I just bought some green stuff and Im having an awesome time converting some zombies into players for Blood Bowl. I made very basic shoulder pads. They look really neat, and I can't wait to paint.
I ordered some dental tools online for shipping, and noticed lots of water is handy. I think I might try making a mini from a Reaper Armeture. Has anyone else tried anything like this?

I'm in Australia and I've only ever used Milliput for sculpting. I've been wanting to get some green stuff for a while now - where did you get yours? I've never used a bought 'body' armature however I did once sculpt a 7cm tall Black Beast of Aaaarrrggghhhh from Monty Python and the Holy Grail for a beast element for the miniatures game Hordes of the Things. As an armature for the Beast's horns I used a piece of underwire from one of my wife's old bras!

I've done a bit of converting with green stuff too. It really is amazing.

I usually keep a capful of vegetable oil with me to lubricate whatever sculpting tool I am using. Don't get too much on there, just a small dab, and then wipe that off, so that there is only a thin residue. That way the green stuff won't stick to your sculpting tool. Be careful not to get too much oil on the greenstuff, as then it won't stick to anything!!

There are many hand threads on greenstuff over on theminiaturespage.com if you haven't looked there yet.

I mainly use greenstuff to fill gaps, smooth out bases and so on, but I have done some minor sculpting of little things like roses or mushrooms. I've collected a few sculpting links nonetheless -

http://lyonstudio.com/Sculpting/SculptingIndex.htm
http://groups.msn.com/SculptingMiniatures/tutorials.msnw

And here's a guy that is to mini sculpting what mini sculpting is to large-scale sculpting -

http://www.willard-wigan.com/index.htm

I've never done a full figure, but I've used green stuff to make a lot of modifications over the years. It's very satisfying to pull out something that you put a lot of time into at the local game store and have everyone oooh and ahhh about it.

Green stuff used to be sold at any hardware store, but unfortunately now you have to order it online. I'm still trying to figure out why it was pulled from the shelves everywhere.

A tip I learned about epoxy ribbon (green stuff) is:

I use it on a sculpting surface like a piece of tile or a cutting mat. I keep a section of the surface wet and I keep any tools I'm using wet.

Neil is right, green stuff is basically plumber's putty and it used to be sold under the name "Duro Epoxy Ribbon". GW sells 6" of the stuff for about $8 and I think Reaper may be less expensive. When it was a Duro product 36" of it cost about $4 total.

Another tip ~

Unless the gaps I'm filling are large, mixing up a smallish batch of putty for a few arm/shoulder gaps is a pain. What I normally do is much quicker~

1. Fill the gap wih slow-zap type glue... basically thick stuff, not GW's thin stuff. Tap in baking soda. The soda hardens the glue very quickly indeed. Later, file and smooth any roughness from the hardened baking soda. Saves amazing amounts of time.

2. For small little gaps I glue with normal zap-glue and zip-kicker, which hardens the glue right frickin' now! Then I fill in with the thick glue, even overfill a tad. Allowing that to harden or hitting it with zip-kicker gives you an immediate solution. Hit with a light file, primer, paint.

Final tip ~

Using any quick-harden chemical like zip kicker may crystalize the glue, weakening the bond. In fact, arms and other attachments often fall off through normal usage. If it's big enough, I "pin" it. Use either your dremel tool or one of the cheapie pin-vice drills. I have miniatures I pinned over 20 years ago that have seen many, many battles and are still in no risk of falling apart.

Converting with green stuff can be great fun. I've done a few full sculpts, my 2nd and 3rd attempts were sold to sacredblade miniatures in england (they are a small indy mini company, the guy that did the last reaper sophie has a sculpt available throught them, mine haven't been cast yet because the mold maker wanted them to be multi-part, so Pete the owner has to do that first)

I found doing full figs from scratch extremely difficult, I can make great faces and overall very realistic figures because of my art background but find the whole process takes a lot of patience and the willingness to re-work and start over sometimes. I have several figs going right now but rarely work on them right now because of other interests.

What I found fun though was conversions. Some things to try is to make molds with greenstuff (if you make some small thing like a shield or emblem that you want to use more than once it is nice not to have to resculpt each time). Just make the original and and make a flat mold with greenstuff but be sure to use a decent amount of release agent like oil, also, the original is likely to be destroyed in the process so prepare for that

I never tried the existing armatures but think it is a good idea because soldering small wires to exact lengths is pretty hard, my only problem with the reapers armatures is that they were a little large in the limbs for my tastes (arms/legs too thick) but I think it is a great way to get a handle on doing a full fig

My advice? be really patient, if you do a small area and are happy with it, don't touch it! just put it under a lamp and let it fully cure before adding more. You can work on small sections or portions at a time and smooth the next layer or section on easily. Also you'll find it is easier to smooth the surface after the green stuff has partially cured, just takes some patience and practice to figure it all out.

I do encourage you to keep at it though as it is a very rewarding activity. I have a small assortment of dental tools and found the games workshop sculpting tool very useful. I also use a variety of needles and other small metal objects for tools. When you get your dental tools you might find them to be of low quality (probably made in Pakistan), I had to smooth and file down edge burrs to make mine useful.

One more thing, the most important tool I have is a good loupe (a large photo loupe is basically a magnifier), it really helps seeing the surface very close after the work is done to see small imperfections. I don't use a magnifier when I work but I think that is a possibility depending on your eyesight. Just work with a really good light

Jesse,

I've been sculpting figures for about five years now. Drop me a message and I'd be glad to offer any help I can. I live here in Spokane- we had exchanged emails a few times about doing some board gaming back in may, but lost contact. Drop me a line: Jeff@darkmatterminiatures.com

Jeff Worley