Hey,

I’m so excited! this is the first Sculpt along post (if you don’t know what I’m writing about, click here).  I know, I know, many of you aren’t even close to ready to sculpt, but what we can do here is to prepare and get together some background knowlege and materials.  Therefore, this post does several things.  The first is to lay out what will happen when.  This will help you mentally ‘pace yourself’.   The second is to find out who’s actually truly keen to take part, so that I can include a ‘feedback’ post in which I can showcase some of the progress that you and other participants have achieved.   The third is to begin to give background on different tools and materials so that you can gather them up.  If we can do that, and everyone knows what they need to get together before we kick off, then we’ll be set for a really great project.

First thing then, what will happen when?  I’d like to be launching each post on a friday.  To begin with therefore, there will be a post about making the armature on January 1st.  Then, as you and the other contestants give it a try, I’ll be on hand via email, to help out, on the forums, over the phone, in person or on my blog,  Whatever suits you best.  If  there has been enough discussion etc. on the forums blog and wherever else to warrant it, I’d then like to collate any queires, questions, suggestions, hints and tips into a ‘feedback’ post the following thursday.  hopefully this will tie together important questions and suggestions, as well as letting people see some other participants work.  Then, regular as clockwork, the next post will come out the next day, on the friday.  So, to sum up, 1 new task per week, released on a friday, and one ‘feedback’ post the following thursday.  I envisage this lasting approximately eight weeks, and taking around an hour per week, I think you’ll agree, it’s hardly a big drain on your hobby time in return for the complete freedom of expression that comes with the confidence to push putty

gottit?  new posts fridays, beginning January (apart from this one and one discussing concept design which will come before then), and feedback posts the following thursdays.

Ok, on to the second order of business, who’s taking part.  I asked around PB, CMON, and a few other places, and I’ve had many people get back to me to say they would be potentially interested.  I think it’s important that I now ask you to confirm your ‘attendance’ for the event.  Ok, so you could do it in the background, not interacting with me or the other participants, but that would be both boring and missing the point slightly – you might as well get a book or dvd.  I hear that miniature mentor do a good set.  I presume that if you’re keen, then you’re reading this, so here’s my request.  Contact me, with the name you’d like to be known by on here, your email address and indicate your pledge to give this a try.  Obviously I won’t be chasing you up to ask why you haven’t done something, this isn’t school, but by writing that pm, comment, email, or making that phone call to me etc., you mentally choose to participate in a consciously.  Oh, by the way, anyone is welcome to join in at any time of course, so if you’re reading this ‘late’ and you still want to join in, then please do!  the more the merrier.

Wonderful!  so now we know what’s happening when, who’s taking part (or at least we soon will), and you’re going to let me know that you’re in.  Great!  That means we can get onto the third part of this first sculptalong post, and by far the most interesting, the art of sculpting, and the tools and materials you will need.

As with any random coming together of people like this, you will have different levels of knowlege on the subject than others working on the project.  Some of you will have the tools and the materials already, and will have already completed their own sculpts.  Others will have none of that background, and won’t even be able to paint miniatures (where most of us started from).  This is going to be written primarily to you, because it’s good to be forewarned.  For the experienced, you may decide to skim or skip bits, and of course that’s fine.

Putties first, the actual stuff you’ll sculpt with.  There are lots of confusing names out there, brand names, and nicknames people have given different putties, but you’ll be pleased to know that they can be split into two broad categories.  These are polymer clay and epoxy putty.  For the sake of this project, i’ll be using epoxy putty, but you can also choose to work this through with polymer clay.

Polymer clay is a material that you can knead to make soft and workable, sculpt into shape, and then bake or boil in order to ‘cure’ it (make it hard).  This stuff has the advantage of being something you can work on indefinately.  On the other hand, it’s very easy to put a stray finger or tool through your hard work.  Epoxy putty on the other hand works differently.  It tends to come in two parts, which are mixed, form a chemical reaction that we don’t need to care about, and becomes hard, or ‘cures’ over a set period of time afterwards.  This has the advantage of being able to work on small bits at a time letting them cure in between stages, but means that you have to keep mixing it up in batches, and wasting that which you don’t use.

Common brands of Polymer Clay include Fimo and Prima (sculpey).  Try to get a colour that you can actually photograph (not black, white or some flourescent colour if you can help it), for the purposes of this project.  Epoxy putty is a different beast altogether.  It comes in a good few makes, including ‘Green Stuff’, ‘Milliput’, ‘Procrete’ and ‘Magic sculpt’ (all can be found here but don’t get the superfast stuff).  I do most of my work with this putty, as do the majority of the people in the business.  It comes in two parts, which mix to make the putty that cures over time thereafter.  The putty has different uses depending on where it’s at in the curing process (something that has been mixed 20 minutes beforehand has different properties to a freshly mixed batch.), and masking this can be key to success.  My Malice Mad Hatter project will be completed using a mix of two types of epoxy putty, green stuff and magic sculpt.  However, as with the polymer clays, it doesn’t matter which you pick, they’re just different.

Some like one of these types of putty in particular and some hate it.  I for one much prefer epoxy putty.  However, while the way you choose to go will have it’s own set of challenges, but I would argue that there’s no such thing as a ‘best’ option.  See how you feel, and pick the one you like best in the long term.  In the short term, if you’re confused by all this talk of different putties, and you just want me to tell you what to do, then you should get some ‘green stuff’ (sometimes called ‘duro’ or ‘kneadatite’), and preferably some ‘magic sculp’ too.  Then you’re set, and can follow what I do as closely as possible as I work with these putties.  Sylmasta.com is a good resource, but stick the putty name into google and you’ll have a bunch of options for where to buy from.  Maybe hold off ordering until yoo know if you want to get some tools as well (coming in the next preparation post) to save on postage

Right, it’s 2.30am, and I’m really tired, so I’ll leave this for now, and follow up soon with tools, and other materials you’ll require.  In the mean time, if you can find the following items from around the house, you’ll be set.

1.  Talc (talcum powder, fragranced, or unfragranced doesn’t matter).  Cheap from boots or the like if you don’t have some.

2. Surgical spirit/vasiline.  One of these is only absolutely necessary if you don’t have any talc.

3.  Super glue – Cyanoacrylate , or crazy glue, is often used in miniature sculpting.

4.  Wire – paper clips, florist wire, copper wire, whatever you have going

5.  Corks – from wine bottles etc.  sounds like a good excuse to me!

I promise I’ll take you through the ‘why’ of each of these bizarre requests above as soon as I can.

Anyway, for now, goodnight.

James