Ryan Maxwell wrote: Geez, John, once you start getting finished pieces up I think I'll stop.  Those are both shaping up to be fantastic.  Your green stuff is so smooth!

No worries about me finishing anything, Ryan -- after posting these pics I noticed that Iron Man's left boot cuff is noticeably lower than the right one, and it's bugging the heck out of me (didn't notice it until I looked at the pictures . . . DOH!).  That means I'm going to have to carve off the boot cuff tonight and re-sculpt it -- which means further delays on the other detailing that remains.  Thankfully, I did get the power pods done last night (talk about tiny fussy details in Kneadatite -- that alone was an exercise in patience and smoothing!).

As for smoothing Green Stuff, I wear latex gloves, moisten my finger tips, and use a light buffing-type touch to smooth the surface -- the water acts as a lubricant and helps with the smoothing.  It takes a bit of practice, but once you figure out how to do it you can get a nice, smooth, shiny finish with little effort (just takes a lot of patience).

Besides, if it means you'll be quitting, then I'll just have to shelve these projects and make them eternal works-in-progress -- I really enjoy seeing your customs (you're an inspiration to me, in fact), and I'd hate to be the cause of your early "retirement"!

;-)

Steve:  Nice work!  Your casting efforts are providing me with incentive to give THAT a try -- if my Shellhead conversion comes out halfway decent, I'd like to try casting that.  I'm sure there are at least a couple of Eaglemoss collectors around here who wouldn't mind having a classic red-and-gold Shellhead for their collection, even if it was done in resin instead of lead.

Ryan Maxwell wrote: Count me as a casting customer!

If (when?) I'm able to pull off a successful casting, I'll gladly provide you with a unpainted reproduction piece -- I'd love to see what the finished product would look like given YOUR painting abilities.

:-)

Joe Zhang wrote: It takes a brave man to want to sculpt and paint the Jack of Hearts.

Brave or crazy -- not sure which.  I always love a good challenge, though, and I haven't seen any custom versions of Jack of Hearts yet, so that gives me the opportunity to be the first . . . assuming I ever get it finished, that is! 

:-D

I swear by my latex gloves.  It helps give a nice surface texture to sculpture, whether its clay, epoxy putty, or polyester clays.  Keeps stuff off your hands when casting stuff, too.

Casting is a blast, John.  I use Alumilite products and can't speak highly enough of them.  It's kind of frustrating when you open a mold and find air bubbles, but a good pressure pot will cure that kind of thing.  Now I just need a pressure pot....

Give it a try! 

And I'm digging that Iron Man you're working on.  I've got a Layton IM I've been holding off finishing for a while now.  I'll try to get some pics up soon.  And that Jack of Hearts looks to be all kinds of wicked cool.

How tall are those Eaglemoss figures?

No sweat on the Alumilite tips, John.  You're gonna love it.

If you're gonna cast IM's, I'd recommend coating the interior of the mold with Alumilite's gold powder first.  It eliminates the need for a lacquer or other paint coating for a mold release, and the metallic effect is outstanding.  I'd love to have one when you're ready.

As promised, a WIP pic of the Layton Iron Man:

He's still got a long way to go, but it's a start.

Sure, John.  Try this:

http://www.alumilite.com

If your local hobby shop doesn't carry what you want, these nice folks can help you out.

I discovered the gold powder after I'd done most of Iron Man. The head and the upper arms are powdered.  The rest is currently just Testors gold paint.

Thanks for the link, Steve -- I was just poking around their site last night and found that they sell their stuff directly, which is cool.

Quick question -- what type of molds do you do (2-piece, squish molds, etc.)?  If you use 2-piece molds, do you use the more conventional clay build-up method?  Over on the Iron Cow Production message boards, one of the action figure customizers ("Glassman") uses a 2-piece molding technique that doesn't utilize the clay build-up approach -- here's a link to his tutorial, which shows pics of how he does it:

http://www.ironcowprod.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31 9

Looks interesting -- seems like it's an extremely quick way to reproduce small parts or pieces.