MIlliput vs Green stuff

Okay, so I've come from milliput (I use white exclusivly) - I love the way it dries hard and can be shaved using a very sharp scalpel blade for very crisp corners / sharp weapons edges. I love the way I can use a paintbrush and water to wet sculpt the milliput - gradual erosion of surface using a moist bruch allows for very delicate surface manipulation. I love the way I can hit it with 5mins of hairdryer heat and this speeds up cure to less than 1hr.

Why is is that everyone uses green stuff? and how do they achieve the above types of working processes? or is it impossible? I've been using green stuff and it stays very flexible meaning you naver acheive the same level of post cure grinding / shaving ability. I've found it's really ncie for making tubes and organic form, and things like chainmail but it's just irritating when you want to make a sharp edge.

Anyone able to point me to a good bit of information on how to work with green stuff after being so familiar with milliput and it's water reaction properties. I want to move to green stuff exclusively but can't seem to get the results I get with milliput

Re: MIlliput fs Green stuff

Personally I hate milliput (even superfine white) and have never been able to adequately sculpt an entire figure from one. I find it too granular and not easy enough to push and pull around. Green Stuff does that really nicely, but is more flexible and can be really sticky so I like to mix it with a bit of ProCreate which holds detail better and reduces the stickiness (but by itself isn't sticky enough). I will use milliput if I am sculpting weapons or base tabs which need to be thin and flat and withstand vulcanising, but even then I prefer to mix it with a bit of GS to give it more plasticity. Milliput 'slip' for filling gaps is useful and can't be done with the others.

It will always depend what I'm sculpting though, if I want armour plates with sharp edges I'll use a Milliput/GS mix and sand and trim to get sharp edges and smooth surfaces when cured. If I want organic shapes I will use exclusively GS. One of the joys of working with epoxies is that you can blend them to get different properties depending on what you are working on.

Re: MIlliput fs Green stuff

Very interesting topic!
I have always been using green stuff only and I have to admit I feel the limitation when it is time to get sharp edges. Usually I would work around by making sure I have a metal reinforcement inside the shape I am creating and after a first sanding, I apply super glue and then sand a second time... It is a bit of a painful process now that I think of it

Re: MIlliput fs Green stuff

Fimm McCool":njuy0t46 said:

Personally I hate milliput (even superfine white) and have never been able to adequately sculpt an entire figure from one. I find it too granular and not easy enough to push and pull around. Green Stuff does that really nicely, but is more flexible and can be really sticky so I like to mix it with a bit of ProCreate which holds detail better and reduces the stickiness (but by itself isn't sticky enough). I will use milliput if I am sculpting weapons or base tabs which need to be thin and flat and withstand vulcanising, but even then I prefer to mix it with a bit of GS to give it more plasticity. Milliput 'slip' for filling gaps is useful and can't be done with the others.

It will always depend what I'm sculpting though, if I want armour plates with sharp edges I'll use a Milliput/GS mix and sand and trim to get sharp edges and smooth surfaces when cured. If I want organic shapes I will use exclusively GS. One of the joys of working with epoxies is that you can blend them to get different properties depending on what you are working on.

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Wow. Thanks man. I totally didn't consider mixing green stuff with milliput for mixed properties. And I'm glad it wasn;t just my inability that was preventing me from getting what I want from green stuff. I took delivery of your beautiful hedge pigs kickstarter today and love how close your work resembles citadel from the glory days - I assume they were using a similar process - it's only after listening to the aly morrison interview on gw tv that I realised they were using green stuff long before they started selling it in their stores. I always remember milliput being the recommended epoxy putty by blanche and mcvey, but behind closed doors the design team must have been using green stuff for a large quantity of their sculpting. I'm going to experiement with mixing by gs and milli.

Re: MIlliput fs Green stuff

Plaiecivile":13r7oo2h said:

Very interesting topic!
I have always been using green stuff only and I have to admit I feel the limitation when it is time to get sharp edges. Usually I would work around by making sure I have a metal reinforcement inside the shape I am creating and after a first sanding, I apply super glue and then sand a second time... It is a bit of a painful process now that I think of it

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definitely try some white milliput. wet brush malipulation is something impossible with green stuff and for certain things I expect it'll yield you some advantages over green stuff. It's cheap so even if you end up hating it you could use it to bulk out large portions before using green stuff on the top surface.

Re: MIlliput fs Green stuff

Vintage_Warhammer":2snoz2tj said:

I always remember milliput being the recommended epoxy putty by blanche and mcvey, but behind closed doors the design team must have been using green stuff for a large quantity of their sculpting. I'm going to experiement with mixing by gs and milli.

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Yeah, I always assumed I was crap at sculpting because they didn't let on about the Green Stuff trick. It was designed (as was Milliput) as a plumbers' putty and is widely available as Kneadatite (and much cheaper bought this way than as Green Stuff!). I think Tom Meier was a pioneer is using Green Stuff for miniatures sculpting. Prior to that it was common practice to build up and carve miniatures from solder, which explains the quite rough look of many figures from the 70s and earlier. I have massive respect for anyone who can carve a miniature out of blobs of solder!

On the mixing front, some sculptors blend a little Fimo and increasingly Bees Putty polymer clays into their epoxy putties to get a softer, more workable substance. In quite small amounts it can really alter the sticky feel of GS and doesn't require baking (but if you mix in more than about 20% polymer clay a while in the oven at a low temperature is recommended, especially if you're going to put it in a vulcaniser. The epoxy will not be affected by the heat).

Re: MIlliput fs Green stuff

I tried mixing white milli with gs (or kneadatite - I bought the two sticks of it that's around the same size as a pack of milliput). I went with a 50/50 blend and WOW! it's a really nice compound. Thanks very much for yur advice It's got the water erosion properties i love, but with more plasticity allowing easier ability to adhere to a surface and 'push around'. upon cure it's very close to the hardness of milliput on it's own so i'm able to cut into it to clean up teeth or sharpen weapon edges by shaving with a fresh swann morton #10. I'm not really sculpting with the intent on taking molds so I'm a little less restrained and don;t have to have as durable pieces.

On a side note I went into GW in cribbs earlier today. They were using GS to repair/strengthen an ankle joint on an incorrectly assembled dreadnought. Previously they had told me that GS is the only thing they'd ever recommend and that milliput is rubbish, but I'm 100% sure that for the job at hand they'd have been better with milliput. Anyway I kept my mouth shut but happened to mention the great results I'd had with mixing 50/50. My suggestion was met with the same type of look I get when I start questioning whether the moon landings happened - They couldn;t belive I was even suggesting such a thing. I got the impression from their response that they're not in any way allowed to promote or consider use of third party materials but I think that's rather sad that GW has become so protectionist.

I used to use alot of milliput, but its just so grainy! And brittle. I use ProCreate (worst name ever!) and for hard edges I use plasticard, cut and filed. THis is fine for resin casting!

howdy,
what is the design?
What I thought is we should not use plastic cards. Its fine if you want to use.

brown1eliza":v60pehlr said:

What I thought is we should not use plastic cards.

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Absolutely right if you're putting your sculpt anywhere near a vulcaniser to create a mould for metal casting. Plastic Card is totally fine for room temperature silicone moulds which is what Curtis is using to cast his resin miniatures. If you use a high-temp resin in your silicone mould you can use this in a vulcaniser, it just adds an extra step.