3D Printing 3D sculpted and printed dolls (questions)

Wall thickness: It depends on what you are doing and what you need. I generally start working by shelling to the thinnest I will go. I work with that until it is time to actually finish all of the insides - then I either take the inner part of the shell and modify it, or I sculpt out the insides. I keep a copy of the shells parts and see how they overlap to make sure there isn't any area that is too thin. If you want to calculate the thickness of any point specifically, netfabb has a tool that does that.

Support is going to depend on the printer. Generally, if you are getting a company to print your parts, you don't need to worry about this. If you are printing it on a home printer, you will. There is going to be more information out there depending on what you use, but generally you will need to make sure any overhang is supported.

I do SLS for most part since it is the cheapest and it is strong enough that you can test parts without worrying too much about breaking. I wouldn't recommend it for anything that requires details though. For detailed parts (like hands/feet/faces) I would recommend one of the acrylic materials. Most companies will list this as something involving the word "detailed."

The cheapest I have found so far is shapeways, though their new "better" pricing is going to really screw me (some models will be cheaper now, but others will be way more expensive). Still, I am having trouble finding cheaper.

It depends - I have decided not to get my own printer because I need better accuracy than what I could rely on with the home printers. But, when I get the money, I will probably buy a DLP printer. They are kind of annoying, but can print super detailed parts. I'd only use it for faces - I'd still probably get body parts in SLS. In my experience it is hard to get the parts perfect - they will probably be a bit warped. It seems like SL gives similar results to DLP, but I only have experience with DLP.

That obviously depends on the size. For a 60cm doll, making everything hollow, expect between $500-$1000 for SLS.

You could pretty much go as big as you want if you wanted to spend the money - some companies print huge industrial parts so they could probably print even a 1:1 scale doll - it would certainly cost a ton. For home printers though, you'd probably just be able to do a 60cm on a lot of printers, though some wouldn't be big enough (you'd have to split the parts).

I model everything exactly as how I plan the finished doll to be. With SLS I haven't had any problems, except for a long, thin piece that I am plan on casting a steel bar into.