"Sculpey" Logs And Stumps...

Lighthorseman

Active Member
Leafing through a back issue of the NG&SL GAZETTE, I found an article about using "Sculpey", a clay-like material to wrap around dowling, creating "bark" on a log.

I gave it a spin. Here's a shot of a piece after being wrapped and bark detail carved, before baking.
 

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Lighthorseman

Active Member
Into The Oven!

Following the directions, the log was baked in a 275 degree (F)
oven for about 25 minutes or so. Once the log came out, the little "fuzzies" from carving could be brushed off. At this point, the log can be cut, carved, sanded, painted, drilled and stained. I stained the log with a base coat of diluted black, trying to get the bark detail to stand out.
 

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shamus

Registered Member
Hi Steve, I do like that idea, where did you get the stuff from?
Makes great looking logs.

Shamus
wink.gif

 

Vic

Active Member
Originally posted by shamus
Hi Steve, I do like that idea, where did you get the stuff from?
Makes great looking logs.

Shamus
wink.gif


Hi Paul, Here in the US we get Sculpty at craft stores...if you can't find that brand name there are many similar products...just tell them that you want that modeling clay that you bake in the oven.
 

Vic

Active Member
The Robber Barron is picking up a few sacks of horse feed and Pa and Doofus are discussing who is gonna load his truck.

The feed sacks are made from Sculpty...Didn't have to paint them...they turned "paper brown" when they were baked.
 

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Steve, yours are the first logs I've seen made following that Gazette article. They look a good deal just like the ones pictured in the article. Nice job! :)
 

aartwmich

Member
Nice job Steve! Did you make the stump too? Did you use waterbased paint and did it stick to the plastic ok?

I've used several different brands of bakeable plastic clay for various craft work, it's neat stuff. I had thought about trying it for tree bases and you may just have jump-started some inspiration for me to try it out!! I know I have some around here somewhere.

Did you know that you can use a tiny bit of mineral oil to soften the clay if it gets hard?
 

Vic

Active Member
Thanks Casey, Glad you enjoyed it and I do believe that Steve's log buggy is one made from the frame of an MDC Old Time Tank Car.:)

Tomboygirl, Thanks for the tip about the mineral oil...I gots a big 'ol slab of that stuff thats going hard....was gonna throw it out:eek: :)
 

Bill Pontin

Member
Found this article in Issue #26 of Timber Times, thought it might interest anyone modeling old growth stumps. Hope my scanned image is not too big to upload.
 

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This stuff should be ideal for making molds for windows or any item that needs repeats should be good for making figues if molded around a wire armature, I see it comes in flesh colors.
 

Lighthorseman

Active Member
"Sculpey" Logs...

Well,I got kicked off the internet before I could post one last message...I had wanted to know who else had tried this method. According to the article, the next step is to stain the logs with a variety of woody colours. In the second picture, the log is still wet. I found that it took a bit of effort to get the Sculpey to"stick" to the dowling, as it kept trying to unravel. I roughed up the sides with a razor saw to give the dowling a little more texture for the Sculpey to hold on to.

ImaTBF, yes, I did make the stump,too. It had just come out of the oven, and hadn't been painted or stained yet. Thanks for the tip with the mineral oil.

Vic, this article was published in the January / February issue of the GAZETTE and I have included a picture below. Yes, the log buggy is as you suspect. They were offered as "log cars" in 3 packs, a great deal at about $3.00 per car. In O scale, however, they're only 16 feet long. But I don't think that they look too bad, and as far as I'm concerned, they'll do until I can justify the price of the $30.00 per On30 version...or better yet, until I can build my own master and cast a bunch in metal. Until then, my little loggers will just have to cut the logs to fit the shorter cars.:)

Finally, thanks to all for the kind compliments.
 

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Vic

Active Member
Thanks Steve, I just didn't recall the article...Gonna go back and take a look.

Just a thought...rare for me:D .... If one counted his rivets carefully...It looks like it might be an easy job to splice two of those frames to make a longer car and possibly end up with a bunker in the center too. The trick would be to get good square cuts in those soft metal frames.

When PSC came out with their HOn3 ULTX tanks I traded my MDC's away because I always felt that they set too high off the rails....Wish I had them now so I could "count some rivets":D
 
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