Baking thin Sculpey over an ali armature

Hi,
Before I do something I really regret, can anyone advise me on baking a sculpey figurine thats over an Aluminium armature?
The sculpt has some very spindly legs, and thin horn like appendages, so I'm not sure at what temperature I should bake it all at, as its too delicate to mold without baking.
In some places the Super Sculpey (fleshtone) is only -1mm thick......
so I dont want to burn it all up!!

Any help is great,

D

don't bake it, use a heat gun or blow dryer(my choice), that's what we used to do...

No need to bake it as you only need it to harden enough to hold it's shape and details to make a mold, the heat from a blow dryer is easily controlled and will harden up the sculpt quite adequately for this...just my 3 cents

Will

Dont' bake it as the Sculpy will set rock hard and your armature will be difficult to remove ,instead use dental alginate to make a soft cast , supporting the alginate with a wrap of plaster bandages , then remove your suclpy armiture model , then cast a plaster positive , from this positive make your silicone mold , then put your armiture back in the mold and pour the rubber/silicone skin , demold clean up any flash ,wash and you model is ready for painting and finishing .

Why not bake it?

I have never baked sculpy, but I am sure that that is what it is made for. The oven sure won't hurt the armature. So I don't understand why someone would say not to bake it.

The armature is just the sculpt support, its not stop motion or anything, so it doesn't need to come out.
My worry is the difference in thickness and over cooking- I know the instructions on the actual Sculpey box arent to be trusted !
Looks like heatguning it might be the way forward ?

If the sculpy is laid "thin" over your armature and you bake it,I would imagine that it will char&crack.A heat gun as mentioned above would work.I suppose you could bake it,but I would do so very carefully.Lower the recomended temperature and keep a very close,watchful eye on it.I still don't think baking it would be a good idea.

sculpey can and do crack.

and don't touch it while its hot.

sculpey is very brittle when hot, wait untill it cools down to room temp before touching.

I've seen a lot of pieces ruined by taking them out of the oven while still hot, and they crack- I've had better results letting a piece slowly cool down in the oven first then taking it out when cool to the touch. For real small parts, I use Aves epoxy putty- you don't have to post cure it, and the end result is much harder than sculpey.

I've worked with sculpey and super sculpey A BUNCH and the first thing you need to know is there's no need to bake it at a high temperature.
I bake all my sculpey models at 100-125 for 15-20 minutes depending on thickness and they come out just fine.
Also, I had really good results with sanding, trimming, adding more material (sculpey) onto my models if need be and re-baking, again at low temperatures.
A heat gun can be great for fast setting your model for the trip to the oven but I actually prefer a blow dryer for that as a heat gun can over heat and burn the sculpey if you hold it in one place too long.

I bake at 220 F. First, you need to make sure the oven is at temperature before you put the piece in. Most ovens ramp up fast, and unless it is a convection oven you will burn thin pieces.

Make sure your armature is solid and can hold the sculpt without flexing. When polymer clays bake, they become quite rubbery and will crumble easily. Also, parts that have been cooked with become rubbery as well so don't count on them to support your piece.

And if you have used CA glue, it can soften at this temperature and loose its adhesive properties. I have had the thin CA glue actually go back into solution and glued my fingers together when I wiped away what I thought was water on the piece.

If you have very small parts like horns or fingers, you can also cover them with foil to reduce burning them.

Don't get too stressed about discoloration. I accidentally left a piece in the oven over night. It turned black but after priming, you couldn't tell there was a problem. Actually, when you are complete with the piece, I would recommend cooking it for a long time until it turns almost carmel color (regular SS, not the sculptors grey). It will be very hard and durable. Cooking to short can make the piece crumbley, but easier to sand, so keep that in mind.

Lastly, I would suggest you turn the oven off and let it cool before trying to move it. That's when most breakage occures.

But if you want to part the piece out, you can make perfect cuts when it is hot with an exacto blade an it is like cutting silicone. This works great if you have already cut the armature an you are on the final bake.

BTW, I usually bake my piece many times before they are complete.

I fogot to add, be carful using a heat gun. If you get it too hot too fast you will cause it to blister and you will have to dig them out and fill it back in to fix it. Sanding won't fix the problem because it they will resurface if you bake it again. I wave my heat gun back and forth while heating to avoid over heating the surface.

I gotta say, 220 F is just way too high a temp to bake Sculpey at.
Not to mention the fact that if you want to avoid blackening (burning) the piece in the first place and the annoying bubbles that occur when you do so, I'd really recomend you not go over 20-30 minutes at 150 F at the most.
I don't know about you but I for one don't ever like to see a piece that I've worked long and hard on burn until it bubbles...it was a number of times that this happened to me that led to my exploring lower temperatures and bake times. And who really wants to spend time trying to sand and fill bubbles if you don't have to?

For what it's worth, I've never seen any of your work but I've seen a lot of PZAK's stuff. He does some amazing things with sculpey. He also knows what he's talking about.

When in doubt, try it out for yourself on some test pieces and see what works best for you.

FB

Mutant-Enemy said:

I gotta say, 220 F is just way too high a temp to bake Sculpey at.
Not to mention the fact that if you want to avoid blackening (burning) the piece in the first place and the annoying bubbles that occur when you do so, I'd really recomend you not go over 20-30 minutes at 150 F at the most.
I don't know about you but I for one don't ever like to see a piece that I've worked long and hard on burn until it bubbles...it was a number of times that this happened to me that led to my exploring lower temperatures and bake times. And who really wants to spend time trying to sand and fill bubbles if you don't have to?

Click to expand...

Mutant-Enemy – respectfully disagree. Since I have not seen any ovens that go lower in temperature than 170 F, I cannot say that I have tried this but I suspect you might be referring to Celsius rather than Fahrenheit. The producers of the SS recommend baking at 275 F per ¼” of thickness. I personally bake at 220-250F (104-121 C)for over an hour and never burn anything.

Cheers guys-
I ended up gradually heat gunning it.
Seems to have worked a treat- only a very minor burn on the tips of the smaller horns.
There wasn't any shrinkage around the thin areas of the sculpey either, which was a relief.
I noticed a slight 'crazing' in some areas, almost like the sculpey was trying to chip itself, but this hasn't appeared to show on the surface details.
Thanks for the help!
;-)

Glad to hear it worked out for you!
(My lack of Sculpey "Creds" not withstanding:lol)
Do we get to see any pics of your project?

I think that is fairly common with super sculpy.It will char a hair here and there and even crack in the thin areas.You can remedy that with a little gap filling superglue in the small cracks,and larger areas you can "re-scuplt" with epoxy sculpt,which I here does a fantastic job.

HI-
I filled in a few areas with scupley thinned to a paste with lighter fluid.
I also 'textured' the skin by stippling this mix over certain areas which worked amazingly well as a skin tone.
Ill post pics up soon, as I'm currently claying it up for casting, which is a job in itself!!!