Okay, so I'm going to be doing some sculpting! More specifically I'm going to be making a sculpt that might be turned into a mold for a figurine (super top secret potential project, can't say more)...
The catch is that while I'm pretty familiar with sculpture and have the raw capability I'd need to make a good figurine, I've never made anything taller than a few inches! I've worked with green stuff (Games Workshop's epoxy putty) and milliput before, and I'm familiar with the general procedure of sculpting a figure (from armature to detail), however I've been looking into sculpting larger figures and I'm obviously somewhat in at the deep end here.

As far as I can tell, the most commonly used material for the master sculpts of larger (8-11 inch) figurines is polymer clay, and more often than not, super sculpey. I've heard that a 50-50 mix of SS and SS Firm makes a good base to work from. It also seems that building up your figure from the armature with aluminium foil is a frequently used trick to save money on clay and make the figure lighter.

However, I'm totally new to polymer clays, and am especially wary about the baking stage. I have a feeling there are plenty of tips and tricks to be used in the creation of a master sculpt that I'm ignorant of. So if any of my watchers who happen to read this have experience in this line of work, I'd love to hear from you and ask for advice! If not, referring me to someone who might be able to help, or to tutorials or books that cover the process in a *high* level of detail would also be great. I've found a few deviants out there who fit the bill and are gratuitously talented, but I wanted to try this approach before spamming stragers' inboxes with plaintive requests for their time.