Superman (maybe)

[Paul]

I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this project.  I'm carving a 1/35th scale Man of Steel to rout some plastic Germans and King Tiger in a diorama I am building.  The carving is a bit more intricate than my current talents can achieve and I'm using a lot more glue, primer, and putty than a woodcarver should, and I haven't even tried any facial detail yet.  At one point I even resorted to using a Dremel tool on some of the concave areas.  I find that I just don't enjoy using the Dremel for wood. It's noisy, dusty, and I clench my jaw while I use it.  I may have to make some small tools to finish this.  Finish or not, I guess I am learning from the experience.

[dave_t]

I like it a lot, it's not easy to do in wood at this scale. To get the detail of a typical 1/35 figure, you might want to work in wax instead, the type that jewelry designers use.

[Paul]

Thanks Dave, I hadn't thought of wax.  During a period of frustration I tried Sculpey modeling clay and found it wasn't rigid enough.  How durable is jeweler's wax?  Is the idea to use the wax to make a mold and then cast in metal, plaster, or resin?  Will my frustrated outbursts of swearing melt the wax?

[dave_t]

Yes, I believe the wax model is strictly for making a mold. It needs to have a wire armature, so I doubt if it would hold up as a finished model. It was just a thought, something you might want to try.

In carving small figures, I found using a sharp knife blade as a scraper rather than a carver to create some of  the surface planes on the figure worked. Also, I pressed the facial details in (like the eye sockets) with various shaped tools.

[Balsabasher]

Paul,have you thought of using DAS modelling clay ? your application would suit it well,you would need to make a wire armature then build around it but old coat hangers and florists wire is ideal for that,I am not trying to discourage your carving which is commendable,but feel that DAS would be better to handle in this case of figure modelling.
Barry.

[Ken Pugh]

Hi Paul,

When I bought my first box of Sculpey I also thought it was practically useless.  Research on some forums showed me SuperSculpey.  It is stiffer and a flesh color.  I don't like working with the flesh color and found someone who mixes it with some Sculpey III white and black to make it a gray tone.  I am using it for my elephant that I haven't touched since the monster Hellcat came into my life.

Don't buy SuperSculpey until you need it and preferably from someone who actually sells it instead of stocking it forever.  It does get harder to work the less fresh that it is.  It will seem brittle and dry at first so it needs to be worked a while before use.  Put it on wire armatures, bulked up with aluminum foil if necessary.

I like using the clays instead of carving wood because it is a simple process of adding some clay, shaping, adding more, etc.  Plenty of YouTube vids and forums to lead the way.

Ken

[Paul]

Thanks for the advice guys!  It looks like I've got some experimenting to do. 

[lastvautour]

Looking good and recognizable as the man of steel.

Lou