Deathclaw Sculpt and Review of Bees Putty Polymer Clay

[DELTADOG]

Hi Guys

Some people may have already spotted the VIP shots of this tiny little fellar here. Its to find in my Projectthread in the PostApoc Subforum here on LAF.

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=64157.480

There you can find some size comparison pictures of the Model as well. While doing this Miniature I´ve worked with a quite new Putty that I´ve promised here on some other Threads and said I would do a review on the putty. So here we go:

First at all the result of my Putty pushing over the last weeks:



I´m really pleased with the overall result and think its mainly influenced by the great properties of this genius new Putty.



It calles BeesPutty plastic and is invented by Stefan Niehues Ellermann a long years expierenced sculptor who has worked for many years in the miniature industry. Since today he has made some new Qualities of the original formula calls BeesPutty Plastic Summer firm and Summer firm xtra. The differrences between them are the properties while sculpting and the hardness after baking. I´m still testing them so I can`t tell you details about them yet.
To get an overview its nice to take a look on the product website http://beesputty.com/ and imo more important his facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/beesputtybrand/ Its unbelievable what some people there are able to do with that stuff!

So what the magic?
I´m sculpting miniatures now for more then 12 years with some breaks between. I´ve used nearby anything whats on the market and sculpted a long time with ProCreate, Fimo and MagicSculpt in different mixtures as well as with GreenStuff. Some explorations to SuperSculpey were included as well. I was always searching for a Putty that sticks to the Armature and to itself very well but not to the Tools, is easy to smooth and blend together and has a waxlike behaviour. With the common Putties it was always a compromise between all this properties. The same Issues brought the Inventor of BeesPutty to this product it seems.
First at all its NOT a 2 component Polyurethan Putty like Green Stuff, proCreate etc. That means its NOT self curing! You need to bake it to harden the Putty like with SuperSculpey or Fimo as well. The advantage in this is you can work as long on your model as you like, without being in a hurry that the Putty begins to set. While other Polymer Clays have the rubbery bouncing feeling while sculpting, BeesPutty feels nerby like BeeWax in its consitency. Like other PolymerClays its based on PVC which does not make this agressive Skin irritations like Polyurethan Putties commonly do. Over the years I´ve got a serious allegic on Polyurethan Putties which brings me to Polymer Clay as alternative as well.
The Disadvantage to 2k Putties is that it will not cure chemical. The need of heat makes it less useable for filling gaps, or conversions of Plasticmodels.
BeesPutty bake at 115 degree Celcius and I do the job in my kitchenoven. No smell or irritating gases have been noticed by me while doing it. After baking BeesPutty`s second advantage comes to daylight. Then the material behaves like Spruecasted Plastic. Its not crumbling or brittle, but hard and a bit flexible. You can carve it, drill it saw it and so on. Nice part while doing it, if you take a Toothbrush you can polish to baken Putty to a very smooth surface. Later made carvings will get blend in the whole sculpt without nasty markings.
The Price of BeesPutty is a bit higher then the one of Fimo, but way cheaper then GreenStuff for example.

Long text simple message: If you are interested in sculpting give it a try.  I´ve found my new Material to work with. I plan to order a bigger batch to try whats possible to do with it in Terrainbuilding. Some Housingfronts are marauding in my mind.. we will see.

If someone has Questions take it in here I try to answer if I can.

Cheers Delta

[Sinewgrab]

WANT!

That is all.

[OSHIROmodels]

Interesting review, thank you.

I'm assuming that 28mm figures can be done with it aswell? Also, can it be moulded with heated tools or is this not really necessary?

cheers

James

[FramFramson]

DAMN. That looks really nice, if true.

Few things annoy me as much as the properties of existing putties. In fact the bad properties of existing putties is the primary reason I've held off serious thoughts of trying to sculpt myself.

[DELTADOG]

Interesting review, thank you.

I'm assuming that 28mm figures can be done with it aswell? Also, can it be moulded with heated tools or is this not really necessary?

cheers

James

You guess right James. A bunch of sculptors is useing the Putty so far and is doing Miniatures in all scales with it. I´ve did 2 Miniatures in 28mm so far and was pretty pleased how the material behave.

[Connectamabob]

My order just arrived a couple days ago. I got the "sculptor's choice" pack (one container each of regular, firm, and summer firm) to try them out. I've only done a little with them so far, and haven't baked anything yet.

They do have a little bit of polymer clay's distinctive springyness, but it's much less than what you get with Fimo or Super Sculpy. Summer firm is similar to Fimo Classic in firmness, but much, much less springy. Firm is similar in consistency to Super Sculpy, but again, less springy. Regular is actually quite soft.

I've used toy waxes of various grades, and wax-heavy oil clays, and BeesPutty does not replicate the feel or behavior of wax. It's definitely the best polymer clay I've tried, but it's still a polymer clay in how it feels/works. That's not a criticism, as waxes aren't perfect either, I just feel like I should clarify that the comparisons to wax are, in my experience, more in terms of a general "is this on par with wax as a sculpting material?" than a literal "does this feel/work like wax".

One cool thing: the residue washes off ones hands cleanly after a session. One thing I've always hated about regular polymer clays is how they leave your skin with a film that won't wash off easily, making it uncomfortable to go directly from a sculpting session to, say, cooking dinner (or handling polystyrene model parts, or anything else where surface contamination might be a concern). Whatever different chemistry BeesPutty uses appears to have solved this problem completely.

Because I live in the USA, this stuff is actually the most expensive (by volume) sculpting material I've seen/used. However I feel it is worth it for larger figures.

[OSHIROmodels]

You guess right James. A bunch of sculptors is useing the Putty so far and is doing Miniatures in all scales with it. I´ve did 2 Miniatures in 28mm so far and was pretty pleased how the material behave.

Thanks for the reply 

Excellent sculpting by the way 

[grant]

Seems like an excellent product, and could be useful for many things - especially buildings ...

[Connectamabob]

Nevermind this post. I had a question, but It got answered by looking through the facebook page.

[DELTADOG]

I´ve got a Testsample of the new Summerfirm xtra together with my new Sculptingtool and Puttyorder this week. The Summerfirmxtra seems not yet to be listed on the Site, but on Facebook you can see some video and pictures about the new formula. I´m using Bees Putty plastic firm atm. Compared to that the summerfirm and Summerfirm xtra feels even more waxlike then the plastic. After baking its harder as the normal plastic firm. It seems he tries to come more closer to the behaviour of Wax and to elemintate more and more the already mentioned bouncing effect those Polymer Clays normally have.

[Connectamabob]

Sounds cool! One of the facebook posts linked to a store page for summer firm xtra:
http://beesputty.com/index.php/beesputty-plastic/bppsfx.html
And it's showing in the catalog page now as well.

Looking at the dates of the FB posts, looks like xtra went live in the time between when I placed my order and when my order arrived, LOL. I'd love to try it, but it'll have to wait for another large order.

[Vermis]

Andy at Heresy sent me a couple of samples of these. So far I've tried the plastic firm type, but I still found it too soft for my liking! It seemed to be fairly difficult to smooth without leaving tool marks. Maybe I'd get on better with the extra firm.

Although, as far as I can see, there are four types: regular, firm, summer firm, and summer firm xtra. Is that right? What's the significance of the 'summer' label?

I have to admit I'm more used to the way putty turns firmer as it cures, and rely on that for small marks and details that won't get pushed out of shape too easily. I've less experience with polymer clay, but I know I like the firmer types of that, too.

[Connectamabob]

"Summer" seems to be a euphamistic title. The cataog page implies that "summer firm" was originally to offset the softening caused by working during hot weather.

My experience with epoxy has been the opposite. I was used to using polymer clays and oil clays for years, and so with epoxy putty I always felt very limited by the curing arc. Like I had to do things in a very specific order, in a very limited time frame, with little or no freedom to tweak or correct. Each stage of sculpting is isolated, and from the moment each begins you're being railroaded along to the next, and the only way to fix or change anything is to chop/grind stuff off wholesale and redo the whole process again from scratch. Large sculptures have to be built awkwardly in sections because the material just doesn't give you time to coordinate across large areas, leading to inefficiency proportional to size, and lots of problems with controlling the subtleties of proportions and poses. Working in epoxy is like being micromanaged by an overcaffinated, penny-wise-pound-foolish supervisor.

I love epoxy's durability once cured, but always felt constricted during sculpting. A polymer clay that approaches epoxy's toughness would be a holy grail material for me.

[Connectamabob]

Okay,  just did some baking tests. Just rolled out a tapered snake of each, and baked on a tile according to the directions. Aaaaaaaannnnnddddd...

I am disappoint.

The baked clay is not really any harder or more durable than regular polymer clay. Not remotely like injection molded plastic, sorry. It's more flexible, so it bends a ways before breaking rather than just snapping right off. Not as brittle as other polymer clays , but it still comes apart under similarly little stress.

Basically, think of how GS cures to a light rubberyness, only with polymer clay's low tensile strength. Or like a stiffer Reaper Bones plastic that snaps easily at the end of a flex instead of just not flexing any further. The flexibility gives it a (shallow) illusion of durability.

I was a bit concerned up-front due to the claim of being able to polish surfaces with just a toothbrush. That to me implied that the surface remained soft on some level rather than fully hardening. This concern has been borne out: after fully baking according to the directions, I can still permanently mark it with a fingernail, and during handling I can feel it rubbing off on my fingers as a film, similar to with the raw clay (not as much, but similar).

I baked the test pieces a second time, and it neither damaged nor improved them, so I don't think this is a case of under-baking on my part. My impression is it's actually designed to never cure 100% fully, and this is the source of the "special" properties like flexibility and polishability.

So yeah: the biggest claims are too good to be true, unfortunately. It is better than regular polymer clay... but not truly "wax-like" when raw, nor "plastic-like" when cured.

I still really like it for sculpting masters, better than epoxy putty or other polymer clays, and even wax, but I don't think I'd use it for figures going straight to the table without being cast first. Larger stuff like terrain or bulky creatures might be okay. Will have to do some painting tests as I'm uncertain how the unusual surface will take paint.

[OSHIROmodels]

Even with what you mention I think I would still prefer it to what's out there at the moment.

Now then, do you think it would be suitable for metal casting? Sounds like a 'probably not' 

cheers

James