Hy guys!
I'm thinking of trying the FIMO material for 2 reasons:
1.Very cheap
2.Much more time to work with compared to the 2 part epoxy.

What type is recommended?(classic/effect/soft)

I use water when working with the 2 part epoxy resin, in the case of FIMO what should I use?

Thanks!

Super Sculpey III or Super Sculpey Firm. ~Gary

http://www.sculpey.com/Products/products_polymerclays.htm

Premo is my best loved. It's firm, it's flexible, very good in baking.
http://www.sculpey.com/Products/products_poly_premosculp.htm
To smooth the surfaces you can use water (saliva as well) and oil (olive oil, sunflower, etc)

Thanks guys!
I'll try to get some Sculpey as well, but I'm more interested in FIMO.It's widely available in my country.

Hello Paul,

Firm or soft? It depends on the way you sculpt. My advice would be to start with the classic to familiarize yourself with the medium. You can always change afterwards.

To smooth polyclay (Fimo or Sculpey), I use rubbing alcohol (mild) or white spirit (harsher).

HTH
Quang

I agree with Quang - there's definitely no better here, it's merely what you prefer (just like with the epoxy clays).

Einion

I like Fimo Classic "02" a nice sand color and Fimo Soft "80", a light grey color. Just look out for an opaque colour to see detail easier.

Apart from alcohol you can also use baby oil. A smear of Vaseline can be helpful when adding new stuff to baked areas.

Thanks for the answers!
Right now I'm working on my first conversion using milliput(the Waffen SS soldier).But next I'll try to do a sculpture of a knigth(120mm) from scratch for this beautiful horse using FIMO.Hope everything goes as planed...

Paul if you dont want to bake the clay which takes quite some time depending on the size you can suspend the piece in boiling water for about 6 minutes which gives the same result but without fear of scorching, a lot cheaper on your fuel bill as well.
When you have bioled for 6 minutes switch of heat and leave piece to cool in the water, the polymer clay will remain slightly soft untill fully cooled then it wiil be fully hardened.

Steve

Thanks Steve!
What did you mean by

?
Is there the possibility of heat damage?

Hello!
I work with "Fimo-soft" and very much with it is happy, I recommend to try. But it cannot be used with plastic as Fimo it corrodes and at temperature of 130 degrees, plastic will not sustain.

Yours faithfully, Sergey!

Do you use Fimo over an armature and then bake it before adding outer details? also, what do you use to smooth the Fimo, water, alcohol?

Paul,
(and Bob)

I'll break it down into sections.
Heat set clay and plastic figures
Fimo is a putty that is hardened application of heat, about 120 - 130 degrees from memory.

This type of putty is often baked in an oven.
It can also be boiled in water.

Paul, you are changing a injected moulded plastic figure. The melting point for plastic is close to the baking point of Fimo.

The others have noted that if you bake the putty in the oven on the plastic figure, the figure may start to melt. (Same thing can happen to changing cast metal figures)

A alternative is to boil the putty for a bit longer - suspend the figure in the pot rather then let sit on the bottom, as the hot metal pot may distort the figure if in direct contact (metal pot touching plastic figure)

Then you may convert a plastic figure with a heat set putty.

Recent thread on baking in the oven
http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30085

Scorching
When baking a figure in an oven, parts of the figure may become 'overcooked' for a variety of reasons.
example. Some one once sculpted a figure of Yoda. Baked well, where the putty was thin (on the long narrow ears) there was some browning where the thin layer of putty was slightly overcooked. Rest of the figure was baked properly

These areas may be a bit more fragile, but you are going to paint it, aren't you


Armatures
Bob, you asked about armatures. Armatures help get the dimensions right of a figure (or a bust) at an early stage. Trust me, it is far easier to check a simple wire figure against references then it is to modify a figure full of putty.
Once the armature is done, it usually bulked out with something like aluminium foil (for example) to give something for the putty to grab onto. Wrapping the armature with wire gives grip, as putty can slide off smooth wire.
Then you work out from those layers as you go.

Hope this helps.

cheers

FIMO - more

Has anyone tried using a hair dryer for small additions?

Bosun Al

I've tried so hard to get this information from you Sergey, and at the end you came to me.

Janus, those are good tips.For my curent conversion I think I'll use only milliput.I hardened the putty in boiled water and nothing happened...but that is only 100C, a bit too low for the FIMO, as I want it to bake very thoroughly at the final stage.


Bosun Al, the hair dryer doesn't provide enough heat.

Paul,
This may be misplaced, if so my apologies upfront and feel free to disregard it if so.

It seems to me that if you are already comfortable with Miliput (a medium I could never quite get the hang of) it might be just as well to stick with a self hardening medium. As a more economical alternative to Miliput-though not so much as a polymer clay-you could try Magic-Sculpt and dispense with the difficulties of curing. To make things even more economical an armature could be built up from something like Balsa foam, http://www.dickblick.com/products/balsa-foam/ which is very easy to carve, not too expensive in the size needed and fairly durable on its own. Further, I am skeptical that the volume of Fimo as available here is more economical than Magic-Sculpt anyway, Sculpey is definitely cheaper in the large packages, though I doubt the small color packets are.

To dispense with some of the troubles of baking Polymer clays (I'm not speaking so much from experience as from reading), the work could be done in thinner layers, (which is just how the self hardening stuff is usually employed albeit for different reasons) each layer baked when finished so that the oven temp can be kept down as well as the baking time. I've also read that a damp towel can be used to cover the work when baking to keep from scorching thin parts and surfaces.


Ray

Thanks Ray for the advices!No hard feelings what so ever.
In the future I'll try Magic-sculpt yes.But in EU(Romania) it's hard to get.I can find Soft FIMO 350g for exactly 10$ at local shops.Which makes it pretty good.I'll try it to see how it works.I like the fact that being a polimer, I can harden it whenever I whant to.As for the main body(without clothes or details) I'll still use milliput.For this stage it works good for me.

Anyway, what is the curing time for Magic-Sculpt?

Paul,
It's surprising you can't locate Magic-Sculpt in Europe, perhaps one of our European friends on the Planet can help you out there. In fact, it was one of the Europeans here that first introduced me to Magic-Sculpt as a replacement for A + B putty. I'm not at all certain but I'd bet some of the North American on-line suppliers would ship to you. If you like, and don't have success any other way send me a note offline and we can make some arrangement to get some to you. My wife is going to Poland towards the end of this month so could send you some from there.

Working time of Magic-Sculpt varies somewhat, but seems to range in at 45 min to 1 1/2 hours. This time can be shortened, under a desk lamp or something as needed, an lengthened a little by using a smaller proportion of hardener to resin. I have also found that mixing only the yellow part of 'Green Stuff' with a standard blend of MS will lengthen working time and still harden. Usually, I find the 45 min working time adequate as I am doing small parts of the sculpt at one time.



Ray

Found it.

If I'm not satisfied with FIMO, this is next on my list.

Paul,
I was just going to give you that link; http://www.magicsculp.de/ and this http://www.calrepcoinc.com/ if you would like to try A+B putty. This stuff is pretty much the hardest when cured and works nicely for creating armatures and locking in poses.

Ray