Mod project: Cailath, continued

Apologies in advance for the horrible photos in this one. I couldn't get the camera to focus well.

I woke up this morning feeling sick and feared that all of my plans for today were ruined. So I went back to sleep and didn't bother to set an alarm, and when I woke up again I was feeling a lot better but still not 100%. I've tried to take it easy so I didn't end up doing as much as I'd originally planned, but I did do some sanding work on my project head and then gave it a quick face up to see if things were working out the way I wanted.

 Sadly, I felt like they really didn't look enough alike and of course crushing disappointment started to set in.

However, while I felt that the head wasn't working well as Cailath, I was relatively pleased with it overall and decided I should consider other looks for him. (in the above picture he was borrowing Kael's hair since I did not get to mess around with attempting to make him a wig today like I'd planned to initially)

I threw one of my red wigs on him for funsies. I'm keen on redheads so I had difficulty telling if I actually liked this on him or if I just was biased because it was red.

And then I threw a shorter blonde wig on him and have been letting him sit around on the computer desk like that. In looking at the pictures, I think part of the problem is perhaps the shape of his chin and jawline. And of course there is the issue of the way his lower face (in particular around the lips) protrudes by comparison. It was much more intense when I first got the head but still very noticeable (to me) when compared to Aura.

The nose shape also might be part of it.

I am less displeased with things overall as I give it time but I'm not sure I have the patience required to make this work for what I'd intended. I will see how I feel after sleeping on it.

modification project: Cailath

Last night I was screwing around and put Auralion's head on Loren's body on a whim. He may not end up getting it back. Aura was kind of on a temp body (which was a modified Angelsdoll v2, and I didn't much care for it before mods and then I kind of botched the mod job and cared for it even less but had ruined the resale value at that point and have been too lazy to try to modify it to the point where it's reasonably decent looking again.)

Anyway, I much preferred the Popodoll 68cm body I stole from Loren. It felt like a more appropriate size, being a little more slender and less muscular.

_{(Loren's body had been sitting around in black pants for 90 years and had various stains on it so Aura got a bath)}

This got me wanting to do more stuff with Aura again and then I was feeling bad that he doesn't really have anyone to hang out with since most of the rest of my dolls are characters from my story and he's from WoW.

So I decided to actually buckle down and try to work on Cailath for more than five minutes at a time.

Brought out the various grits of sandpaper and my pointy sanding tool (and later on I also got out some dremel bits and used them sans dremel)

I took some side by side pics shortly after I began sanding to get a feel for how much further I had to go and how things were coming along.


Ideally, I would have to take in the entire lower face a bit, but that would be a LOT of work and require a lot of additive sculpting to fix so they will probably have to settle for looking like fraternal twins.

Here is another picture after more sanding. It doesn't look that different since the outside kind of washes out the white and also I didn't want to work with really low grit sandpaper and overdo anything. I then took the head inside for some additive work on the lips.

I ran out of time before work so this was as far as I got. I will need to do a bit more sanding on the nose and mouth and possibly the chin. I was going to work on the eyes a bit but the resin there is very thin so I don't think much can be done. I'll just have to try to use creative blushing to give the illusion that that area is similarly shaped. I will probably leave the eyes more open than Aura's because Cailath is less of a snooty prick.

Really minor updates

It has been so long since I posted here that I don't know what I have posted about and what I haven't. So I'll just kind of start rambling and you can ignore it if it's something that's been posted about.

A loooong time ago, Kael had a Mecha Angel body, but I never really warmed to the 80cm size. So I looked and looked to find a smaller alternative and discovered the Spiritdoll Proud body, which was in the 70cm range and had broader shoulders and a less slender build than many 70cm bodies I'd owned in the past.

So I sold the Mecha Angel body and purchased that. Later on down the line, having less disposable income, I came across a cheap SSDF body and decided to get that and sell my Spiritdoll body. Kael was a bit bobble-headed on the SSDF body but it wasn't so bad I couldn't stand it so I was fine with that for a while. But then a while later when I had more disposable income again, I found a (relatively) cheap Spiritdoll Proud body and decided I preferred that look after all.

So I got that body and gave it back to Kael and used the SSDF body for my IOS Infernale head.

But then recently I got a damaged Iplehouse Arvid head on impulse (he's missing most of one ear and has a chipped eye). I've wanted an Arvid for a while but never really had a set idea of what I'd do with him, so he kind of sat around being neglected because I didn't have any brilliant plans for him. I've kind of hit that point where I'm fairly content with my collection and there are only a few very specific things I can think of that I want.

So for whatever reason, I tried Kael's wig on the Arvid head and decided that he probably better fits my mental image of Kael than Soom's Vega did anyway (as that was more of an "I already have this doll so let me see if I can't make it look like this character I want to create" type deal). So I gave the Spiritdoll body to my IOS Infernale and I'm much happier with the proportions.

Sadly, my camera refuses to capture this and his head ends up looking huge.

I also decided to give Esyrlon a new face up a few months ago. I never posted it because I wasn't happy with it. I tried to give him lighter eyebrows because he has white hair and I felt like it made more sense, but I felt like his face just looked very washed out. I probably just need more practice with this sort of thing but anyway... after months of not even wanting to look at him, I went in an darkened his eyebrows and was instantly much happier with him.

Still might redo the whole thing at some point but for now I'm not unhappy enough to bother with it. Esyrlon is spoiled anyway and gets more frequent face ups than anyone else.

Another project I've been very slowly working on is modding a head to be a twin for my Nabarro Har, Auralion. I got a head from a fairly new company called Panda Workshop a while back and it sat in the head closet for a long time. I feel like the overall structure is similar enough to Har that it could be modded to look at least fairly similar to him. So that's been sort of an ongoing project. When I have more free time I will probably take shots of both heads from different angles to get a better handle on what would need to be added or subtracted to get the most similarity.

The head is in a more WS color because that was all the company offered, so I will probably see if I can't dye it a more pinkish or even light tan color since Aura is supposed to be the less healthy looking twin. I'd consider just switching which head portrayed which twin, but as Aura is my favorite, he gets the head that I know is functional and that I paid a small fortune for.

Iyrilaeth's new hands (and a shot of Anna's too)

I have this massive fascination with hands and wrists that started with (oddly enough) watching Lady and the Tramp as a kid. I loved the way their paws bent when they were doing things and whilst crawling around the house pretending to be a dog I realized human wrists and hands were really neat.

Anyway, years later hands are still a big deal for me so a major part of doll 'shelling' is finding the right hands to express their character. I have a whole separate wishlist for hands I want for characters that I don't even have heads planned for yet.

Sometimes I'm okay with something generic as long as it's an attractive looking hand but sometimes I have a very specific look in mind.

To get to the point, I really wanted a pair of the Dollshe DS18M rhythmos hands for Iyrilaeth and after selling some things, I decided to go for it before they stopped producing them and I potentially lost my chance to ever own them.

They arrived today and I am pretty much in love with them.

I did a box opening for hands because I was so excited.

The tiny wrist balls are a mild issue since they sink into Iyrilaeth's wrists and he ends up with no mobility pretty  much, but that is something I guess I can try to work on at a later date. He'll need restringing before I can really do much about that since it was really hard to get these on as is.

I actually broke one of his old hands in the process. To fix this I will probably just remove the rest of the resin lump there (aside from the notch that keeps the hand in place on the joint) and replace it with a metal screw-in hook.

After an absurdly frustrating few minutes of trying to wrestle with his overly tight stringing, I managed to get these on and life was good.

I also recently bought a secondhand pair of Iplehouse hands for Anna. I wasn't a huge fan of the default Aoi Tuki ones and had been meaning to replace them for years but none of the hands I really liked for her tended to be sold separately. A few months after putting this pair of Iplehouse hands on my wishlist, I managed to find someone selling them secondhand so that I could avoid the waiting period.

The resin match is not great (although I imagine at one point it would have been because Anna was far more pink years ago). I am not that bothered by it but if I ever decide I am I may just let the new hands sit on the porch for a little while to yellow a bit. (or go and try one of those light dye techniques to make her more pink again all over. Might be a better plan since her Souldoll head is more pink than the body too)

I actually considered taking pictures at the time but I thought it might be weird to make a post featuring doll hands. Obviously I have since changed my mind.

arrival of IOS Infernale and face up attempt

IOS shipped my Infernale exactly when they said they would. I was very impressed. He arrived over the weekend while I was out of town for A-kon and my mail carrier was kind enough to call me on my cell phone and get my permission to leave the package with the apartment office so that I could pick it up as soon as I returned. (This saved me a trip to the post office. I was very happy!)

I got home Sunday night but was able to get him from the apartment office on Monday morning before work. For the last couple days he's been sitting around without a face up because I was intimidated.

My last two attempts at face ups came out... less than stellar, to put it politely. I'm very easily discouraged when I fail at something so it can take a while to push past that. Adding to my anxiety was the fact that Infernale has an open mouth with two interchangeable tongue pieces and I struggle with doing face ups on dolls with the tiniest bit of teeth showing.

After a bit of arguing with myself, I decided to gather up my airbrush and pastels and assortment of brushes and head out to the balcony to get to work. It is absurdly hot outside today so I was quite uncomfortable, but luckily I was in my project zone so I didn't notice until I was all done.

I didn't really get any in progress pics, because I didn't want to get too attached while there was still the possibility of screwing it up terribly, but here are some pictures of the face once it was pretty much finished.

I think I overdid it a bit on the red under the eyes and on the eyeshadow. I really struggle with face ups on WS dolls.

Here are the tongue pieces post-blushing. These were a pain to do because they're so small and they wanted to fly off the table when I tried to seal them. And then the pastels didn't want to stick to them so I had to airbrush them and they kept getting stuck to my fingers and falling and collecting dust. I'm going to have to break out the tweezers if I redo these guys.

And here are some shots of the completed head with the two different tongue pieces. It was already a tight fit, but the layer of gloss on the tongues made it even harder to get them in and out. I'm sure there is some chipping of the paint in their future.  I was, however, relatively pleased with the color.

And here we have a shot of him on a body which may or may not be his permanent one. The hands I've been saving since 2008 just in case I ever decided to shell his character. They came with Soom's Vega - Last Song and they've been sitting in a closet for about five years now.

Not 100% certain about this wig, but the one I was planning to use didn't look quite right once he had a face up. (really liked it before that though). Will see how it goes though.

mini projects

I got on a bit of a selling things kick and ended up doing a few trades and fun stuff like that.

The first thing I got in a partial trade was a Leon Kennedy Minimee head. Ever since seeing Enzyme's on DoA, I've kind of wanted one.

Anyway, the one I got had been modded and the eyes were opened more. The above picture is how it looked when it arrived. I forgot to take my own pictures so that's one of the sales pictures. I decided I would just mod the eyes into a more serviceable shape. The default eyes for the sculpt looked almost closed to me so I sort of just chose a shape to sculpt them into.

Here's the head after a round of epoxying. I haven't sanded them at all yet so they're pretty uneven. But I did get some eyes for him.

I got a really good (in my opinion) deal on a Resinsoul immature bust, which I put on Elaria's body since I really didn't intend for hers to be as big as the default one that came with her.  NSFW picture of the new bust on her body.

The fit isn't perfect so I will have to do some modding, but for now I feel like it looks fine with clothes on. Behold my glorious photoshop skills trying to hide the mess that is my house.!

a busy day

As mentioned in my last post, I decided to sell some things because I needed IOS Infernale. There is an 80-85% chance he will be my Istthraen, a character I have wanted in doll form for years.

Anyway, with one of my sales I was asked if I could do another face up on the head for them. I was a little nervous about that since I've only ever done face ups for myself and Selly.

I did sort of a 'mock up' version yesterday, laying down the general colors and blushing to give the person an idea of what I was getting from their request, and after getting the go ahead I started on the real version today. Luckily, they were online and I was able to get feedback relatively quickly after sending them new pictures!

Between messages, I started work on a new robe for Auralion. His old one was just cotton and I figured he'd want something a little more ostentatious than that. I had this sort of idea that I might want to do the robe in black but I wasn't 100% sure that would look okay, so I made both versions.

I also made his pseudo-tabard thingy but it came out way too wide and kinda wonky so I'll have to revise that later. I'm not sure if the black would work okay if the thing didn't cover most of the lower half, but for now I'm pretty sure I like the red better.

 Here is the face up I spent most of the day on and off working on. Some of the blushing detail is lost because indoor lighting tends to do that. But it shows the basics of it reasonably well.

Now I just need to figure out what I can use as a face protector for shipping since I'm not sure I have any around.

selling things to afford other things

My title is the most descriptive thing in the history of descriptive things that are descriptive.

Oh yeah.!

I fell off the face of the bjd hobby for a bit (as I am prone to doing on a semi-regular basis). Usually it's a few months on, a few months off. It's a cycle.

Anyway, I was drawn back in by the completion of IOS' Infernale. 

I only want his head but I was worried I wouldn't be able to afford it. But it ended up being the push I needed to finally sell some things I'd been not entirely happy with for a while, so now I can afford him. All is well.

I am excited!

I love trades

Circumstances being what they are, money is kinda tight at the moment. This has meant that, despite selling a few things in the past month, I haven't been able to afford a new body for Orkas. His previous one sold on layaway and I've sold one head and another full doll but between Christmas and having to save up for other things, he ended up stuck on an old Customhouse body that was just barely functional. (it's pretty much falling apart)

Anyway, I managed to get a trade offer from someone offering a flexi-perennial body in NS for one of my sale items. Hard to really say what that body is worth since Domuya doesn't exist anymore and I tend to see them going for really cheap on the MP, but I felt like it was a good deal. I've always liked Domuya's bodies and was sad to see them go. Anyway, I made the trade gladly and today the body arrived.

Old Orkas had a modded flexi-perennial body in tan to go with his Elfdoll head in homme skin and now new Orkas has one in normal skin. I'm not sure I'll bother with doing the mods again--at least not for a while--but I'm really happy with him now. I was really unsure of whether I liked the mods I'd done to his head before, but having a more appropriate body makes all the difference in the world. I'm glad I waited and tested his head on a new body before springing for an Elfdoll Vivien head as a replacement (because I was sorely tempted to do that).

Will need some new NS hands at some point since it was the LE elf archer version of the body, so the hands were not compatible with Orkas' gloves (an essential part of his character) so right now he is using my Impldoll Triton's grey skin hands since they aren't visible under the gloves anyway.

 

The picture doesn't really show how the new body affects things but I wanted to add one anyway. It's probably not something that I would even know how to capture in photographs accurately, but to me the difference is pretty big even when he's just sitting there. 

more mods and some face ups

I modded Orkas' head more after my post last night. I was looking at Elfdoll Vivien (a strong contender to take over the role if this head doesn't get its act together and work for me) and decided I would attempt to instill some of that sort of expression into the head I currently own because if it works out it will save me time and money.

Anyway....

Oh god that second one is orangey. Should have color corrected that but I so seldom feel the need to with the new camera that I didn't think about it. Oh well. Anyway... I still feel like he comes across a bit smirky or something when the camera is looking down on him. Also not sure I accomplished frowny squinty so much as just "the sun is in my eyes" squinty. But ... I chalk that up to my novice level of sculpting skills. I feel like it looks a bit better in person. He looks a bit young for his character now (I'm not sure why having smaller eyes makes him appear younger to me but... I have no idea how my brain works when it comes to 'shelling' characters.)

Here is a s hot of Iyrilaeth. His new face is very minimalist so far because I was quite frustrated after dealing with Orkas. I'm relatively pleased with his new, more neutral expression. I feel like ideally I should have built up the epoxy a bit more so there wasn't still an indent where his old mouth corners used to be. I'm too lazy to fix that right now though and it's functional on a basic level. This shot makes his nose look huge.