Alrighty, here be one of my hopefully weekly topics where I'll be posting up stuff I have found that many gamers might not be aware of :) This was supposed to post up yesterday, but with a pesky broken rib distracting me I forgot to hit the send button!
On a few of the forums out there Ive seen an occasional elusive mention of some stuff called Apoxie Sculpt as an alternative to our old sculpting stand bys of green and grey stuff. Now- dont get me wrong- green & grey stuff are still useful and good materials, but they have thier limits and quirks. I for one cant sculpt green stuff very well at all, yet when I switched to Procreates grey stuff, I did quite well.
The foremost reason I decided to try Apoxie sculpt is its price. 15$ for a pound. The cheapest I've been able to find anything else was a year ago when I got my 300g tube of Procreate for 16$ on Ebay. One pound is 454 grams. So its a better deal all around- since the 15$ tag is the price from the manufacturer. Another appealing aspect- is the two halves come in little jars with lids that SEAL. So, unlike my unused year old grey stuff or green stuff- its not going to start getting crunchy around the edges and try to kill my fingers when getting mixed.
Its available in several colors, and gets cheaper when you buy the larger batches. For just buying a single pounds worth, the shipping hurts a bit since it starts at 11$. But at 26$ for a pound- its still cheaper than the alternatives and is a better product in general.
Now- one difference is this stuff is just a bit thicker than peanut butter. So it mixes up super super easy. I have problems with my hands sometimes, and have had times when mixing the other stuff was something I couldnt do. Not so with Apoxie, quick and easy. Downside-its stickier when freshly mixed, so I actually used gloves with it. While its freshly mixed like this and very soft- its excellent for using in press mold applications. In the picture you'll see the feildstone section and back packs- press molded! The stones were a Hirst arts mold, and the packs were an old silicone mold I had sitting around.
For actual sculpting use, you let it sit for a while before working with it- 45 minutes or so lets it firm up a bit and it loses some of the stickiness. Like green stuff you can smooth it with water and have to keep your tools a bit wet. Aves provided me a free sample of their Safety Solvent, which can be used to control the sticking and such- but water has worked fine for me so far. You can also use a light oil like olive oil. Its texture is more clay like compared to the rubbery taffy like texture of green/grey stuffs.
And the last tidbit that can be useful- is this stuff acts a bit like cured resin. When it has set up- warming it up in hot water softens it and make it pliable. So you can straighten peices, or- bend them on purpose if you want to make curved armor plates and stuff like that.
In the picture you might be wondering what the clear silicone stuff is- I'll do another post on that stuff as it deserves its own write up. Its called Oyamaru or Instamold and looks like a sort of wonder product for press molding(as the sheild shows it does work!). After I play around with it a bit more I'll make a more in depth post on it.
Oh- and before I forget- http://www.avesstudio.com/ feel free to tell them you heard about stuff from my blog. I wouldnt mind sponsoring thier banner here as I really like thier product. (And I also got some of thier mache' stuff to test out on terrain making!)
