Tiny Fimo

Tiny Fimo

which of these types of polymer clay is most durable and less breakable?

i want to make miniatures and tiny sculptures and charms with polymer clay, and i realised that many types of polymer clay breaks easily and not very durable. i am not very experienced at the different types of clay, and would like to know which of these following is something that is not brittle, quite hard and rigid, and has a little bit of rubbery characteristic to it, as in, it flexes to reduce the risk of breaking and cracking. or, in other words, which of these do you think is less prone to breaking or cracking after baked/cured? thanks

Sculpey Ultralight
Sculpey III
Premo! Sculpey
Granitex
Superflex
Kato Polyclay
Fimo
Cernit

For stronger sculpt you may want to consider another material as well, epoxy putty. This was originally developed as a household repair putty. Nowadays there are also sculpting variants and some of the formulas have been optimised for miniatures sculpting (smaller than 30mm). These have to be able to survive mouldmaking and are a lot stronger than polymer clays. When people look at my sculpts I sometimes just drop one on the table to demonstrate the durability of the material. It makes them less nervous about handling a sculpt.

Strongest epoxy putties are the Kneadatites (a.k.a. green stuff, brown stuff) from Polymerics inc. and ProCreate from Craftmark. These cure slightly with a sligthly plastic feel and have some remaining elasticity. After that come hard putties like A&B, Aves, Magic sculp and Tamiya. They cure rockhard which also makes them easier to damage. Still, they are a lot stronger than polymer clays.

Using epoxy putties work differently from polymer clay. You mix the two components together and the material will start curing. No oven needed. Working time is between half an hour to two hours. So with ep you work bit by bit. Adhesion is a lot stronger than with PC so the material is well suited for adding bits. Miniatures sculptors using PC as the base will often turn to EP for adding details and parts that need to be filed afterwards.
The material feel is somewhat different too. The kneadatites and ProCreate are somewhat chewing gum like while the other putties are more like clays. It takes some getting used too.

Here is an example of what can be made with it;

http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/gallery/p_set2eye_femalefighter.htm

scroll down to the green figure to see the original sculpt. That figure is around 30mm high (just over 1").

A lesser known technique is the mixing of polymer clay with epoxy putty. This will also create a sculpt stronger than putre PC. Adding 70-50% EP will create a mixture that will stay together more and after curing of the EP this will form a matrix holding the PC. It's best to cook it afterwards to harden the pc for additional strength.

There is a lot more to tell. If you are interested, just tell me (or mail me if I miss the questions here).

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