Easy Techniques for Greenstuff Beginners

Further to this thread, I'd like to offer some brief tutorials on the basic uses Greenstuff. I'd like to show three simple techniques, the first of which is Fillin' Gaps (followed by Makin' Capes and Stylin' Hair).

Technique #1 - Fillin' Gaps

The one, and arguably only, Greenstuff technique you will ever need is for filling gaps. No matter what you do to avoid it, eventually you meet up with a metal model and invariably, that model will have gaps to fill once it's been pinned and assembled. Fortunately, this is just the problem that epoxy putties like Greenstuff are made for.

Tools used: Greenstuff, water, some sort of sculpting tool--fingers count as a tool here!--and a x-acto knife

As you can see from this poorly pinned Space Marine, I've created quite a gap between the shoulder and torso. Yes, the shoulder pad will hide it but sweeping old pizza crust under the couch will hide it too and you wouldn't do that now would you? (Don't answer that!).



In this case, I haven't actually glued my pin in the arm yet. I paint arms off the body, so I'm going to fill the gap, let it dry, snap the arm off, paint, then glue the arm back on. Trust me, it makes sense .

So I'm starting by cutting a little bit of Greenstuff off the strip, I use the overpriced stuff from GW--I'm lazy like that. Use 50-50ish blue and yellow and mix up in little ball.



Kneed it until it's a consistant green and a little sticky or until your fingers hurt. If it looks like it's about the right amount you need, it's probably twice what you actually need.



Jam that stuff on! Or, if your gap is between glued pieces, roll the green ball into a sausage and "cram that stuff in!". You can also "slam that stuff down!" or "bam that stuff up!". Just don't "stuff that ham two steps to the left!". You'll have to trust me on that too. Seriously. Just don't.



Ooops! Way too much Greenstuff



Pinch, pull or scrap away the extra stuff. Bonus points if you didn't start splashing around the water yet because the slight stickiness makes the Greenstuff easier to tear. There are no style points here--a little too much or not quite enough is just fine. And don't confuse bonus points with style points. Very different.



Now that you have a suitable amount of 'stuffing, get everything wet. I start with my fingers--dip in water, smooth the joint a bit, get wet. Once I've smoothed out what my gorilla fingers can, I break out GW's sculpting tool. I get that bad boy wet and keep the smoothing going, pushing heavy areas into lighter areas trying to get it as even as I can.

Voila! Gap filled.


Didn't see that little dimple until I uploaded the photo from my camera. Thankfully the shoulder pad will hide that!

Minus the time spent setting up the photos, about 30 seconds from start to finish (take more time if you want to do a good job *wink*). So there you have it, the most basic and necessary Greenstuff technique.

Once you have this basic technique down, you can use it on a variety of textures--fur, scales, hair or whatever by just texturing instead of smoothing. Easy stuff.


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Gonna shower us the other techniques, then? 'Cos I'm illisculpt (hmmm, I should stop making up words).
Thanks!

Thanks! Definitely do some more techniques. I'm about to try and piece together a few mutants/possessed from random parts and the only time I've ever worked with anything like green stuff was attaching a third arm to my other possessed. I'd love to see good ways to put together a full model that doesn't go together normally.

Great tip, I just got my green stuff and I wasn't sure if I was using it the right way.

I just got my order in the mail today, so I'll be able to use Mordheim-y models in the next two parts

If I get to a fourth part, I'll do some Chaos-y detailing for a Possessed warband--I was going to complete a Reiklander band first, but I do have a lot of ideas for making stylish Brethern and Mutants from the Militia sprues.

EDIT: Or I'll do a Brethern in this technique

Technique #2 - Makin' Capes (and Robes)

Okay, Fillin' Gaps isn't very exciting. It's a basic skill you need for model assembly and is pretty easy to master, but it doesn't exactly qualify as converting. With Technique #2, Makin' Capes, I'm going to demonstrate a simple method for taking a model and making something completely different out of it.

Tools used: Greenstuff, water, peanut oil, sculpting tool and Town Cryer 6 for some inspiration

The Empire Militia set is a great set, but it lacks variation. The Mordheim Possessed set is a great set, but it lacks bowmen. So let's combine the two and make a Brethern bowman.

I'll start by selecting the torso, legs and head I like the least (because I will mostly be covering it up) and mock up a pose using blu-tack. Comparing it to my inspiration, it looks like we have a long way to go.
+ = ???

I'll need to do a robe bottom to cover the legs, some oversleeves, a shoulder/cape thing and a hat. I need to make sure it'll work with the model parts that will still show, so I have to do a little thinking.

The torso is the "pirate jacket" which has a bit of shirt showing through. It has two layers, so my robe bottom should have two layers--the inner layer will only be in the front and I'll do that first then the outer layer and sleeves. Then a long cape in the back and shoulder covering over that and end with the mask and hat.

It is very important to plan the conversion out. If I did the cape first, I'd have to crack it off to do the robe bottom. Snapping off Greenstuff capes is fine and usually safe, but you have to let the GS fully harden and I don't want to wait once I start going.

Capes and robes both use the same basic technique: make a ball of Greenstuff, flatten it, let it set up a bit, cut it to dimension, slap it on and form creases.

I layout a peice of plastic sheet (the kind used for overhead projectors--ask your grandpa what those were) and spread a small puddle of oil. I then grab a suitable amount of Greenstuff, work it into a ball, flatten with my wet fingers and then roll it flat over the oil puddle.


I use my x-acto knife handle as a rolling pin and make it pretty thin (too thin actually). You can use any non-porous cylinder as a rolling pin, just grease it up and you're good to go.

After waiting about 5-10 minutes for the Greenstuff to firm up a little, I cut it to size. In this case, I leave the sides uncut as those ends will be covered over and the extra will help me mount the robe bit.


Using the point of my knife, I can now lift the Greenstuff off the plastic sheet. It's basically an al dente noodle in consistancy, it flops a bit, but doesn't stretch or deform unless I want it to. So I position it on the model and make folds and creases with my sculpting tool. I'm using a lot of water because it is still a little bit sticky.

I keep folding and creasing until I get something passable. I keep everything as wet as possible and try to make sure its all smooth.



Meh, not great but good enough--it'll mostly be hidden. If I hate it later, I'll just just redo it. Can't get enough Greenstuff practice.

...more to come...

Cool technique, btw how to you make the surface smooth??

Ragnar wrote:

Cool technique, btw how to you make the surface smooth??

By using colour shapers!

Thanks Eliazar, let me see if i can find some in art shop.

Ps: how about Sculpting tools set?

Neat little trick I've found: If you pop your rolled out green stuff i n the freezer for 10 minutes you can pull it out and shape it on the model with your hands without leaving fingerprints.

Nice tip Mr. Chair. How did you figure that one out ? Do you always greenstuff with a freezer near?

Ontopic:
Does anyone have a tip for me when it comes down to creating really small pieces of greenstuff? I am a true beginner in this department and had a lot of trouble modelling a thumb (as in finger) for my banshee. Either the tools are not small enough or the GS just sticks to everything, even the tools, and even after completely dipping it in water....