Alternative to instant putty

[maxxev]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has any experience here of an alternative (e.g. plumbers putty) brand of putty instead of shelling out a fortune for a tiny ammount of instant putty?

Cheers

[Cory]

While eseentially the same thing, plumber putties that I have tried have always been a little granier than green stuff. There is no commercial need to improve the texture for plumbing jobs.

[Henrix]

Most plumber putties I've seen have had a much shorter set time, making them harder to use, and without the usable stages in between soft and sticky and hard.

Do you buy greenstuff/kneadatite from hobby stores? Unfortunately that is not the best way to get it cheap and fresh.

I buy from Sylmasta in the UK. 35" for £11.
I'm certain there are similar stores in the states, it's an American product after all.

[Vermis]

Hey Maxxev, is the state of West Sussex on the east coast or west coast?

Can't comment too much on instant putties, but what do you want it for?

[Henrix]

I seem to have looked at Cory's location 

[maxxev]

Most plumber putties I've seen have had a much shorter set time, making them harder to use, and without the usable stages in between soft and sticky and hard.

Do you buy greenstuff/kneadatite from hobby stores? Unfortunately that is not the best way to get it cheap and fresh.

I buy from Sylmasta in the UK. 35" for £11.
I'm certain there are similar stores in the states, it's an American product after all.

I last bought putties from eBay or from Heresy miniatures for that ammount or less (I use Procreate as well as GS as it's cheaper). but what i'm actually after is a putty that sets hard quickly like instant putty. Instant putty is designed to go with instant mold. I haven't got instant mold instead I bought the exact same thing with a name I can't repeat (because I can't spell it, something like olygomaru). The idea is to push mold parts using the instant mold.

It works very well but I can only get one / max 2 casts a day using pro-create or greenstuff (ok i've managed 3 a day before with pro-create), I just wondered if there was a cheap alteranative to instant mold to perhaps increase my prodution rate, mainly because half the time I forget and then only get 1-2 "casts" a week as there are thoughts in the back of my head to maybe to an army of a conversion i've done it would be cool to churn out the bits a little faster , even it it means 50/50 procreate and some other putty for an hour setting time or something.

Cheers

[Major_Gilbear]

Is the instant mould stuff hot-water sensitive? (i.e., does it soften?)

If not, then bind the mould with the GS in it with some string and drop it into a mug of hot water (hot, not boiling - I use boiling water and then top up about 30% of the mug with cold water). Within an hour, you're ready to demould. Clean, safe, quick. And the speed-cured part keeps curing for some time after, getting firmer with time.

[Henrix]

Instant mould/Oyumaru softens at ~80C, so the water'd have to be colder than that, but 60C seems to be fine. (I've tried it with Polymorph plastic which softens at that temperature.
You can also put it under a hot lamp, again checking so the temperature isn't too high.
A little warmer helps the curing time a lot.

According to Sylmasta the instant putties they sell cure in five minutes and can hold 'intricate detail'. You could well try that.
I might try that, I love testing new materials.

Or you could try the Polymorph I mentioned above. It's a plastic that softens at 60C, so you have to check it with a thermometer if you're using Oyumaru.
I've tried it a little, just to try it, and it worked well. Holds details fine. Sets to a hard white plastic that can be painted. Can be made very thin and lightand still very hard. One of the downsides is that it's a bit difficult to work with once it is hard.
And if you're not happy with the cast you can melt it again.

[Svennn]

I am not familiar with these products so do not think me mad for suggesting this.  Is the mould part microwave safe? if so why not use Super Sculpey which you can harden in said microwave in seconds?