Dear Sculptors....

What type of clay/sculpting material do you use? Just curious, not that I'm gonna do anything major (or can, I suck), but I've been bored lately and feeling sculpt-ish.

Just wondering what you've found to be the easiest to work with or does it even matter? What is easiest to paint? What transfers to molds best? Etc. Thought there might be some others out there wondering too so I figured why not ask? THANKS!

 

I use Sculpey 3, it doesnt dry out in the air, so you can come back to it a week later and still manipulate it.I also just discovered Magic Sculpt, and I think I will be doing all my sculpts with this now, you just have to work fast( completly hardens in 3 or so hours).

Hope that helps.

 

Sculpey is a good place to start, for something simple.
Like said above, you can keep coming back to it and then just bake it when you're happy with it.

If you want to do something that will have lots of detail, go for Chavant clay. It's what most toy sculptors use, you seen the brown coloured proto's of new toys? That's Chavant clay

Comes in Soft, Medium and Hard grades. The Soft you can use at room temperature, but the other two you have to warm in the oven first and then work it.
You don't have to bake it or anything, nor is it air drying.

It also contains no sulphur, so you can make silicone moulds straight from it

 

hope this answers BD's question...but good info all around, filing that nugget of info away for possible future use thanks

 

What Lokash said about Magic Sculpt is straight on, it's awesome, but it's tricky to get the hang of, a lot harder to manipulate than sculpey. it's actually an epoxy resin I think so it's really hard durable stuff. This is what I do. A lot of people like building a wire frame or kind of forming the body with newspaper or tinfoil, then laying the sculpey over the paper or tinfoil. Instead of this step, I actually use an air hardening clay, just to build up the mass, then once I have the main mass, I'll use sculpey or magic sculp, over it. Now one secret, I've discovered, there's also a liquid sculpey, and if you're baking layers of sculpey, sometimes you can get cracks, or it doesn't hold well, but if you attach new layers to old with a coat of liquid sculpey, it works out a lot better.
Give me another month or two, and I'll show you all what I've been working on. I'm hoping everyone here is going to like it.

I've been told of the Chavant clay and want to try it, but my understanding of it is that it's probably not a good place to start

 

Of late, many people in the garage kit sculpting world have been using the two-part, air-dry epoxy putty called Aves Apoxie Sculpt (http://www.avesstudio.com/) for figure sculpting. Those who have really gotten the hang of it have done some impressive stuff- this was sculpted w/ Aves, for example: http://www.modelworks.de/htm/monsters/reaper/reaper.jpg

I have never attempted a sculpt with the stuff, but I have used it to cover seams and fix details on resin models, and I've found it to be pretty great. Aves also sells a solvent to go with the putty that is very useful for smoothing and shaping.

 

I'll also cast my vote for Magic Sculpt. Although I gotta say I prefer regular porcelain/mud type clay to anything. I find it's the easiest to work with. But if you're going to be making molds then Magic Sculpt is better for that.
If anyone knows of something that has the feel and characteristics of mud clay that works well for mold making please let me know.

 

wow, awesome thread....lots of great info here.

 

Most toy sculptors use wax. The industry standard is Azbrowax (usually flesh color). Most action figures prototypes are sculpted with it. You'll have to use sculpting tools specially suited for wax though. This just means you'll have to change those plastic or wood tools and buy metal versions. Metal because you'll have to periodically heat it over a candle or something. A jewelers wax tool with variable heat settings is also a must. I like to use a middle ground since I use to and are used to working with clay. It's called Castilene wax. It has properties like wax but works like clay. When warmed up (body temp) it becomes very malleable so you can work it like clay. Once you have the basic form you can let it cool and use sculpting tools and jewelers wax tool to refine and add detail. Let it air cool (typical air conditioned room temp) and it's hard as a rock. You can then use it to make a mold using RTV silicone mold material.

 

I use Premo (sculpey) but lately I want to do more detailed work. I've been considering switching to wax. A friend of mine sculpts action figures so I get some pointers from him.

Great thread!

 

So wax questions to those who use it.
When you sculpt in wax, how permanent and fragile is it. After I finish the sculpt, could I leave it sitting on my mantle for a few years, or do I pretty much have to either bronze or cast it pretty soon. and if I drop it or smack it, will it strong enough it can retain it's form, or will is break or mash?
And from people's experience, do you think wax is faster to work in

 

Other questions with regards to wax:

How easy is it to adds small bits, or to build up areas on a sculpt? From what's been written in the thread it sounds like a medium that you'd manipulate by subtracting, and that adding small areas of mass would be difficult.

Is it fairly easy to just heat up and work on a small area so that you don't have to worry about deforming surrounding detail?

 

If you really want to get some great tips about any and every aspect of sculpting, this is the premier place to do so on the web: http://theclubhouse1.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=9&start=0&sid=1a267c7be3e13ab57695367a8d886b8d

Many of the heavy hitters of the toy and model sculpting world- Tony Cipriano, Tim Bruckner, Andy Bergholtz, Rick Alterton, and on and on- regularly hang there, and post some amazing work-in-progress shots. So much talent on that board!

Oh, and the ins and outs of wax are a much-discussed topic there...you could learn a ton about it by searching through old threads!

 

Here you go- to get a taste of the caliber of stuff that's regularly posted there, check the 4/19 update shots on this page, of a sculpt called "Ru-Shou" by an HK artist who calls himself Skink:
http://theclubhouse1.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42681&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60
Yow!

 

this thread makes me want to create something...

be creative...

 

Just signed up on the Clubhouse, hopefully I can learn something.

 

Looks like it could be a good resource - thanks for the link ungawa! I'll be signing up soon so I can get some tips.

 

I signed up too, excited to look around. I'll see you guys over there.

 

Cool, guys!
I hope you all find it useful.
At the very least, there'll be much, much, new eye candy for you!

 

Wax is usually used for lost wax castings or in regards to toy manufacture a step in the prototype making process. It's not usually something you'd want to keep as a display however to anwers your question. Wax as long as it's kept relatively cool (room temp) should stay hard enough to display. From mantle high if it fell on carpet it shouldn't incur any damage (depending on the sculpt) but it will if it hit something more solid like bare wood floor or your fireplace. Is wax faster to work with? You can get your basic form faster in clay (sculpy) but imo you can't do the same fine finished look compared to when you use wax.

 

That's what i like about Castilene wax. Adding small detail would be the same as when you do clay. I use the harder castilene to form the basic shape and it also acts as the armature in most cases. and use the softer version to add fine details. just warm some up in your hand. Apply to the piece and refine with a warmed up sculpting tool.

Azbrowax isn't that difficult to work with tho when you get used to it. You can add small details by dripping wax on the spot you want with the jewelers wax tool or for bigger pieces heat both the piece and the part you want to add and join them. You can head up the area with the wax tool on a high setting.

 

Sounds like a fun place. Thanks for posting that. One can never learn too much.

 

Thanks, Robert! Maybe some day I'll give wax a try...I've still got tons of Magic Sculpt to use up first.
I was worried that wax might act like platicene clay which I found very difficult to work with.
So is this wax pretty much what you're talking about: http://www.artmediaonline.com/artProduc ... ctID=25110

 

I hate plasticene clay, that stuff sucks and is horrible to use with a two part mold, dont doit.I use playdo to act as the first side of my 2 part and it works fine.

 

Try this.

http://www.sculpt.com/catalog_98/Wax/Castilene.htm