Sculpting details into hard materials

> On a FT note:  does anybody have a reliable way of carving 'decking' 
> details into things like hardened Sculpy?  (By decking, I mean to add
texture
> so that it looks like armour plate, as opposed to a solid block of
clay. 
> (8-) )

Usual ways to add panel detail in say a styrene kit which 
is probably softer is to use a scribe tool. This is like a 
very sharp needle with a hardened tip. Scribe the lines
using a steel rule - or pencil them in and do by hand.

Rivet marks can be cut with sharpened tube ends. The other
way is the Thunderbirds effect (based on the way jerry anderson
model are painted) the panels are formed by airbrushing using
card as the panel edge mask and lighter and darker tones.

Look at any of the jerry anderson models to see the effect.
This is probably your best bet. As you say its a lot easier to add 
detail to soft material.

--
Tim