Plasticine no more: What's best for sculpting?

You could try monstermakers.com monster clay. It has a low melting point, so you can soften it with a hair dryer, of the microwave. but are room temp it is harder than chivant hard, which helps with detailing. It is oil based you can leave it for days, downfall though, its a bit pricey

I'd suggest Chavant Y2KLAY, melting point is again low so heat gun or hair dryer works great as does skin temp, you can work it for many minutes before it changes back to a harder constancy so it gives you plenty of working time, that and it hardens up to allow it to be carved and even machined if you need

Chavant NSP hard is also a great clay

neither can be microwaved, a toaster oven is best

There are a lot of quality non sulfur clays out there. It is a personal choice as some like softer clays that you can just slap down, some like myself prefer hard clays with low melt points to ensure high detail in the sculpts. Before monster makers and the newer NSP's I used to formulate my own. Big tip, build your self a heat box. Take a small box like a shoe box, line it with tinfoil and get a clip light with a 100wt bulb. Chop your clay up and put it in the box. Place the lamp over the box and there you go. After a while the clay will soften and become nice and workable. Plus it's right there ready to use with out using a microwave.


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gobler said:

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There are a lot of quality non sulfur clays out there. It is a personal choice as some like softer clays that you can just slap down, some like myself prefer hard clays with low melt points to ensure high detail in the sculpts. Before monster makers and the newer NSP's I used to formulate my own. Big tip, build your self a heat box. Take a small box like a shoe box, line it with tinfoil and get a clip light with a 100wt bulb. Chop your clay up and put it in the box. Place the lamp over the box and there you go. After a while the clay will soften and become nice and workable. Plus it's right there ready to use with out using a microwave.


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interesting, with chivant i usually just fill a trashbag, even uncut fill my slop sink with hot water, have a smoke, get a drink, come back 15 min and its as soft as wed for about a half hour.

But using a hot box will keep the clay workable for as long as you are sculpting.. Also depending how close you put the lamp you can get the clay to almost a slurry or a paste/cream consistency.


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that was chivant i was talking about, i've done enough clay pour in my time to never get near creamy, or slurry melted chivant unless i'm wearing welding gloves :P

Worth pointing out that Ally Morrisson at Games Workshop used Sculpy and he managed the current tomb kings skeleton warriors with it!

i do small scale with sculpy with no problem, but i could not handle that small scale

GW do everything in 3up so a 28mm miniature is actually sculpted at 85mm tall so it's not that small, all the same, though, shows what it can do. He also sculpts the models that are eventually metal in one sitting without baking. Again, shows the medium's quality.

I think the big question is what do you want to sculpt? There are plenty of great clays out there, but they're not all right for every project.

i keep forgetting that sculpy comes in soft, medium and hard since ive only used the soft :P

i have been using Chavant NSP medium for years, and love it. i high recommend it. i would asvoid monstermakers clay. it's terrible and messy and greasy. not to mentioned over priced because it has their brand on it :/

Quagmire9 said:

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i have been using Chavant NSP medium for years, and love it. i high recommend it. i would asvoid monstermakers clay. it's terrible and messy and greasy. not to mentioned over priced because it has their brand on it :/

MM clay is wonderful! Superior to anything else I've ever used. Messy? How so?? Greasy? Not at all, perhaps waxy, and that, I've found, is a desirable property. Over-priced? Not any more expensive than the NSP (which has the "Chavant" brand name on it... your comment doesn't make any sense).

I'm not sure what happened with the batch you tried, Quagmire, but the Monster Clay I've used is significantly less messy than my NSP (soft). It doesn't stick to skin and tools like NSP does. I did the math recently, and Monster Clay is exactly the same price as NSP, within a few cents per pound. I like 'em both.

But again, it's really about what you need to sculpt.

I have used Monster Clay, I like it, it is a cool clay... my chief complaint is the low melt point makes it soften up more than I like it when working on any one area... heat from hands alone enough to mar some detail...
NSP... I like it also, good solid clay, work detail in well
My choice is Castilene but to be honest, I have not tried it since Chavant bought it and reformulated it... I have enough of the original around, at least for now...

Quagmire9 said:

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i have been using Chavant NSP medium for years, and love it. i high recommend it.

^This

Since I began using Chavant NSP medium, I decided I would no longer use any other clay for my sculpts. You can use medium for big sculpts, or hard for tiny things.

Big thank you to you all for the great advice. I've been doing some research on your comments and I feel that Chavant NSP looks to be what I'll try. I'll probably go the medium firmness first and see how I cope with that.
Secondly, aside from the great ideas some of you had for heat boxes, would anyone know if there might be an actual product that would serve the same purpose? Maybe a little pot kind of thing with an adjustable temperature? Maybe there's some kitchen product out there... I'll have a look.
Again, big thanks and I let you know how I go.

BTW, my research tells me that the Chavant is pourable when heated enough. Has anyone tried this? If so, what kind of consistency are we talking? Milk? Cream? Water???
What I'd be hoping for is, if I already had a mold and I wanted to make a similar sculpture but could save time by casting it in the Chavant, I could then simply alter the cast to achieve the modified design?

As always, love your advice.
Cheers - Chris

SPS said:

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Big thank you to you all for the great advice. I've been doing some research on your comments and I feel that Chavant NSP looks to be what I'll try. I'll probably go the medium firmness first and see how I cope with that.
Secondly, aside from the great ideas some of you had for heat boxes, would anyone know if there might be an actual product that would serve the same purpose? Maybe a little pot kind of thing with an adjustable temperature? Maybe there's some kitchen product out there... I'll have a look.
Again, big thanks and I let you know how I go.

As always, love your advice.
Cheers - Chris

You said it... crock pot works a charm!

About the consistency... think melted chocolate, like a dense cream. To keep it warm, I have a friend who uses a wax warmer (those used to melt depilatory wax) with regulable temperature.

You can definitely make a casting in chavant with the pouring method, just be sure to apply a release agent first.

A wax pot for heating leg wax. You can get them at beauty and hair suppliers or attend a beauty expo for really cheap prices. I use one to formulate prosthetic gelatine in.