I've become amazed lately with the possibilities of carving cured putty. I have been carving some components completely lately and am pleased with the results. I'm curious what sorts of things other sculptors carve, and what gets modeled in wet putty. For example: hard objects (weapons, equipment), more easily carved; soft objects, (flesh, clothing) more easily modeled?

I'm also curious what tools carvers use. I know Gordy uses the sharpened Squadron tools alot. What tools and techniques are others using?

For me it's basically a sharp hobby knife. I normally try to get the putty into the approximate form and upon curing, use a blade to carve if necessary. At times, instead of carving I will use the blade to scrap at the surface of the figure or parts


regards

I say again....get yee straight to www.riorondo.com and get their carbide scrapers set. You can't do better for putty carvers and rsin & metal cleanup tools. I used thes a lot on Marshal Ney's face - prior to this I always mdeolled, never carved. Now I do both.

Colin

What I tend to do is do things like clothing soft, things that require wrinckles and drapery, as I find it easier to sculpt them wet. For things that are of a certain shape, like helmets, weapons, equipment, I would carve and sand. Sometimes details are easier to do once the putty is cured also, get it close to the shape and size, and then finish off with files and X-Acto blades.

I do all sorts. I sculpt wet on wet, carve and sand. It depends what I'm doing at that particular moments. There is no fixed rule. The x-acto does all the carving usually.

Stephen Mallia

Colin, I just looked at the scrapers from Rio-Rondo. They look very useful. I may have to get a set. Which tips do you use the most?

Tiranti has some interesting tools... I have never used them but look good:
http://www.tiranti.co.uk/data/ASP/showcate...sp?CategoryID=8

John, I've done more carving on the past 2-3 projects than any of the others I've done. The only drawback with sculpey is making sure the area you're carving is fairly thick. If it consists of "layers" it more than likely will splinter or fracture in places. I'll have to check out the Rio Rondo tools too.~Gary

John - in the rio graphic, I use the left 2 and the right 1 the most. I guess that's #' 1,2 6. But I have used them all and would recommend the whole set.

Gary - the scrapers will carve sculpey much better than a knife blade. You can literally shave cured sculpey in thin layers.

These tools are terrific for carving putty as part of the sculpting process sand for removing flash from metal, plastic or resin figures - I just have to keep after my kids not to take them for cleaing up Games Workshop figures and not returing them.

Colin

That's true with Magic-Sculp in many cases as well.

I carved some boots over the last couple of days for my SSF figure. There are some flaws to fix, but overall it worked pretty well. My intention was to carve the basic shape and layer the other components over the basic boot. I experimented with carving in the layers, and it worked okay.

Guess I'm not the only one that has this problem Colin. I will definitely look into those scrapers, they sound like a "must have" type of tool. Thanks.~Gary

I am a carving convert too John. I had the great pleasure of spending some time with Alan Ball, who demonstrated his method of sculpting(carving). It was truly a revelation, and the most inspiring tutorial I have experienced in the hobby.

I have had a lot of practise since Atlanta, and can see much better results than I had achieved using my previous "additive" method.

No 11 scalpel blade is the weapon of choice.

Steve, I look forward to seeing how you've employed these new techniques. I'm envious of the demo Alan gave you. It's through discussions with Alan, and seeing Gordy's work here that have prompted me to give it a try.

In Chicago, Alan had a master he was working on. He showed some of us the figure with an unfinished arm. I looked at the arm and thought, damn that has a lot of fingerprints in it, and the clothing looks too bulky. Then a light went on and I realized how Alan works. Shape a basic form and carve, scrape and gouge the drapery into it. I think this takes great vision for the end product (which I don't have). Carving provides alot possibilities that can't be attained with wet putty.

On the subject of tools, I scored some dental scrapers and rasps that are indisposable.I also scored some micro-surgery blades that are great.