Green stuff sculpting tips part II. Because I cannot sleep. Bitch.
A thread.

So GS is a BITCH to sculpt with because of the same properties that make it EXCELLENT to sculpt with.

GS has a tension to it, and wants to pull itself back to a relaxed state. Like me on a couch.

That tension makes it great for sculpting organic surfaces, whereas clay compresses locally, GS spreads out the deformation.
Like pressing a pillow.

That tension will try to pull the surface back to flat. So you get mellowing of details over time. The earlier the mark is made, the rounder and more relaxed it becomes over time before the model cures.

Also the thicker the putty, the more tension from within pulls on the surface, so you get more mellowing and rounding.

So if you want harder edges, you need thinner layers to avoid this, and you need to work the putty over to keep coaxing it back into the shape you want

Now that tension is actually useful because it means you can tug parts around. So, you can make a wide O shape mouth, tug the lips out, then tug the mouth shape into the expression you want.

Tugging and towing putty around lets you get shapes that water based clay cannot easily get. To get a skin like fold in water clay, I would put cling film over it to give it a skin and push tools into that.

You can increase the rounding effect by adding more blue than yellow in your mix. Great for muscles and cloth folds. As blue is the hardener, the resulting mix is firmer and cures faster.

More yellow than blue and you get a stickier putty, better for additional layers

Now, here is a neat trick. You can get GS to behave more like clay by disrupting the tension.
How?
Mix in a tiny bit of super sculpy. You don't need much, the fine particles inside reduce the stick, memory and tension.
It doesn't need baking, but it will cure softer

I personally like to use hybrid putty mixes. Greenstuff and procreate are rubbery types, milliput, magic sculpt and aves apoxie are hard types.

You can mix a hard and a rubbery epoxy to get the best features of both!

My fave is aves, which is very hard and course, mixed with either rubbery types. I am heavy handed, and this mix is firm and strong, but organic shapes are easy. Once it cures, it can be scraped, carved, drilled and sanded

So if you wanna convert marines, armour is best done with a hybrid putty. Mix, leave for fifteen minutes, apply, smooth and then bugger off for half an hour. Come back and use a sharp blade to cut hard edges. Or leave to dry and carve and sand sharp corners.

Don't be a dumb fuck, wear a mask.

Rubbery putties flex so are best for rubbery vinyl models.
Hard putties are best for gap filling, as they are water based and you can smooth them with a damp brush better than you can ever blend in green stuff.
Hybrid mixes are best for wing membranes, support structures + blades

For chainmail, scale mail and fur, I stick to pure GS... because you want that rubberyness as you stab and tug to get each link. Yawn. It is super boring.

Okay, so lets talk rivets, buttons and studs, and I will make your fucking day if you have tried doing them.

Here is the secret to sculpting them.

Don't.

No, what you are gonna do is roll a thin sausage of putty and let it dry. To make it consistent, put some plasticard under the rollers to give it a defined thickness.

Good. Let it dry. Go watch Buffy or something.

Cool, you're back. Now you will need a pin vice with a fine bit. Stab a needle where you want to put your stud to precisely guide the drill bit. Drill a hole. Dip tip of your dried GS rod into some superglue and slide it in the hole. Now slice off the stud with a razor.

No pissing around with shaping itty bitty balls of putty and trying to stick wet on wet.

Pre drying parts is a super important part of sculpting. You don't need to sculpt everything in one go, or magically do it with one ball of putty.

Speaking of which, you should sculpt under structures to push back on your putty. Pressing putty onto wire will just cut through the putty... no, you need something to press against. That's why we build a layer of putty over the armature to underpin the detail layers.

I use a hybrid mix for my under structures for a couple of reasons.

First, its harder. Second, it can be carved back if I go to far. Third, if high pressure vulcanised rubber molds are used, you don't want your model to compress and deform. A hard putty core will help

This base is pure Aves Apoxie. Normally I would put a layer down and let it set for structural toughness, then do a hybrid mix over the top... but I am getting rather adept at working apoxie... you just gotta wait until the very end to detail, and apply water.

Here you can see GS and magic sculpt mixed together.. it let me sand flat the pouches, but was rubbery enough to tug hair strands into place. I used yellow biased mix of GS to help it stick to the metal model.

But for pipes I use pure greenstuff with more blue... I want them to flex, not snap.

Note this hand is an example of under structure- hardened putty is carved away so I can sculpt a hand over the top.

Well, that is part II.

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