Modification Best dremel/tools/additives for mods?

Dremel is a brand so if you want to shop for alternatives, searching "rotary tool" will show you options from other makers (although the Dremel I've used is nice and sturdy, I can certainly recommend)

 

Just saying high, so that I can follow this thread. I have these same questions too.

 

I’m gonna link one of my project journals, because I think the same principles I’m using to mod my doll shorter will help you mod yours longer!

Firstly, apoxie is good, but apoxie “white” isn’t white. If you see the greyish putty I’ve used for my girl’s torso (newest post) and thighs (older post), that’s the colour of white apoxie. The advantage of apoxie is that it’s durable as all hell, to the point of being possibly stronger than resin (or at least harder to sand than resin) and it’s cheaper than milliput, because you can buy it in large quantities. I buy it 4 lbs at a time, because I’m constantly modding with it. It also dyes a little darker than resin, but pretty consistently with resin, where milliput dyes a ton darker.

option 2 is milliput. If you get superfine white, you actually get a white putty. That’s what I used on my girl’s shins (early post on the project journal). It sands as well as resin does, but absorbs way more dye and dyes darker. It can be mixed with pastel or acrylic paint to match the tone of your resin (never done this as I’m spray painting my doll entirely to match the gray apoxie). Milliput isn’t quite as strong as apoxie when it comes to sanding, but it’s strong enough to hold my girl’s legs together under the tension of stringing.

As for rotary tools/dremels, I use a King Canada, off brand rotary tool. The thing cost me $40 CAD in 2020 and she’s still kicking. What I needed to upgrade was the bit and the flex shaft. I use a dremel-branded flex shaft ($50 CAD—it literally cost more than my rotary tool) because my king Canada flex shaft kept disconnecting, and became dangerous to use. I also use a diamond cutting wheel. No idea how much it cost because I “borrowed” it from my dad, in 2020, but a substandard cutting wheel will make a mess of your resin instead of cutting cleanly.

important: when you sand/cut resin, you need respiratory protection. I wear eye protection, because I hate dust in my eye, but airborne resin dust is incredibly toxic. You’ll want to use minimum an N95 dust mask. I take it a step further, and wear my respirator, which has a pn100, and an organic vapour cartridge for doing faceups. I just find it seals better to my face than a disposable n95, so it keeps the dust out better. Apoxie and milliput are not as toxic, but airborne dust is still not great on the lungs, so even if I’m just sanding a mod and no resin, I mask up.

 

I have a second hand Demel which I got for a great price, together with the flex shaft, but tbh the rotary tool I use more often for simple mod is a super cheap manicure rechargeable drill off Aliexpress I got for under $4 (I pay tax so would be cheaper if you don't). It is so super light so easy to handle for delicate detail.

I also use miliput, but that is because I am in the UK and can pick up cheap but if Apoxie is more readily available and cheaper, get that as I have found that milliput can be brittle to sharp shocks, like when issued it for super long finger nails or thin sections.

 

I’ve used apoxie super white before but not for a long time, as I can’t buy it in the large size I prefer. It’s really strong, just like standard apoxie, but a lot lighter—if memory serves it’s actually white! You could tint it the same ways people tint milliput to match your doll’s skin tone

 

Afaik, rotary tools also come in kits with the bare essentials which sometimes make the most sense to get. I haven't done doll modding with the tool but I'd say a rotary cutter, various sanding tips, a drillbit and/or something to make holes with would get a lot of use - it really depends on what exact mods you're doing

 

WS definitely makes matching easier!! When I get home I’ll see if I have anything from my Apoxie super white adventures so I can see what colour it dries down.

 

I've been meaning to get a Dremel for years!

 

agreed!

 

Ohh that’s so sweet!! Thank you! I’m excited to almost be done her mods!!

 

First, I have to say that I have never done large or full body additive modifications, most of the mods I've done are small or tiny on larger dolls (my largest is only 67cm tall, but his head is huge!). I have mostly modified specific areas like facial features in particular (lips, eyes, nose, etc. just small parts, not huge areas). However, I find that Aves Apoxie Sculpt is great for exposed areas, because you can tint it to match your doll. Regular white Apoxie is indeed on the grey side, but the super-white type is actually whiter than paper-white, white. Even after the two part clay are mixed. I am a fan of tinting the clay before mixing the two parts, as that gives me more time to work with the clay, and I don't find it to make a difference once the catalysis has been mixed into the white part, despite the curing agent being grey.

I tried Vallejo's Plastic Putty, because I thought it would be similar to Gaianotes modeling putty, but I don't believe it is (I haven't been able to get my hands on the latter). The Vallejo putty melts away completely with high percentage alcohol, so it would be a good not-permandent additive mod alternative, if it wasn't liquid. I didn't have any trouble using it, for my tiny doll's eye mods and would have kept them like that. Except, I want all my mods to be "permanent," or at least not melt away when I am removing the face ups. Since I do redo those quite often. However, if your doll is tiny "headed," or the ears are not going to be enormous, it might work for your ear mod. It is a pain to work with if you've never worked with fluid putty, but it is manageable and you can build up smooth, seamless layers once it is dry. The down sides for me, apart from it melting off with alcohol, are that you can't sand it -- despite what Vallejo states on their website. Some model builders have compared the putty to PVC glue once dried, and I would have to say it is pretty similar, except it is not as soft nor fragile. It dries pretty quickly as well, but I was using not even a drop of the product, since my doll is a tiny doll. I wouldn't recommend trying the product, unless you are open to removing the mods and trying again a bunch of times -- I didn't find it that difficult to work with, but again, my doll is tiny (the product is inexpensive as a candy bar here int he USA, so I didn't mind trying, despite it not being a product meant for sculpting humanoid facial features).


This might not be helpful to you at all, since you want to do larger mods other than the ears, but here's a few photos of my doll's tinier eye mods. I just added material to the lower eyelids with both products. The first image is a comparison between the plastic putty and the Aves Apoxie Clay. The putty is the photo to the left; I didn't color match the putty, because it dries in literal seconds (for me probably, because I was using so little of the stuff). It is a very light white color, but I believe there are other colors as well. The Aves one I did color match before mixing the two parts of the clay together. The photos were taken before I further smoothed out the Aves mods, the putty ones can't be sanded, as I already mentioned -- I did try, but I didn't see it going well so I stopped before I ruined the whole thing.



Here are the Vallejo's putty mods all faced up:


Here are the Aves mods, all faced-uped craptastically by me, once again:


Hope all that, is of some help to you. Good luck!

 

Forgot to mention that you can also use plastic wrap around the ears to apply whichever material you are using to sculpt your ears, then just glue them on with water soluble glue once cured. That way it is a less permanent mod, although all additive mods with Aves Apoxie Sculpt are completely removable as well. You just have to sand the material off. I have done pointy vampire ear mods on my larger doll and completely removed those (then redid them all over again). You can fill in any gaps from gluing the ears on, with the Vallejo putty, since that is what its intended purpose is; a filler for seamlines and flaws on plastic models.

My doll is my fanart version of Ken Kaneki! I'm glad he can be recognized as such, without me explaining who he is meant to be, that just made my say!

Hope that helps a bit more, and good luck, once again! (:

 

I just wanted to add that the dremel and other rotary tools can share the same bit parts. You can actually buy a lot of inexpensive bits for the dremel and don't have to purchase dremel specific bits.

When I an modding faces I find the grinding tools work really well. I really like the one that slopes to a point because I can maneuver it to get into the finer spaces of the face. I use the dremel to get the shape I want, then switch to course hand held sand paper. I will them smooth that out with very fine sandpaper.

Here is a weird tip I figured out. Finger nail buffers, the 4 - way buffers. You can use those on your dolls to get finer and finer sanding. Start with step 1 and work your way through, when you get to the step 4 shine it will be so seamless that you won't even be able to tell where you modded.

These things...

 

Oh my goodness you’re brilliant. I will be using this tip on my next mod project. That’s so much easier to wield than sheets of sandpaper!