help with using Sculpey

If the hats aren't attached to the figures & aren't too thick, you can cure them with an automotive heat gun. Keep the gun moving so you don't scorch the sculpy. Once it goes from shiny to dull, it's hardened.

Sculpey is best used to sculpt new figs, because you need to bake it to harden it makes it fairly unuseable to sculpt details on plastic figures.

One of the reasons why I prefer polyester and epoxy putties, for fine details I found the best stuff to be Alteco SSP-HG.
Granted you don't have infinite work-time with those as you got with scupley.

HTH.

In the future, I highly reccomend Aves Apoxie.
non toxic, air dries and easily sculpts, files, sands and paints.
You can do figure sculpts with it, filler, zim on tanks, you name it.

I would like to recommend "MagicSulp" two part epoxy putty. It has a working time of about 30-45 minutes, can be smoothed out and blended with a wet paint brush, and filed and sanded when dry. It can also be rolled out to a very thin consistency for use as bedrolls, straps, bekts and even hat brims! It also does not require any "cooking" as it cures on its own. I bought a couple of 1 pound containers 4 years ago, and It's still as good as the day I received it.

Thanks for all your input! I ended up taking the hats off and baking them,came out so-so,the the figurines(sailors) are going into a show, again thanks for your help