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Many
thanks to BlackLion for introducing me to the uses of a Heat Gun
when using Polymer Clay.
You can see his work at his website Pen2Pixel
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All images
© glen southern2003
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SCULPEY
WAR TROLL
Using
a heat gun to add detail
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1.
The theory
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| Super
Sculpey becomes hard when baked. Big news hey! Ok, so what if you
want to add a lot of detail to a specific area of your model and
as you work you destroy the detail you have created in earlier modeling
session?
An example might be a head. To create a detailed head I create a
couple of eyes and a few teeth then go to my oven and bake them
off. 20 minutes later I would take the recently baked pieces and
set them aside for cooling and a further 15 minutes later start
adding them to the model. I could then use more Super Sculpey to
model detail around the hard parts with effecting their shape. Useful
in a hundred ways.
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But, what happens if you need to do something like layering
hair or fur on a figure? The process gets a little more difficult
if you need to start putting the whole figure in the oven
just to bake off specific parts.
Enter the Heat Gun.
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2.
The War Troll |
I wanted to model a full figure and decided to create a War Troll
with heavy influence from the War Hammer universe. I started with
a wooden base and built a wire and tin foil armature very much in
the same way as my Minotaur
was created.
I
started this figure without reference material and just a rough idea
of the stance. I wanted him to be a stooped Troll that was preparing
to do battle. I decided that he would have Dreadlocks and I knew that
this would give me the chance to try out the new Heat Gun that I had
purchased for this very project.
The
Armature came together very quickly and it wasn't log before I was
layering on sheets of Super Sculpey to give him a thin skin layer.
I modeled a stone headed club, a sheild, some arrows and a thin loin
cloth. I put a base layer of hair onto the the head and down his back.
I added a head at his waist, some leather belt strips and some shin
armour. I pre-baked some eyes, tusks and teeth. claws and finger nail
claws
I did
use the Heat Gun on a few of the areas shown above but for the purposes
of this tutorial I will take you through the process from this stage.
I took the model in its current state (shown above) and baked it in
a standard, home oven for 10 minutes at 140 degrees C. |
TIP:
The book says...Bake Super Sculpey at 275°F (135°C) for 15
minutes per ¼" (6 mm) of thickness. Once the piece is
cool, it can be painted with acrylics or glazed with Sculpey Glaze.
Store Super Sculpey in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight.
If stored properly, it will keep almost indefinitely.
The images below show the War Troll Model after the first bake off..
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3.
The Heat Gun for Hair |
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1.
Using my tiny hand drill (see above) I made a small hole in
the top of the head.
2. I cut a length of galzanized wire and inserted it into the
hole. I then bent the wire to the position that I wanted the
first Dread lock to hang.
3. Taking a small amount of Super Sculpy I started to add long,
thin strips to the wire, winding them around to form a hair
like strand. |
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4. Once the bulk of the Dreadlock was in place I took a small
piece of wire and used it to scrape the Sculpey into the tousled
look of a Dreadlock.
I made sure that the top end of the Dreadlock was smoothed into
the already baked hair strands on the top of the head. I find
that this helps give stability to add-ons-parts and improves
the overall structure of the model once baked. |
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5. Once happy with the first Dreadlock I took to the Heat Gun.
Using the Gun I started to heat up the Sculpey that formed the
Dreadlock.
TIP: BEWARE! It is every so easy
to scorch the model at this stage. Keep the Heat Gun moving
all the time. Pass it back and forth along the area without
remaining still at any one point.
Very quickly you will find that the Sculpey has hardened in
the heated areas. |
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6.
I carried on adding Dreadlocks to the model and heating them
up to harden them as I went along. The main advantage in using
this method is that you won't mess up areas of sculpey underneath
the new area. It makes the process a great deal quicker and
really does allow you to add more fine detail to your models.
I carried on and added lots more detail in this way including
a battle axe, lots of rope, belt buckles etc. |
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4.
The finished Troll |
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