Dan, I just happened to have some alcohol around the house to try..... now how to get that Kahlua smell off my figure afterwards...... I'll try some Isopropyl alcohol I have, see what that does. Thanks for the suggestion.

Timo, I hate green stuff !! I do use it though so I'll see if your tips can make me hate it a little less

- Marvin -

hiya manfred!
my putty technique for g.s belts is that i leave the putty rolled our thinly to set for an hour, then cut a belt with a sharp fresh blade. the putty is non sticky and should be likened to soft plastic.
you can put a groove in if you want ,depends on the context. most modellers agree that all the belts ona figure should go on first. pre drill a small hole in centre.
brush the area with a little turpentine/white spirit, wrap the belt round and secure i the middle with a pin/ fine piece of wire. brush the whole belt with spirit. ilghtly heat the g.s with a hairdryer. the spirit will re-fresh the g.s and it will stick as the heat re-constitutes it. cure under a lamp for 20 mins. sand the belt, add nicks ect, now the fine pin. bend some wire in to a buckle shape or cut from cured g.s . once in place the pin is bent to form the fastener.
abck on topic now! :lol: you can refresh most epoxy putties and get them sticky again by adding some sort of turpentine.
Marv- you can also blend out an edge with it when the putty is fresh too.
another tip is to poke holes in each previous layer, to give the next somewhere to 'plug' in to- decreasing the problem Marvin was experiencing. a useful tip for any medium that one !

hth , all the best guys! -- timo

Manfred - No, no, no! Kahlua is for internal application while sculpting, not for external application to the figure! How could you make such a mistake? BUT, if you happen to buy some Vitalis hair oil - Regardless of whether it has alcohol or not, DON'T DRINK IT! :lol:

All the best,
Dan

It's for exactly this reason that I have extra craft-knife handles and have dull blades in some - for cutting putty on the surface of a figure. I also have an edged sculpting tool that'll trim putty to shape reasonably well (sharpened during the refining process I think I've mentioned to you) although for a really crisp edge you generally have to use an actual knife blade, blunt or not.

Einion

Timo, Dan: Thanks for enlightening me

Einion: Will obey and modify tools asap ...

more than happy to share and advance our art form. spaeking of which, i have been doing some more armature experiments and have designed one thats easy to make and includes the smaller bones of the arms and legs. will post them soon.

happy modelling every-one :lol:

==timo==