"Smoothing cured greenstuff?" Topic

I've got a larger sculpture, but there are some visible joints between areas of sculpting work.

Is there a good way to get rid of these? I recall reading that greenstuff doesn't sand well. Is that correct?

While I'm at it… any advice for creating a seamless joint? I worked at smoothing some of these for what seemed like an eternity, but still have joints. These are in areas that are more or less parallel, but worked on at different points.

Thanks.

Thomas
zerotwentythree.blogspot.com

You need to smooth it before it cures completely. After it cures then you got what you got.

Green stuff does not sand worth a darn. Procreate sands OK though.

You may just need to cut a bit out, refill, smooth and let cure.

You may also consider joining the 1listsculpting yahoo group. Lots of resources there.

Regards, the Gorb
aka Left Hand Miniatures

I recall reading that greenstuff doesn't sand well. Is that correct?

In my experience, yes. You can sand it, but not well. The texture's just too rubbery to recommend it as a regular practise. But still, it's probably the quickest and most convenient option for you at the mo. You'll have to be careful not to end up with a rough, slightly furry area. At worst the thin, blended layer'll lift off and break up, leaving a worse joint.
Try scraping very lightly with a slightly dulled knife, too.

While I'm at it… any advice for creating a seamless joint? I worked at smoothing some of these for what seemed like an eternity, but still have joints.

Use something other than, or mixed with, the green stuff. It might form character to struggle and practise with the stuff, but it'll form sculpts quicker if you use something that you don't have to fight against quite so much. A lot of other putties don't match up to GS's ability to be worked fine without crumbling, but most can be pushed and smoothed more easily, without GS's memory pulling them back. The slight water-solubility of some hard-curing 'clay' types can be useful for blending joins too. Sometimes.
Or try to blend the join soon after applying the GS, before it's gone half-cured and stubborn. Possibly with a touch more yellow in the mix.

On that note, what's the stuff you used for the butterfly and the core of the rabbit?

Also, what's in your tool kit? Any clay shapers…?

Lastly, sorry for any inferences, but is the join obvious when you run a fingertip or fingernail over it? Or is it at least partly a case of two slightly mismatched shades of green coming together?

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Warren B.
minisculpture.co.uk

Testors make a resin in a tube for filling in gaps that sand quite nicely. You might give that a try on the green stuff.

Thanks for the replies.

The bumps are slightly visible, and apparent to the touch. You can see one on the belly of the rabbit, at the front.

I've tried some smaller scale sculpting and haven't run into this problem because of the smaller area & volume.

I do have some Procreate, but haven't tried it yet.

I am wondering if the greenstuff I was using was a bit old. I finished one batch, and pulled a spare from storage in the freezer and the new stuff seems easier to work with.

The white/tan stuff is Sculpy. Because of the partiular geometry for this particular project I used that for bulking out a basic shape. The finish on the butterfly bodu ended up being acceptable enough to keep without having to cover with greenstuff in most places.

As far as tools, I (very) recently bought some color shapers but like the Procreate, haven't tried them yet. I've got a couple dental tools, ball burnishers, a few home-made tools (wire/rod that's been hammered, cut, filed, etc. into useful shapes and then mounted on a bit of wood dowel) and a few other small scale sculpting items I've picked up when I've found them.

I use plain Chap-stick (petroleum jelly based) for lubricant.

Because of the size of the rabbit (its around 6" tall) I ended up finding it easier to use my fingers to move & smooth large areas of putty quite a bit.

The problem isn't so much gaps as it it "bulges" at a few of the joints.

The rabbit will be painted in a more or less solid color. Because of the lack of detail, I will have no problem applying thick paint (mix in some heavy medium?), gesso, or some sort of filler to smooth out any minor roughness. So sanding might not be a horrible thing if the only concern is roughness. But I'm also worried that any thin spots might peel or break away from the underlying/adjacent surface.

Thanks again for the advice.

Sanding greenstuff can be done using fine sand- and polishing papers. I use the micro mesh pads for this. Still, I prefer smoothing before it cures.

In those cases where I expect to have to sand or file (mechanical bits) I often mix in milliput or just use brown stuff (with some green mixed in). Both take sanding better.

I started sculpting some 10mm figs without the aid of a magnifying glass and after I realized that my eyesight was not that good anymore I purchased a lamp with a magnifying glass in it. As I looked at the figs under that I found a lot of flaws/rough areas. I was able to save some of them by putting a skim coat of freash green stuff over the areas that were rough and smoothing it in and redoing some of the detail. A really thin coat didn't hurt the proportions of the figs and on bogger scales should be even easier. I am a novice sculptor, but that was effective for me.

Allen

I sanded the areas and that seemed to work out OK. A couple coats of spray primer have more or less covered any texture left from the sanding.

On the down side, I've now learned that I shouldn't use spray primer on Sculpy… hopefully I can recover from this latest issue.

The bulge is the "memory effect" of green stuff. To avoid it, you can blend it or replace it with brown stuff.

A lot of the sculpting putties can be blended together to get putties with intermediate qualities. The trick, as I understand it, is to mix each one separately, then blend them together in whatever ratio gets the characteristics you want. Putties with vastly different working times can be a bit problematic, but that may also average out with the right blend.

Or you could use ProCreate.
:)

You can actually sand cured Green Stuff (or ProCreate) with very fine sandpaper, but you have to have a light hand, and you're not going to get rid of large aberrations that way, but it can be good for getting rid of stray fingerprints you missed.

For more significant problems, the edge of a very sharp (preferably brand-new) Xacto blade can do wonders. A very light repeated scraping can smooth cured green stuff. You'll lose the shininess (although dab a tiny bit of vaseline on it and it comes back partially), but it will smooth it. It's a trick that takes some practice, so try and something unimportant first. I usually don't keep the blade at a 90° angle, but rather scrape at an angle, somewhere between 45° and 60°. Very light tough is important, each scrape should remove almost an imperceptible amount of material.

And if it's more than you can get rid of with scraping, you can also always just cut out the problematic area and fill it in with new, uncured putty.