Advice On Smoothing/Finalizing design in Clay?

[klaushouse]

Hey all,

Brand new here but been inspired heavily by multiple threads in here on keycap making. I'm just starting to learn to use the clay and was wondering if anyone had advice or resources on how to get the detail and smoothness in the smaller format? I'm using Super Sculptey Firm, and find that after my design is done it looks ravaged and I'm having trouble going from my semi finalized product to something I'd be happy casting. Any advice would be awesome, this place is so cool I am glad I found it.

P.s. yes this is bigger than a Cap, I'm actually just making a cap "cover" for my Esc while I wait to do some more research on what silicon and resin I want to buy and order from Amazon. (I'm in Canada and I'm finding the suggested stuff is 4x more expensive and just a trial kit would cost me $300+. Hoping to find alternatives at reasonable price)

[breusch91]

You should use a rake toll (like a wire string) to move away and excess debris and flatten as much as you can. Then you can either spray very lightly with a solvent such as 90% alcohol and brush it a bit with a paint brush (use very minimal as it can get rid of some fine details if you use to much/go to hard), and/or you can just bake it then wet sand it afterwords.

[pkircher]

lubricatet the tools with vaseline / petrolium jelly .. that will smooth the surface.

i usualy sculp with greenstuff or apoxy sculpt and that works just right

 


as for silicon / resin i use https://www.dwrplastics.com slow curing resin 2h is good enough .. thats not the only expense and to be fair thats the cheap stuff .. you do need a vac chamber and a pressure pot to even consider propper casting .. otherwise you will catch a ton of airbubbles

so its around 1000 usd at the LOW gear end + you need safty gear as well hope you dont have pets - resins are not exactly healthy

[klaushouse]

You should use a rake toll (like a wire string) to move away and excess debris and flatten as much as you can. Then you can either spray very lightly with a solvent such as 90% alcohol and brush it a bit with a paint brush (use very minimal as it can get rid of some fine details if you use to much/go to hard), and/or you can just bake it then wet sand it afterwords.

Awesome well I appreciate all the sound advice, I think I'm gonna make a few different figurines and test each out to see what works best for me. Thanks so much for the thoughts!

lubricatet the tools with vaseline / petrolium jelly .. that will smooth the surface.

i usualy sculp with greenstuff or apoxy sculpt and that works just right

as for silicon / resin i use https://www.dwrplastics.com slow curing resin 2h is good enough .. thats not the only expense and to be fair thats the cheap stuff .. you do need a vac chamber and a pressure pot to even consider propper casting .. otherwise you will catch a ton of airbubbles

so its around 1000 usd at the LOW gear end + you need safty gear as well hope you dont have pets - resins are not exactly healthy

Appreciate the advice! Maybe I'll stick with a longer pot life silicon and resins for now and just spend the $300. I am definitely not looking to invest that much at the moment, I want to slowly get better, improve, and once I feel I comfortable enough slowly add to my collection of tools. Thanks for the reply, your model looks absolutely amazing wow!