Sculpting my own figure? MyFigureCollection.net

I've become very interested in creating my own figures after:
1) seeing other people do it on MFC
and
2) there being no figures of some really amazing characters ;o;

I'm not expecting PVC quality at all but I'd like to give it a go. That being said, I'm probably in way over my head considering I've only made chibi figures using Fimo polymer clay before haha.

I was wondering if anyone knew any websites that could help? Some questions I have are:
>which clay to use (hopefully nothing too expensive)
>do I need an armature, I was wondering how to make figures stand up without them falling over? and if so, what do I make it out of? I've seen wire, foil, etc.
>the general process? do I make each part separate then fit them together once baked? do I bake it as one figure? I've heard that the clay can shrink so the pieces might not fit together properly.
>the tools I'd need
>how to avoid breakages if I need to keep rebaking a part if I layer new clay on. I'm assuming bake it for a longer time but lower heat?

I've heard about the freeze-bake method but I was hoping that someone could elaborate?

For painting:
>which paints to use? (acrylic, oil, watercolour, etc)
>how to do the eyes? I'd rather not use decals but I want them to look nice still
>how to seal it?

I understand that I'll have to learn a lot through trial and error, but I'm hoping to be as knowledgeable as possible to save money and time. I find it easier to follow realllyyy detailed instructions which is why I have so many questions ._.;;

If anyone's curious as to which characters I'm thinking of making, I'd like to try:

» Kouha Ren/Judal/Aladdin - (Magi)
» Yukihime - (Hakkenden)
» Ushio&Nagisa - (Clannad)
» Shiro - (Adekan)
» Rin - (Usagi drop)
» Piko - (Vocaloid)
and probably many more ahah

Thank you for reading!

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