smoothing clay sculpts?

RBF

Well-Known Hunter
allright... been doing a little test here...

I want to make everything myself in the future, now my fett being done, I don't ever really want to buy a ready-to-paint-prop ever again...

so to start building up my sculpting skills, I chose to do something simple first...

don't be to harsh please... this is my first thing I create with clay since a duck at elementary school I think...

I have 2 questions...

1. how to smooth your sculpt a little?
I was thinking of doing a very thin watered down clay layer over it all when the sculpt is dry, or is it even sandable in some fashion? some very fine correl perhaps?

2. can you add colour to liqued pouring latex, if so... just smack some paint in? acryll or alcyd based?

(ow the mic tip things aren't as crooked as it looks... just ebcasue of lightning etc :p )

(ow and it's not a complete replica of the DA Sub-Zero... it's going to be a Sub-Zero with all the things of all the suits from every game that I like... Since I don't have a hulk hogan rendered figure, I'll steal the long tight sleeves from the movie for example...

Rick

armature.JPG


armature 2.JPG


sculp 1.JPG


mic tips.JPG
 
Well,
the clay I use is a "wax" based sulfer free clay which comes in 3 types soft, med soft, and hard. The reason I use the wax based clay is you can apply heat with a heat gun or hairdryer which "melts" the clay surface to a smooth layer which can be tooled very easily. The reason it is sulfer based is so the clay will not inhibit the curing of any silicone rtv rubber applied when making a casting. It will not cure if the clay has sulfur in it. As for the latex colors - I belive you can find all different colors without having to add an additive...
 
thnx for the advice :D

they had some sort of wax allright.... gona have to check again..

as for the colours... nothing... just the one I have and I got no idea what colour that is... is there a universal transparent one or something?

but I think I'll test some by using a small amount in a cup or something, and smacking a small amount of paint in.. who knows... might work :)
 
Are you using water based clay or oil clay? If you're using water clay, then I suggest "sanding" it with a sponge. I know it sounds weird but it works really well. You take a sponge with some water and lightly sand the surface with it. If you're using oil based clay, I recommend vaseline. Take some vaseline and apply it to your finger or a brush and use it to smooth out the sculpt. However, by looking at your sculpt I'd guess it was water based clay.

And yes, you can pigment your latex while its still liquid. You can use the latex colorants found on this page: http://www.monstermakers.com/cgi-bi...spage&thispage=page13.html&ORDER_ID=517303261
 
:) this is why I love TDH!!

thnx!!

I think I'm going with the sponge aproach, I have sponges here, and since the sculpt is water based clay...

about the pigments... hmm... I'll experiment a bit with what I have... and I'm goin to try and find some paint for shoes or whatever paint's that are somewhat flexible and is for use on plastics etc... I'd really like the latex to be the right base blue colour, that would mean alot more durability then just paint something on. (and I want a durable costume this time :p )

I try to minimize buying through internet, but it's a tough job alone trying to get the shop keepers to understand what I want. But this info really helps :)
 
I mentioned this in another thread.

Tarragó have a good asortment of different colours for leather. It is really flexinle and doesn't crack. The only downside for you i guess is that it is water based so i don't think it will mix with latex that well.
 
ow my... the sculpt cracked... wich wasn't that bad, easily restoreable, but sjees..

in the store where I bought the stuff:

desk woman:"you want this grey clay or the white one?"

me:"is there a difference?"

woman:"yes the grey clay has little stones in it so it dries faster."

me:"well it needs to dry smooth so..."

woman:"you can use this grey one."

me:"sure."

my freaking god... it dried up looking liek freaking acne infestation!

Why... I mean I didn't speak spanish or greek or whatever??

I literly said:"it needs to dry up smooth."

yuk!

well I just smacked up some bondo, that's sandable, and if it doesn't work out... I'll make reptile :p

don't really care, I did learn soemthing though.

organic forms liek head masks and stuff... compact smooth clay is the material to use... armor pieces ... youd best be scratch building using plexi-glas, wood, bondo etc etc etc. then make a cast of that...

it'll work out, maybe not this mask but eventually I'll get it right. :)
 
Dont use self hardening clay!!!! It's the kiss of death, but most importantly - it SHRINKS when it dries ! Go to the sites listed above and invest in a few pounds of good wax based sulfur free (or whatever you prefer) caly, it's reusable most of the time and you can plaster cast or rubber cast right from it since its wax based. Another good thing about wax based clay is it only takes a little heat from your hands manipulating it to make it workable. And it will NOT crack even if it sits for a month (or shrink)
 
ok, that sounds like the material to go with... now if I could just get that somewhere around here :confused

anyways, I bondo-ed it, and put some primer on... this is going to be so ugly :lol:

anyways, is it possible to slightly sand down the plaster cast?
that would get most of the tiniest puts and crackies out right?

bondoprimed.JPG
 
You can either sand it down which is a pain in the ....
or perhaps make a "soupy mix" of plaster to fill the craks with your finger..
 
once that dries... won;t the little bits fall out of the main sculpt?

if only the vaseline lets the plaster get of the mains culpt I'm a bit worried about how well plaster sticks to primerd sculpt...
 
well... made a plaster cast with the clay walls and all... had to smack the fragile sculpt to get it out :lol:

but well... here it is... latex mixed with acryllic blue, you can see the test result at the bottom :)

that was thin and not even dry when I pulled it out, let alone it didn't have a vaseline caot in between the plastic and latex... so that works I guess...

so now it's waiting for the latex to cure :)

that will be tommorow... or the day after... then I'll put in some latex rubber wich needs to be brushed in instead of poured, and is alot stronger than the pouring one...

hope it is presentable... other wise I'll make a new one...

latex poured...jpg
 
well... I tried to get the mask out at the corners a bit.,.. allready one crack.. maybe the paint has made the whole thing weaker or something I don't know... but as for masks... no more

I mean if I can't pull a blue MK mask out of a mold, what on Earth makes it possible for me to pull a covenant elite mask or a predator out of a mould...

it's both my inexperience and again the lack of material (I am getting so pissed at the latter) that I guess I'll never do another mask again.

Gonna try to see if they have some Fiberglas at the local hardware store but I'm putting my money on the "no", anyone else care to wager with me on that one?

sjees...

well atleast I've been busy for a week or so :lol:
 
Ok, I'm betting the latex was so darned fragile because of the acrylic paint that I smacked in...

so... let's try another one with just the latex... allready knowing that I won't be able to paint it...

I'm just curious if it was the paint or not...

the latex should cure within 2 hours... ok, my blue thing wasn't cured after 2 days...

let's see what this does...

if it doesn't do the trick, I'll shove this latex and the clay up the (no nice word, I tell ya) of the woman who sold it to me...

hypotheticly... If I were to put fiberglass in the plaster... I'd never be able to get it out of the plster without smacking the plaster... or breaking the FG piece in 6 pieces...

how can I avoid that? it will "hoke" itself stuck behind pieces of itself... know what I mean??

would that eb it? smacking the FG piece, glue it back togetehr, bondo it, sand it, and put another coat of FG behind it all??There must be a more conventional way of doing this... I mean how the hell was my FG helme tdone than? that's not a 1000 piece construction either...

I wanted to do this because I want to make props and stuff that won't be composed of a thousand kind of materials (like my blaster, cod and backplate) because scratch building doesn't last long... not long at all...

hmm... what to do.. what to do...
find a store that suplies smooth nice material to work with in the first place... then pigment for latex or coloured latex...

no online stores... please...

my mask!.JPG


number 2.JPG
 
no sign of the white latex curing...

the bottle does say "latex" maybe it's just white paint...:confused
 
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