29th ENTRY - Material Matters

Throughout the duration of this project I have felt that I was always missing something, that out there was a product that was much better suited to whatever it was that I was doing. More often than not, I was right to think this.

When I started sculpting, I knew about Plastilene, and that it was the preferred product for special effects artists, for example. But the romantic side of me chose to ignore a product made from dried clay powder and motor oil, and instead to work with wax, a far more traditional and "cleaner" substance.

My lack of experience brought me to settle for Tiranti's White Modelling Wax, which I sculpted all my figures in, and which I felt quite comfortable with. But the main problems were two. First, being an off white colour, it was necessary to have a particular kind of harsh and very even light in order to see the form properly. Secondly, being soft modelling wax, there was a limit to the amount of detailing one could achieve.

I spent hours throughout the months going back and searching for clues as to what materials were used to sculpt the impressively detailed high end action figures, such as Adam Gu's Heath Ledger Joker sculpt.  But my searches strangely came to no conclusions, until very recently, when I discovered Castilene. And low and behold, this product is now part of the Chavant family.

Today I received a sample from the only European distributor I have found, which is in Germany.

All I can say is Blo%$@ F&%$*^g H£)(!!!!!!!

It is a very nice product.

Four different waxes.
From left to right:

Tiranti's Blue Carving Wax (impossible to cast in, shrinks terribly, is plasticky, and far too dark to see any detail)

Chavant's Castilene modelling compound (casts well, can be sculpted, carved, filed, sanded, built up by melting little bits and applying drops directly to the cold model. Seems great).

Tiranti's White Modelling Wax (what I used to sculpt the figures. Very nice to work with, but too pale to see detail, and too soft to achieve tight detail. This bust is how she came out from the version II mould).

Tiranti's Yellow Modelling Wax - Type B (got some of this intending it for the wax sculpture of Isolde in the film, wanting a beeswax look.  It is very soft, sticky, and impossible to see any form or detail at all!)

More of the white wax.

Same four waxes as above. Notice the difference in visible detail.
Blue Wax
Castilene
White Modelling Wax
Yellow Type B Modelling wax

Here is a very useful guide to Castilene - Castilene Compendium: http://www.castilene.com/smocreations/smocreations.pdf