Marterials for Sculpting Key Caps

[Frogbot]

There's some amazing keys out there and I'd love to know the materials people are using for the sculpts?

I've been try a couple of different materials. So far just super sculpey and wax (hard and soft). But I'm finding it really difficult to get nice clean edges and a polished surface. It seem like the mould pick up a lot of detail, right down to the most subtle finger print. 

Are there any other materials someone can recommend?

When I look at the The Bro Baps they look almost impossibly clean & perfect. How would they have been originally sculpted?

[Mandolin]

Waxes:

Jeweler wax for carving or other of the more common for sculptors (french red wax)
(if you want to have different hardness batches, buy pure carnauba wax and add it in different proportions).
Just for detailing http://www.kerrdental.eu/Lab/KerrLabWaxes/productfamily/11BlueInlayCastingWax
The new CX5 hard from adam beane is a multi purpose carving and sculpting wax+clay (similar to monster clay or castilene), special for miniatures. If you got no experience in waxes and only want to buy one thing, get that.

Epoxies: milliput superfine (detail +++) or silver grey (++) (cures rigid, water soluble) and green stuff/kneadatite (cures elastic, alcohol soluble). Could be mixed, ideally in a 70:30-GS:MP.

Polymer clays: premo from polyform and super sculpey firm(add to the order liquid sculpey and the clay softner). Other good suggestion is fimo classic+glycerine, so it could be made elastic, and threaded (as green stuff).

[Frogbot]

Hi Mandolin, thank you very much for the information. That gives me a great place to start!

I'd love to try all of these at some stage. But the CX5 looks pretty amazing, I'll give that a shot first.

[Mandolin]

Remember you'll need to adhere the sculpt to the keycap, so you could buy the cx5 and an general purpose epoxy putty from the hardware store. (there are different qualities of epoxies, and sculpting ones have a longer working time and smaller fillers than the others used for plumbing, that usually cure in 5 minutes)

[Frogbot]

So it wouldn't stick to the key cap like Super Sculpey or wax? 

I'm thinking I could even mould the entire cap out of the hard version (Will just need find a way make the cherry stem hole)

[Mandolin]

Keep in mind CX5, monster clay and castilenes are waxes at basis. It may stick or not, depend on the type of wax used (you could also use "sticky yellow wax" as glue, the same used for leg waxing).

Given that the wax solidifies rigid after you pour it over your keycap, how would you take the molded object out, without breaking apart the mold, thinking it has complex shapes?

You could use a rigid material for molding and the procedure would be similar to what you'd do with plaster. It'd need to be a multiple part mold (at least 4 parts) and maybe some sort of mother mold. You'd also have parting lines at the junctions. It's an advanced molding technique and a major complication to do.

Otherwise, if you're planning on molding a rigid object, use an elastomer. If the object you're molding is flexible, you could use a rigid molding material.

[KatzenKinder]

Oh sweet, thanks for dropping info about CX5, Mandolin! Looks like I'm going to be investing in some new equipment :v

[Mandolin]

No prob KatzenKinder. I've a great deal of experience in sculpting and know many tricks. If you or anybody else's got a question about that could PM me directly 

You'd need alcohol lamp to heat your tools, but those got limited tip shapes.

The kerr waxing pen is 400 USD+. In ebay there are alternative versions around 100 USD.

You could use your own metal carving tools with this IR induction heater: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141527515783

[KatzenKinder]

You'd need alcohol lamp to heat your tools, but those got limited tip shapes.

The kerr waxing pen is 400 USD+. In ebay there are alternative versions around 100 USD.

You could use your own metal carving tools with this IR induction heater:

Show Image

Luckily I have some dentist relatives who have offered some assistance with acquiring this type of thing. Hopefully cost won't wound me too much hehe

[Frogbot]

I managed to find some Milliput superfine and Greenstuff in the city over the weekend to try out. I haven't tried the 70:30 mix yet, just individually to get a feel for each. Both have a rubbery property which I think could be useful for certain applications. But I'm still finding it pretty hard to sculpt hard lines. The two dried differently with the millput going a lot harder making it possible to carve and sand albeit a little brittle.

I ordered the CX5 along with the alcohol lamp so looking forward to trying that in a few weeks. I may even try some jewelry waxes before then. Feeling waxes may be the material for me.

I'm using a flexible silicon (pinkysil) for the mold. Not sure if this is ideal but it's easy to de-mold with the tests I've done so far.

Thanks again for the tips Mandolin!

[Mandolin]

I recommend you to see tutorials online, maybe youtube. There are some on coolminiornot.
For every material there's certain learning curve, and as you said, certain applications use their capabilities better than others, but with just those two, you got some of the best materials for miniatures available, and the easiest to work with (you don't have the odors of the waxes, spilling the alcohol or burning yourself)

You shouldn't discard them. They both are the standard materials for 28 and 54 mm fantasy, military miniatures, and will give you more details at an ease of work than many polymer clays or other epoxies.

Green stuff isn't easily tooled/sanded, as it's really flexible. Milliput cures rock hard and is sandable. Mixing them gives you both, certain elasticity and hardness. You also could have variations in hardness mixing green stuff with the hardener in different proportions (the blue putty). I always prepare different mixes before sculpting for the different zones I need.






I've achieved hard edges and lines, specially with milliput. Normally everything is done in layers, so you first make an approximation, rough sculpt, then sand the excess and add another layer of material. After time passes, in both putties, you get some change in their consistency, that allows different things to be made, waiting at the end of the curing time allow you to do fine lines.

If you mix them with alcohol, you'd get it to be chewy. If you use an oil, they'll be really easy to handle, but won't stick to anything until you deoil it's surface. You could use a heat gun to speed up their curing.

The mold materials you selected is one of the best, easy to start with too.

Cheers and post pics of your sculpts to see your progress

[Frogbot]

Tips really are appreciated Mandolin, love the photo of your work space, looks a lot tidier than mine   Will try the Milliput multi layer technique next I think, I had a play with the Jewellers wax but only for a shorty time.

Your sculpts are amazingly detailed (nice photos to).


Here's where I'm at... really just in R&D stage. It's been fun making molds/casts with test sculpt, it's given me an appreciation of how much detail can be carried through and what I need to aim for in the sculpts.



Will post more as I do them