Modification Miliput vs apoxie sculpt (and how to use)

There are a few threads on here, the Customization and Maintenance sub-forum about modifying eyes smaller. There is a more recent one called "modding eyes smaller." There's also a much older thread called "closing eyes," which might have a lot more useful information.

I personally have never used miliput, so I don't know if it is an epoxy clay, but I assume it is. Which then means it is highly toxic to the flesh, and you shouldn't be using it without gloves. You might not have any issues right now, but in the long run it will be something you'd rather avoid touching directly. Aves Apoxie Sculpt, is what I have always used, and it is an epoxy clay. I use the super white kind now, but I also use the regular "white," which is not really white. It's more of a pale grey. You can tint both. Most people suggest coloring with different methods, and avoid acrylic paint. However, I have never had any issues using acrylics, but I work mostly with high viscosity paint most of the time, so that might be why it works for me.

Most people also enjoy leaving the clay once mixed to rest for a few minutes, but I rather work with it right away. Most people find it hard to work with, as it is when first mixed. I enjoy working with the paste like consistency, it helps makes things smoother, for a cleaner seam (IMHO). You don't have a lot of time, it starts getting harder after just around thirty minutes. I like to keep mine without mixing the two parts, but coloring the white without the catalyst so that I have more time to work with. If I have mixed too much, I keep what I have inside a tiny dish with water, so it doesn't dry out too fast.

Here are a few heads I've modded to have smaller eyes, using Aves' Apoxie Sculpt:

Limhwa Limho Mano, he's a 67cm tall doll:

This is progress of his mouth before the ones above in the last image, and not the eyes, but you can see the blank/unpainted mods.


MYou Bettina Mature Tiny Male, he is a 28cm tall doll:

The middle ones were done with Vallejo putty, meant for filling in seams, gaps, flaws in scaled models. It is removable with isopropyl alcohol.


I also modified other head sculpts eyes, but not necessarily to make them smaller, just more "accurate," to the character they represent. Like this DIM Minime based on Code Geass Lelouch:



And this DIM Minimee based on RE4 Leon S. Kennedy:

 

No problem! When I began attempting modifying my dolls, I didn't have any tools to work with. It was a royal pain in the back. Then I got a few dotting tools and a set of silicone tipped tools. Those made a real difference. I am not a sculptor by any stretch of the imagination, but having a tool that works for you, truly helps in getting things smooth out evenly. More so on tinier areas or just plain tinier dolls. Aves' Apoxie Sculpt is really easy to smooth out, but tools also help quite a lot, not only to make things smoother but also to get the clay where you want it, and not everywhere else. (:

Edit: If you want something that is not so permanent, Vallejo Putty dissolves with alcohol as I mentioned. Which i why I chose to go with Aves Apoxie. I tried the putty just to see how it worked, it s like white PVA glue, and probably hard to work with if you're not used to it. It is not meant to sculpt with, but to fill in gaps/flaws. However, it is completely removable.

 

I've used milliput, but not apoxie, but they're both epoxy clays, so I imagine they work similarly. To get the milliput to have smoother joins with the resin, I've found it helpful to use water with an old paintbrush to smooth things out when sculpting, and I use a silicone dental tool to help get things smoothed out when applying it initially.
There are different grades of the milliput as well. I've got the superfine one, which is very sticky when mixing it, but easier to work with once it's been properly mixed. It doesn't have much texture to it when it's been mixed or applied, and is pretty easy to sand or chisel down to either do more work once it's hardened, or to remove things if you don't like them.

 

I've used Miliput as Apoxie is very expensive in the UK. I find it a bit tricky to sculpt as but I'm not good at sculpting so could just be me being poor at using it. I've found it can start out sticky and then over time start becoming too dry to work with so seems there's a 20- 30 min window of when it's at it's most usable.

One thing I did find was that I used some on some animation puppets inner armature back in the day. When I scrapped them about 10 years later, I found the Milliput had discoloured and gone a yellowed greeny-grey. So based on this, I only use it on dolls in places where it's going to be painted over.

I'm wondering if this is a general problem with adding sculpting clay etc to resin dolls. As resin dolls have a tendency to change colour over time, have people had issues with the mod colour then not matching 5-10 years later?

Edit: I've found this reddit post which talks a little bit about the subject.

 

* Just to clarify, the Milliput I had used on the puppets was inside so had no light exposure.