GS casting using sculpey, a tutorial - long w/lots of pics

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Hey all, I had some questions about how I went about adding the GS details to my Green Knight conversion, so I thought I take a stab at a tutorial. The good news is, the method I used is very easy. It just takes a little imagination and the right bits, and you can look like a pro in no time. So without further delay here is the step by step:

First, gather your tools and materials. Here I've piled together my two sculpting tools (purchased in a craft shop for less that $2 US each), some GS, and super sculpey clay - a kind of clay that remains soft until its baked. Its available in craft stores and its super cheap.



Step 1) Grab a chunk of sculpey and work it in your hands to get it soft. As to how much you need, just keep in mind you'll want your end product to be about a 1/4" thick so take that and your desired surface area into account. You can always add more any time prior to baking so don't sweat it too much.



Step 2) Roll out a pancake of sculpey on aluminum foil about 1/4" thick with enough area to encompass your design. I use aluminum foil because it won't stick to it, and it can go straight in the oven when I'm ready.



Step 3) Gather the bits you're going to press. I'm going to make a daemonic-looking banner with faces coming out of it, so I grabbed some bits that look sort of daemonic and vaguely unholy



Step 4) Start pressing.



Try not to press through the clay completely, and if you have bigger bits with details that need to be pressed deeper, you can kind of gently roll them left and right to pass the details to the clay.



Here you can see the face left behind once the bit is removed. The detail is a little hard to see, but trust me its there.

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Here I've used the shield bit to illustrate the ease of getting just portions of some bits



I only want the skull from the front of the shield, so (and this is the beauty of using sculpey instead of milliput) I can go back with a sculpting tool and just smooth out details I don't want.





If you want to include runes or scrollwork, you can add them using a clay etching tool.



Just be sure to always keep your tool moving away from existing grooves to avoid pushing clay back into areas you've already carved. Here I'm adding a symbol of Slaanesh



And here's the finished product, ready for baking:

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

Step 5) Get baked! The directions on the sculpey pack say to bake it for 15 minutes at 275 degrees fahrenheit. I'm a stickler for following directions on this sort of stuff, so I make sure to preheat the oven first



In goes the sculpt



Set the timer



Go watch some Sportscenter. When the mold comes out it will be HOT! and still slightly pliable, so give it another 1/2 hour to cool before proceeding to. . .

Step 6) Sanding. All that pressing and etching will leave raised ridges of clay behind that you most likely do not want passed to your GS, so give the mold a light rubbing with 220 grade sandpaper.



When you're finished blow off the powdery residue and proceed to my favorite step. . .

Step 7) Lube it up! Just like real model makers, you don't want anything sticking to your mold, so you need a release agent. I use olive oil and a little goes a long way. Olive oil also works great for keeping GS from sticking to your fingers, so while you're at it get your GS ready and then apply it to your newly prepared mold.



Again, a little GS goes a long way. And it doesn't need to be very thick - just enough to fill the holes and still be relatively flat.

Give your GS 1-2 hours to cure. This does two things: First it comes off the mold in more or less one piece. Second, it wont be quite so liable to pick up finger prints when you apply it to your model.

Step 8) Carefully peel your GS off the mold



Step 9) Apply your GS to your model. Since I'm making a chaos banner here, I've attached it to the banner pole from the beastherd box (something I have a lot of).





And here's the finished product



Not too shabby, eh? If I didn't know better, I'd think whoever made it knows a thing or two about sculpting. Now if I only played Slaanesh

The possiblities are pretty endless for this technique, but just keep in mind that whatever you do in the clay will come out backwards on your finished product. Have fun and good luck!

[Beastlord Karankawa]

Bravo!


<<hands clapping>>

[Highborn Sycath]

now paint it!

[Khorgor]

wow, it looks great!

Keep going, Khorgor

[thecoldwarrior]

Great work!!! Its just fantabulious! In fact I think this will work for what I want to do also. Im going to take some sculpy (I have plenty of the stuff, but thats another story) and press some filagre sp* work into it, then bake, then press green stuff into it, then take that once cured i'll have my filagre work on the surface!!! Then I'll cut it out and add it to something and blend the thickness of gs into the area! Again great work on the banner, cant wait till its done!

edit: was browsing the ads at the bottom of the post and found this!!!! Ive got to get this stuff now!!! Its made exactly for moulds of this kind, but is flexy!!!

http://www.cooltools.us/product.cgi?group=3359&product=3360

[Highborn Sycath]

just a question... why is it shiny?

[thecoldwarrior]

Hehe, cuz he used olive oil on it.

[Kyte]

GREAT! I love it! I'll do that with horrors for the rest of my banners!

[Raarghar the Filthy]

Sweet!

Very nicely done mate .

Cheers.

[Jhaantikaal]

nice one! thankyou so much for posting this - im going straight to work on my own banners now!

[Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

@coldwarrior - nice find there! Interesting that its on a jewelry supply website. It never occured to me that jewelers might have something in common with us, but it makes perfect sense

@Highborn Scyath - Yep, the shine is from the oil.

@everyone - So glad you found the article helpful. I expect big things in the conversion department in the future from all present!

[Mallekha the Overwhelmer]

excellent Happy Scrappy Hero Pup, this looks really great, and the tutorial is well done! nice going on the banenr too, are you really just gonna leave it like that and not paint it up? its too good for that, send it to me

in the mean time, ive tried pressign things too, but i didnt think of the olive oil (i used eargoo ) so thank you very much i used the little top of a slaanesh banner from the old daemonettes, its a little crany guy tormented in the pole, ill post up a pic, it looks cool
i also tried to make a chaos star, but it was a bit hard cause my mould was a bit too thin

now only got to get more GS and get pressing!

thanks for posting!

[Deathwing]

whoa, excellent Happy, really cool!