----- ## Greenstuff Shelf Life Test (Testing) Today is the 4/12/2025 and I'm going to test if it's possible to increase the shelf life of uncured Greenstuff. This has been an incredibly popular suggestion in my Youtube comment section and something I honestly haven't given much thought. Currently my Greenstuff mostly lives in my tool box loose in its thin plastic wrapping and when I pull it out it's sometimes covered in debris and loose model bits from the hobby night before. There is a lot to improve on here. ##### Freshness I usually buy my Greenstuff in small strips locally either Reaper, Army Painter or Gale Force 9 brand. The freshness of the Greenstuff I receive is a real mixed bag, sometimes its smooth, sometimes gummy, sometimes completely unusable but certainly never factory fresh. I have picked up Greenstuff in other countries while travelling also to mixed degrees of freshness. I usually go through a new purchase pretty fast so I have developed an indifference to preserving its shelf life. ##### The Test - 4/12/2025 I am starting with what seems to be factory fresh Greenstuff, the most fresh I've ever owned. The middle section that connects the blue and yellow side has hardly began to cure unlike what I'm usually exposed to. I'm using Kneadatite brand in the long roll that comes in a square box kindly shipped from USA from Skyler (Tabletop_Avenger). Each section tested will be a about a thumb width long. ###### Test 1: Greenstuff in the original wrapping exposed to air ###### Test 2: Greenstuff re-wrapped in a wax paper exposed to air ###### Test 3: Greenstuff re-wrapped in wax paper in a double layer of airtight bag ###### Test 4: Greenstuff re-wrapped in wax paper in the freezer ###### Test 5: Greenstuff re-wrapped in wax paper in the fridge ###### Test 6: Greenstuff 2 parts separated in different bags. ------- ## Greenstuff + Plasticine Someone at Adepticon 2025 showed me a bunch of beautiful Greens that were part plasticine. Distracted by the sculpting in front of me I never asked for the ratio of greenstuff to plasticine. This is something I want to explore. #### Materials: **Greenstuff** - Factory fresh Kneadatite. **Plasticine** - Alien Clay in Medium hardness variety. I chose this because it's a plasticine I enjoy sculpting with already but exploring a cheaper alternative and if it makes a difference is probably a good idea for the future. **Super Sculpey** - I couldn't find any information of anyone using this online so it seemed like a fun thing to test. I would like to test baking it post initial curing and see if that leads to useful results like a maybe a harder material property. ##### Test 1 - 5:1 Ratio: - 5:1 Ratio Greenstuff to Plasticine - 5:1 Ratio Greenstuff to Super Sculpey All mixtures cured at approximately the same time as the control Greenstuff in warm conditions and handled with no noticeable difference as a beginner sculptor. ##### Test 2 - 2:1 Ratio: - 2:1 Ratio Greenstuff to Plasticine The plasticine mixture was less tacky and softer than Greenstuff control. While freshly mixed it took texture with very little force and held without sagging or springing back to its resting state. The working time did increase slightly. Once it began to cure significantly it didn't take sculpting well despite it being very soft and flexible. After about 12 hours the material is as hard and flexible as the control. - 2:1 Ratio Greenstuff to Super Sculpey The Super Sculpey mixture was much less tacky and softer than the Greenstuff control but lost it's ability to stretch in the same way. The mixture has a spongey feeling and pushing in 1 area controlled area effects a large surrounding area before springing back into its resting state. This sponginess is retained for the duration of its working time. After about 12 hours the material was is much more flexible than the control. ##### Test 1 - 1:1 Ratio: - 1:1 Ratio Greenstuff to Plasticine Freshly mixed this took detail incredibly well and was easy to get fine fidelity and sharp edges without them breaking down. Unlike when you sculpt in Greenstuff there is no sponginess or resistance, the material doesn't push back. The working time is increased slightly. After 12 hours of curing the material the material falls apart when bent. The material seems to 'cure' earlier than expected and I suspect this is the plasticine I used firming up quickly at room temp. This property allowed me to carve hard edges and burnish the surface with round tools leaving a shiny waxy finish. - 1:1 Ratio Greenstuff to Super Sculpey This feels similar to sculpting with Super Sculpey alone. After 12 hours of curing it has the consistency and waxiness of underbaked Super Sculpey and split in multiple parts when bent. ##### Further Questions: - Will a plasticine mix survive the vulcanization process of making a mold for meta miniatures? Particularly concerned for Monster Clay because that is a material designed to melt. - Will plasticine mix take paint and survive age? ------ ## Greenstuff + Milliput I struggled using Greenstuff when I first started experimenting with it and it was suggested to me to add Milliput to the mixture in a 1:1 ratio. This made the Greenstuff feel smoother, less sticky and more like a traditional clay. I find this mixture easier to sculpt harder edges on my models than Greenstuff without the fear of the material breaking down by overworking it like what can happen with Milliput alone. The material can also be carved easily which I would use to make brickwork on buildings and stone floors. I also liked this combination because Milliput was 1/3 of the price and allowed my Greenstuff to go further. Over time after getting comfortable with both Greenstuff and Milliput I found myself gravitating towards one or the other depending on the application and rarely a mixture of both together unless I intended to carve into the material. I have been told by many friends to use Milliput Fine in my Greenstuff + Milliput blends as this variation is meant to be smoother but I have never noticed a difference. Now closing 2025 I have realized how much variation there has been in the quality of materials I've had access to. I am wondering if my gravitation towards a Milliput and Greenstuff blend early on was a result of the it aiding a material that was actually at the end of its shelf life - allowing it to perform better. When I got access to fresher Greenstuff around 6 months into sculpting I found myself a lot more comfortable using Greenstuff alone but I'm not sure I made that connection at the time. Maybe Greenstuff + Milliput is a universal way for new sculptors to access a similarly performing, easier to work with epoxy that reduces the importance of having the most fresh materials. ##### Further Testing: > [ @johnnyl8863](https://www.youtube.com/@johnnyl8863) For the green stuff millput mix the main reason you get a better mold is milliput is water soulable, so dunk the blue stuff mold in water quickly and then pop in the epoxy mix and it fills the details slightly better. ----------------- ## Greenstuff Packaging A common question I have been receiving is "Why not buy Greenstuff that has the yellow and blue components packaged separately?". Buying Greenstuff in strips usually means the yellow and blue components are already touching and a chemical reaction has already taken place leaving you with a hard chunk that needs to be removed before mixing. This has been my preference, my favorite brands I could access locally in Australia were Gale Force 9 and Procreate. Post COVID none of my local suppliers could get in Gale Force 9's Greenstuff consistently and when they did the thin plastic wrapping would fuse itself to the putty and would be unable to be removed leaving me with only the inside of the putty log a few millimeters in usable, if I could even extract THAT much. Procreate used to have seperate sticks AND was packaged in a beautiful waxed card shell. The card shell even had printing for guides for different ratios between the A+B parts for different working times and hardnesses. The putty was grey, but as a beginner sculptor I didn't notice any difference in performance if there was some. Later Procreate changed their packaging to the kind that Gale Force 9 was using, replacing the wax card with plastic and suffered the same problems. Procreate has since ceased production but I think about their packaging often and is why I re-wrap my greenstuff in wax paper now.