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So I have a 99% finished Eldar Wraithknight (even base is finished -_- )
But as of yet to sculpt a proper head that I wanted to look somewhat like the Harlequin guise of Cegorach.

Every time I attempt to sculpt something from scratch, before I'm anywhere the water dries up and everything sticks and goes out of model again..
And I'm not a good sculptor ..aware that its a process that can take a-while .. but my headless Wraithknight has been standing around waiting for his senses for about half a year now.. and I still don't have the esteem that I can make something proper for it not wanting to botch it.

Is there a good guide (pref. not a video, cause I cannot download from YT and have no internet at home) to sculpting properly (I do have all the tools) with greenstuff to make some waves? (figuratively speaking)

I was making a mold from a 'Krull (marvel) head' because it looked the most like Cegoragh imho, tried an 'Edea' (ff8) figurine's head before that, and a Zell (also ff8) figurine's head aswell just for the face, but sculpting the ears always results in the entire thing looking wonky.

Was trying to get something along the lines of the purple centaur wraithknight you can find on google, but life's hard.
Maybe someone here can help?

Thanks in advance.
-Leopold Helveine.

Rather than using water have you tried Vaseline? You need to wash it off before painting, but it helps with keeping the surface nice and smooth.

 Flinty wrote:
Rather than using water have you tried Vaseline? You need to wash it off before painting, but it helps with keeping the surface nice and smooth.

Ahh, no I haven't. I will try that.

Many things to say but I will try to keep it brief:

1) Get some clay shapers:

Metal tools are good to get stuff roughed in initailly, but after that you should be sculpting almost exclusively with something like the above. 90% of what I sculpt can be done with just the chisel-shaped clay shaper. A small, blunt knofe can be useful too. I have an old penknife that I use for removing bits of greenstuff making sharp lines. A hobby blade is too sharp.

2) Pay attention to your greenstuff mix. You can be pretty flexible with the ratio between the blue and yellow parts. If you mix in more blue, it will be less sticky and less soft. More yellow, and it'll be more sticky and soft. When I buy new greenstuff, I tend to cut off 50% of the yellow strip and throw it in the bin. Mixes with more blue in are much easier to work with in my experience, but your mileage may vary, so experiment.

3) Don't over-lubricate. This is REALLY important and barely ever mentioned. You should be using the smallest amount of lubraction possible to stop your tools sticking. I use saliva. If you think using saliva is gross, then you are using too much lubrication. You need the tiniest film of liquid to have the right amount. Dipping your tool in water is far too much liquid - if water and it is beading up on your tool, it's too much. Work in small areas and use less pressure to stop things from sticking.

Friction is really important and trying to sculpt over-lubirctaed material is really difficult and certain things are completely un-doable. Personally, I hate using vaseline of any kind, as it stays on the Greenstuff for too long and you lose control of how much friction you have. It's useful when working with milliput, as milliput is water soluble. Not a problem with greenstuff though.

4) Work in small areas. Let what you are working with full cure, then work on top of it with fresh greenstuff. If you are having trouble, work on even SMALLER areas. If you are sculpting a face, start by just making 2 eye sockets. Let it cure. Make eyes, let it cure. Make a top eyelid, let it cure. etc etc. Tiny tiny layers.

You can cure greestuff quickly with heat. Too much heat and it will sag and distort, so be careful. It can be cured in around 30 minutes safely; I put mine in the oven at it's lowest setting (less than 50 celcius on the dial, but i imagine it's more like 60 ish). Be careful that when it's warm it will go very soft and sticky just before it gets hard, so avoid handling it when it's warm.



Okay that's what comes to mind off that bat hope it's of some use :]

Leopold Helveine wrote:before I'm anywhere the water dries up and everything sticks and goes out of model again.

Uhm...

I'll second shmvo's tip about minding your lubrication, but I'm still curious about what exactly you're doing with the water.

I was making a mold from a 'Krull (marvel) head'

Uhm...

Skrull, or Knull?

but sculpting the ears always results in the entire thing looking wonky.

Are the ears lying flat against some surface, or standing free? If they're standing free, a small armature of fine wire, pinned into the side of the head, might provide a more stable base.

I think most of the green stuff tutorials I knew disappeared with web 1.0. Modern Synthesist has a good series of blog posts running through the basics, starting with this one:

http://www.modernsynthesist.com/2012/04/how-to-sculpt-tools-of-trade.html

Was trying to get something along the lines of the purple centaur wraithknight you can find on google

Uhm...

shmvo wrote:Metal tools are good to get stuff roughed in initailly, but after that you should be sculpting almost exclusively with something like the above. 90% of what I sculpt can be done with just the chisel-shaped clay shaper. A small, blunt knofe can be useful too. I have an old penknife that I use for removing bits of greenstuff making sharp lines. A hobby blade is too sharp.

Weeeell... it depends on what your metal tool is like. By happy coincidence I just put up a post on this subject on my instas.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnsHjRONCPF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Cheap tools can be rough and with janky edges, if they have anything worth calling an edge. (I mean, click the link and see what GW used to try to pass off as fit for purpose) It depends what you're getting and where you're getting it from, but a bit more outlay for what are sold as dental grade wax carvers (and I'm talking like £3-4 per tool on ebay, compared to £8 for a pack of twelve, 10-11 of which will gather dust) will see a jump in quality. A good metal tool with a decent edge should be able mark lines and cut sharp edges in uncured putty with no problems.

I like colour shapers too, but tend to keep them for the final polish.

When I buy new greenstuff, I tend to cut off 50% of the yellow strip and throw it in the bin. Mixes with more blue in are much easier to work with in my experience, but your mileage may vary, so experiment.

Holy moley, and you push colour shapers through that? Well, fair play. (And can I send you a stamped addressed envelope for the yellow bit?)

If you think using saliva is gross, then you are using too much lubrication.

I don't think that's the reason I find it gross.

I've used water from day one, no adulterants, bodily or not. Practised too long to change things now. But I'm informed (by the Modern Synthesist guy, among others) that Nivea hand cream is even better than vaseline. Doesn't even need washing off your sculpt, apparently.
Though like everything else I mentioned here, it depends.

 Vermis wrote:

When I buy new greenstuff, I tend to cut off 50% of the yellow strip and throw it in the bin. Mixes with more blue in are much easier to work with in my experience, but your mileage may vary, so experiment.

Holy moley, and you push colour shapers through that? Well, fair play. (And can I send you a stamped addressed envelope for the yellow bit?)

I guess it's question of how firm they are? I have a few sets and the ones i use mainly are pretty hard silicone and don't have any issues. There's not a lot of consistency out there bteween brands and products. I do like my metal tools too, but my workhorse ones are for sure the clay shapers.

Also you are welcome to as much of my yellow mush as you want, friend

 Vermis wrote:

If you think using saliva is gross, then you are using too much lubrication.

I don't think that's the reason I find it gross.

To clarify, I'm touching the tool to my lips once in a while, I don't have a spitoon set up next to my work desk haha

I am aware how dodgy this is sounding. It's probably all fine. We're all adults. Presumably...




At the end of the day it's all personal preference and practice. I saw Trovarion (I think?) on youtube say you should never sculpt with GS and only use milliput. The guy is incredibly talented by to me I can't imagine a worse piece of advice. Sculpting at miniature scale with milliput is horrendous imo. Different strokes for different folks I guess

shmvo wrote:

Okay that's what comes to mind off that bat hope it's of some use :]

Vermis wrote:
I've used water from day one, no adulterants, bodily or not. Practised too long to change things now. But I'm informed (by the Modern Synthesist guy, among others) that Nivea hand cream is even better than vaseline. Doesn't even need washing off your sculpt, apparently.
Though like everything else I mentioned here, it depends.

Some great replies to my thread, alot for me to think about.
I do have an Air-fryer I no longer use so I guess that would work like an Oven..

Also @ Vermis; meant Skrull
Can't find an image of the actionfigure on google for some reason, maybe its a very old one..
Has silver plates on his chest, pretty big toy too. His face looks most like Cegorach imho.

p.s. I meant this one: (purple centaur wraithknight) https://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics14/img4c8220dc240bf.jpg

Only interested in the face sculpt but then more skrull(cegoragh!) like, the body of my wraithknight is eh.. "normal" .

I lick my tools. It’s sometimes gross, I don’t care. It works for me.

I second the advice to work in small batches. Also, if you're sculpting something complex, do it in stages, and maybe even sculpt components separately. Another thing is that you can sand greenstuff once it's set - and I find it sands better with a coat of superglue over the top to seal it.

I've finally stuffed the remains of my greenstuff into the Skrull head mold, and will let it set' then will work with a new pack of greenstuff to sculpt it more properly into the final result for a proper head.
Thats where I'm at right now.

shmvo wrote:At the end of the day it's all personal preference and practice. I saw Trovarion (I think?) on youtube say you should never sculpt with GS and only use milliput. The guy is incredibly talented by to me I can't imagine a worse piece of advice. Sculpting at miniature scale with milliput is horrendous imo. Different strokes for different folks I guess

I've used milliput for years, mostly because it's cheap, but I had to relegate it to bulking out green stuff because man, that stuff is like a wild bronco compared to the trail pony of green stuff or other putties. But over the years I added more milliput and less GS until it clicked with me and started doing what I wanted it to do. I realise that's not a great endorsement - "you have to practise for years to get milliput to even work" - but it's not all bad and I think there's a shorter route. For one thing, I think part of my problem was I thought milliput would act like green stuff right off the bat.

FWIW, magic sculp or different Aves putties - apoxie sculpt, apoxie clay etc. - are an alternative. Clay-like, like milliput, but a bit 'calmer'.

Leopold Helveine wrote:
Also @ Vermis; meant Skrull

Oh! I would've guessed Knull.

p.s. I meant this one: (purple centaur wraithknight) https://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics14/img4c8220dc240bf.jpg

Ah...

Leopold Helveine wrote:I've finally stuffed the remains of my greenstuff into the Skrull head mold, and will let it set' then will work with a new pack of greenstuff to sculpt it more properly into the final result for a proper head.
Thats where I'm at right now.

Woah that Knull dude looks even better, wish I had a figure of him.