Green Stuff for beginners

[Grailkeeper]

I recently ordered the german officer mini on this page http://www.studiominiatures.com/Shop/Germans.html which I intend to convert into a commissar by adding a greenstuff sash. I have never used green stuff before and I was wondering if any of you have advice for a beginner on working with green stuff? I imagine a sash would be relatively simple in comparison to some stuff I've seen online.

One thing I should point out is that I won't be buying any tools to work green stuff- as I am unlikely to be doing any other converting with it for the forseeable future- I only need one model and I don't have much time for painting modelling and gaming.

Edit: IF you know how to do simple epualettes please let me know. They'll probably be harder to do.

Edit Edit: Found a tutorial on simple epualettes on Col Gravis Website. His work is great! http://colgravis.blogspot.com/search?q=tutorial&updated-max=2008-07-05T13%3A17%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=20

[UrielVentris]

Cool model! Their 'characters' are really well done, I'm surprised that no one has contacted them about the 'likeness' issues.

Those shoulder boards look good, it'll depend on how you want to do them. What's the theme for the guard army?

[Cursed13]

The best advice I can think of for beginning sculptors is to just not buy greenstuff. Avoid it like the plague. Get some greystuff instead, much more forgiving and much easier to work with. It's not as much of a sticky mess as greenstuff can get if you don't remember to use enough water while working.
Greystuff can also be mixed in different proportions of black and white putty to give different results, like more organic or more mechanical. It also dries much quicker.
Also, having a rubber tipped brush is a major boon. Sculpting tools help, but a rubber tipped brush will save a lot of grief.
Since I've started using greystuff, I only use greenstuff to make solid contact surface or fill gaps to have more contact area. Greenstuff is a solid material to keep things together. I definitely don't recommend greystuff for anything but detail sculpting.

[isotope99]

Do it in two stages:

1: get the shape
2: add the texture

smooth with water and your finger and dip tools in water to prevent sticking

If you don't have any sculpting tools, the reverse of a paintbrush dipped in water could help make folds in cloth, a knife can help smooth the edges and a drawing pin can be used for detail.

[Grailkeeper]

Cheers Thanks for the advice, that model does look very like http://collider.com/entertainment/news/article.asp/aid/10569/tcid/1 alright.

It's not for a guard army. It's going to be a renegade Commissar who has been corrupted by chaos, for an up coming Black Crusade campaign.

How do you get your green stuff so smooth Isotope? I tried in once before (a long time ago) and it ended up covered in fingerprints.

[magickbk]

When I work with green stuff, I use some sort of lubricant to prevent the green stuff from sticking to my fingers and tools. Most commonly I use dish-washing detergent. After you have your shape and details worked out, you just put the stuff on a flat section of one of your tools and lightly smooth out any unwanted textures.

As for tools on the cheap, you could take a number of plastic knives (picnic, cafeteria, looted from Taco Bell, whatever) and carve them into some shapes and thicknesses you will need with an X-Acto knife. For a smoothing tool, you could chop down a plastic spoon. You can also use clay sculpting tools from a craft store. You can often purchase these for a dollar or two, especially on sale or with a coupon (Michael's crafts has printable coupons on their website).

[isotope99]

Cheers Thanks for the advice, that model does look very like http://collider.com/entertainment/news/article.asp/aid/10569/tcid/1 alright.

It's not for a guard army. It's going to be a renegade Commissar who has been corrupted by chaos, for an up coming Black Crusade campaign.

How do you get your green stuff so smooth Isotope? I tried in once before (a long time ago) and it ended up covered in fingerprints.

Use water and your little finger, does the job for me just make sure the GS is where you want it first.

[L192837465]

There were a couple bols articles a while back. The author advocated using KY. I tried it out (no details) and it actually works really really well.

[weeble1000]

I find that a toothpick works very well as a rough sculpting tool. You can roll it between your fingers as you apply pressure to start smoothly contouring a piece.

I've used lots of different stuff for lubricant. It is a matter of finding what works best for you personally. But since you aren't going to be doing a lot of sculpting, water works fine but you have to remember to keep your tools wet. KY or other commercial lubricants also work well, so if water isn't working for you, try something like that.

As others have said, green stuff is best applied in multiple stages. I often ignore this as I am impatient, but you'r best results will involve several stages of application between which you allow the green stuff to cure.

In terms of application, the basic technique that I am aware of and use it to start by applying a small ball or "sausage" of green stuff onto the area that you intend to work and then working it into the desired shape.

You might want to do a couple of test pieces before you get to work on the commissar.

[Grailkeeper]

Thanks for the advice. How hard is greenstuff to remove if you've made a mistake? If it's dried on does that mean it'll stay permenantly?

[Old_Paladin]

I've never worked with actual greenstuff, but have worked with special clays that seem similar.
They sand down, or can be chipped off, pretty easily if working on metal; so mistakes shouldn't be too hard to fix or replace.

[Grailkeeper]

Isotope, do you mean that the green stuff is fingerprinty when you put it on the model, then you smooth it down with your finger?

[Demonus]

where is a good place to get green stuff? I thought the GW stuff seemed a little pricey.

[isotope99]

Isotope, do you mean that the green stuff is fingerprinty when you put it on the model, then you smooth it down with your finger?

Yes, that's how I usually do it: shape it with fingers, smooth it and then use the tools to texture it.

You can usually get the green stuff off a smooth surface pretty easily, harder off a rough surface.

[Col.Gravis]

I hope the tutorial is useful to you!

Regarding tools, I'd recommend a sewing pin as being much better then a toothpick, perhaps mounting it in a pin vice to use for better control. A scapel or hobby knife blade will also come in handy, personally a scaple is one of my top tools for sculpting. The thing you'll struggle with the most is getting a smooth finish, finger prints can really ruin your work. I'd always suggest rubber headed clay shapers, you only need one, but if you really dont want to invest in any tools at all possibly the end of the handle of a piece of smooth and rounded cutlery or at a push a teaspoon may yield okay results. Certainly better then using your fingers. Just be cautious not to press down too hard, you basicly want to no more then rest the tool on the surface - and don't forget plenty of water or whatever other lubricant you favour. Personally as long as you dont use too much I find water (or salivia for that matter!) more then adequate.

[Grailkeeper]

Thanks everyone for the advice! my mini has just arrived in the post, and I've ordered some greenstuff off ebay which should arrive any day now. Expect a WIP thread on my Chaos Commissar some time next week roughly

[DarkLink]

I've found that greenstuff sticks to things similarly to how plastic can be glued to metal. Fairly sturdy, but you can break it off without the use of power tools.

[oldone]

Hi I also wondering about alson doing some work with green stuff can anyone recommend a decent tutorial?

[Grailkeeper]

Maybe the greenstuff I got was old, but it was much tougher than I imagined it would be, I always thought it might be a bit runnier. Still this made it easier to handle. My commissar is v much WIP but I'll set up a new thread with pics soon

[isotope99]

Maybe the greenstuff I got was old, but it was much tougher than I imagined it would be, I always thought it might be a bit runnier. Still this made it easier to handle. My commissar is v much WIP but I'll set up a new thread with pics soon

Two things that can affect it:

The amount of hardener used (the blue)

Temperature, cold fingers are no good

[weeble1000]

As for where to get greenstuff, I prefer to get mine from Gale Force 9. I vastly prefer green stuff which has the components in separate tubes, rather than a strip. GF9 has reasonable prices, but there might be somewhere better to get it.

Col. Gravis,

I like to use a toothpick for basic work and finer tools like a pin for details. I find it particularly handy because I hold the toothpick in my mouth when I'm not using it, which means I don't have to keep wetting it. But to each his own, really. Your GS work is very nice by the way.

[Grailkeeper]

I bought mine on ebay, it costs much less.

I used a 50/50 mix of the two colours. It was what seemed natural at the time. Are you saying If I use more yellow I can sculpt in more detail?

How long does it take to dry? I think its more or less dry now but if I touch it it'll stiil pick up a finger print. This is roughly an hour and a half since I rolled it out.