First attempt at a PS style base sculpt

[glen]

  Fresh from the oven, I just did this tonight using Original Sculpey.  It is my first attempt at sculpting and I am encouraged.  I was looking at the arrangement of bases on the 1974 Prehistoric Scenes Base Layout Map and realized I had not ever really considered the alternate location for the cave bear.  This fills the gap between the Cave, Cave Bear, and Triceratops alternate location. 

[glen]

That was also my first attempt to download a photo to this forum. I just tried to add another image with the above piece in place between the other bases but ran into an error message. "This forum has exceeded its attachment space limit..."  Any suggestions?

[TAY666]

That means I have to find time to eliminate more photos that are posted here.
Either deleting them completely, or copying them, uploading them to my site, then linking them to the post they were in originally.
We only have X amount of storage space here, once it's gone, I have to free some up.

[artdecovampire]

Nice one Glen. Filling in those awkward spaces is a bit of fun. I think as a rule you need to follow the PS base fomrula! LOL If you include two or more of the following ingredients you get it just right.

1. Clump of grass.
2. Radial shaped leafy plant.
3. Two small rocks.
4. large flat sided rock.
5. Animal bones
6. Linear striations across the ground.
7. Fallen branch.
8. tree stump.

Once its baked then rub off some of the sharp detail with fine black paper to make it look like its injection moulded and Hey Presto! You have a PS base unit. Features that make a deluxe base, a thing of beauty and a P/s in itself, are as follows.

1. Small animal moulded in, Diplocaulus, Seymoria, snake or spider.
2. A larger separate feature skull.
3. A cycad.
4. A small pool with plants.
5. Moulded on ferns or complex ground texture including tracks.
6. Dinosaur nest.

PS bases are cool they set these kits apart from Airfix and the Pyros, who had no or poor small bases. The trouble is if any of your friends see your work and like it then ask you do a cast. Then ..... well I'll leave that to your imagination.

[fud]

Great work Glen,it looks just right and it ticks enough boxes in artdecovampire's excellent formula to qualify as a ps base.
Is it solid sculpey or did you bulk it out in the thicker sections ?  Cheers, Gareth.

[glen]

That is a nice list of what gives a base that PS feel.  And thanks for the other advice how how to give it the right look.  I'm touching up with an exacto and adding ground texture with a Dremel.  This is solid Sculpey, baked at 275 for 20 minutes.  The back of the box did say to "bulk out" with aluminum foil for areas thicker than 1/2 inch. I'm guessing that moisture from thicker areas does not bake out all the way.  What problems does that create?

[TAY666]

Thicker areas tend to crack more.
Mainly due to the cooling process. The outer 'shell' cools faster than the inside, leading to cracks.
From what sculptors have said this can be somewhat avoided by a longer cool down period.
After it is baked, drop the oven temperature in stages while leaving the piece in the oven.
Won't completely eliminate the problem, but will lessen the severity and number of cracks.

[psgreat]

Whoa! Nice job there glen... Bravo! ( Round of applause... :} )

[glen]

I appreciate the tips and information about cracking.  Thankfully, it was not a problem with this little piece.  I had fun with the sculpt and just tried another tonight, filling in another odd-shaped gap between the tar pit, the back of the cave, and the cave bear alternate location.  This one has a larger pile of rocks with a spring/waterfall feature, so I did bulk out a section with aluminum foil.  I'm experimenting with Sculpey, but would be glad to hear what others use for sculpting and why you like one product over another.

And thanks for the virtual round of applause.   

[prescenes2]

Looks great glen!
This guy has some great tips on baking sculpey. take a listen and watch.....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzjM26XLtwQ

[artdecovampire]

I started out with ordinary pottery clays doing large sculpts for the ceramics industry. I only discovered sculpy a few years ago when I got back in to the P/S world. I thought cool! Like every man on the planet I'd rather learn from trial and error rather than read the instructions. I noticed that.....

Sculpy can be baked more than once if you keep to the baking instructions on the packet (130 C UK). This means you can bake a basic sculpt them add sculpy detail and rebake a second time for a shorter period. Detail is only a few mm thick after all. Bulking out with foil makes it all a lot cheaper! It also reduces baking times. Long baking times worry the sculpy people. Doll makers buy it for its colour. Long bakes and rebakes can burn it a bit so they worry that your doll will look burned! Because we paint them its not an issue.

Best tools are a cocktail stick and a dress makers pin taped to a dowel! I steal textures from all sorts of places using siligum putty to make press moulds. That means you can use parts off other bases to keep it all integrated. The sculpy web site is very informative.

[artdecovampire]

PS: I'm with Tay about cooling down times. Turn the oven off and let it cool slowly if its a large part. Fan ovens are good if the fan stays on it circulates the air as it cools making the sculpt cool more evenly.

[fud]

Thanks for all the sculpey tips guys, very helpful.

[psgreat]

I agree with the cool down method. I've sculpted some large pieces and just let them sit in the oven whilst it cools. Also agree with bulking out with aluminum foil.
I found this product by Nicole ( www.nicolecrafts.com ) It is a non hardening and reusable modeling clay. And when the say reusable... they mean it! I made a base for the Pyro Ankylosaurus with it. ( I cheated and used some Aurora rocks and stuff ) I sculpted the base, put up four walls and molded it. The mold came out great as did the resin copies. Of course you don't have the original but you do have a resin piece to mold if needed.
I find the advantage with this clay is, it doesn't crack and is easy to detail and model. I will only use this for bases or tree trunks or pieces that I feel I don't need an original copy.
The same clay has been used over and over again for different things.
IF you use Sculpy and it cracks, you can fill in the crack with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. It will air dry in about an hour or two so you have plenty of time to resculpt detail where the crack was and it cleans up with water.

[glen]

Here's how it looks between the other bases.  And the two-headed snake curls between the rocks and the stump. This is a lot of fun.  Thank you to all of you with your tips and experience.  I could get hooked on this. 

[glen]

Here is my second piece.  I wanted a spring/pond/hot spring for the Cro-Magnons.  I got the idea from the little tar pit on the Dire Wolf base, but it was much too small.  The tar pit could have worked, but there was a big, noisy rhino sitting in it.  As I was playing with the back of the cave and had made that first piece, I thought about the other oddly-shaped empty space between the cave, tar pit and saber tooth tiger.  The space was just too small, so after lots of repositioning and shuffling, I decided to move the tiger.  I shaped the new base to accommodate the tiger base and closed off the last side with one edge of the Cro-Magnon Man base.  If you slide the CM Woman base in next to it, the notch of the CM Woman base fits against a corner of the cave bear base.  cM Woman's tree fits into the new base too.  That way they have a place to hang their clothes if the decide to go skinny dipping.  :-)

[glen]

 Here it is with the other bases around it.  The spring flows down one side of the rocks into the pond, and down the other side into a creek that flows between the Neanderthal base and the tiger base.  The tar pit is in the background, Cro-Magnon Man and cave bear bases in the foreground. 

[scooke123]

I like both these bases - nicely done!!

[psgreat]

To bring back an old phrase... That is really "nifty"!!!! :}

[artdecovampire]

Top stuff! I like the spring its like a prehistoric water feature! I may indeed steel the idea Every cromagnon couple should have one,