Clay shapers - advice please

[TakUnderhand]

I'm starting to really get into my sculpting, and I'm thinking about upgrading my clay shapers.

I have a set similar to this, and it's ok - a real step up from trying to do everything with steel tools.

But how much better should I go?

This single Fimo tool is discounted to £12 - as a beginner, will I see much value out of it? And am I wasting my money going for another mid range set like this?

Also, they come in different levels of firmness - any recommendations for working with green stuff and ProCreate?

 

[Azzabat]

I think it's true to say "You get what you pay for" I bought some really cheap clay shapers for making my Halloween skulls with and they weren't suitable at all. Handles were too flexible, heads too soft. From my experience I'd go for mid range as a beginner, and eventually the best you can afford.

I ended up throwing my cheap shapers away and buying some mid range ones. Good luck.

 

[TakUnderhand]

Thank you! Do you recall what firmness the ones you have are? Is it related to the colour or the point?

 

[Tiny]

I have a set of these and they're pretty good.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Shaper-Black-Tip-Clay/dp/B0043GWDQ6

They also come in firm grey or (useless for our purposes) soft ivory.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Shap..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=1074Y91GPDMKFPWWASZD

 

[KRVSH]

All the clay/color shapers I've seen cost at least 5 Euros each and I think the two that I've got weren't much less though I bought them as some kind of bargain on Amazon Marketplace, maybe 3 Euros a piece, one soft and one harder. I can't see any reason others would be better. Your choice though if you need them. The size my sculpting is in, I never really used them and if I went for the hard shaper. What I think is quite awesome is the stuff I glued to old felt pen tubes. My most frequented is the one I put a shirt pin through the small opening with the ball holding it inside one way and some Miliput to make it stick. On the other end I placed one of these very fine needles you'd use on diabetes equipment. Turned out the plastic end almost fits perfectly and I more or less just glued it to be sure. I also bent me a metal piece to some kind a duck shape so I have various sizes to remove material depending on the angle the tool is used. I kind of like the nail art dotting tools I got me for under 2 Euros for five two sided pieces. They're basically plastic handles with small metal balls at the end. Anything else I do with old pens, toothpicks, an old knife and my fingers, mostly, or sometimes just what's near me on the desk. Right now, just thinking about it, I could even imagine cutting old erasers in shapes if it's got to be rubber for the sculpting. I'm no expert on this at all, but right now, I really don't see the value of expensive shapers. Would be great to hear some more and maybe learn about what I just didn't understand yet.

 

[Azzabat]

That's quite freaky ... I bought the same ones as @Tiny, the Color Shaper assorted pack. Mine cost me £25 all in as I won't use Amazon. I found them a very good starting set. These were the 1st set I've ever owned (if you discount the initial crap set I bought then never used)

I did find like @KRVSH that I either made my own, or improvised my own shapers. A straightened paperclip inserted into an old paintbrush, a length of plastic sprue, and one side of a pair of tweezers that had snapped were all useful. Bear in mind I was working on a MUCH bigger scale tough.

 

[Kon-rad]

Once you start sculpting with shapers there is no going back. Like having tiny, tiny, tiny fingers. I have the same set as Azzabat I think. The black tip is great for most smoothing and shaping. I have been using the grey tip more and more often though as I have been recently working with a softer putty. Never used the white, even with 100% Milliput.
I could be wrong but that Fimo tool you linked to is quite a bit bigger than what you are using now. That is if it's the same tool I saw in the hobby shop the other day. Might be why it's so much more. Maybe.
And yeah, making your own tools is often the way to go. I have this bit of old wooden chopstick I've whittled and smoothed for years and years that I do probably half of my rough sculpting with. But nothing replaces those black shapers.

 

[King Redwart]

Excellent. I've been wanting to get some but have been too lazy to post a thread like this so

So the consensus is go for hard or medium/hard ones?

Edit: by hard I mean firm.

 

[Kon-rad]

The black firm ones are the must haves. The medium grey ones are occasionally handy, (when working with Milliput) but not essential.

 

[Azzabat]

I favour Hard myself as you can be gentle with the hard shapers, but not hard with the softer ones (if that makes sense?)

 

[King Redwart]

Cool. I think the set Tiny, Azzabat and Kon-Rad have are good for me. Looking to take my greenstuffing to the next level but nothing too serious (mainly rebuilding arms, torsos etc allowing me to hack up minis and reposition them).

 

[TakUnderhand]

Thanks guys, good advice. That's just what I needed
Say @Kon-rad: you mentioned 100% miliput - which kind of miliput do you use? What do you mix it with??

 

[Kon-rad]

Recently just the standard stuff. I won a pack of it as the consolation prize for placing dead (dead) last in the local 40K tournament a couple years ago....... Only now am I about to run out. I've been mixing it with the Grey Stuff, usually like a 3 to 1 ratio Grey to Milli when doing general sculpting and I feel like taking the time to fuss with it. I prefer the Grey Stuff to Green actually, but it is often a bit too stiff and sets pretty quickly. The Milliput softens it, makes it handle a bit easier to handle and extends the work life some.

 

[ntw3001]

I got a pack of five shapers from Amazon, I can't remember the price but they can't have been more than £10-12. I do just about every bit of my (limited) sculpting with those and my super-pointy tweezers (buy some of those, they're the best things). Don't need nuthin else.

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