Green Stuff vs. Apoxie?

[Palantirion]

In minifig construction vids I've noticed a lot of use of Green Stuff to fill gaps. I've only used it twice, so I can't claim to be experienced, but I found it more difficult to work with and not dry as hard or bond as well as Apoxie Sculpt or Magic Sculpt (both of which I've used a lot). They all take "24 hours" to fully cure (although Apoxie is sandable sooner), so I don't see the appeal of Green Stuff. What am I missing?

[Crynsminiaturen]

I would like to answer your technical question.
But what are 'minifig construction vids' ?
If I search for it, I only end up with LEGO human figurine topics. Is that what you mean?

[Palantirion]

Ha, fair enough. I suppose I should have typed minis or minature figures. The vids I watch are on youtube, by nijon, miniac, etc. Green Stuff seems to be their go-to for crack filling. But I know from my experience that Apoxie works great for that too, arguably better since you can sand it. So I don't know why anyone would prefer Green Stuff.

[Crynsminiaturen]

Minifigs is also the name of a well known, classic British brand of 25mm and 15mm metal wargame figurines from the 1970's. I hope you understand my confusion.

In minifig construction vids I've noticed a lot of use of Green Stuff to fill gaps. I've only used it twice, so I can't claim to be experienced, but I found it more difficult to work with and not dry as hard or bond as well as Apoxie Sculpt or Magic Sculpt (both of which I've used a lot). They all take "24 hours" to fully cure (although Apoxie is sandable sooner), so I don't see the appeal of Green Stuff. What am I missing?

I do not think you are missing something here. I prefer Apoxie Sculpt or Magic Sculpt over Green Stuff when it comes to filling up gaps, filling up airbubbles or repair damage. But that has also to do with the natural colors these producs have. I prefer the Green Stuff though for sculpting figurines and equipment from scratch. Green Stuff is more elastic and the adhesivity (stickyness) is much better than with the other two. But Green Stuff can not be mixed or smoothened by using water and its difficult to grind.

The reason you find Green Stuff in instruction video's may have a trivial reason.
For decades, Green Stuff was for sale everywhere in Games Workshop stores all over the world, while Apoxie sculpt and Magic Sculpt were less easy to find. Since many people already had Green Stuff at home, it made sense to use it in an instruction video.

[JurgenH]

Hi
I want to jump into this thread with a question.
What properties do the available modeling clays have.
I've tried magicsulp and I'm only partially satisfied.
Partly bad hardening (but it can be due to my mixtures), sticks badly to wire, but can be smoothed out nicely.
Sometimes I find it a bit rough. I started my first attempts. They are not salable but I am happy with them.
Thanks
Jürgen

[Palantirion]

Minifigs is also the name of a well known, classic British brand of 25mm and 15mm metal wargame figurines from the 1970's. I hope you understand my confusion.

I do not think you are missing something here. I prefer Apoxie Sculpt or Magic Sculpt over Green Stuff when it comes to filling up gaps, filling up airbubbles or repair damage. But that has also to do with the natural colors these producs have. I prefer the Green Stuff though for sculpting figurines and equipment from scratch. Green Stuff is more elastic and the adhesivity (stickyness) is much better than with the other two. But Green Stuff can not be mixed or smoothened by using water and its difficult to grind.

The reason you find Green Stuff in instruction video's may have a trivial reason.
For decades, Green Stuff was for sale everywhere in Games Workshop stores all over the world, while Apoxie sculpt and Magic Sculpt were less easy to find. Since many people already had Green Stuff at home, it made sense to use it in an instruction video.

-Is my noob showing? Ha. It should be. If you use Green Stuff for sculpting, and it doesn't like to be sanded/ground, how to you finish the surface?

Good point about market saturation. Sometimes it's the simplest, but hidden reasons.

Hi
I want to jump into this thread with a question.
What properties do the available modeling clays have.
I've tried magicsulp and I'm only partially satisfied.
Partly bad hardening (but it can be due to my mixtures), sticks badly to wire, but can be smoothed out nicely.
Sometimes I find it a bit rough. I started my first attempts. They are not salable but I am happy with them.
Thanks
Jürgen

-Jurgen, I've used Magic Sculpt a fair bit now (And Apoxie Sculpt, pretty much the same). Two tips:

1) When mixing, make balls of each part so you can spot the size difference more easily. You really want the volumes to be the same. Then roll them into worms. Then twist the worms around each other. Then fold, twist more, and start kneading. This will give you better assurance of a proper mix and consistent hardening.

2) Water! It's best to use silicone shaping tools, but even they work better with a slight amount of water on them to keep them from sticking to the putty. It you use metal tools (like wire), water is a must.

[Crynsminiaturen]

If you use Green Stuff for sculpting, and it doesn't like to be sanded/ground, how to you finish the surface?

Finish it when its fresh and soft, not when its hardened out. And use a flat rubber brush size 0 and sculpting grease or vaseline.

What properties do the available modeling clays have.

I did a test on this topic back in 2016: http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19568 You can see pictures of the results down the bottom of the first page.
Mastersculptor Alex gives an online workshop here.

Also je-touche wrote a fascinating tutorial on sculpting back in 2012:
http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4535&hilit=sculpting

All your questions will be answered here.
But take some time for it, its a lot of pages with many good contributions of countless forummembers.

[Frankzett]

I did my first sculpting attempts with pure Magic Sculpt on a wire skeleton and I use tools wet by water. The first problem was less adhesiveness with the wire, the second, Magic sculpt became pulpy when there is too much water. But when hardened the advantage was, that I was able to sand and scrape the surface. On the other hand with Green Stuff, it is sticky on every surface, so on the tools too. But to prevent this, you can wet the tools and you can smoothen the surface with a wet spatula or brush. but if the putty is hardened, it is unsuited for sanding or scraping.
Well, nowadays I work with a mixture of both putties with wet tools. I use spittle as antiadhesive on my tools, it works very good. The mixture can be smoothened with wet tools (brushes, spatulas or silicone brushes). If the things are to wet the surface can get a little dull. You can sculpt sharp details, and you can scrape and sand it when it is hardened.
I use Magic Sculpt + Green Stuff as a mixture of 1:1 up to 3:1.
An other good stuff is Tamiya epoxy putty; very, very sticky, you can smoothen the surface with wet tools and it is very stiff and solid when hardened and you can sand it.

When working with wire skeletons or convertions of white metal figures, I first put on the putty and sculpt the raw silouette - i.e. a first layer on the surface, then wait for 10-15 minutes because the adesion gets better, then I sculpt on.

Greetings
Frank

[Palantirion]

I was wondering if anyone had mixed Green Stuff and Apoxie (or Magic) to get a hybrid of properties - like the adhesion of Green Stuff but sandable like Apoxie.

With regard to Green Stuff, is it somewhat flexible after curing? I'm hoping to find something that I can shape (and also sand to some degree), but will cure slightly flexible. Ideally it would behave like PVC, but start from a putty so I could sculpt with it.

[JurgenH]

Thank you for the intristing Tips.
Jürgen

[Xantippos]

Just lately I was trying to sculpt miniatures with all the sculpting clays I had in my box , one with each material, and this are my impressions;, from worst to best;

Patcolor/air drying clay; it is good that it shrinks, about 20 %, hence you can sculpt bigger, but dries very quickly and is usually too soft.

Cernit; very unrecommended, sort of rubbery and doesnt retain properly shapes.

PREMO; Again, too soft, even worse than Sculpey.

Sculpey firm; not really very recommendable, because even if it allows me as much time as I wish to sculpt it, as is a baking polymer clay, is too soft really.

Aves Apoxie Sculpt; it is acceptable, but tends to be rather soft and unfirm. Of course, altering the proportions, letting it dry a little bit, even placing it on the fridge for a while can improve, but is really not very convenient.

Aves Apoxie Fix it; better, more solid, but very expensive really. More or less the same than the previous, but slightly better in all aspects.

Pro-Create; quite good, is again a two part putty, but with slightly rubbery properties. Quite firm, you can imprint well the details.

GreenStuff; finally, for me, the winner. IT might be as extra that mine has become dry and old until it's nearly unmixable, but at this stage, is tremendously firm yet sculptable. Absolutely the best for me.

Finally, in the past, I have tried;

Magic Sculp; good, but it gave me an irritant reaction to my skin, hence I stopped using it. I would place as the best epoxy style, but under pro-create.

Aves Apoxie Fixit Sculpt; very similar to Fix-it, I would say that maybe slightly worst, as was softer. Much harder though.

Standard ironmongery epoxy putty (Aki, Leroy Merlin, etc); somewhat worse than any proper epoxy putty, more solid when dry, but very soft usually always before. Also gave me allergic reaction so I stopped using them. I believe Milliput fits this category, I havent tried doing soldiers with it, only rocks and terrain and some minor object.

Now I want to try Kato, which they say is the best polymer clay, and Brownstuff, which they say is similar to Greenstuff.

For smoothing, I always use baby oil / mineral oil, works wonders, specially with green stuff that doesn't really react much with water.

I wonder, I am missing some?