ok well here is a thing I made for you guys who may need some tips on green stuff:
GREEN STUFF tips
Hair
Roll a few small lines of putty.Place these rolls onto the model where you want hair. Yes, it looks like a bunch dreadlocks right now, but not for long.With the blade end of a sculpting tool, press into the putty in one direction to create the flow of hair.Now, use a hobby knife to create fine lines of hair. You can even separate a few ends for a more realistic look.

pouches
Roll a small ball of putty between your fingers.Press the putty to the waistline of the model.Add a few well-placed wrinkles to the top of the pouch.The top of these pouches poke out from under the rope.

tentacles
You can make smooth tentacles by rubbing your finger over the appendage with water repeatedly.A rougher, more fleshy tentacle requires a sculpting tool,random jabs with a sculpting tool do the trick nicely.

Tecniques
mixing gs
Cut off an approximate amount of putty with a hobby knife. Employing a knife ensures a proper 50/50 mix.Wet your fingers a bit in order to keep the putty from sticking to your fingers as you mix it.Use both hands to twist and knead the putty effectively.After about a minute of mixing, your green stuff is all set.

eliminate finger prints
Once you've applied the putty and shaped it to fit, you'll probably notice all the yucky fingerprints.Wet your finger and then run it over the area repeatedly.Note how all the ridges and such have been eliminated.

no sticking to surfaces
Water and a plastic bag will make your life easier.Apply some water to the surface area.Slap a bit of putty down and flatten it out.Sculpt or cut the putty as you please.Wait until the putty hardens a bit – then carefully peel it off.A freed piece of flattened putty, ready for use.

armature
Drill holes for the armature. Make sure these holes are large enough to accommodate your armature material.Shape the armature with a pair of pliers. This structure will be the basic shape for the putty.Clip off your armature.Glue the armature into place.The finished armature awaits some putty.

cutting
A hunk of hardened putty may seem useless, but it isn't!Try cutting it up or gouging letters and sigils into it.

looks good thank you for the help.
I dont do much and have only made some hair and some toes once.

So thats some great advice.

I fill cracks etc and havent tried much else so I appreciate the advice thank you.

;)

Those are great tips, thanks. I'm sure others will appreciate it too. :)

let the greenstuff ste for about 5-10 minutes before using

My recommendations for cloaks and the like:

Take a largish lump of greenstuff and squash it between two halves of wax paper. Make sure to get it REALLY flat; me, I like pressing down with a heavy book. Any hardback edition of the last three Harry Potter novels will work nicely. ;)

Let it cure for 20-30 minutes. Get your cutting tool (something sharp) wet, and then cut the basic shape of the cloak, pulling away the excess; or if multiple cloaks are needed, then feel free to squish the remainder together and repeat the process once your first cloak is placed, without any waiting time (properly mixed greenstuff, a bit on the darkish side, should remain perfectly malleable from about the 20 minute to the 1 hour mark).

Remember to cut your cloak bigger than you'd envision would fit on the model - a cloak can never be too large (that just makes it look cooler!) but it CAN be too small. Depending on the miniature, you'll have to figure out where to put the cloak - Traditionally on Space Marines the cloaks and robes are UNDER the backpack, whereas on many other races it's simply placed over whatever back detail they might have.

Hey, maybe I should put cloaks on my Howling Banshees! I wonder if that would look cool? Hmm...

Before picking up and placing the cape, make sure to get your fingers wet - but keep those wet fingers AWAY from the parts of GS that will contact the mini. The wetness will keep the GS from adhering to your fingers and picking up your prints (to a degree), but will also prevent the GS from forming a good bond with your mini... keeping your tools (including your fingers) wet is the secret to success with GS.

One important thing to decide with cloaks is wind source. Let's face it, a cape that just dangles looks stupid, whereas one that's blowing dramatically in the wind adds character to a miniature. If the wind is coming from the front, it looks as though he's charging forward, no matter what the odds may be. If the wind is pressing the cloak against his body, it looks as though he's overcoming adversity or is bringing the adversity with him. If the wind is blowing the cape along his line of sight, it adds a dramatic touch to whatever he's aiming with.

Not the best picture for his CAPE, but you can get the general idea from this Farseer I did:



It adds effect to the stone cradled in his hand to have the cape framing and supporting it - at least, from a compositional view.

Wrinkles come somewhat naturally, once you've decided how the wind is blowing your mini's cape. If you're doing the cape on a non-Marine mini, make sure to have an extra fold right at the top - if you don't, the cape doesn't look 'natural', as it's commonplace for their to be hanging folds right at that point. When in doubt, if you need more wrinkles, just push up from the cape's bottom.

Now that you've done everything else, here's the real secret - while the GS is doing its final cure, place the mini so that gravity works for you, not against you. This can mean some fairly odd propping of the mini, but it's well worth it. After about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, the GS should be cured enough that you'll want to put it back up on its stand.


Why do such a cape-specific post? Because capes add a great deal of drama and effectiveness to a mini. Never underestimate a good cape...

Thanks for posting this I'm always looking for more info on using gs. Like GD I usually only use it for filling gaps, although I've found I like the Testors filler putty better, and making 'slate' bases.

~Munson

I never had the pleasure of using GS, :blink: and from what i hear it's quite finicky and somewhat complicated to use. Those a VERY helpful and useful tips, thank you and keep them coming. :)

Some very usefull info. ^_^

*topic pinned*

thank you for all the kind words and my oh my this is the first ever pinned post Ive ever gotten out of all the forums ive been on :) and if anyone has a tip on green stuff and wants to share plz feel free to post it as will be a benifit to others and posibly even me

ok even though i have this neet little tips thing going does anyone know how to sculpt teeth/claws because i currently don't have any gs on my currently at home and don't exactly have experience with the sort
buuuuutttt i have an idea... get a blob of gs and roll it untill it becomes a long thin round strip.Roll the end at a diagonal angle and cut the length of how long you want it with a modling knife and repeat untill the disired amout has been made.

Where can I find green stuff. I am looking for more than the 6-8" you get from GW

Where are you based??

US CAlifornia (southern)

I'm in the UK - sorry can't help

I'm sure of the the US Mods or a helpful member will be along shortly to help

:D

here is some stuff that i got together a while back:

http://www.bugmansbrewery.com/forum/links-...ff-vt11138.html

i cant say to much towards helping you with finding it other than to search google or something for an online store to buy it

check the link i posted there is info on where to buy in the US, uk and europe there.

I've got a source that goes to the same hobby shop that I do and he gets bigs rolls of GS. Depending on what part of SoCal, I might be able to help facilitate. The shops in Arcadia near the LA area between Pasadena and Monrovia/Duarte any of the cities soundin familiar?

Mail order or go to the store and buy?

Dragonforge sells it http://dragonforge.com/Painting%20service/...aming_bases.htm

others do too, depends how much you are looking for

Hey Guy's,

I use greenstuff sometimes but mainly I use a product called magic sculpt ;it works just like greenstuff but it is a greyish khaki color when mixed and cured and it comes in different sizes in reclosable containers.
Started using this stuff when I got into military figure modeling and it is some of the best 2 part sculpting putty I've used. I get it from this place http://www.coloradominiatures.com/index.as...anfID=16&Page=1

One of the tips I use to help remove any remaining finger prints or to just smooth the putty after I'm done placing it is a medium round paint brush and water and gently brush the surface to smooth and unwanted prints or marks.

I also use wax paper to flatten out putty but in stead of a book I bought a cheap length of pvc pipe from the hardware store and use that as a rolling pin to roll the putty out;actually I found the piece of pipe in their scrap box and only paid like $1.50 after
tax.

Yea, I just got a three foot long roll of Green Stuff for 10 bucks, so I think I'm covered for a while.

Hi all.
I've never actually used GS in the past, I have a few modelling tricks up my sleeve that result in no need for filling. But I recently had a go at sculpting Daemonic Fire on my Chaos Lieutenant. He's got a pair of lightning claws, and I wanted the claws to look aflame.

Now, when I mix up my GS it winds up the consistancy of Blu-tac. This is no dramas for filling/mild sculpting, but when it came to the fire I was pulling my hair out.
-The GS had a very hard time adhering to the surface of the claws
-It acted with extremely high elasticity, making scuplting very difficult
-I finally came to a solution, wrapping a blob roughly around each claw, carving fire shapes into the putty, then grapping the top part and pulling upwards. The bottom part stuck to the claw, and the carved 'flames' stretched out and finally broke. The effect is interesting, but not what I was after as it obscures the shape of the claws quite severly.

I suspect that my GS had gone 'old', as the hardening agent (blue) was quite solid when I began mixing. Further evidence of this was kneading it between my fingers under running water in the hope to get some sort of reaction out of it, even if I wasted a blob of GS. Only a slight increase in malleability, instead of dissolving into soft goop like I expected.

Help?

That is about the right consistency, the more blue the quicker the hardening and the darker the green. More yellow the lighter the green and little bit more workability. Mix depending on what you are looking for. Flames are not exactly the easiest thing to start out on, try some gap filling and other small things until you get the hang of it.

I have not heard of any real problems with it being "old". One thing you do want to do if its in ribbon form is to separate the blue from the yellow and store them separate. Throw out the interface or mix it and throw it on a base or something as the interface basically has already cured out. The blue is going to be much harder and usually tackier. I would not mix it under water either as it has a tendency to leave like air pockets and such in the GS after it cures. A good way to store it when not in use is in a zip-loc in the freezer, I have done this for the past 3 years and have not had any problems.

Well, when I ran it under water I was expecting it to soften and dissolve into green frothy goop, but when it didn't I started feeling concerned. The fact that it was that thick wasn't so bad, it was the insane elasticity of the stuff, I could stretch it out like blue-tac before it would break, which seemed very wrong to me. Basic sculpting was easy, I repaired the belt and buckle of my model, which I had mutilated with my handy Dremel while removing an Imperial belt buckle (methinks an Ultramarine 'U' wouldn't be popular as a buckle among the Iron Warriors :tongue: )

I was expecting something much softer, that responded better to my tools. I can run my tools (a dental tooth scraper and hobby knife, both I've found are wonders for general GS work) through it, and it stretches and runs with it, instead of simply cutting or even only stretching a little bit before separating. I was attempting to use a similar technique to sculpting fur, to carve small triangle shapes into the GS then lift them off the surface of the model to create flames. Instead, the GS drags with the tool, and when I try to 'lift' a sculpt, even the tiniest amount of contact with the surrounding GS resulted in most of that area trying to lift off that area. What confounded me further was the GS's extreme hold with itself, but not to the surface of the model! Which, I should add, was quite dry at the time.

Is this 'normal' activity for Green Stuff? And if so, can someone suggest a softer less elastic sculpting medium for me to try?

I've had similar experiences & difficulties with GS so I think it is pretty normal behaviour for it. What helps is a drop of superglue on the surface where you put the GS blob, it will bond immediately but leaves the GS surface moldable. I've used this method when attaching pieces together without any jig and still keeping part of the G-stuff workable. Of course you need to use a very small drop of glue to avoid the propable mess but it prevents the GS from coming off from the model.

Another epoxy you could try is the Magic Sculp as Grizzly mentioned earlier, it really is totally different stuff and works beautifully.
Good luck!

Running it under water will not do that what so ever, that is normal. Its almost like chewing gum.

It is quite elastic and has a memory. Your using the right techniques from the sounds of what you are writing. It also sounds as if you are not wetting your tools enough. If the GS is sticking to them this is why, they need to be wet. You may also want to try very small amount of vasoline or lubricating oils on the tools, just remember to wash the model prior to painting to remove the residues.

Brownstuff is a little less elastic than GS. Don't know about magic sculpt. Apoxiesculpt is not good for detail work, but otherwise pretty decent.

No, I'd wet the tools and didn't have a problem at all with them sticking to them, but the GS proved to be very resistant to being parted or cut, instead it would stretch out quite a bit, as it has been described, it was like trying to cut a piece of chewing gum. I like the idea of using a dab of Superglue, it's theoretically sound but I'll be doing a bit of practise first, because superglue is notoriously easy to foul up with, and I have nasty luck involving it sometimes (normally I have a very steady hand, but the moment a bottle of superglue is in it, I get spastic twitches, and my grip goes to s***, resulting in huge drops of glue dangling from the nozzle when I only want a little bit :bang: ).

Thanks for the tips, I'll probably go have a look into this Brown Stuff. Anyone in QLD Australia able to point me towards a local supply? Or will I have to order it?

Thought I'd share my revelation with you lot. Well, a revelation to me at least. :D

Went shopping and bought 2 clay shapers to try on a project I'm working on. (will post pics if I can get hold of a camera.)
I've previously been using dental tools/GW tool for all my greenstuff work, but I've just been blown away by how easy and simple these shapers make sculpting. For one, they require very little lubricant, and two, they smooth greenstuff out amazingly well and simply, without having to control the pressure to the nth extent of using metal tools.
It's taken me about a week to sculpt a 40mm high robe, in stages, using dental tools and the gs was still not perfectly smooth. It's just taken me 10 mins to redo the front of the robe. They smoothed into the existing GS with little effort, did not stick once even when they weren't lubed up and were a dream to sculpt with.

If anyone is even semi serious about using greenstuff, I'd serious recommend getting at least a couple of these, and they aren't that expensive. I got the firm size 0 taper point and cup chisel. I don't think they'll work for small detail stuff, but for smoothing and general use, they are a dream.

Store your greenstuff in freece. That was tip one professional sculpter gave me. Stays better longer.

Yes, greenstuff will age in time and become harder in in time. It only matters if you are going to make professional molds from it, as old greenstuff tend to break in molding. Wargames Foundry did once sell big box of old kneadite to first customer to ask it for only 50£ or less...

Yep but don't mix it before storing it in the freezer, it dries out anyways :homer:

Question... If I store it in the freezer (I just bought a piece of it) it will take how much time to harden?

Also, I should use just small portions of it right?

it hardens allmost as soon as normal, as it "normalice" when you mix it? *Bit bad english, sorry... ;) *

sctually I have some unmixed ribbon and its been in the freezer for near a year, still soft if I where to defrost it ^_^

Hmmm... Ok... and If i'm modelling a miniature and it's taking me quite a while?

I've found tossing left over mixed GS in the freezer will keep it workable for almost 24 hours - great for me since there is always a chance of life interfering with my sculpting