Tonight I finished my first scratchbuild starship. I've been tinkering for a while, but I finally buckled down and finished a ship.
Quite a while ago I read a post on Starship Combat News called "Cheap Spaceships". The post featured some brilliant little miniatures that were cast in Durham's Rock-Hard Water Putty. I misread the post, and thought the author had somehow scuplted the miniatures using Durham's. So for quite a while now I've been trying to figure out how to do that... After rereading the post I realized my mistake, but in the meantime I've developed a way to make ultra-cheap starships that can look passable on the gaming table. One of the best parts of this is there is no cutting of plasticard (or anything else) involved, nor is any epoxy putty required (except in basing).
First, take some spaghetti, whichever size you like. I used thick spaghetti, but experiment. Using CA glue, bond several pieces of pasta together to form your desired spaceship shape. I would advise against measuring or detailed planning; we're making rough-and-ready spaceships here so just go with the flow. Make sure however, that your starship has a flat bottom which is wider than the top. Don't use any substance with a high water content on the spaghetti, or it will warp. Glue your little spaghetti ship to a wooden stick (I use a chopstick). Now, take a big block of Sculpey polymer clay, about the size of your fist minimum, knead it, and shape it into a square block with a smooth flat top. Sculpey will cost you a good $10.00 at Hobby Lobby (USA), but the best part of this method is that you can reuse the polymer clay indefinitely. Press your pasta spaceship upside-down into the Sculpey, then gently remove it so as to not distort the impression left in the clay. Now take various household objects and press shapes into your spaceship mold. I use actual sculpting tools, like ball burnishers; interesting objects like ink pens and calculator buttons; and homemade tools like chopsticks with their ends carved into various basic shapes like triangles and rectangles. Go hog wild and add all sorts of surface detail. Next, mix up some Durham's Rock-Hard Water Putty and pour into the mold. I use the suggested ratio on the container, 3:1 powder to water. A 2:1 ratio helps prevent trapped bubbles, but is too fragile. Have other molds standing by if you mix too much. I have a mold for my bases; three teaspoons of powder and one of water produces enough putty for an 85mm long ship and still has plenty left over for a base. Tap the mold to dislodge trapped air bubbles. Wait at least one hour and then gently peel the Sculpey away from the cast starship (the mold is destroyed, so each ship is unique unless you make a silicone mold of the cast). Base, paint, game.
Below is a picture of the Sculpey mold with details pressed in already, the spaghetti master for the basic shape, and the cast ship. Next is a blurry picture of the cast piece mounted on a flight stand. The final picture (again blurry) shows the painted ship next to my scratchbuilt moon.
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