Milliput experiments (New Photos, 15 Oct!)

[Wirelizard]

Finally bought a box of Milliput last week, and I've been experimenting with it for a few evenings now.

I have to say, my respect for the actual sculptors amongst us has gone right through the roof. This stuff can be a bugger to work with!



The three dino-men are from Hydra, their Ugg spear-saurians. Two have had their spears cut off, shields added, and they'll get stone shards added to the leftover spearshaft to turn them into rake-swords similar to those seen in Central America. They've also gotten various sashes and wrist/arm bands, and the rightmost one has the "triceratops headband" of the tribal champion.

These are hard figures to do conversion on, actually. The left arm is molded right into the torso and left thigh, and there's not a lot of flex for the right arm, either. I have one figure left, I might try cutting the hands off and repositioning them - I'd like a high priest/shaman type figure to round out the tribe. Cutting the head off and repositioning it might also be feasible; doing something with the legs & tail would get right into major resculpting!

The two spear-markers are, obviously, the leftover spears cut off the two warriors, stuck in a blob of putty as boundary markers or similar. There's an attempt at a human skull at the base of the lefthand one, not entirely successful.

The stump and boulder are classic "what do I do with this leftover putty?" projects, but they turned out nicely.

The crate has a wooden cube from the craft store at the core, and the bracing wood is tiny snakes of putty flattened on. It needs a bit of work with a file and sandpaper now that it's dry, but looks good. (This one's taken the longest, actually. You can really only do a few bits of putty at a time, then you need to put it down and let the putty dry lest you wreck all your work...)

The campfire started as another leftover-putty project; the cooking pot has a handle on the lid of a tiny scrap of putty, and a pot-handle from a scrap of staple (which you can't really see in the photo. Meh.)

All the scenery bits are bases on Canadian pennies - about the only thing pennies are good for!

[Dewbakuk]

Nice, you've got some good results out of the milliput. While I do use milliput, I only use it for bulking work and vehicles/scenery. For any detail work I use Procreate. Must simpler to use and a superior finish.

[Wirelizard]

All of my current crop of 'milliput experiments' are mostly done - picture tomorrrow, if I get off my arse long enough.

Question for those of you who actually know what you're doing with this stuff: what doesn't Milliput stick to? Looking to do some flattish pieces - gravestones and such - and it would be easier to do them lying on their backs on some flat surface the milliput won't bond to...

[JollyBob]

I'm not sure that this will work, but you could maybe try placing it on some greaseproof paper/baking parchment. Or having a thin coating of vaseline on wahtever surface you are using. Or maybe a combinaton of the two?

[blackstone]

what doesn't Milliput stick to?

not much... but if you sculpt something directly onto styrene/plastic card you can "flex" the plastic once your sculpt has curedm, and the hard milliput will "pop" off. The milliput will stick to the plastic initially but the plastic is too smooth of a really strong bond.

[Wirelizard]

not much... but if you sculpt something directly onto styrene/plastic card you can "flex" the plastic once your sculpt has curedm, and the hard milliput will "pop" off. The milliput will stick to the plastic initially but the plastic is too smooth of a really strong bond.

You know, I should have thought of that - I was using a scrap of styrene as a surface for some of my initial experiments, and they did indeed pop off with a bit of flexing. Thanks!

ProCreate I'll have to mailorder at some point - it's not stocked by the local hobby shop. The only grade of Milliput they've got in stock - the stuff I've been using - is "Terracotta", which is apparently the coarsest grade Milliput makes. Finer grades of putty for more experimentation is definitely on the agenda.

[Wirelizard]

Flickr Photo page.

The current batch of 'experiments' finished and ready for the table.

The boulders and stumps in the top picture are all Milliput; the spear-markers (tribal tabu/boundary markers for my saurians) are pewter cut off two saurians I'm converting.

The bottom photo has the 'supply cache' - a scratchbuilt wood-and-putty crate with a pewter rifle (leftover from a Pulp Figures pack) and two bits of luggage from Company B.

The campfire is pure putty, except for the wire used for the pot handle, which is snipped off a staple!

The rightmost piece is a large Mysterious Footprint in a muddy patch. What has a footprint half the height of a man in length and with huge claws? Do you really want to find out? Is it already right behind you, about to leap?

The sacks on either side are actually oven-bake Fimo clay, not Milliput; I made a dozen piles of sacks a few weeks ago. Watch a forgettable movie, roll clay snakes. Trim to sack-sized with dull knife. Assemble piles. Repeat until forgettable movie ends. Bake & paint. 

[The Dozing Dragon]

I still use Milliput in the few conversions or fillings that I do. I spoke to Nick Lund many many years ago and he said he used it for scultping and gave a tip - he used a brush with water to smooth out curves etc - it works well as the Milliput is quite water soluble.

[Wirelizard]

I originally posted this over on the Cthulhu forum, but figured I'd repost it here along with the rest of my recent work.

The Dread Tome is milliput; the pulpit/lectern is wood, with three or so washes of brown ink and brown paint on it for an antique look.

[Wirelizard]

The last of the "millput experiments" - the three modified Saurians in the centre of the lineup.

One is a stock spear-saurian with a headdress added - the "Triceratops headdress of the tribal champion"; the other two flanking the champion have had the spear removed, a shield added, and the remaining spearshaft (behind the shield) converted to an Aztec-style rake-sword.

The rest of the spear-carrying saurians have been seen here on LAF before, but I wound up substantially repainting all of them to match the new three, and they look better for it.

They're all by Hydra Miniatures.

Closeups in better light sometime later this week.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Nice stuff.

I never work with milliput. It's really weak for the casting process and I don't like the texture of it.

For sharp objects with hard edges try brown stuff and file it down. 

[former user]

everything looks very nice, thx for sharing

funny how ideas converge
I had similar ones for my lizard army, but since I'm bad with sculpting, I started collecting useful parts the last year

So far I have some Gobbo plastic tents (modified as burial tents for brave warriors)
two drying racks with Kroot meat on hooks and the bodies of GW plastic bats (the wings I used for aerial skinks),
a pot for a fireplace
 and a big pile of supply goods to be glued on a transport rack for a Triceratops
(bedrolls, supply sacks, barrels, Dino legs, cages for live food, a milling stone, a dead goat, a dead cow, etc)

I really need to make some pictures....

[silvana]

They look terrific. How do you get the scale right? I've always had a problem with that.

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

Modelling putty is great but in the end, some things are better done with other materails. For example, your crate may have turned out better if you had used thin strips of balsa or card. And for rocks or stones its often better just to use actual stones! Good work though. Keep it up, and also try soem procreate or greenstuff, as milliput is actually a very difficult putty to work with, you may get better results using another product.

[Wirelizard]

Modelling putty is great but in the end, some things are better done with other materails. For example, your crate may have turned out better if you had used thin strips of balsa or card. And for rocks or stones its often better just to use actual stones! Good work though. Keep it up, and also try soem procreate or greenstuff, as milliput is actually a very difficult putty to work with, you may get better results using another product.

Yeah, partway though the crate I realized milliput probably wasn't the right material - you can basically only build one side of the crate at a time, then wait for the milliput to dry!

Rocks get created with leftover putty - when it's getting a bit too stiff too work properly (or my brain is getting too stiff to be creative with the last bit of putty) then it gets glommed into a boulder and left on one corner of the working area. Stumps happen the same way.