Back when Carter was still the Prez and you could still hear the Captain & Tenille on the radio, I started sculpting figurines & grotesque little heads in a plastilene called Caran D'ashe at the instigation of my deranged buddy Doug George. The problem with that particular clay was that it was oil-based and, even though you could blend any variety of colors by smashing them together (which was fabulous), you couldn't fire it. So, after a while, the oils would finally dry up and the sculpture would crack & fall apart. It wasn't very conducive to longtime display.
For the past ten years, I've preferred to work in Super Sculpy or sometimes Sculpy 3 (from our good friends at Polyform) for all my master models. It's a resilient non-toxic polymer based plastilene that bonds to itself well, along with baking to a considerable hardness at that nifty 275 to 300 degree (i.e., toaster oven) range.
Occasionally, I'll use an armature to hold the model in position for baking, but Sculpy behaves itself for the most part. Just take my advice and NEVER try to bake it in a microwave, as the non-toxicity statement expires right at that point. It'll turn your sculptures into some kind of escapees from a Clive Barker novel while belching the most noxious gray smoke from the cancerous looking fissures erupting from the surface. Actually, that sounds kinda cool, now that I think of it...
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Method to the Madness 
