I have used RKTs without problem for small things. But I am trying to build a larger scale figure this week that needs internal support and I am having the hardest time. The RKT's are sliding down the dowels and gravity is pulling them down so that they end up looking deformed. I changed from building Elmo standing up to just doing Elmo jumping out of the cake because I was having such a problem, but now even his arms are starting to sag and it is driving me crazy.

Is there some trick to this that I am not getting?

How are you making them?

I was told:

"Make the RK treats with about a cup or two more cereal and no butter"

I will not know if this works until I need to use it and that will not be for few weeks.

When I used them to model the arms for my R2D2 cake, I made each piece in sections and let them dry laying down (for like a week) before standing them up and connecting them.

I also made with a bit less MM's and no butter than the standard recipe called for


HTH

There is a member here who posted a marvelous running commentary on a sculpted skunk, but I can't find it - I just can't seem to use the search properly. At any rate, she mixed cereal and modeling chocolate if I remember correctly. I took an "extreme sculpting" class with Bronwen Weber, and she and Francois said that they have had too much trouble with RKT for large items during competitions and have switched to chocolate clay. The chocolate clay can get pricey and heavy, so the blending of some cereal into a candy or chocolate clay sounds perfect. Where, oh where, is the thread on that terrific little skunk??? In class, we used almost 4 pounds of chocolate clay to form up the arms and legs of our clown. To-die-for-yummylicious milk chocolate clay - how I hated to throw it away after I had looked at the clown for weeks...... The clay really holds up soooooo well.

I think there is also a member that posted how she made a 3D Elmo.

http://www.zerogravity.com.au/blog/2008/11/lion-king-cake-and-more/#comment-8673

this guy has made some big stand up models , and hes really cool at answering your questions!

Thanks for sharing that website Brian--wow!!

I read here on CC once that it's WAY easier to work with store-bought rice krispie treats and since I've only needed to use them for smaller projects, they've worked great for me.

I guess it wouldn't be cost-effective to use them for a larger project though...

I happened upon the sculpted skunk post that ibmoser mentioned. Here it is for anyone interested:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-623004-.html