FAQ: Apoxie Sculpt and other epoxy putties for additive modifications and repairs

No epoxy will come very close to skintone. Magic Sculpt is a very dark pink for example - too dark. What I would recommend you do (and has worked for me) is use WHITE Apoxie Sculpt from Aves Studio. You can tint it with acrylic paints untill you have a mix that reasonably resembles the skintone you are working with. It shouldn't take much... I often use a touch of Sienna, Burnt Umber, Vermillion or Yellow Ochre and knead it into the white component untill the colour is even - make sure your hands are clean. Then add the grey component (equal amount) and knead the two untill the colour is even. You have about three hours working time in room temperature. You can sand and drill it after it goes completely hard (24 hours), and if you do sand, the colour may appear a little lighter, untill you rub it with a moist cloth and remove the dust from the minescule scratches from the sanding. Using water during sculpting keeps the clay very workable, and you may want to wait 15 minutes after mixing if you want it to be a bit firm when you work with it. It takes a bit of practise to mix colours just right, but the material is very nice to work with and you get used to it easily. BJD skin tends to be so light that you won't need much paint to colour the clay. It's also non-toxic and doesn't smell much at all.

For the white skin, the closest you will get is using the same Apoxie Sculpt but without the tinting. It may still appear a little more grey than white when mixed, but you can always try adding a little bit of white paint or something like that?

- Therese

 

Edit: I got the link to open, and the head has definetely been painted after the resculpting was completed, first a base coat of white, and then a new skintone and blushing. The following image shows Beauty White CP Soo with ear-tips sculpted in white Apoxie, you can barely tell there is a difference in the colour - and remember that CP white skin is whiter than Volks white skin. Also with pureskin resin, I am not sure any epoxy putty can give you that slight translucency. The image is vickyj's "Snow", btw.


Unfortunately the link won't open, but I am pretty sure from what you say that it would have been painted over after the sculpting was done - probably with an airbrush.

Keep asking questions till you find out what you need to know.

- Therese

 

This is a very informative thread! Whre could I get the putty you were talking about, Liberwillow? The Aves Studio kind?

 

Currently I am using the Aves Apoxy Sculpt to demonize a terminally cute porcelain doll that I bought to get Wynne her Halloween costume.

I got it from here

http://www.joggles.com/store/catalog/index.php?cPath=194

had signed up to take a class using the stuff..tried it and HATED IT!
I much prefer sculpey and paperclay for direct sculpting.

However it does have some good points-it sticks to anything, its really hard when it dries, and it finishes curing in 24Hrs
the surface seems very glossy when dried so I think that it

just my .02

Lolly

 

You can sand the AS to get the gloss off. :3 I made Bastian out of AS and I liked it. However, don't get the "Creme" color. It is NOT creme colored. It's the color of chewed juicy fruit gum. Wish I'd gotten white. ops You can also take Acetone to it and remove paint like with a face up. However... obviously you couldn't do that if you used Willow's method... but now I'm rambling. o_o;

 

The white is definetely the best colour to get... they have pink, but its the knid of pink that taxidermists would use to sculpt the inside of the animals mouth, so no good for doll-skin. I bought 20 pounds of it and stashed it in my freezer for years to come. There is only one Australian distributor, and they overcharge to cover costs, so I got it straight from the source: http://www.avesstudio.com I also got some of the brown, because I want to try to sculpt a dark-skinend bjd. You can't sand the brown stuff, however, it becomes a light grey/purple, not very flattering.

I think you can still use acetone on tinted apoxie, the pigments of the paint is mixed througout. In my experience Apoxie Sculpt is not super glossy when cured and the glossyness will obviously go away if you sand with some fine grit paper, or possibly you could use a piece of suede-cloth and rub gently in a circular motion when the stuff is half hardened. I have also used a Dremel with a buffing attachment to make the AS uberglossy. Finally, to remove glossyness, one could spray with MSC or Tamiya flat acrylic varnish.

AS was recommended to me by another hobbyist, and I have not looked back since. Obviously there are other materials that are better for some things, and the AS takes a bit of time to work with and get used to, but once you are familiar with it, its great. It is quite strong, but for internal structure stuff where you need heaps for strength, I'd prefer to use plumbers putty. I also like to use paperclay to build up the volume of an object, and then cover it with a generous layer of AS, which is where I put all the detail and refinement. This way, the sculpture is kept light-weight.

AS is a bit sticky at first, but after 15-30 minutes it becomes a little more firm and workable. Assuming its about normal room tempreature you will have about 3 hours to work with it - but you can speed up the curing by placing it near a heatsource. You can sculpt on top of cured material, just make sure it is blended well into the previous layer with copious amounts of feathering. Using water or saliva (readily accessible) to smooth the material works great. If you have tinted the AS, it is good to make a decent size batch, as it is hard to mix the same colour twice, and if you mix the colour into only component A, it won't go hard before you are ready to use it, just add an equal amount of B and you are ready to go. Remember that AS is cured as result of a chemical reaction between the two components, not from exposure to air, so wrapping up unused mixed AS to save for later will not work, its like hair dye, the leftovers can't be kept.

- Therese

 

This thread was indeed very helpful! After I finish some projects for Johnny, I will eventually like to use apoxie sculpey to to mod his facial features to be even more of a one of kind doll. Thanks!

 

thread bump!

i see alot of doll companies with epoxy putty on their ect pages. it does not look like apoxy sculpt (which i have) .

does anyone know about that particular brand? Tamiya epoxy putty? does it work similar to apoxy sculpt??

http://leekeworld.us/frontstore/Ite...t_id=leekeworld&level=&mother_catalog_num=563
http://leekeworld.us/frontstore/Ite...t_id=leekeworld&level=&mother_catalog_num=563

and whats the difference between "smooth" type and "quick" type??

 

the brand I found excellent was Miliput, it is white, dries well and quickly, I love it , check out my avatar if you want to see how I used it

 

does the color match well or do i have to tint it with paint like apoxy sculpt?

 

It was very white, more white than my white hound, but the barest blushing with a slight tone was able to blend it

 

I've just ordered white, pink and natural apoxy sculpt, so when it gets here I can do some comparison pics with it next to doll resin.

 

When you apply the AS, do you need to rough up what you are sticking it to? (Ha ha, maybe that's not the best way to say that....)

And I guess this is the reverse of the above... if I wanted to sculpt it over some eyeballs to give it some shape (to close eyes slightly) would I need to put vaseline or something on the glass so it wouldn't stick?

 

forgive me if this is a stupid question...but i've heard people use sculpey to mod some of their dolls...but don't you have to cook sculpey to get it to harden? O_o how is this accomplished without uh...melting the doll? ~__~ please advise? i've been dying to try some modding with epoxies, but i'm not sure what is the best way... i'm familiar with sculpey, so if that is a decent method, i'd love some pointers.

 

yes sculpy has to be heat set, that is why we are discussing this type of putty that chemical cures, no heat necessary. I know some people have put dolls in the oven/boiling water. It does temporarily soften the resin so I just wouldn't do it. Give epoxy a go!

I have never needed to rough up a surface, but closing eyes I would at least cover the eye with gladwrap (clingfilm), even if the putty sticks to it you can just pull of the extra and won't have damaged the eyes.

 

I have used water color (the kind in a tube) to tint the apoxy sculpt and it works as well as acrylic.

 

I've used both... but stupidly, I can't remember which is which. One of them comes in a small, squeezy tube (like toothpaste or paint) and is very watery at first. It is a middle-tone, flat gray. You don't mix it, it just comes out as paste. It has a very strong odor. I think the other was a 2-part putty that you mix together to make a pale, orangey-brown colored clay-like material.

The Zoukeimura putty is... not friendly. It is a reddish gray color and extremely messy and toxic. The fumes are overpowering. Not recommended.

I've also used Mr. Putty Strong. It's slightly flexible so it can handle shocks decently. It also can be sanded smooth. It makes a yellowish ivory colored putty. Before it sets, the consistency is rather like bubblegum. It's very easy to work with and the color is rather similar to oldskin Beauty white or CP white.

I usually mod with Milliput. It comes in several varieties of differing strengths and "grits." These are denoted by color. The two I've used are the Yellow-Gray mix and then the white mix. Both work really well and can be made more pliable by adding water. You can also smooth with water. Milliput tends to be messier and will leave residue on things. You need to wet your tools or fingers to prevent sticking. It sands beautifully.

The most annoying thing about every epoxy I've used is that it's very opaque. So even a perfect color match will still be visible against most resins... nice resins are slightly translucent. I used to have comparison pics of all the different Japanese-made epoxies, but I've lost them.

 

I just purchased "Craft Porcelain" from Michaels today. It's a type of molding clay that drys in 24 hours. I plan to use it for some customizations. I'll let you know how the product works when I'm finished. Hopefully it isn't a complete disaster.

 

ooh! i've wondered about that myself! do let us know how it goes~

 

Here's my .02 cents on the product "Craft Porcelain". It really is a great compound that has a porcelain look and feel. Unfortunately though I found that it dries super fast and here I thought I had 24 hours. This could be due to the fact that I did knead some waterbased paint into the compound that would match my Bjd's normal skin tone.

I do have previous experience with sculpting before and this compound works great by itself. It just doesn't seem to bond well with resin...the pieces just seemed to fall off once they began to dry. Quite funny actually. Ahh, my doll is a zombie! (I mixed a small amount of acrylic paint and kneaded it, maybe watercolour would have worked better for bonding?!?)

In the end, there was no damage done to my BJD's face or previous face-up which is good. So the experiment wasn't a complete failure. I actually got to see its extreme patential and likeness, which is exciting.

Well it was fun to try something new...but now I'm irritated by the delays. So now I'm just going to go with Apoxie Sculpt and go from there. Cheers and Happy Customizing!

 

hm...so the porcelain is good save for the fact that it doesn't bond to the resin? i wonder if you could just like...use superglue to bond it? some superglues are an epoxy base anyway.... *something to think about.....*

 

tokage: Thanks for the advice. I haven't quite given up hope entirely since I bought a tub of it. I am definitely going to give it another go. CurlyKitty gave me some other pointers that might help out as well.

dechanique:I've seen milliput on ebay if that helps?!?

 

seditionary: ah, okay cool! if you try it, do let me know how it goes~ i had some ideas for a mod i might eventually do, and if i can use domestic supplies from a local store it'll make it even easier. XD i'm sure you know well enough, but just so it will have been said: you might want to test any glues before using them... like when i get superglue on my hands, acetone will take it off, but i'd hate for you to damage your doll in an experimental situation. i've never tried using superglues on my kids, so i'm not sure how it might react.

 

Sorry if this has already been posted a ton of times ^^;

The general consensus is that I'm going to need apoxy sculpt to make scars on a doll's body. However, I'm a college student with limited resources - i.e., no car to get to Michael's or any decent craft stores.

Are there alternatives to apoxy? Right now I have paperclay and another air-hardening clay in my posession - will these work at all? And is there anything else I can look for?

I'm willing to buy apoxy online if I must, but I don't like shipping costs >__> Money is a tad tight for the next few weeks, and yes, I want to start modding before I have more monies XD

 

There have been a few people that have used paperclay to make scars. ^^

 

So... I need to make scars and attempt to close an eye with apoxy. I know I'll have to tint it to make it match the resin color better... but me + mixing paint = no XD

Is it possible to tint apoxy with pastel dust? I have some lovely nupastels that would work wonders for matching skin tone... if they'll actually color the apoxy XD Is this possible, or do I just need to suck it up and use paint?

Also - will a faceup and blushing cover slight color inconsistancies?

 

as i hijack your thread.. U_U' I just wanted to know what this apoxie sculpt stuff is... All I know of is liquid apoxy and balck paste apoxie......

* Please answer Celebare's question first!

 

Hmm... If I had any to experiance with... I'd say that IF you mix pastel with water it should make something you can mix, but don't hold me to that, I could be wrong. xD

Apoxie Sculpt is a putty/clay that's used for permanant fixtations.

 

I haven't tried tinting with pastels, sounds interesting though! If you have some apoxie on hand maybe you could test it to see if it works? Blushing and faceup will cover inconsistencies to a certain degree. I find its really hard to get a perfect match in the first place, and then when you sand, the colour is a little different, plus it will react to the environment in a different way and at a different rate to your dolls resin. It helps to work in good light (not under yellow fluros like I do) to get the colour mix right, but experimentation and practise is the only way you can really figure out what works for you.

Niku-sama; http://avesstudio.com/Products/Apoxie_Sculpt/apoxie_sculpt.html Apoxie Sculpt is a two-part sculpting medium that must be mixed at a 50-50 ratio, non-toxic, no real odour, long working time. It cures through a chemical reaction between the two components, so you don't need to bake the stuff (but you can if you want to speed up the process).

 

I know someone said before you san use Sculpey, and I have tried it!

Here's the key- Don't use it.

I put elf ears on my DoC Si with it, and it was horrible. I got the sculpting down and boiled water in a coffee mug, and took it out. I did it probably four times over, because it DOES NOT adhere strong to the resin. More so, when I boiled his head, it yellowed.

Save your money and time and buy Epoxy. (Or commission a talented artist like armelia. Or me. -Cough- Shameless plug. ^_^
But really now. Sculpey and Dollies don't mix.

 

I've used AS to make elf ears for my lishe. Its rather sticky stuff but once it gets a bit more firm it works rather well. I use white and find that it matches cp white rather well without much blushing. You can get it in small sizes or large depending on the project you are working on. n.n

 

Yeah...I made a big boo-boo.

I, for some reason, decided it was a good idea to reshape my Lishe's upper lip. But, it was an awful idea, and I should've known that would be the case (I sanded a bit too much away). Anyway...I have apoxie sculpt, and I had heard that you could mix acrylics into the clay, but that did NOT work at all! I just went ahead and sculpted it on her anyway though, thinking I could just paint over it when it had dried.


Yeah...that didn't work. I had matched the colours, but you could see the line where I had stopped painting. So, I've currently taken all the paint off, and am left clueless as to how to cover the clay up. Pastels? A different technique with acrylics? Someone please help...

 

Prob the best best is to post a pic or 2 of what she looks like now.. so we can see.. that way we can advise you best...

It will be ok.. im sure someone here can help..

Hugs Maz x

 

When I did Locust's mods I couldn't match the color with paint worth beans so I covered it with several layers of pastels. :/

 

I kneaded a fleshtone mixture of acrylics into some white apoxie sculpt and it worked alright... I'm sorry yours didn't!

When I went to fix the very slight color variation on Tali's lip, I painted his lips using acrylics and then a layer of pastels.

 

alrighty, well, I've decided to make her a new upper lip. This time, I tried mixing in dry pastels into the clay and it worked really well. It's still not completely accurate, but I'm hoping some blushing with pastels will cover it up. So, I'll take a pic tomorrow (when it's dry and sanded), and post it here just incase I have more trouble.

Thanks everyone who replied!

 

Wow, what a super helpful thread!

I want to mod the eyes on a doll by closing them into a more SA look, and could not figure out what to use for it. I just ordered some of this sculpt and am thinking it will probably work pretty well for this projet.

A quick question though, do I need to do anything to the resin first before I make my addition in the apoxie?

 

nope, just make sure it is clean and dry and it should work just fine Gayle

 

I've scoured the forums here for all the info I could find on these products, and I've found tons of great info on them both, but I wanted to ask about personal opinions. I know it all comes down to personal preference as a sculptor, but I'd love to hear any comparisons, especially if you've tried them both.

As a figure sculptor myself, I'm excited about the prospect of a new medium. I've never been happy with bakeable clays, particular the polymer, and air dry clays just don't have the strength I need. I find myself being drawn to the Milliput Super Fine White, but you guys may just change my mind!

Any compare/contrast input would be greatly appreciated!

 

Milliput is very dense and smooth - it's easy to carve and sands well. It also takes tints beautifully. It's completely odorless. Unfortunately, you can't get it in big quanities. If you're looking to do modifications, it's great... but for sculpting from scratch it's too expensive.

Apoxy Sculpt can be bought in bulk so it's good for sculpting from scratch. It has a slight chemically odor (I find it unpleasant). It is very easy to mix and it is very very soft when you first mix it - almost like bread dough. It seems to sand and tool well, but it doesn't blend as seamlessly as Milliput (like if you add more apoxy sculpt to it after it's dried, you can see the seam usually).

I like them both, but I use them for different things.

 

Thanks so much, Armeleia!

That was exactly the kind of comment I was hoping for. I've seen your mods and you do gorgeous work.

I was planning on picking up a little of both anyway, just to play with, and seeing as I plan on modding a stray head I have here, I'll be sure to try to Milliput for that.

 

Hi there~

I plan to mod some elf ears onto my Na-Nu-Ri. I've determined that I need to do it with Apoxie Sculpt, but I can't find it on Dick Blick... where can I get it? Thanks :

 

I saw some at my local hardware store O_o ...although it could've been epoxy clay, I can't remember.

They had a cool hardened display chunk with stuff stuck in it (a penny, screw, ect)... I thought it was funny.

 

you can also get it through http://www.firebirdarts.com/craft/5apoxie01.shtml scroll down the page to see their selection of the apoxie sculpt(not apoxie clay X3)

but I recommend going through aves, they're very nice. :3

 

If you Google 'apoxie' you can find several online stores that carry the stuff, and you can find several sellers on eBay if you search for 'apoxie' there.

Here's a place that sells it, and here's another, just from a quick Google search.

 

I recommend buying the Apoxie Sculpt straight from avesstudio, they have a sales department, top notch customer service and are very professional, plus you will get the freshest clay and probably the best prices from them.

 

I also recommend buying Apoxie Sculpt directly from avesstudio. While you do have to e-mail the order in, they are actually very professional and their customer service is excellent. Plus, my order arrived pretty fast. Buying directly from them could be your best bet.

 

Well, I guess not every company employes I.T techs to build their website. I have ordered my batch from them. It is true that you don't get much of a "warm and fluffy" response from them, but once they receive your order, they'll send you the total and a link to Paypal and within a week or so, you'll receive your order. Just because they don't have a shopping chart system doesn't mean that they're unprofessional ^^. Maybe they're just a little old-school

 

I have bought the regular kind from a place that sells stuff for building model tanks, they shiped it really fast:

http://www.backyardarmor.com/New%20Main.htm

 

If you give Aves a call, they will also tell you if there are any distributers in your area. There happens to be one 2 blocks from my work place.

 

I contacted Aves about buying from them, and they actually checked into which of the European distributors that could ship it to me cheapest and got back to me within a few days with contact means to two of them.

Their customer service is A+ even though their webpage looks unprofessional :P

 

If I remember right, DH usually calls them and orders what we'd like directly by phone, without using the webpage.
You should probably ask anyone else you'd consider ordering from how old their stock is and how it's stored. We got some old stuff from somewhere and couldn't use it because it developed hard crystals within the matrix. And there's no restoring it. Which led us back to Aves. and now, we just order from them ... ta da! no problems with clay anymore.

 

This might be a stupid question, but is there a certain color to get when you are modding a doll? Should you just get white? or Natural?

Thanks!
Elizabeth

 

I'm not sure if natural is also "cream" but the cream color is actually grey. It's a weird sort of warm grey the color of abc juicy fruit gum. I bought white for modding my dolls then I add paint to the mix to tint it.

 

Thank you very much!!!

 

My white Apoxie came today and so I have begun to close the mouth of my NS Shiwoo. The color didnt come out to be an exact resin match, but I tried my best. I have been working with it for about 30 minutes now, and I am totally lost as to what I should do at this point so I thought I would show pictures and ask for some help.

Well here he is. Should I scrape it all out and start over? Should i leave it be and wait for it to dry, and sand it? What should i do???

EDIT: um, may need to wait a bit, im having problems with the pictures!!

 

You can smooth it some with water, but you will never get it completely smooth without sanding.

 

That looks good! And a pretty good match to boot. Close enough that the face up should cover easily. If the apoxy, clay(?) is still not cured I usually take a short fine paint brush with a little water on it and smooth out the apoxy. If it's already dry, or too late for the water trick, just wait to sand it. I think it looks good though.