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Using Fimo Soft in modelling Eberhard Faber's popular polymer clay is just the thing for creating cobble stones |
| Fimo is a polymer clay that comes in some amazing colours, including clear and luminous. Its intended mainly for craft use, making jewellery and cartoon animals etc. It is a soft (as the name implies) slightly sticky, clay-like substance with a useful application for us in plastic modelling. Fimo can be baked in the oven - it then becomes hard, and can be painted and weathered like other modelling materials. |
| What you need is a block of Fimo, some brass square section tube, two pieces of glass as guides, a plastic tube for rolling, some talcum powder, a soft modelling brush, a piece of kitchen foil and half and hour or so with the kitchen oven. |
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Start by rolling and squashing out a blob of Fimo onto the silver foil. Try to resist the temptation to make funny faces in it (I can't resist to be honest) It shouldn't stick to anything, but if it does, just brush a bit of talcum powder on to make it stay where it's put. It can be modelled with any of the tools we have to hand already so you shouldn't need to get anything extra, apart from a lolly stick and maybe a pencil. |
| Put a piece of glass on either side of your foil - this helps to hold down the foil and make guides for when you start rolling out the Fimo with your plastic tube. When your tube is resting on the glass the Fimo is rolled out to a uniform thickness - simple eh? |
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The brass square section tubes are used as punches to press the cobble shape into the soft clay. This will cause the clay to bulge up, and create the familiar cobble stone shape. |
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Once you are happy with the pattern the silver paper can be used to drag the Fimo on to a baking sheet and carried to the kitchen, where it can be baked in a hot oven. Here it is - being supervised by Lizzie - who is an expert on plastic modelling and often inspects my work... :-} |
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Fimo
hardens when its placed in the oven at 130*C / 265*F for about 30 minutes.
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Fimo can burn - so don't leave it over time in the oven or you will discover a wonderful smell and the owner of the kitchen will be very annoyed with you… :-( |
| When it comes out of the oven it'll be hot, and its resting on hot kitchen foil - so be careful. When it cools you can use an ordinary craft knife to separate strips of cobbles and they can be glued down to a base with rubber solution glue or similar. |
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Fimo can be used for other things too - some modellers make original items to cast resin items from, it can be used to make walls, bedrolls, kit bags, in fact anything that milliput can be used for. So I think that a piece or two should find its way into your modelling supplies. It keeps quite well, doesn't smell much and remains soft and workable until it sees the inside of an oven. You can leave part-finished bits out on the work bench - although I wrap them in left over silver foil to keep it as pliable as possible- it won't spoil overnight. I've had pieces more than a month old that are still workable. One drawback with Fimo is that once cured it's not really fileable or sandable unlike Miliput. But apart from that it doesn't have any major problems, it does have quite a few solutions to modelling problems. |
| Another use I've been experimenting with is to make zimeritt. If you fold your blob into silver foil and roll it out without using the glass guides it can get thin enough to make pieces that can be impressed and baked, then glued in place. When it's thin Fimo can be very sticky, so the talcum powder may be your best investment here... I've got the Airwaves Zimeritt punches from ED Models - four different styles that I'm trying to get to work as well as say the Cavalier Zimeritt sheets. I'll keep you posted. |
| Using Fimo isn't cheap - a full block costs about £1.49, and if you are modelling large items a 56 gram block doesn't go too far. It can't be combined with anything that won't survive the trip in the oven - so you can't assemble kit parts, mould Fimo onto them, and bake it. But in the right place it can't be beat. Try it..! |