Customizing Chat: What's on your worktable?

The tattooing project went well, now my guy just needs strung and his coat sewn and I'll be in business. ^-^

 

Its not perfect work, but it satisfies me. I had to draw it free hand on him, so it's a little shaky in places I think, but I have shaky hands. But it was done entirely in black watercolour pencil, because acrylic was TOO shaky. >-< As soon as I get him back together I'll have some photos up. I took some while I was in between tattoos, to show the difference between the finished work and the lighter line work.

 

Well I just use some cheap ones I picked up at Walmart, but they did the job fairly well. My hands shake due to carpal tunnel and rheumatoid arthritis, which sucks because I'm not THAT old! XD The arthur is genetic though, I inherited that, and the other is from computer classes since kindergarten. So the more I try to steady them, the worse they shake. I just learn to deal.

But! I have photos! I'll link them, since I don't think photos are okay in this thread, and I wasn't really going to do a tutorial for the tattoos, since I was using one off the forum myself for reference. XD

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/SilverSexGodBakura/BJD/100_2288.jpg

Finished arm piece.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/SilverSexGodBakura/BJD/100_2292.jpg

Line work for the back piece.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/SilverSexGodBakura/BJD/100_2294.jpg

Finished back piece. ^-^

Like I said, not perfect, but if you aren't right on them they don't look quite as shaky, and I probably won't be doing a lot of close ups on them. XD Just black coloured pencil, and Testors sealant. Oddly enough I have REALLY good luck with that, it doesn't seem to yellow as much as people say it does, and it holds my work nicely. Smells like a beast, but that's normal. My MSC'd doll collects dirt a lot more than my two with Testors. Wacky.

 

^-^ He is a mini. Doll Family Wind, actually. He was my first real face up, not counting my fantasy guy who's face didn't really need any work aside from gold eye liner and red and gold lips. All four of my dolls are mini's, I have one SD size head that's for practice face ups, so I don't really count him as a part of my family.

 

I'm in the middle of completely changing my Dollndoll Milk's appearance. I recently widened his/her eyes. They are MUCH better now and I'm too pleased. ( Need to get pictures soon) Now I've got to do a faceup, but I can't decide what kind of look to go for. I still don't even know if I want it to be a boy or a girl! It's a WS dolls, so the two ideas I'm juggling with now are a Fairy/ Fairy Kei look, or a Ghost/ Goth look. This is the fourth time I'm trying to create a look for this doll! But nothing sticks.

 

Finally have photos of my first eye mod! I made my girl's eyes bigger, and I beveled a bit so that you could actually SEE her eyes. Originally the eyes were very difficult to see, but now It's much nicer. I am so proud of myself. I need to add a few more layers to her faceup, though. It looks awfully flat right now.

Open eye mod

 

I'm currently working on finishing a dye job on a doll. Dyeing a Kid Delf Elf Nara/DZ 45cm body black to be a drow elf ^^

And I'm also in the process of opening eyes on a sleeping Delf Chiwoo. The metal files are going a bit slow... I may up the speed & use my dremel soon.

Oh, and I'm in the middle of transforming a Bobobie 27cm tiny into a little robot.

Oi... apparently, I need to finish at least 1 of these before the snows hit >.< lol

 

Oooou, a dye project~ I love dye projects, I don't get to do another one of those for a while... But be careful, a lot of black dyes have a blue or purple base too them, and sometimes they don't come out right. But, the great thing is, if it's TOO blue or purple the first time, you can just dye it darker. Black is fairly easy. But the face up after will be harder because you'll have to find colours that show up on it. And you can't clean too much on a dye job before you clean the dye off and have to re-do it. *knows, had to re-dye her purple elf*

 

Yeah, black is definitely the easiest.

I dyed a MNF DES black for my boyfriend a couple years ago, and she came out really nice, but the faceup was a pain. At least this time I have an idea of what I'm dealing with

The reason I say "I'm in the process of..." is because I've already done the first layer of dye. She has a couple pieces that have a bronze hue to them, so it's just a matter of leaving them in longer to get them to match.


The little robot doll I'm working on is actually dyed a bright red, but not quite evenly.. I bought him from the MP since he needed some work, and I figured I would go all out on a mod job with him.

 

working on lots of things..currently working on my girl's neckhole( so I won't have to buy a neck piece), bust( I got her with modded bust, so I add some again), some chipping on her body, face-up of my other girl, lots of unfinished clothes, and my boy's Halloween costume..and need to finish all of them just before i get back to school, which is only a week..will post photos on my projects once i finish them off..

 

Continuing work on the Automail Project...and testing out the cleaner LA Awesome (using the dilution ratio for plastics of 10 parts water to 1 part of the cleaner) and seeing how it does on cleaning resin without damaging the resin or other aspects. Shall have to post up results or at least the findings from it when I get a moment. Its non-toxic and biodegradable, plus it's quite cheap... find it in the Dollar stores...like Dollar Tree, Dollar General and such...I have used it for other stuff before such as my clothes, on wood and metal, all with stellar results...

 

FINALLY finished sanding, dyeing and blushing my Delf Lishe and even managed a new faceup for her, now she's just waiting to be put together :3 The faceup came out better than I expected, considering last time I redid her face was about two years ago |D

Photos:
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/Puffsanchan/IMG_0901p.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/Puffsanchan/IMG_0900p.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/Puffsanchan/IMG_0891p.jpg

 

Currently I'm malarkying around with magnets and resin coated steel balls to see if I can make one of my BJD donerbodies work without needing strings. Should make the little sod easier to pose when building other things for him.....

--
Moley

 

Nice face-up Puff. I really like that beauty mark and how her "make-up" and dark eyes work together. I keep telling myself that I'm going to have a doll with dark (brown) eyes, and now, 5 heads in, it still hasn't happened. Blah.

Right now I am about to begin a day of cosmetic surgery (heavy face mods) -- nose jobs for everyone! Well, not everyone, but I have one boy head that is definitely on the list, possibly two. I often times find BJD faces that I love, but I'm very fixated on noses, and the noses are often not to my taste at all. So my plan is to slowly build up the bridge of the nose on my newly arrived AngelHeim Ryan until it's a little bumpy. . . just like I like it. And since I already invested in the materials, the floating boy head (Happy Doll Luke) may also fall victim to me.

In other projects my (new to me, second hand) AngelHeim boy needs to have all his seams sanded, and entire body blushed, he also needs something at all to wear, and my oldest friend (AOD Ruo Feng) is currently in pieces needing to be restrung. . . I can feel him glaring at me every day that I put it off longer. But since the AngelHeim boy has apparently been sitting in his box for almost 2 years and never been touched by his former owner, I think he should be the first priority.

And my doll who arrived a couple months ago (Impldoll Iris) is trying to butter me up to pay her some more attention too -- I think she's trying to trick me into giving her some tattoos. I've done doll tattoos before, so I'm excited to start these, I just have a terrible time making up my mind as to what exactly they should be. But Sophie, with her red hair and lips is quickly becoming my little firebird, so I think a phoenix may be in the works for her. Time will tell. . .

 

moded 2 bobobie elfkin one into a sub (sud mermaid)the other into (lava girl). both my first time moding. but all together happy.

 

Tattoos! I've just finished my new boy's faceup:


and body blushing (uh, warning, as thar be blushed/ pierced dollbits and pubic hair ahead!) :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36326441@N06/6422584573/

Now I want to give him some ink, as most of my guys have at least one piece. I'm thinking of a pinup girl on his arm and maybe something for his abdomen and hips.

 

Finished half of the seam sanding today, got too dark outside so I have to continue tomorrow D:. Darn winter weather froze my fingers stiff, making the task that much more painful. I'm surprised I'm not all that scared of sanding my girl (who is still nameless >.>), maybe I'm the adventurous, mod-loving type of doll collector XD.

Going through this thread is making me want to tattoo her...even though it's very out of character.

 

Just did the first bit of sanding on my secondhand Unoa. Whoever had her before me treated her quite bad... She's not damaged or yellowed, but the seams weren't sanded at all and even most of the air-holes of the casting were still there (Unoas are sold as kits)... Poor thing had big chunks of resin on her feet, her hips, everywhere. And her face-up was done with nailcoat (surprisingly it doesn't even look that bad on the lips, but around the eyes it's horrible)!
This all gives me the impression that she was an impulse buy, and was kept in her box most of the time...
I need new sanding paper before I can work on her any further, I want to blush her and give her a proper face-up, but she already looks and moves much better.

 

Just recently finished blushing my Charlotte, in the process of blushing/painting my Derek, and today my Bao arrived in the mail which I plan on totally modifying into a Jolteon (the pokemon, derp).

 

I started a faceup days ago, but it's been raining non-stop ever since... And now we have a tornado warning, so I kind of doubt the weather is going to be good for faceups for a while yet!

 

I'm planning to clean all my dolls (wig and clothing stains) and wire three dolls in the next few days.

 

I might think about wiring up Ed just a little in the lower torso and legs to garner a little more stability and posing. Might also do some fresh hot glue sueding to him as well, particularly in his kooky hips of his...>>

 

I don't know if this counts, but I am doing mock faceups for when I get my doll. Already anticipating a doll I haven't even ordered.

 

Finished all the sanding! Gave her a faceup, was too ugly so I did another and already the eyelashes and eyebrows felt easier to do ^^ Was too lazy to tattoo her, already starting to restring her and got so frustrated (probably because I was doing it myself with no forceps >_>) that she's only half strung.
Although, that's mainly due to needing a s-hook than anything else :P.

 

I am currently working on a project to create a Airi Sena from Mashiro-iro Symphony. I will most likely be using a Rina DD head to save myself from doing a faceup. The problem now is where to find the wig >^<

 

Soooo much blushing. I'm working on my friend Cowpewters Jagaur Macavity I have his body blushed and freckled but I think I want to redo his face aaand then I need to do scars on his back and arms and legs, I also have her Apini Mika to finish. Then I have my Luna Tamer Griddlebone to face up and body blush, and redo my Topaz Myra's face up, body blush her and my EOS Amana's face up and body blush @_@

My table is covered in body parts!

 

Finally sanded my Unoa, and after much struggle, also got rid of that horrible face-up with nailcoat she was wearing. Today I'll have her hot-glued, and then it's up to blushing and a new face-up!

I already have my next project waiting for me: I got a Dollzone Mo-B head and I want to mod it into a Sebastian Michaelis lookalike. I need to sand the cheeks down a bit to make the face sharper, slightly mod the shape of his eyes and make his mouth into more of a smirk. Going to be fun! *fangirl squeal* xD

 

Working on my Saint's face-- finally. Hopefully about halfway done and then I can get him all snazzed up in his clothes and take some pictures of him. :3

 

Currently:

Faceplate: Modding the eyes.

Doll head parts, back-part which I need to saw in half and alter in order to make it fit a thick Iplehouse E.I.D man neck.

Upper torso: See above, I'm gonna sand the thick neck a little.

A self sculpted BJD head that I've been working on for months, (Which is about 75% done.)

And a hilterskilter of various crafty things, odds and ends mostly and a few D.eye.Y blanks in case I get inspired. And experiments with a bunch of various different materials.

All in all, too many projects to get done.

 

So I got this head and it's a little on the heavy side, not to mention bulbous. So I'm going to be looking into turning it into a faceplate apparatus so that I can carve out some excess resin, AND make it smaller, depth-wise.

Feel free to PM if you have any advice/tips... >_>

 

currently remodding Lishe. redoing her nose again and softening her face more. stumped on how to make her lower lip fuller....

just finished painting manicure on some hands to be sent out.

and will be adding teeth to Nicholas.

 

after my commish is done, going to start workion my Soom Nenad. Dyeing to make a light tan, and just found the perfect image to go by on the web.
then got to start on my ws RS Pixoum going to make him into a true dragon "boy" lots of apoxie sculptiung and airbrushing on this one!

 

Lovely work just the same, Saint James!

I've bern doing mods for awhile now, and recently someone in my local doll group commissioned me to do her FTM chest mod (I've now done three or four, and I still have my own Gus to finish; his chest takes longer because he is intersex and requires small, believable breasts, so I am carving those out as I sand, but that's an exhausting visual puzzle on its own, so I'm grateful to be working on a slightly less demanding chest now, although its tan and will require matching) as well as to modify a DoB faceplate to have slightly less eyelid and a deeper eye well so thst eyes can actually be seen while worn. Since I'm always doing chest mods, and because I wasn't sure I could do the eyes with my current tools, I took that on, first.

At first, I was using a dremel head that didn't work so well and my first attempts were laughable. Yesterday I decided that I would use an engraving tool and THAT actually went amazingly well. I was nervous I would make the eyelids too thin, but it turned out rather well smd the owner is pleased with my progress. I'll probably do the other side next weekend.

 

I bought this gorgeous piece of thin, supple light brown leather, a suede and I am trying to decide whether to make a cape, or a pair of pants fpr my Mir Elfdoll out of it. I am also attempting to make eyes, I have a pair of moss green agate round cabochons that I am imbedding in white sculpey . has anyone ever made eyes, any advise?

 

rosalynmouse: I believe Elysion Gear is our resident expert at eye making. :3
St. James: I love pan pastels! The colors are amazing, but they really are a pain to mix! They have a good batch of neutral gray colors that work nice. And I love their cobalt blue, fatigue green and burnt sienna colors [although what the actual color names are, defeats me].

Color mixing is right up there with getting perfectly spaced eyebrow lines. Necessary, but evil.

----------------

Currently trying my hand at airbrushing faceups. I need constructive criticism and help. I've posted in the Critique sub-forum.

 

Thanks Enki!

rosalynmouse:
Here are several threads about making custom eyes.

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?88361-Custom-Eye-Tutorials-Now-with-links-to-Videos!

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?266820-Tutorial-for-making-Resin-Eyes


If you are useing cobochons and sculpty this link might be of help to you:

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?232268-tutorial-Another-Easy-Way-to-Make-Eyes

 

So much sanding over the past few days!
Bobobie Weylin:
- Reshaping face to look more angular and slightly older-- nose, cheeks, chin, forehead, jawline and ears (almost done, need to keep going over it with finer grit sandpaper to get micro scratches out, guess who went at it with a too-rough grit first)
- Slimming wrists (as above)
- Making six-pack more subtle (more or less done)
- Giving him a bit of a waist (more or less done)

Sugarble Helena/Adrian
- Sanding seams (half done, I got lazy half way...)
- Slimming her waist down more and enhancing her hipbones (currently she's at a really awkward triangle shape, I'm hoping taking her waist in will make her look better) (need to go over it again, I found some bits that need resanding)

Most of it was on the Weylin, and man the pointer finger and thumb on my right hand are sore as!
Restrung them both a few times too over the past few days, and I redid the Sugarble tiny's body blushing tonight. Gonna have to take it off in the morning when I continue work on her, but man she looks good like that at the moment anyway. I think I'll take her faceup off and redo that too, since it's getting a bit grubby and there are things I want to play with as well.

 

I am re-modding a Minifee b-line body that came to me with a major breast reduction. I am trying to re-add nipples and make the bust a more natural, small bust shape.
The original sanded down bust that was the same shape as a Licca body. I forgot to take a before pic, but this is the carve nearly done.


and here are the nipples carved in after as I decided she needed tham afterall.

 

I've got a lot of work to do with my Angelsdoll Hyang that I've been putting off all summer and I'm starting to feel bad about neglecting her.

-First up I want to do some sanding on her head cap and forehead so her head won't be so funky-shaped anymore and it won't be such a pain getting her wig on.
-Then she'll be getting a nose job. This is purely cosmetic. She's supposed to be based on me, so I'm going to thin her bridge down a bit.
-I've got to find some reinforcement for the inside of her eyes, the resin there is so thin that I'm afraid the first tumble she takes and her eyelids will crack.
-A face-up. When that will happen, who knows. Houston is another name for Humid and it seems like this is going to be a very rainy hurricane season.

She is also on the Massive body. I am very, VERY tempted to sand down her shoulders at the joints. What drew me to Hyang in the first place was the distinctive wide shoulders of the AD Massive body, but they are just SOOO wide. Just a few CM off and I feel they would be more proportional. It's so ridiculous that it's nearly impossible to find a 65cm guy doll who has shoulders wider than hers. I am considering making a thread on here with pictures of what I want to do and get feedback from more experienced modders here, even though I suspect the answers would be "WTH is wrong with you? That is a seriously dumb idea" and lead to even more mods that I didn't realize I would need to do. I haven't decided what I will do with the shoulders and I suspect I've been holding off on working with this doll because of that reason. It makes me nervous.

 

One of likely upcoming projects I will probably do, will some minor modding to Edward's hip sockets and thigh ball of his leg piece. For some reason, it just seems like the ball of the thigh joint sticks out oddly and I think the odd design of the hip socket and joint on his Leekeworld body is what makes him a pain to get standing (being he's already strung nicely and has been sueded and even kipped to try to help). So I think I will poke at that on the upcoming day off and see how modding the sockets and leg piece goes in helping hopefully making it so Ed will stand better, and hopefully without needing a stand all the time...

 

I'm working on my Doll Chateau Youth boy body. I already shortened his neck by about a cm, but I think I can go shorter than that even...I plan on taking another cm off later.
I'm also trying to get him to spread his legs >.< He sits with his knees glued together and it really bugs me. I smoothed out the harsh angle on his hip sockets, but it didn't do anything at all lol. Not sure if I should go higher with it, or do something to the thigh pieces.

I'd love to make him about a cm shorter in addition to the shorter neck (they claim their boys are 60cm and they're off by at least 3cm :\ ) but I'm not sure how and where to do it. Ideally it would come out of the torso...I don't want to mess with his legs. I like how long they are.
These are my first subtractive mods that aren't ftm or mtf! It's scary D:

 

I'm currently working on some resin wings. I spent a long long time sculpting and refining a pair of wings I made out of super sculpy and apoxie sculpt. Then with help and a great teacher I made my first ever silicone molds and just this last weekend I mixed and poured my first resin, making this my first casting project. The weather was perfect, I ended up with 3 pairs of wings in resin within an hour.

So far I've cleaned off the pour spouts and sanded most of the seams off of them, so all that's left is blushing! I can't wait to work on them more!

Another thing on my work table is my Dragondoll Cheng's body. I need to finish up the scarring on it and the blue blushing. He's a dragon character and I need to tattoo some wings on him too. At least I finally finished working on my SO's grail doll, she took forever to finish painting because she has fantasy parts all over the place (hooves, horns, wings, and a fantasy face up).

 

I am currently re-modding my Spiritdoll Jade (again!...this is basically round 3 or 4). I did subtractive mods all over her face for the first few rounds, then did additive mods (smaller eyes). This time I changed the eye mods and redid them, then gave her a closed frowning mouth. Her eyes need a bit of evening out, but so far so good.

 

Ah, I love seeing ambitious projects. If I look at enough, perhaps they'll give me the courage to take one on myself?

Currently on my worktable, I have a disassembled Dollshe Pure body getting some full body tats. I feel like its going to take me forever. I also have some newly acquired old Soom jointed hands that I'm going to dye. They're a suspiciously different color from a Soom body from the same year. Trying to sand them for an even dye is going to be some kind of nightmare. I'm thinking of just buffing them with baking soda and seeing how it goes. They're such a tactile item, I'm sure they aren't going to dye evenly without a fight.

Does anyone have any ideas about modding a Supergem boy for better posing? His torso is so pretty, but why joint it when it doesn't move? He can lean back alright, but the upper torso has practically no forward movement. I've already attacked the lower torso joint and improved it somewhat.

Oops, I think I'm rambling now! That doll's not gonna paint itself...

 

The past few weeks I've made a pair of tiny-sized angel wings and repaired my handmade girl's fingers (there were cracks in them). Now it's time for the Big Project... Building a new doll from scratch, Firefox Seraphim.
I also still need to adjust the smouth and eye-shape of my Dollzone Mo head... I want him to be smirking.

 

I've got a Soom Sov on my table that's getting the cloven part taken out of her hooves (it's a horse FFS). I've basically finished sanding them off and then it's time for her body and hooves to get blushed. I've just got a new Iwata airbrush that I'm going to take for a whirl (as soon as the cleaner arrives)

 

Just finished, but I've added fur to a Soom Chalo's chest using epoxy, airbrushed to match, then blushed the fur and body blushed the rest of his lovely sculpted muscles! *swoon*

 

I am in the process of building a vacuum former. So I have a heap of wood, concrete board, and heating elements laying all over my work table. The first thing on the list to pull is a custom mask that I designed for my doll for Halloween. Can't wait

 

Great job on salvaging them nipples!!!

 

I decided it's about time I practice my hand at face-ups!!! I am useless- full of great ideas, yet too lazy to get off my own backside and get on with it. If I did a face up a day my relationship would be better and I would be getting a better practiced hand!!

 

I cannot get over how brave some of you are. I have to admit I am more into the "fashion" of dolls then I am the dolls, but this board has made the dolls so interesting. I just can't get over some of the things some of you do. AMAZing, but I LOVE it

 

I recently got my Hati/Skoll twins from the Soom FCE. Because I was never a fan of their little claws (which are not only in a really silly place, anatomy-wise, but also have the downside of making the fingers/toes look like boobs >.>), I went to work modding all eight paws. This is the result (plus my Shonki, who is still a work in progress):



I'm so much happier with them this way

They're still technically on my worktable, though, because I still have a little smoothing to do (and I should really sand their seams while I'm working on them anyway >.>)

 

What's on my worktable?

+ Dollmore Malli
*Body mods
- Sanded breasts (Sounds painful, I know)
- Steampunk nails on every joint
- Bronze tattoos on every joint
*Facial mods
- Lip mod - slightly open with teeth added
- Earrings
- Eyes opened a little
- Mid-way Faceup
- Jaw mod - Make definition/shape


She's quite the project!

 

This horrifying creature is currently waiting for a faceup and blushing.


My little Shoggoth by rykaan, on Flickr