Basil, a 1:4 boy body

So, I’m at it again.
This time I am making a short, somewhat chubby male body.
One of the things I love about the BJD hobby is the huge range of diversity one can get, but while there have come out a lot of interesting dolls over the years; more body types never hurts. Most serious variation is also made in female bodies and most males range simply from short to tall and from skinny to muscular and while that is great in its own right I would love to see something a little bit different.

So, this is the plan.
He will be fairly short, probably just over 40 cm with head, but he will be proportioned so that he looks good with other dolls in the 1:4 scale. His body will be somewhat stylized, but not extremely so. I hope he will be able to be used both as a short adult and an older child, depending on choice of head and styling.
This is only the initial plan, though and it may change along the way. We all know how these projects sometimes take on a life of their own.

This is what I’ve got so far.


I decided to try something new, so I have made a papier maché core for him that is somewhat accurately shaped and proportioned, only a bit smaller than the finished pieces. Over that I use Super Sculpey to give a nice surface and to get to the finished size.
As I go along; parts of the core will probably be removed and replaced with more sculpey to reinforce it and give a nice inside, but for now this is a very work and cost effective way to do it. As a bonus, I got to play around a bit with the core first to get a feel for the size and proportions, compared to my other dolls and as the part of him looking good next to similar sized dolls is very important to me; that was invaluable. Flat sketches simply don’t compare.
I didn’t get a picture of the core as a whole, but on the picture posted here the arms are not yet covered, so you get the idea.

 

Thank you!
This is just a first stage. You can't build Sculpey too thick in one go, or it won't bake properly and you’ll risk cracking and breaking later when working on the joints. His legs will be bulked out a bit more and given more defined shapes as I go along.
Trust me, there is a LOT of work left to do on him. :XD

I'm not going for too much realism, just enough that he will look good with most standard slim minis. While hyperrealism is somewhat "easier" to do when doing an unusual body shape (as you can simply copy reality rather than having to adapt it) I feel it would not look good next to the more doll-like dolls that I already own. If that makes sense? Getting just the right level of doll-like that makes it look good, but not so much that it becomes a true cartoon of a human is likely going to be the trickiest part for me with this body. But it is a fun challenge and very good practice.

 

I'm not as good at updating this thread as I wish I was.

I am making good progress. Right now I am working on the joints in his arms and legs. His arms are done, except for some minor tweaking and a ton of cosmetic adjustments. I have made a rough set of hands that allows the arms to be strung and tested and so far it looks promising.
Since there are no feet yet his legs can't be strung, so they are just sort of placed there in the picture. His knee joints seem to be working well and are rather robust, if a bit limited. His hip joints do need some more work, though and I’m having some symmetry issues with his hip sockets, but I'll figure it out.
This is what he looks like so far.

 

Things are moving forward, albeit slowly. These pictures are already almost outdated, but I’m better at sculpting than I am at documenting my progress.

 

Thank you, you are very kind!
I work in layers, yes. As long as you don't over bake the sculpey you can bake it many many times without problems.
When I bake something that I know will be baked many more times, I usually bake it for a little shorter than I nomally would and sometimes at a slightly lower temperature. The sculpey will still harden, but will be somewhat brittle. It makes it easier to carve off cunks for bigger changes and reduces the risk of overbaking in the previous layer when adding the next.
I think every part of the body has been baked several times by now.

I sand, carve, add new material, bake again, discover more mistakes to fix in a seemingly never ending cycle. I focus on shape first and surface second. It is easy to spend a lot of time getting a smooth surface, only to discover later that something fundamental is off with the shape that I need to fix and that will undo all the surface work.

 

I think It's about the same with Fimo. I have only worked with Fimo for small things, but I don't think that matters much as long as the piece in not too thick to bake properly and somewhat even in thickness all over. Thin parts can burn more easily, so it’s a good idea to leave out small details until the main parts of a piece is done.

If you do over bake a piece it won’t explode. Instead, what will happen is that the piece will burn (like an over baked cookie burns, not bursting into flames) but the fumes generated when that happens are very toxic.

Some clay darkens quite a bit when it’s getting close to burn. Most polymer clays will normally darken a bit when baked, but if you notice that the color has changed unevenly and gotten darker along edges and thin parts, that’s a sign of burning.
Cracking is usually due to either under baking or a consequence of the piece being put under more pressure than it can handle. When I test string a doll I use very weak elastic, for that reason. I string it just tight enough that it holds together. That way I can identify any places where the joints pinch, as that can cause a pressure point where cracks can later form, even if the parts survive the testing.

The way I see it, if a part is going to break, I want it to break as soon as possible. When it’s still easy to fix. Every now and then the BJD hobby has to deal with a doll body that has made it all the way through production with hidden engineering flaws. Polyurethane may be strong, but it’s not entirely indestructible. And I don’t want to be responsible for broken dolls if I can avoid it.
Besides, if I can get the doll to stand well with even super light tension, then I know for sure that the balance is good.

 

Getting a jointed doll to stand is a matter of trial and error. But it gets easier with practice, for what it's worth.

That's strange. I can't recall ever having anything like that happening.

 

No pictures this time, most progress has been made on the inside and in the joints.

I have some doubts about the hands and feet. I can't decide if I should sculpt new ones or keep working on the ones I have. I can't put my finger on what's wrong, maybe it's just that they don't fit the overall aesthetic. I'll do some more anatomy studies and see if that helps.
The rest of the doll is coming along nicely, though.

 

A big box of casting materials just arrived so now it's time to start the testing process.
I'll be using a new (to me) kind if silicone and I have to make sure it cures properly with all the things it will come into contact with.

To be tested is:
A couple of different release agents: The ones to be tested are: Polyvinyl alcohol (shouldn't be a problem, but I want to be sure), A type of liquid wax sold for the purpose (this is a bit of a wild card, according to the specs it should work, but it's not mentioned among suitable release agents in the info about the silicone) and lastly vaseline/petroleum gel (this works great with my old silicone, but I have read it may not work with this kind, so I just want to see for myself).
I have two different primers I want to test. One is the same that I have used before and the other one is a cheap one I picked up on a whim. It may work or it may not. It would be nice to have as many different options locally as possible.
The mold boxes: I will test the silicone on steel sheet metal, because it would be convenient to make the mold boxes out of that. This is another one of those “might not work” as I have been told there may be some sulfur in the steel, but it may be bound in the alloy so that it does not mess with the curing, but we’ll see. And lastly I need to test the silicone on the plywood that will form the bottom of the mold boxes. It’s the type of plywood with a smooth, water resistant surface. It’s often used outdoors but I have no Idea what it’s called in English. “Formplywood” if any of the other Swedish users here happen to know the proper word.
I will also test the silicone on glue from a glue gun. The glue gun is an awesome way to seal dodgy places in the mold box and also works wonders for plugging up leaks in case of an emergency. I will be using better mold boxes than I have in the past, so It should be a minor problem, but I still want to know for sure before I start.

So yay! Things are moving.

 

Material tests done!

So, ehm, the steel is a no-go. But the good news is that everything else I tried worked well, ever the vaseline.
This type of silicone is very firm so I think it will work best for small-ish molds. This means that I won’t be stuffing as many parts into the same mold as I had initially intended. That in turn means that I can probably use the old Lego-trick for mold boxes after all. A bit mot work, but at least it I know it will work.
I am hoping to have a finished prototype to take with me to Jointed Hearts (a Swedish BJD convention) at the end of August and right now it doesn’t feel entirely impossible.
We’ll see if reality agrees.

 

I think he will be too tall for a hobbit. Especcially compared to regular MSD-sized dolls. But perhaps paired with bigger dolls.
The hands and feet worked out all right. I refined them a bit and gave them some more definition around knuckles and such. It made them a bit less childlike and it turned out pretty good.
I’m in the stage of priming and preparing the surface for casting right now. I will take new pictures as soon as I am ready for casting.

That’s a good tip about the foil.

I usually use a drop of liquid clay if I need to soften the clay or if I need to join two already baked parts. Fresh Super Sculpey sticks pretty well to baked clay, so nothing special is required for simply adding another layer.

I think they are preparing for the merge with DoA, so there may be some things looking a bit wonky during that. I hope the move will go well. I’m a little worried about the whole thing, to be honest. It just seems so bizarre and random. But I I’ll just trust they know what they are doing and we’ll see how it turns out.

 

I agree. Haha, if it became a thing, I suppose I would have to sculpt a set of optional hobbit feet.

Yes. Hands I do ok at, but for some reason feet are harder than hands for me. Hands only need symetry in size and proportions, not in finger position. Feet on the other hand need not just symetry, but also be somewhat the right size to fit into the kind of shoes usually sold for this size of doll. Preferably without looking too childlike.

Yeah, I feel the same, but I try to stay positive. Let's just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

 

Images at last!

 

Thank you very much!

You know, now that you mention it, tall boots may be a problem with this boys thick calves as well. I didn't even think of that. I think as long as it's boots with lacing it should be fine. Hopefully not too much of a hassle.
I think we can learn a lot about the unexpected troubles of not fitting into the norm with dolls like this.

I stung him very lightly for the photos. I was worried that the pieces would scuf the primer. This made the friction in his ankle joint a bit to low to hold up the rather heavy body, so while he did stand and pose it was a little bit scary to step back to take the photos. When he is cast ad properly stung I'm sure that he will preform just fine, though.
I love his knees. The single joints and thick legs makes them a little bit limited, but they are very reliable and sturdy and I like how they look.
I'm very happy with range of motion in the torso. I'm not sure how tighter stings will affect that, but at the very least he will have a little bit of twist and a fair range of leaning to the sides. The top of the lower torso part is shaped so that the edge on the upper torso can be rested there for extreeme poses of bending forward and backwards, but I don't know how the inbetween back and forth poses will work with full tension. Time will tell.

 

I'm a little embarresed by how long I've abandoned this thread. The casting steps of this project got caught in the merge between The Joint and DoA and I never got back to posting.

But here he is as a home cast prototype, if anyone is still curious.

 

Thank you very much!
I like DoA for many things, but I just can't seem to stay motivated to post sculpting stuff here. I prefered The Joint for that. Maybe I'll get used to it eventually. I just hope it won't be just in time for some other big change. I still haven't goten used to the "new" (yes, I know how long it's been) look of the forum and I think some part of my brain is still waiting for it to get back to normal.

 

It's bordering off topic for this thread, but The Joint was a forum that started as part of DoA, but that was before my time here. It was separated into it's own independent forum and that's how I found it. It was a forum specifically aimed att BJD sculpting and casting and only other sculptors was encouraged to join, meaning that every single comment you got was from someone likely to know a little bit about what they were talking about. It was not a very high activity place, but let's face it, neither are the making of these dolls. Most creators take a year or two, or more to finish their first doll, if it's ever finished at all. And the content was incredibly high quality.
Here, the same questions are asked and answered over and over and over and you have to open a separate tab, do a search for any user that comments to see if they are themselves making dolls, before you know how to read their comment. People see very different things in progress photos depending on if they are familliar with the sculpting process or not.
Here I feel the need to make sure every picture I post is in some way attractive in itself or I'm afraid that people will get the wrong idea about the final product. And since that's extra effort, I either take less pictures, or sculpt slower.
So, to bring it back on topic, the merge interfered with my workflow and I have not yet found a work around for that.

Don't det me wrong, I love DoA in it's own right, but it and The Joint are just two completely different things.

 

Well, the prototype pictured is now part of my own collection. I have brought him with me to several convetions to show off.
Another set of parts have been cast in the same mold and are being perfected for porfessional casting, but if that will actually ever happen will depend on how much interest there is in the body.

In addition I now live in a house (instead of the tiny apartment, that his guy was created in) and that means I have a nice dedicated space for doll making (Yay!) and that in turn means I seriously consider getting better casting equipment, so it's possible I will be able to make better quality casts myself in the future and then I may not bother with a casting company. Time will tell.

I have also made and cast an optional arm part for him in the shape of a tentacle.
That project was posted in the brigadoon discussion that was going on while we waited for the merge to be finished, but I don't think that thread exists anymore.
Maybe I should repost it here, I made it for this body, after all. Thanks for making me think of it!

 

So, here are the progress photos for the tentacle project.
As I mentioned before, these photos are not new, this project was started and finished during the merge.
Many pictures ahead!

First; materials.
I used a mix of polymer clay for this and here are the proportions. In the back is Super Sculpey, the white clay is Fimo Professional and the black is either Fimo or Cernit.
There is no real sience here, I just wanted a solid grey and I wanted the softness of the Sculpey, so I made a mix that had those properties. In my experience, most polymer clays mix just fine, regardless of brand, but a bake test is a good idea when trying something new.



Here is the first stages of the sculpting.
*First a core is made by wrapping a drinking straw in tin foil.
*A sheat of clay is then wrapped around the core, roughly shaped and baked. Nte that this is not the final thickness of the piece, the clay is built up in layers.
*Second layer of clay. Here the joint has also been roughly shaped.
*Once the piece has cooled it is roughly sanded. This was done using a Deremel with a sanding barrel attachment, followed by a finer grit sand paper by hand. The surface is not the priority here, just the shape.
*Parting lines has been marked out.



*The tentacle is cut apart. At this stage I realized I needed shorter segments to get a smooth line when the part bends.
*Shorter segments marked out...
*...and cut. All cutting was done using a Dremel with a thin cutting disc.



* Now I started making and testing the joints, one segment at a time. This is the first joint test.



*And the whole thing.


I will have to come back later with pictures of the finished tentacle. I have no pictures of the casting, but I can get some of the finished thing on the doll.

 

Thank you. I love this hobby for it's diversity, but in this case I couldn't find a body I liked, so I decided to make it myself.