trying a new method of adding thigh swivel joints

I've been seeing people do this since I first joined DoA back in 2006, but I had never tried it myself. What I'm referring to is the use of PVC pipe to make a swivel joint in the thigh.

Normally I like to make it so the dolls can pull their knees up to their chests when doing a swivel joint, so I sculpt a rounded area with epoxy or cast it in resin (I used to have a small silicone mold to cast these in but I lost it in a move and haven't bothered to make a new one.)

Anyway, this PVC pipe method seemed simpler and easier so I had been meaning to give it a try. I brought small pieces of pipe for this about five years ago and only just today got around to trying this out.

I didn't take pictures because I didn't expect it to be worthwhile to do so. There are other tutorials on this subject and I've done step by step pictures of my other method of doing these before.

What I didn't anticipate was wanting pictures to compare and contrast the difficulty level of doing this vs. what I normally do. As it turns out, I feel like this is actually a lot more difficult (even if it is more straightforward) than my normal method. Getting the holes just the right size was very frustrating and I actually destroyed a dremel bit in the process. (Luckily it was one that I never use and since I never plan to do this sort of mod using this method again, I won't miss it much).

Anyway, Alek can now cross his legs and/or swing them off to the side. Good stuff. I marked off the legs for this mod about the same time as I got the pipe for it, so it's been a long time coming. (At the time this was Deidara's body but I'm not sure he'll be getting it back anytime soon).

Anyway, that was a bit more of a rant but oh well.

silly things

Today I finally broke down and got new Testor's Dullcote. I was just ignoring the issue for a bit because the airbrush was doing fine, but airbrushed sealant scratches off easier and after finally getting Shino a look I'm okay with I didn't want it to scratch off. So I grabbed a handy dandy 40% off coupon and headed to Michael's!

I came home and gave him and Statik a layer of Testor's sealing and re-glossed lips and eyelids. And then I decided to modify a coat for winter! I have a red wool coat (I like red) but it was too small on me before, but now it fits and I wanted to be able to wear it this winter. Was a bit plain though. No embellishments or anything. So I added some goldish sleeve... things. Um... see the picture. I also replaced all the buttons. That you can't really see in the picture.. because my batteries were dying and the camera didn't want to get a clear shot for some reason.

(The subtitle says it's a modification/customization blog focusing primarily on bjds. Not exclusively.)
Now you can see what I meant about the sleeve thingy. It didn't have anything there. Just a plain sleeve ending. I cut out some spare fabric from the inside of the coat where it wouldn't be missed to make the little red ... doodad that holds the gold strap in place. 

And I got a few new pictures of Shino. Not in natural lighting, but I feel like they came out better than yesterday's picture.

 Too bright. But you can see his face up okay.

And too dark. But.. I liked the composition. Sorta. XD I don't even know. I fail at getting an in-between setting on my camera.

bonding issues

So after dyeing Shino and redoing his face (twice) I just wasn't feeling the same attachment to him as I did before. Last night I decided to chill with him for a while to see if I couldn't either figure out what was wrong or sort of re-attach.

Anyway, it was just making me more and more frustrated and I just didn't want to be anywhere near him and I couldn't figure it out. Finally, I realized I just wasn't liking the eyebrows on his face up because I didn't feel like they meshed with his overall expression. So I removed his head immediately and set it aside to make sure I wouldn't forget to redo it today.

After a long day of family gatherings and job applications I set to work on redoing his face.

Here we have a 'lovely' photo of him in my room shortly after the face up was completed. (You can see a brush and a pencil sticking out of my chopped up peroxide bottle full of rice that acts as my brush and pencil holder for face up time!)

I'd promise natural lighting photos tomorrow but I almost always break that promise so I'll just say that I'll try to get better pics at some point. But so far I like the eyebrows better.

I also made Loki some pants. While they end up looking like capris when he sits (because I didn't want to make them overly long and mess up the way his future boots would fit) I feel like they are the most well-constructed pair of pants I've made in doll size. (Which isn't so much a glowing review of their craftsmanship as it is a decidedly UN-glowing review of my normal pants-making capabilities).

No pics of those but there will be pictures as I progress into the other parts of his outfit.

EDIT: There was a request for pants pics...

hand mods

This is, so far, an embarrassingly bad mod job. I'm not sure why I'm posting about it aside from the fact that I took pictures throughout the process and feel like it would be a waste to not use them.

If nothing else, this can be a cautionary tale about spontaneously deciding something needs mod work done and not thinking through how you're going to accomplish what you want to do.

This is all started because I have an old FDoll body that has super boring hands. (It also has single joints in all the limbs but that's a mod project for another time) Anyway, I found these old Buddydoll hands that came with a body I bought secondhand. The person had replaced the original hands with Luts Senior Delf hands but sent me the originals as well. These remained wrapped up in my 'head closet' (where all spare heads and doll parts reside).

Today I used the boiling water method to re-position the fingers a bit to give the hands a slightly less boring pose. And I was just going to leave it at that and put them on the body. But as you can see here, they have a very odd attaching system and it gives them almost no range of motion.

So I set about turning this into something like the usual attaching system for hands. I've done this mod before (with much more success) on a Glorydoll body's hands.

Drilled through hand.

Unfortunately, my dremel bit of choice for this sort of mod was destroyed in the process of trying to use it on wooden beads when I was making custom hands for Avelarion. Rather than mark the hands off like a smart person, I just went at it with a different bit and eyeballed it. Horrible, horrible mistake. They look awful. But rather than just scrap the project, I decided it was okay. I could salvage this. And I would just keep on going.

I had intended to leave some resin for an s-hook to latch onto (which is what I did last time I did this mod) but I had messed up so badly with my dremeling that I ended up just having to carve out the whole area. This meant I needed to find a way to put a metal rod of some sort through the hands for an s-hook to attach to.

I can't find my small hand drill, so I tried a couple different things like just holding a small drill bit, hammering a nail through, and using a normal screw. None of these things worked, but a screw with a hook on the end gave me enough gripping power to get it through there.

Hand with hole through the side.

And the last part for today was to use epoxy to fill in the gaps where the old attaching system was. Once that dries I will put wire or a small nail through the hand holes and most likely use some combination of super glue and epoxy to keep them in place.

Not the prettiest solution ever, but most of that will be covered by sleeves. Partly because that's how Alek and/or Layne will be dressed and partly because even if the character in question was a nudist, I would give them gauntlets or something to cover up the hideous monstrosity that is these wrist joints. XD

Now with metal things for s-hooks. These things are so gross looking (and I didn't mean for the hole to go so far up past the wrist joint. this is what I get for trying to drill with a one-speed dremel....) but hopefully they will function and I can keep the wrist area out of sight (and out of mind...)

If they still don't work, I'm cutting off the entire wrist ball and making them work the way Dollmore/Volks/etc. hands work and having the wrist ball as a separate part.

EDIT: The horror story has a happy ending:

 Where before the hand couldn't move back and forth at all, it now has a great range of motion! Statik was holding Aleksandr's arm when I strung the new hand on. I didn't bother to move him for the first photo, but then it looked like he was mimicking Alek's pose so I had him do it again for the second one. XD

more face up crap!

These photos are so crappy they really don't deserve the watermark but I just like throwing it in for funsies... so whatevs.

I re-did Statik after waiting 90  years on the airbrush layer to help blend his eye mods' epoxy with the rest of him. For some reason the colors I have pre-mixed to match various dolls' NS takes SUPER long to dry. Everything else dries super fast... I must have done something different that I've forgotten about.

Anyway..

I feel like it doesn't look too terrible in the photos I took, but in person I'm not too keen on it. It seems too dark to go with his white hair. I will give it time to see if it grows on me since I don't hate it as much as the last one.

Messing with the white balance on the camera allowed me to get a better shot of how Alek/potential Layne's face is done. Because even color correction in photoshop couldn't bring back the reddish blushing under the freckles.

Our internet just died so I'm off to sleep. Tomorrow we shall find out if Statik's face needs redoing or not.

face up crap

I ran out of Testor's Dullcote last night in the middle of a face up redo. I was trying to make my Elysium Hugo SN look less derpy for sales photos. I've been trying to sell him for about 90 years now with no luck, so I thought maybe that would help.

Here is his head now:

Not super great, but much better than it was before. He had a really really old face up I did like four years ago.

Anyway, the point of this was that I ran out of Testor's. And I didn't want to just stop for the night, so I broke out the airbrush and just airbrushed on Liquitex Matte Medium for my sealer on the outer layers. Those who have been following my blog for a while will know that for a while this was my sealant of choice.

That changed for a while after a run in with my airbrush where it got clogged and I didn't know how to fix it. Taking the whole thing apart didn't help. Then I woke up one morning spontaneously sure of what the problem was and got it working easily. I haven't had a problem since. I just fell out of the habit of using it for sealing layers.

But last night I picked it up again and got a few face ups done. I did this one and I re-did Statik. And I messed a bit with Selly's Souldoll Agnetha head (and for that I am sorry. It'll be easy to wipe. I was just going mad with power and needed something to do faces on...)

I messed with the white balance on my camera for the Statik photo. It came out ultra blue.

I was relatively pleased with this (and by that I mean displeased but not so displeased that I wanted to chuck his head out a window and/or wipe it and start over) but then I put his wig on and he looked way too pissy. And I hated it. Enough to wipe it (but not chuck it out a window). So he has been wiped and I will try again shortly.

the last flight of Icarus

lol dramatic title for random crap.

I've been on an inspirational low for a bit. Partly because I got discouraged working on Esyrlon's outfit and even when I was happier with it, that negativity was still there in the background. And then part of it was just that I was going nonstop last month and wore myself out. And then real life got stressful and I was exhausted.

But this isn't a blog about my life.

I got this wig ages ago and it was sort of a curly mullet. Straight hair all around on top and in the back it was long and wavy. I tried to straighten it with a flat iron years and years ago, and it came out a total mess. So I decided to try to salvage it with boiling water. I'm relatively pleased with the results. It can actually be worn with the part on either side. If I part it the other way he's rocking the Flock of Seagulls cut sorta.

Aleksandr is modeling this wig, but I will probably save it for Layne. They are supposed to look shockingly similar so I was sorely tempted to just turn Alek into Layne. But... we'll see. 

 

Also did more mod work on Loki and re-did his face up. I'm happier with it this time but wish I hadn't blushed the nose quite so intensely. XD I may fix that another time, but for now I'm just glad it's looking better than before in a general sense. 

And now for the reason I gave this the title I did. Here is my ex-Ikyras, an IoS Garsh. He has been up for sale for ages and I thought I'd give him a new face up in the hope that he will sell better. For now I have crappy pictures because it's dark but tomorrow I will try to get some natural lighting shots.

the quest for tiny eyelets

To make Esyrlon's cloth 'gauntlets' (in WoW, those exist. so.. that's what I'm calling them) the way I'd drawn them in the concept sketch I needed some tiny eyelets. Sadly, the fabric store didn't have any that were even close to small enough, so I was seriously considering finding another way to make them because I'm impatient.

But Selly suggested I look online, and even though I didn't want to wait on something to ship I went along with this. I figured a quick google search wouldn't hurt. Maybe someone would know where to buy some in person. And sure enough, someone did! I came across a forum where someone suggested that people looking for tiny eyelets should try the scrapbooking sections in craft stores.

So I did that today and they did indeed have tiny eyelets!

Shown here in as close to actual size as I could get them. They're still slightly bigger than the real thing, but it gives somewhat of an idea of how big they really are. To my eye, they are the perfect size. Or at least small enough not to seem drastically out of scale with a doll.

And here we have a picture of the properly eyeletted cloth gauntlets. I'm quite glad that I didn't take the easy way out because I feel like they look really nice all laced up! They've really saved the outfit for me.

discontent

After completing Aeri's outfit, I felt like Esyrlon's was vastly inadequate by comparison. I was already a little underwhelmed by it, but it felt especially lacking after doing something that complex.

I sincerely wished he was a crossdresser so that I could make something similarly ornate and pretty XD Alas, he's not, so I had to find some way to make an outfit that was at least somewhat masculine but still reasonably interesting.

So last night I grabbed the sketchbook and drew this. His white satin under-robe deal w ill be modified for the main part of this and I'll probably use some of the leftover grey fabric from his over-robe for some of the accents. I may find some other way to incorporate the original grey robe too, but probably not for daily use since it's a pain to locate his arms in those mile long sleeves.

The belt was based on one I saw at Forever 21 a while back. Err.. based on a bracelet I saw there. So I went back there today to see if it was still there, but sadly they seemed to be all out and I was sad thinking I'd have to re-design that portion of the outfit.

I was almost certain I wouldn't find the exact same bracelet somewhere else, but I stopped in Claire's and they actually had one that was extremely similar. It cost more, but I wasn't about to pass up my chance twice, especially not now that I had a concept that included it.

I have to remove Esyrlon's head to get his outfit on and off, so while I had his head off anyway I decided to fix his scrawny Domuya body's neck.

Sard's neck hole is too big for it, so I had to make this silly hot glue neck piece to raise the head higher and give it some semblance of posing capability. This was never intended to be a long-term fix but somehow it stayed in use for like a year. Maybe more.

 But today I did this with epoxy. It's a bit weird looking without the head on, but with the head it's not very visible and should, theoretically, allow for better range of motion and make Esyrlon look like he actually has a neck without needing a neck piece.

Also waiting on Loki's head to dry after a healthy dose of airbrushing. Then it's off to face up land!

And the crappily face upped head:

 I would not post pictures of this, but since I will have to go back in and fix the eyes a bit more, I'm willing to humiliate myself. If I just think of it a picture that will later be useful to show progression, it's not too painful to post it where people can see. At least it kind of helps show off some of the facial structure. And you can also see the not-yet-complete wig that will be used for him. It needs some work to get it to behave and I have to redo the flippy parts in the back. But at least I managed to get it to go back like that.

And an update to show how Esyrlon's outfit is coming along. Looking a bit more dress-like than I was shooting for, but it's not done yet so ... there's hope.  Possibly. At the very least, this thing will be easier to take off and put on again than it was before. And his head functions. So there's that as well.

 If I was to do this again (which I don't think I will because it was annoying just to get this far) I would do this layer in the grey fabric instead of white.

mods for Selly

Aeri (Selly's Zaoll Luv) represents an OC of hers from an Avengers fanfic she's writing. Aeri is paired with Loki, so obviously she needed him in doll form as well!

Sadly the custom order for a Loki head was full, so we went off in search of another mold that could probably pull off Loki! When making a mockup for Loki's wig, I tried it on Esky and Selly decided that Angelsdoll's Baku (which is the mold Esky is) worked pretty well for Loki.

So she ordered her own and he arrived a couple days ago.

 Here is the head in its default state, shortly after his arrival.

And here are the markings I made to tell myself where to mod him to make the structure more similar to Loki's in the movie.

I'm not done sanding things smooth yet, but this is how he looks now. I'm waiting on the epoxy to fully cure so that I can smooth everything out and give him a face up.

Realized the edges of the eyes weren't making a smooth enough transition into the rest of the face so I added more epoxy.

Aeri's outfit: completed!

Sorry for all the entry spam lately. I've been rather inspired.

Tonight I finished Aeri's headgear and added the last accents onto her outfit.

 Here she is with her new headgear dealy, sitting in front of my sketch of her outfit.

 So as not to spam more than I already have, I am editing this entry to add that I have 'fixed' Kael's shoulders! They used to have this unsightly gold thing going across the center to keep them from falling off, but I decided to try hot glue sueding them. It works for doll joints.

And it worked! They stay on by themselves now! Looks much more official!