Customizing Funko Pop!s | How to Sculpt & Sand (Part 3)

In order to transform Penny (who I know is a valuable figure now, but I started customizing her before she was discontinued!) into Kamala Khan, we’ll need to sculpt some bangs into her hair! I prefer a sculpting medium called Magic Sculpt instead of an oven-bake clay like Sculpey, which can melt the figure’s plastic. For more details on the product I use, checked out my What You Need post.

Magic Sculpt is pretty easy: you mix both parts together evenly with your hands until the colors are completely combined. You only have an hour or two maximum to work with it, though, so only mix what you need! Having water handy is also important, as the medium is water soluble for smoothing.

For the bangs, I stuck a piece of medium onto the figure’s head in the general shape I wanted, smoothed it into the existing hairline, then used some wet rubber tools to shape.

Tips:

It’s always better to smooth things out as much as possible before the medium dries to save on sanding later.
Put more medium instead of less over seams you’re trying to cover, because you can always sand it later. Feel with your finger for edges or ridges, don’t just rely on your eyes.
Use an x-acto knife to scrape off medium from tricky areas.
If you need very precise lines, wait for the medium to dry slightly so that it becomes firmer.
Blend out edges with water!
Look at shapes from all angles when sculpting.
Try to follow the Funko pop aesthetic. For example, I sculpted in hair lines similar to the base figure to blend it in.

After waiting a day for the medium to completely air dry, I sanded what I had sculpted. Sandpaper goes from low numbers (coarsest) to high numbers (finer). I started at 100 and finished with a wet sand at 600 to get out the lumps and make everything as smooth as possible. I did end up sanding over some of the plastic as well to ensure seamlessness.

After sanding, I gave the figure a good wipe down with a damp brush to get all the dust out of the crevices, reevaluated, sanded some more and then she got a final bath in the sink before painting!