Here is a great little sculpting technique that was submitted to this website by a visitor (Jamon H.) He uses a few different tools and a soft talc. This is a nice way to sculpt miniatures if you don't want to use a two part epoxy -which is only workable for two hours. I have included a bunch of pictures of his sculptures and what he has to say about what he does and what tools he uses.

It is indeed soft talc stone. I started off by buying engineers chalk and glueing them together to make a block and then carved that block. Then I found a factory that made the chalk closing down and i bulk bought heaps of it. because engineers chalk is just real soft grade talc stone. easy to carve also easy to break unfortunately. the harder grade stuff I have is best but unfortunately there is problem if the rocks have been thrown about there could be a fracture in the middle you wont see until you hit it then the whole piece can split in 2 without warning.

but it is a very clean break and an amount of super glue will bind it right back together again. this could happen several times but i have managed to keep the miniature completely intact, glue it straight away! I have included some pics attached of some of my work not yet complete but you can see how these are coming along, mine are only war pieces though not fantasy.

All you need is a dremel style router tool. I use this to get most of the excess stuff out of the way that I know I will not be needing otherwise you will be going at it with a sculpting tool for some time. I have actually managed to do a lot of the work with the dentist style bit on the routed then touching up with a surgical sculpting tool, hobby sculples will do.

Expect to cut yourself several times before you master a technique to kind of protect your finger by using the other finger almost as a brace against the sculple tool.

Also get a set of fine hobby files. Thats all you need.

Tutorial series: How to sculpt fantasy miniatures

This is a very in-depth series of tutorials that take you through the whole process of sculpting your own fantasy miniatures. It includes a series of videos. How to Sculpt Fantasy Miniatures