is not the most efficient way to get there.

A lot can be fixed with patience and working in stages, really.

You might want to try milliput. Apply it generally around the rod, wait half an hour then add your details using a scalpel or whatever. Or you could wait for it to dry, then sand it down to the required level, then score the wood details into the cured milli. Milliput cures harder then GS so will be much more suited to your situation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you are sanding milliput ensure you cover your nose/mouth or wear a mask.

First off, thank you everyone for the replies.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
So the first thing that occurred to me has probably already occurred to you, but I would try laying out a flat rectangle of GS, lay the rod in the middle, fold the GS over the rod and then roll it into a tube.

This is exactly what I've been doing. Also tried applying small thin layers around the rod.

edwardmyst wrote:
This is a very hard thing because sculpting with GS doesn't work the way common thought thinks. GS is PUSHED about. therefore, at any point you are creating inward detail, another point is being pushed outward. GS does not, in a sense, compact (you can carve out GS, it is just much harder to remove all you need perfectly because of it's sticky nature). Doing what you are trying is in reality working against the very medium you are trying to use.

Very useful perspective. Those models look great!

 Geifer wrote:
Like this, but straight?

Spoiler:

Similar. The reference I am working off is this:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/uruczy/16042110923/in/photostream/

You will see ribbed area around the haft of the spears. I'm trying to replicate that.

The other idea was to do something like the texture around Voldus' hammer. Not sure how to get the diamonds to line up, so I settled for the ribs.

That picture you linked has the hammer wrapped in what is essentially a series of GS rings. If you laid out GS, rolled it flat, cut it to length and then slightly under the width needed to wrap your shaft, you could score those lines into the GS before wrapping it. Then you would just have to connect the back. You could even put diamonds in your strip, then use a flat piece of plasticard liberally coated with chapstick to slide under and flip the strip over, then roll it. I do this all the time. I use an old tile (or piece of pergo flooring) to roll out on and cut on, and chapstick to keep it from sticking too much to the tile. I roll out with the lid from the chapstick as a cheap and easy tool. Note, that I sculpt with silicon tools. I have a flat-wedge shape that would make those "sections" perfectly, and then could do the diamonds, but any piece of plasticard strip could work as well. Just slide your tool across the chapstick, and it won't stick. Press in the four sides of the diamond (inward, so that the inside of the diamond raises outward) and bam, might have it.
Note, the chapstick as lubricant will make the GS non-sticky, so when you flip it, you might need a gentle dab to remove some, or go to the super glue method along the starting edge of the roll. I sure don't mean to make this sound easy, either, but it might be doable.
In other words, sculpt your detail with the GS flat on something, then roll it onto the shaft, Maybe cutting excess or simply doing small enough to then blend.
Whatever you manage, please share. I am always looking for ideas/techniques!

 techsoldaten wrote:

 Geifer wrote:
Like this, but straight?

Spoiler:

Similar. The reference I am working off is this:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/uruczy/16042110923/in/photostream/

You will see ribbed area around the haft of the spears. I'm trying to replicate that.

The other idea was to do something like the texture around Voldus' hammer. Not sure how to get the diamonds to line up, so I settled for the ribs.

Well then, that's fun.

I'd do that one segment at a time. It's horribly time consuming to wait for every little bit to cure, of course, but you'll have solid reference for the following segment once the previous one is in place and can't accidentally mash them up when they're solid. In a way it's easier to do that than a solid staff because you only have so much vertical space to cover in one go and can fully concentrate on lapping the green stuff around the rod. You can also easily cut off excess above or below the section you're working on. It's just going to take a while to do.

Oh, and I'd do this over Voldus's hammer any day of the weak. That diamond pattern is murder.

Have you looked at using plasticard rod or tube instead? It would give you a sculptable surface, and you could still add gs details to it

edwardmyst wrote:
That picture you linked has the hammer wrapped in what is essentially a series of GS rings. If you laid out GS, rolled it flat, cut it to length and then slightly under the width needed to wrap your shaft, you could score those lines into the GS before wrapping it. Then you would just have to connect the back.

Brilliant suggestion, thank you! Tried it and got something serviceable on the first try. Here's a pic.



From left to right:

- Original Polystyrene rod I planned to use. It was too thick to believably be used by the model.

- Procreate, scored on a mat and wrapped around 1.2mm brass rod. This was a quick sculpt, letting it cure before I clean it up.

- Previous Procreate sculpt, where I tried to score the shaft with the putty around the model. Almost as thick as the original rod.

I think it looks good! Glad to have helped. Painted up you'll have a winner there and I hope you share some finished pics. Love the idea.