Modelling spikes?

[Joe]

Hey all.
 
I've been looking into doing some spikes similar to the ones seen on the new Death Guard miniatures, and I haven't had much in the way of success. My first experiment with green stuff turned out poorly, so I'll be setting that angle aside for the time being.

 

Does anyone know of any stores that sell spikes that would be suitable for 28mm miniatures? I'd like to avoid butchering the Death Guard kits if I can.

[Tyriks]

I've thought about this a few times. I keep coming back to the idea of doing a converted Black Dragons kill team but run into the same problem. I thought about buying up a ton of Tyranid bits for it, Im definitely keen to hear what others have to offer.

[Machine God]

Use pieces of sprue.

[Arkhanist]

The problem with spikes is that they're tricky to get thin and sharp yet strong - like the GW plastic ones - in resin or metal due to the material properties. I've had a good look round the usual suspects, and not found anything. Green stuff is quite rubbery when it sets as a soft putty, so it will relax, losing that sharp tip and edges you want and tough to sand.

 

So that leaves 3 options:

1) scavenge them from an existing kit with a bunch, like poxwalkers, as you've already thought of

 

2) carve them from plastic sprue which is certainly doable but tedious and hard to get a decent curve on. You can also slightly melt the plastic with heat such a candle or heat gun, and stretch it out. This is a simple way to make antennas and drool, but can also give you spiky shapes. Noxious fumes and smoke though, so be careful.

 

3) mold or cast them using a harder putty. Brown stuff or superfine milliput is the usual goto for this sort of thing - they are much harder and stiffer putties than greenstuff. Harder to get flowy organic shapes, but perfect for sharper edged things such as weapons or spikes. One option is to make them in situ; roll out a thin snake, then sculpt into shape on the model. Alternatively, you can do a 2-part cast with blue stuff of existing spikes cut off a model, then use brown stuff to make copies. In either case, they can be sanded to get nice defined edges and points.

[Evil Eye]

I use the ends of cocktail sticks- they work pretty well as spikes assuming you glue them on securely enough.

[PeteySödes]

Miliput can be cut or sanded to a better edge than green stuff. That said I would second the sprue camp for ease.