Anubis mod, full doll mod, new update april 12

I have just redently developed an obsession, Anubis, I am getting a Euclase on layby at the moment and this spurred me to consider an Anubis doll. Many of my doll friends have expressed dismay at the lack of wolfy and doggy faces on the market, the Tplehouse ones were sort of sad, and Soom just ignored it all together. I decided to tackle it head on and mod my own doll to be Anubis

There are a few steps in this process and I want to document them for everyone, so over time will be updating the thread as the doll progresses.
{please forgive the method of making posts, if is to make things more organised as the photos go in}

So here we go for steps:

1 Identify a doll suitable for modding
2 purchase said doll
3 Identify inspiration for the sculpt
4 prepare materials for modding process
5 prepare the doll for modification
6 resculpt the head, including long jackal nose, huge ears, possibly cutting down the forehead/headcap to produce a more dog like appearance
part II
part III
part IV
7 Modify hands to have claws
8 dye entire doll black
9 refine dye job with airbrushing and blushing
10 faceup
12 clothes

This is going to be a long process but I should be able to commence the serious work next week.

 

Progress

1 Identify the doll for modding

After a lot of looking around I concluded I needed a 70cm+ boy, I would need him to be modifiable to black skin. Originally I considered doing this with blushing on a grey doll, which led me to consider Resinsoul boys. After inspecting the body for a while I concluded that it is a beautiful shape and matches the ideals shown in heiroglyphics. I looked into the head sculpt, and as I am going to be totally resculpting his ears I decided that the doll ear style does not matter. In the end I chose a Resinsoul Feng for the sculpt, primarily because of the shape of his eyes, and he is not egg headed, meaning he will require minimal headcap reshaping. Perhaps I can even do this with a hot water bath. I managed to find a few for sale on the MP and selected one that had already undergone a successful dye job to make him tan. The doll was originally Whiteskin, and I feel once cleaned will take the black very well.

2 Purchase said doll

This I concluded last night, he will be on his way to me on Friday, so hopefully next week I can start showing you all photos of the progress. In the meantime there are a lot of preparations I can make

3 Identify inspiration

Well, a lot of googling for images led me to decide in the end that I did not want my boy to have back paws, even though I have a pair of Chrom paws. I may change my mind about this once he is here, but for now I want the more traditional jackal headed god.


this is an approximation of the face sculpt I will be aiming for


Body image


Clothing image

 

Thanks for the good wishes! I have wanted one of these boys for a while but now it really is an obsession. Finding one at an affordable price, and premodded makes it a lot less scary.


4 Time to prepare the materials.

In the past I have used Miliput very successfully for modifying dolls, however it is rather expensive. Last night I was searching online to purchase some and I found a rather interesting link to a product called Amazing Sculpt. This is an epoxy sculpting product, it reports to have an ultra fine grain, be excellent for post curing tool work such as sanding, all the examples were wonderful and it was incredibly cheap! I did as much investigation as I could but it was only released THIS YEAR so only a couple of months ago. That said I decided to take the risk and pick some up. As it specifically states it works well with polyurethane resin I should have no problems. The medium is on its way here now, with an additional bottle of smoothing medium. I will be reviewing the product once I have completed the doll.

Second thing I need of course is dye, I selected Rit dye initially, which is highly recommended for this process, and rather affordable, but on a visit to my art supply store I was shown another product that I decided to try, being informed it was likely to produce a brighter colour. The dye in question is called Acid Dye, however the only acid involved is a vinegar wash for setting the colour, and I have been assured it is completely non harmful to resin. It was also cheaper than Rit, and specifically designed to give intense colour on silk and synthetics. Since I am getting black it is VERY easy to pick up

Third thing of course will be latex gloves, which we have in huge supply in this house


the dye, gloves and sculpting compound

fourth is sandpaper. i know this sounds crazy but my best source is always emery boards from the supermarket. The soft, foam backed ultra fine kind are my faves. I love those things

fifth, the powertools! I have a dremel with a selection of ultra fine bits

And the airbrush of course, I am not very practiced with mine, but it is a good quality iwata, used with a hobbyist compressor and ultra fine tip

general faceup supplies, which I have in abundance, though I may need more MSC for this project. The specifics of what I will be using are Atelier acrylics and mediums, pan pastels, Golden gloss, human makeup brushes and a detail brush from my local gameing shop, it is the "Insane Detail" brush. yes, that is really what it is called I also just picked up a pack of PeralEx powders to use on his face and blushing, I think a faint bronze or golden shimmer highlighting some areas over the black will be a really interesting effect, and I am using a black shimmer in his dark shaded areas

and of course fabrics for his clothingand embellishments, and a mini iron to make those rediculous tiny pleats he will need. I have selected a gold lam for his skirt and black and gold stripes for his headdress, and will use black, blue and gold beads for detail work. I will also be making him an alternate outfit from a black skirt, longer this time, and a long black hooded robe I also plan on sculpting his staff

 

Ooh good to hea there are others out there planning some doll mods on this theme. Right now the only hold up is that I am waiting for the doll to get here, otherwise I would have spent today working on him. I am sick yet again, and can't do a lot when I am ill, but I CAN do artsy stuff that involves limited movement. Shame taht he has to come by post, it is so SLOW

 

Ooh Victoria Victrix that is SUCH a tempting offer! I had a look through my fabric bins last night and I have a lot of linen from when I made clothes for Pennsic last year, and the gold lame I mentioned, but I also found some pleated stuff, I have a habit of repurposing old clothes and one of my best friend's grandmother's black church dresses has the micropleating on the skirt. What colours do you have the fabric in? I may want to make a couple of outfits taht are not as authentic and more interesting (and will eventually have a Euclase to clothe appropriately too)

Lacy Rose, that is awesome! hopefully my boy will be here next week as well, I really hope so, I know my other birthday presents will be late but I want at least one before the day, so I can start working on him. I know he is going to take a long time as I need to try cleaning down his original dye job and making sure he is all even to start with. When he was origianlly dyed his faceup was not removed, so when I remove it I could get some uneveness going on.

 

OMG that is sooo tempting, I need to think......

 

Updating!

So today I was informed the base doll is on his way here, which means hopefully I will have him by Wednesday perhaps? It could be delayed by the holidays but with USPS seemingly on the ball right now I hope he will be here sooner rather than later.

The sculpting medium arrived today however, I will be adding photos in a while, provided my camera works. I was impressed with how fast this shipped, and for a quantity similar to that of miliput I paid half as much. it came complete with full chemical breakdowns and analysis of the resin and hardener, and a smoothing complex was available for purchase too, so I picked that up as well. All in all I spent $12.60 including priority shipping for the materials. If I like it I will be buying a much larger portion in future, this stuff comes in multiple pounds! I was very impressed by the company however, as their service documentation and shipping were excellent and they even included silicone medical gloves for working with the product. it was designed for sculpting high detailed resilient model horses, so I have high hopes.

Tsukasa, that second photo I just ADORE the ears! I am all about the huge ears, particularly the lower curve on the outter edge, I really hope this sculpt will hold the detail well for those, and the long aristocratic structure of his nose.


On top of all of this I finally found the perfect eyes for this boy, I am picking up some black catseye beads off of ebay, rather cheaply in fact, far less than I would pay for eyes, and I think they will give the right otherworldly look without making him look "dead"

 

Ohh that is gorgeous! I will have to PM you later, with two Egyptian themed dolls in my collection, and a whole mess of elves I may have to take you up on your offer

 

5 prepare the doll for modification

Well the doll arrived today so I will be putting up photos of the start of his mods shortly. He arrived in beautiful condition and I have to thank PinkCow for that. I have to also say his current dye job is beautiful, and really well done, it is a shame to clean him up but I do need to before I start, if for nothing else than to remove his old faceup and ensure an even coverage.




The steps in his cleanup process will be:
I will be removing his faceup with Windsor and Newton bruch cleaner and scrubbing the whole doll with alcohol
to give him a good bath with magic eraser,
if warranted, I will give him a whitening soak, to be sure that as much of his coating as possible is removed or evened out. I will be removing his faceup with Windsor and Newton bruch cleaner and scrubbing the whole doll with alcohol



Removal of the faceup barely affected the colour of his dye job, the only areas where it really came off were around his lips and eyes.


The body....scrubbed with alcohol, 91%, and Magic Eraser. I let it soak and scrubbed it, some of the dye came off and the alcohol turned brown, however I did notice that the dye predominantly came off on his seam lines, where the seams had been previously removed.


Soaking in Oxyclean. I have had some positive results with this method of doll lightening, but more importantly, I have seen that this will remove ALL traces of dirt, MSC, grime, past faceups...which is perfect final prep for dyeing. I will most likely leave him in there a full 24 hours, but we shall see. For those curious I used a mix of 2 scoops per gallon of hot water. Generally for whitening I use 4 scoops per gallon but this was not necessary as I do not wish to get him back to pristine white, just to remove anything coating the body that could interferre with his new dye job. I believe if there is any colour variation from the base coat effecting the new top dye this will be resolved when I fully blush him. His body is planned to be airbrushed lightly with black, then shaded with black shimmery pastel and a soft golden shimmer highlight.

 

6 resculpt the head.

Step one is of course the removal of his human ears. I achieved this with the Dremel, using a diamond saw rotary tip, and then sanding with increasingly fine grits of taper arch tips.

Before modding



Halfway through



Ears removed





The ears and tips



After examining his head I have not been able to decide if he will need to have his skull shape altered to have that flatter dog head look, but I have decided his eyes are indeed the perfect shape (one of the reasons I chose this sculpt in the first place) and that he will need wire supports for his nose. Once his nose is on I should be able to decide if I need to further modify his skull to suite his ear shape, if so it should be a minimal modification. It also appears that regardless of skull mods his ears will be best suited being permanently attached to his head cap, rather than being removable. I am glad of this as I think it will give a better look in the end, since I do not plan on him wearing wigs at all, but a specially made headdress. I will also be reinforcing these with a wired frame to help combat any potential brittleness in his ears. I did this when rebuilding Corpselights ears, and they have stood up to an amazing amount of abuse without harm.

 

I have a dremel issue, i have a bad habit of doing mods then getting distracted and attacking my nails with the dremel

 

I am planning to redye him black, but I will need to airbrush his head since it will be made of resin and sculpting compound and they do not take dye the same tone, it will have to be blended. If I can get away with it I will not airbrush his body at all, but if it comes out patchy there will be some airbrushing to get that true ebony look to him

 

Well folks I want to answer a couple of questions quickly, then later I will be posting facial sculpt photos. I have done his nose so far and today will be removing the crown of his head as it sits too high for the overall look. After that I will resculpt the headcap, and then sculpt his ears (which will be HUGE).

In the meantime some quich answers re airbrushing and dying and coloured resins.

If you purchase a doll that already has coloured resin you can't sand them at all, in general, as the resin colour can change dramatically where it is sanded. On NS and WS dolls you can see this a TINY bit, but on a coloured doll, even light tans, it is much more pronounced

If you dye a doll it is only dying the surface! Some methods requie you to coat the doll first, in which case the coating is what soaks up the dye, not the resin, and these dye jobs are more easily removed. However it is not a flawless method, restoration is still quite a process, and it also means the dye will be more subject to chipping.

If you dye a blank doll you can get irregularities in colour between smooth resins and areas that have been sanded, and do not have that perfect surface. Many people recommend you sand the whole doll to make sure the surface is consistent. I am lazy and have elected not to do this, though working on a pre dyed doll would make it easier, if there was still brown I would need to sand that spot more. When you dye a blank doll you can get scraps and rubs where the dye will be slightly different as well, this is just the nature of the beast.

If you airbrush a doll entirely to change its colour it is just like coating and doing body blushing, over time it WILL chip. No matter how carefully you handle the doll it will eventually need to be stripped and redone due to chipping, particularly near joints.

I am doing a combination of dying and airbrushing, this is for several reasons:
1. dye will take differently to the mods on his head compared to the base resin, I want him to be even, therefore I will be airbrushing on his head
2. I will airbrush out any unevenness on his body dye job, unless it is aesthetically pleasing
3. I will be doing a full body blush on him, the start of this will be using an airbrush, then adding pearlescent shimmer with pastels.

For anyone wondering if airbrushing or dying is the superior method, well dying is, but it is far from perfect. I want to combine the two for best effect.

As for other Anubis dolls, I believe there are several, and would not be surprised in the least, but I have not heard of one with a full dog head mod, I considered getting a mini me head made, then thought WHY? I can sculpt it myself and not have the insane expense

 

I had condisered this sort of thing, but even doing so the head dome would be too high for my liking, hence the full modding. I have now cut down his skull dome and am going to post photos shortly, once the basic putty supporting the new dome cures a little (different quick curing putty was used for this)

 

progress report, 6 part II

I have sculpted in the nose, and given it a brief sanding for some definition and shaping, final details are yet to be done. I have also now resculpted th head shape, as the cranium sat too high for his doggyness.

Sculpting the nose

The first step was to drill holes to support reinforcing wires. I have done many elf ears and similar mods over time and find using reinforcing makes HUGE difference to their security.

Holes drilled


Reinforcing wires in place


Wires supported by quicksteel putty (chosen as it has a very rapid curing time) and wrapped in tape. At this point i decided to shorten the nose a little, the pencil line shows where I cut the wires. If you look at his skull that also shows where I intend to reduce the dome.


I then wraped the nose supports in a layer the amazing sculpt. After using this for the first time I can tell you it is the best sculpting putty I have ever used. It is super fine, affordable, easy to mix, never sticky or too soft like Miliput is at first, smooths well with the smoothing complex. In short I love this stuff and will be ordering more today.

Nose basic shape, ready to set.




After this had cured for 24 hours I needed to do a little reshaping, particularly the bump where the natural chin was, so I took to it with the dremel. I did this after removing the top of his head




Cranium reattached with a flatter aspect, before sanding of the putty.





In a couple of hours when the quick dry putty is cured I will sand it down and cut the headcap to fit the new cranial shape. I am hoping that i can do this in such a way that the original securing mechanisms are still useable as I left them in place on the face part, as you can see inside the head here

 

Thanks everyone for all the interest and great comments, it makes it easy work to feel so appreciated. I am pausing work while things cure now, and putting up a new shelf to house this guy. I think I am going to get murdered for being out of bed today, but hey *chuckles* this is worth it