Sculpting putties

Hey there fellow painters and sculptors,

Over the last couple of days I ordered almost all the things I need to complete my CWE force, however I need a relatively cheap modelling putty for the base design (I'm not going to build 40+ Bases with full GS).

So far I've found 2 products that look reasonably priced, but I can't tell which one is better (at holding detail for example) or easier to work with.

These 2 are milliput and apoxie sculpt!

Anyone here who can describe either or both of these things and what they do?

Maybe you have a different and possibly cheaper putty at hand, feel free to tell me about it, I'm always glad about saving some money.

Cheers

I use milliput for basing - It is a bit crude compared to green stuff but does the job. It is a two part epoxy-putty, dries in about 24 hours and can be sanded. good for bold features but not really up to fine detail in my opinion - I think there is a fine detail version of it but I've not tried that.

I've used Milliput in three flavours, the standard yellowish one, the white and the black. Each one is slightly different, but you can mix and match to get your own preferred texture.
First thing to know is that across the board it's very different to green stuff. It's much more like working with a stiff potters clay (water will give you a sort of slip as with clay) rather than the sort of rubbery feel you get with GS. It doesn't stretch in the same way and doesn't take detail as well, but for basing should be up to it.
As for the individual mixes, the yellow/gray standard version is pretty coarse, and really only suitable for large areas of fairly rough detail (I'm halfway through a raider shaped crater with this, and it's doing the job.) It can be filed, drilled and sanded when cured to get sharp edges, but you won't get them while sculpting.
The white stuff holds detail better than the yellow, but seems really to be designed for fixing ceramics (hence the colouring). It's ok, but not my preference.
The black one is probably the closest to a rubbery feel and is the one I've had most luck with when press moulding skulls etc for bases. When mixed with white in about a 50/50 blend is actually quite workable and mixes to an even grey which is actually fairly easy on the eyes when sculpting.

I've no experience with Apoxiesculpt, but have heard that it's very good for bulking out shapes.

This may be usfull reading on the subject: http://modernsynthesist.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/How%20to%20use%20Apoxie%20Sculpt

I'm doing press molds of some sculpted statue fragments and relics I have. Which do you think is best for that? I'm thinking either the standard one or the white one, the white stuff being twice as expensive, but probably better.

Edit: There is also Milliput Silver Grey ... what's that all about? Seems to be between yellow-grey and superfine white in price.

I think I used the Silver Grey one once years ago, but can't really remember much about it.. As I said, I've had best results from press molds with Black Milliput, but if you can't get any of that then I'd probably go with white over yellow, though I don't really think there'll be much in it, so if price is important then you may be better off with the compromise. Hope that's of some help.

I use Milliput as well - I strongly echo Ollelta's thoughts - they are spot on.

So black milliput for press molding it is? then white or grey as second option?! standard yellow only when I'm absolutely broke?!

I'll try to get the black stuff and one of the others then. That way I can try both and if only the black is good for my molds then I'll continue molding with the black and use the other for terrain... and if both work, well, then I won't complain

Thank you very much for all the input. I'll try to get some articles about my projects online soonish, since I need to practice text document editing with LaTeX for university. Stay tuned

I have used standard yellow grey with instant mold and it takes details just as fine as greenstuff for me. You have to really press it in hard and make sure that you have pressed it in every single space. For sculpting I don't like ot one bit but for press molds it is perfectly fine. Just takes a bit of practice if you work with bigger things like 50mm bases, I put in multiple small clumps and press them in instead of one giant one.

I've been sculpting a bit of terrain for my industrial/city board this week using yellow-grey milliput. Thought I'd share it as a postscript to the above discussion.



Quick and dirty solution to vehicle explosions. Method is simple: Cut a heavy card stock base. Slap on a bunch of putty and shape with whatever sculpting tools you fancy. Leave to cure, then sand back any areas you want flat or sharp edged. Paint as you like.

For this sort of scale sculpt the yellow-grey is perfectly fine and cheap enough to work in bulk. I used about a fifth of a pack for each crater.

Thank you Ollelta, that was very insightful. For building craters and the like I'll get myself some of the cheaper stuff, but I feel for more detailed work the black putty is exactly what I'm looking for. I'll post up the first results once my final order arrives.