Comments on: Tips for Making Minis with Polymer Clay

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:28:32 +0000

That’s right – I left the arms and legs long on the armature and then cut them shorter once I’d gotten into the sculpting. I used other minis as references to make sure the height of the mini would look appropriate compared to other figures.

By: Dav3

Dav3 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:55:25 +0000

How did you make it 28mm using the paperclip skeleton? Did you just cut off excess paper clip as the need requires?

By: JDJones

JDJones — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:23:09 +0000

I made four figures last February using premo sculpy. I discovered that by layering and baking then layering again and baking I was able to create fine details. These minis were created for my first D&D 4e campaign (although it did not last, at least the minis did!) I had a blast creating them!. I used floral wire for the basic skeleton than I built muscle leaving the joints bare. I also crafted a simple head with a flat face, than baked it. Then I added clothes and other details, including the face and hair but I baked it quickly 1 to 2 min when I needed a hard surface to build on or to make something permanent. I would love to post the pics but I am not sure how. Anyways happy sculpting. (P.s on very fine details I added a thin coat of super glue it creates a tough finish and works great on spikes tails spines or even hair or capes. )

By: JDNeal

JDNeal — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:34:28 +0000

I know what you mean.

One reason I’m looking at this is I wanted a six-sided die marked 0, 0, 6, 6, 12, and 12 (and didn’t want to have to rely on someone else): roll it with a regular d6 and you get 1 to 18. Mark another die with 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30 — roll it with 1d6 and you get 1 to 36. Glue and paper work okay (or stikers), but I wanted purpose-made dice.

Rolling two dice and adding them is clumsy. But, some people talk about playing D&D (for example) using just six-sided dice. Some of them use 2d6 for attack rolls, saves and such, doing various conversions. If they’re rolling and adding two dice, they could make a 0-0-6-6-12-12 die and get a 1 to 18 roll. Which eliminates a lot of the need for conversions. Heck, make a 0-6-12-18-24-30 die and have theif skills and such based on “d36″.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:13:51 +0000

That’s very cool. I wonder if I could make a d14, d16 and d18 with it. Those aren’t very easy-to-find dice in most hobby shops.

By: JDNEal

JDNEal — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:34:49 +0000

I made a six-sided die really quick from some polymer (cheap stuff I bought off hand from a craft shop without any research) and it didn’t dissappoint. Although I did a sloppy job so the lettering and shape are rough.

It has potential for my own purposes (custom six-sided dice for my own uses)! The result seems to be rugged enough to be useful. If I ever get time I’ll try to make a nice one and roll it around a lot to see if it seems a honest as other dice.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:38:35 +0000

I think you could make decorative dice with polymer clay… but they wouldn’t be very balanced, and so they wouldn’t be good randomizers. You could probably make something like Maow Miniature’s Monster Dice though, which would be pretty cool.

By: JDNeal

JDNeal — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:49:49 +0000

Here’s a question (and I guess I need to plunk some money down and answer it myself): what would dice with this stuff be like? I enjoy hobby-and-crafts elements (making your own minis sounds fun; wonder if I can do it though…) so I was thinking of making my own custom dice. Mostly patterned on d6s (remarked as d3s and otherwise specially marked) but who knows. I can print and paste my own stickers or find stickers, but I was thinking about something made-from-scratch…

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:36:28 +0000

The smaller figure is 28mm scale – the same size as a Games Workshop figure for Warhammer or Warhammer 40K. The larger figure is as big as you want him to be for whatever other figures you have around. I think it works at 25mm, 28mm or just about any size, since most people wouldn’t know the “correct” size for an earth elemental.

By: Vaughn

Vaughn — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:45:08 +0000

What are the measurements of these characters? I don’t play D&D or any other table top games, so I have no idea where to start looking for this, but I would love to make these types of characters for fun, but I would like them to look “official” when I am finished.