Introduction

While perusing Amazon for some putties and clays InstaMorph came up as a suggested product. I clicked on it and read about the product including a customer using it to repair a missing tooth. It looked like an intriguing product so I ordered a 12oz jar to see if it would help in the model building and craft world.

Review

What a neat product!! It is a non-toxic polyester thermoplastic according to their official website. The pellets are white and about 1/8 inch diameter and the 12oz jar is just under 4 inches tall. They feel almost wax-like to me in texture. The instructions are on the back of the jar as heat, pour, wait, remove, shape and create. InstaMorph melts at 140 degrees Fahrenheit; water from a Keurig coffee maker makes quick work of it. Heat guns or lighters will also get it to “bonding” temperature. When the pellets get clear that means they are ready to be shaped or bonded. The hotter you get it the more products it will stick to so keeping it about 140 F is sufficient. It does not melt to a pourable form it has a viscosity of clay really. Once the pellets are clear fish them out of your water with a tool and squeeze the water out of the clump and begin working to your desired shape. It will harden in less than 5 minutes but if you are not satisfied reheat and keep at it. Any excess you trim off just toss back in the jar and use it later.

I experimented with the tools that I have on hand to see the limitations of this wonder product. I rolled it flat to about 1/16th inch. I pressed it into a pair of pliers like a mold; it does hold finger prints as well. I glued it to other InstaMorph with Testors liquid cement. I used it as the base structure for a sculpture using Squadron Green putty and Green Stuff which adhered nicely. I was able to reheat the InstaMorph base and peel it away to leave the dried Green Stuff like a mask. I tried stretching it into thread, not too successfully at first but it did work out later. The trick was to get the pellets completely clear and bond them together or it comes out bumpy not a smooth thread. I tried sanding and using files to smooth it without much success. I do not have a motor tool with me to try to carve or grind it. You can cut into it with a normal hobby knife. I also do not have access to paint right now but I am confident that since the putty stuck to it that paint will too.

The future in the hobby world is bright for this little plastic pellet because of its many uses. Figure makers can use it to make the base structure and add your putties and clays to it. Vacu-form builders can use it to quickly shore-up the hollow bodies. Scratch builders and others use it to prototype up something or push it into your molds to have a part in minutes not waiting for the resin to dry.

Conclusion

All in all I recommend this product to have on the hobby bench and the tool box too. The website showed a variety of uses such as replacement parts to ear buds to nuts and bolts. Despite the replacement tooth on the Amazon review it has not been certified by the FDA as food safe according to their website. Also available are pasta rollers to make your own sheets and pigments to change it from white to any color you want to mix. At less than $20 for a 12oz jar it is an amazing and handy tool to have around. Go order a jar or two today.

Picture Legend

01: Jar of InstaMorph
02: Pellets of InstaMorph
03: On the ruler for scale
04: Clear and melted ready to form
05: Reheated and pulled from the “Green Stuff” mask
06: Pulled into a thread
07: Glued to M-41 “cloud tank”. The left side is glued to Aves putty