Best clay for sculpting custom headsculpts

[Pjincho]

Hey guys! I couldn't find any specific thread that dealt with materials used to sculpt headsculpts. Admittedly, I only got to page 2 of the many pages of threads, and got lazy.

I want to get everyone's respective opinions on the best material to use to sculpt a headsculpt.

I'm under the impression that some wax polymer clay is the best option, such as NONAMECLAY....

Can anyone confirm or deny this? What about FIMO, and other plasticine clays?

I'm endeavoring to make custom 1:4-1:3 scale figures of characters from film and pop-culture. It all started with my admiration for Michael Jackson, and his thorough understanding of how to pose. He was essentially "futzing" with his own body REALLY REALLY well, and I think that as far as line and composition presented in posturing and dance goes, MJ is singular.

I pride myself in being able to pose highly articulated figures in ways that are anatomically feasible, and to convincingly show weight and flow throughout the body, instead of having a figure look as bad as some of the hot toys promo pics do.

I've chosen a larger scale so that materials (fabrics) can fall off the figures more naturally than they do on 1:6 scale figures. (Has anyone seen the huge wraith figure that stand about 3 feet tall, horse and all from hot toys? The robe falls so beautifully off of that piece)

So, in addition to CLAYS, I'd love to know where people find fabrics as well.

I also have a few issues with the bodies manufactured by sideshow. Particularly the shoulder areas, wrists, and torsos. In my endeavor, I am also hoping to create a better inner structure, with a more faithful range of movement and look to the actual human body.

I'd never dare to embark on such a venture if I wasn't confident that I can. After taking several anatomy and sculpting courses, and paying close attention to martial arts, dance, and how they display the full range of movement of the human form, I feel like I'm prepared to do this!

Ok, so the short of it is: What is the best clay to use for headsculpts?

How does one find fabrics that behave more like fabric does on full scale articles of clothing?

 

[Lee in MI]

Didn't they tell you what was best in your sculpting classes?

 

[Pjincho]

Didn't they tell you what was best in your sculpting classes?

No. This was a sculpting course at MassArt, and the instructor was big into the Renaissance greats. He does a lot of sculpting at full to larger scales, and knows very little about maquette making or this particular type of sculpting.

 

[parvo]

There aren't really bad materials, but inappropriate for certain tasks. Soft clay are really great for large stuff and working with your hands, but you wouldn't use that for miniatures as you'd only be able to pull off basic shapes and smudge everything else.

1:6 heads require some the hardest sculpting material you could get a hold of, so they could hold skin pores, hard outlined skin folds of the eyelids, hair, etc. The smaller, the harder you need.

Direct sculpting: Start and finish with the hardest +++ detail material you could get.
Indirect: mockup in a softer clay/wax, intermediate molding, and finish up with a hard material.

For 1:6 scale:

Wax:
Detail +++
Toys wax: Legacy waxes (couldn't find them easily) azbro hasbro, castilene hard.
Make your own recipe: scott hensey'shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc94qrmW2E8
Commercially available: CX5 from adam beane and Ralph's wax from ralph cordero.
Advantages:
- Each correction doesn't need waiting hours or sanding, it's just as simple as scraping the wax with hot tools.
- not toxic.
- Polishing and sanding is possible in the hardest grades here recommended.
- Pourable.
Disadvantages:
- higher initial setup costs as you'd need a wax peen to control well the details. It allows temperature control over the wax flow. A cheap one is 50 USD aprox on ebay and go up to about 250 USD (kerr ultra waxer, foredom, etc).
- Multitude of recipes and grades available. Not all are easy to sculpt on as some are transluscent (jewelers wax) or doesn't hold high detail.

Epoxy putty
Detail +++
Best brands for detailing: Green stuff (kneadatite), milliput (silver grey or superfine).
Buildup volumes: magic sculpt or milliput standard.
Disadvantages:
- May cause an allergic reaction overtime, smells bad.
- You gotta wait between layers for it to cure, and it takes a couple of hours. Each correction is done sanding and that add ups messiness and hours. Epoxy should always be sanded when fully cured 24 hrs+, as if not, you'll be breathing the catalyst. A dust mask is advisable if you're sanding with rotary tools. For manual sanding it's not as necessary, but advisable.
Advantages:
- great level of detail reproduction (it's used in 28 and 54 mm miniatures since the 80's, strong finish)

Polymer clay
Detail ++
Commercially available: Bees putty, nanomeclay and sculpey firm.
Advantages:
- Not toxic if you follow the manufacturer recommendation (burning it +200ºC realases hydrogen chloride fumes).
- Comfortable to work with.
- Relatively cheap
Disadvantages:
- not enough detail, need to bake in between layers to not smear the previous result and sanding/cutting it down in case of doing corrections.
- Possible to sand, not polish on it's own.
- not pourable.

Oil clays/water based clays:
Aren't suited to give decent detail definition in this scale. hard edges are problematic and indenting details in the lips, skin pores look too big. There are some that mix up wax in them, as monster clay, but they work better for 1:3 or bigger sujects, as well as mockups, etc.