100 hours - Sculpting: Green Stuff

Although this is not technically part of my 100 hours diary, I want to take some time to talk about Green Stuff and sculpting miniatures in general. Sculpting has always fascinated me as a hobbyist. Seeing fully sculpted miniatures online, all I could think was "I want to learn how to do that!". So,  a while back, I purchased some Green Stuff, and messed around with it a little, but did not attempt anything major. These picture show what the possibilities are with green stuff, albeit with lots and lots of practice (just so you know, these are not mine, they are pictures of the level of sculpting I wish to accomplish).

Green Stuff Basics

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Green Stuff, aka Kneadatite, it is a two-part epoxy sculpting putty used by many gamers to sculpt miniature and do conversions.

Green stuff is made up of two parts: The Base, which is yellow, and the Hardener, which is blue. It comes in two types: bar and strip form, both shown in pictures below. In both kinds, you create green stuff by mixing equal parts of the blue and yellow until the mixture is uniform. To change the properties pf the mixture, you can experiment using more or less of either color.

Immediately after mixing, green stuff becomes extremely sticky. Working with green stuff requires some kind of lubricant, which can be water, petroleum jelly, oil, spit, or any one of all sorts of things. Green stuff becomes progressively harder, and becomes mostly unworkable in an hour or so. It then takes a full 24 hours to fully harden. This hardening time can be shortened or lengthened depending on the temperature. If you wish to shorten the hardening time, increase the temperature slightly. I use a makeshift oven-type thing using a light bulb (pictures to come later). However, you shouldn't make it too hot, as Green Stuff can burn, and also "melt", blurring details. If you wish to lengthen the workability time of already mixed green stuff., maybe because you were interrupted and have to put off your project till the next day, you should just throw your mixed green in the freezer. This can allow you the green stuff to be workable for another day or two. After that, it will still be soft, but will be very rubbery and unusable.

Green stuff can be mixed with other sculpting putties for various properties. Although I have not experimented with this, I have heard good things about a 1:1 ratio mix of green stuff and Milliput, another sculpting putty. I plan to try it out soon.

Getting Started with Green Stuff

Obviously, before you start out with green stuff, you need to buy some. In this regard, there is definitely a right way and a wrong way. Green Stuff, even though it is all pretty much the same stuff, can cost 5 times as much (or even more) from some companies than from others. Games Workshop sells the stuff fairly expensive, but not as much as some other companies. I bought a strip from Army Painter, and I was very disappointed in how much I got (I bought it online, and the picture did not match what I got). In general, look for green stuff under the name Kneadatite, it is much cheaper. Look for tubes (approx $10) or the strip (approx $15) shown above, and you should be all set.


So that's about it. Green Stuff is not terribly forgiving, but it can be used to create great things. It really just takes lots of practice and patience, just like most things. Keep an eye out for my first actual 100 Hours - Sculpting post, which will be coming very soon!