Modification Garbage-Eating Goblin - Making Myr (Resinsoul Seng mod - another wig, post 58)

Note: Updates are posted in new posts as I go along. Later posts have some mild doll nudity.

I wasn't planning to post this until I'd started actual mods after finals week but I've been taking poor-quality pictures and I have no self-control. Also, I figure this way someone might have some suggestions for me.

I've wanted a Resinsoul mini since before I sold off my original gang of BJDs but I only just recently realized that I had a character that would be great for one. I also wanted really wanted a big summer break project dolly, and lately I've had the BJD bug. I've been modding other dolls for years, I've sculpted my own BJDs, but this is the first resin I'm taking the dremel and milliput to. Excitement!

I am starting with a Resinsoul Seng that I got in-stock from DDE. I am aware that I could've had Resinsoul put together something much closer to start, but then it wouldn't be much of a summer break project, would it? 100% of my ability to wait is being used up by my October-ordered Fashion Saint.

Here's where I'm starting (wearing only the leftovers from my sold-off BJD crew... weird Dollmore glass eyes and unfinished sewing projects, haha)

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And this is who I'm making:


I'm giving myself wiggle room on the design. The stripes and skin grafts give be some freedom to hide problem areas on the mods.

Here's the rundown of mods I'll be wanting to do:

I already knew that I wouldn't like the double joints, but I don't like the double joints. Joint mods:

• Elbows
  
  The elbows like to fold into a Z. They are obnoxious. I thought that the joint was a peanut, but it's actually a cup. Not sure what I want to do to this yet. If I'm feeling really brave, I might just carve it out and make a new ball-and-hinge type joint. Otherwise, i need to find something to stop the bottom from spinning around so much.
  

  Done! I fixed the existing joint. Check out post 24 for details.​
• Knees
  
  The top is too hard to bend and only has two positions, and the bottom swings all over the place and doesn't fit in the joint right. I'll be sanding down the locks on the top somewhat (they're very tall and push the joint out of the socket while it's bending). For the bottom, I think I'll need to do additions to control the movement.
  I'm leaning towards flattening the sides of the ball and filling the the sockets. I want to lose the rotation because I'll be adding rotating thighs.
  

  Done! Legs work great now.​

​

Character mods:

• Downturned elfy ears.
  
  I realize the irony of adding ears that are closer to the fantasy version to the human version of a sculpt, but oh well.
  

  Mostly done! I will keep refining them when I work on the eyes.​
• Eye shape change
  
  Opening the top at a sleepy angle and filling in the sides.
  

  Done.​
• Sand angles into nose, maybe jaw?
  
  Done.​

​

• Possibly removable inset tooth mod?
  
  At one point I was bidding on a Lu to shell this character. The rest of the face is much further off but I kinda fell in love with the idea of pointy teeth. ( Myr has them, they're yellow) Seng has very large lips with a super deep center, so there is plenty of room for this from the outside. Not sure about the inside. Has anyone done this on an RS MSD?
  

  Done.​
• Sand down masculine torso detail
  
  Done!​
• Shorten torso
  
  From the top of the middle section. Not sure if I'll shop out a slice and reglue the old top of the joint or just grind it down and make a joint without ridges.
  

  Done!​
• Shorten legs
  
  I want to make a thigh joint on top, and just chop out some lower leg near the ankle and resecure with milliput. I'll add some block stripes in these spots.
  

  Done!​
• Fullbody sanding
  
  Done.​
• Dye job
  
  For the color I'm planning a mix of iDye Poly in yellow and silver. The effect I want is a brownish yellowy grey, a very muddy color, not super light but not super dark either. The grafts and huge chunk of the face that will be painted give me some leeway with the evenness of the dye (and the difference between dyed resin and milliput) but I still want to do the best I can.
  

  Done, see post 44 and this thread.​

And the more crafty/aesthetic parts:

• Yellow sclera eyes
  
  Not sure how I want to do these. CIG gave me a quote, and though it's reasonable, it's more than I have to spend at the moment. I'm considering getting some cheap DIY eyes, giving the whites a dip in iPoly, and making the scleras a slightly darker yellow. I just know that I don't want big dark irises.
  

  Done! Commissioned from Lemon Jelly Eye Shop!​
• Make a wig.
  
  Yellow color, hard cap with a nice soft fiber. I think I'll either use brushed yarn (easy to get in yellow) or dye some of my Tibetan lamb. That one would require getting some acid dye, though.
  

  Done! See post 35.​
• Make antennae.
  
  I don't know how I want to do this, actually. They'll probably be inserted into the wig, but I want something tapered. Bonus points if they're movable.
  

  Decided against! I like the suggestion of using shaved feathers and inserting them into the hard wig cap, but I haven't done it yet. I decided this isn't important to the design and I'll just leave it out.​
• Faceup. Done! See post 47.
• Clothes.
  
  Half of why I wanted to make this character is that they'll be fun to dress, but for the purposes of the project I just want a simple outfit that isn't unfinished too-big shorts and a cut sock.​

​

Whew, that looks like a lot when I write it out.

Here's where I'm at right now... Wig caps work better the longer you leave them alone to dry, so they get to stay like this for a few days while I finish my final projects. Then I start taking them apart and doing the fun stuff.

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I'm posting a project journal because this is my favorite part of the forum to read! I welcome any thoughts you might have, and thanks for reading.

 

@konzenkoryuu Thanks for the thought! I like magnets, but my problem with that is the narrowness of the antennae. They're too thin to add a magnet to.

@iamkathybrown Thank you, but what person?

 

@iamkathybrown Oh, yes, thank you! I actually had checked her Etsy while I was looking around, but I don't like the very flat eye chips because I don't really like dolls looking straight forward. I see on that page that she offers globe eyes, so I should try asking.

 

@konzenkoryuu It could, but if it has to be hidden in the wig, I might as well just put them into the wig! (Since it's a hard-cap wig.) Or I could actually drill holes into the head and wig and just poke them through. I only want them to be a few millimeters diameter at most and tapering off to a point. I'm just trying to figure out what to make them out of. I might try and find a cheap toy/gag cockroach or something like that.

 

Thank you all! I'm really flattered y'all like my character. ^^

@fairithilien Thank you for the recommendation. And, ooh, I really like the feather idea! I have a bunch so I'll have to give it a try. I thought about wire too, but with wire alone I'd be afraid of it getting kinked over time.

 

Thank you both!

@Princess Kenny - Oh, haha, I can totally see that actually! The colors and antennae are right. Myr isn't so smug though.

So, I'm finished with the quarter now, so this'll be a big ol' update I'm breaking up into sections. I'm sorry for the poor-quality photos, but the lighting isn't good in my house right now and I don't feel like dragging out photo lights while I'm working on stuff.

First off, I found an artist who would do both small iris and colored sclera eyes for me! They're called Lemon Jelly Eye Shop. They were super prompt to respond, the price was very fair and they seem quite open to do all kinds of wild stuff.

Resinsoul 1/4 Boy DJ Doublejointed (Wu) Body Review /Joint overview
Before I took Myr apart again I took some detailed shots of the joints so I can talk about what I want to do with them.

First is the knees:

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DoA won't let me put all the images in the post, so see them all here on Instagram.

(Pic 1) You can see that the bottom joint has a ton of space.

This (pic 2) is the furthest the joint bends while filling the space properly...


This is the furthest it bends and stays. This way, the only points of contact with the socket are the front of the knee and the back, and only barely. It's mostly being held in place by that one point at the back of the knee.
Because of that...


There's no enough friction and the joint just rotates around.

I still want to fix this part by narrowing the sides of the ball and filling in the socket.

As for the upper knees:

This joint is much less free-moving and irritating, but you can see that the catches are HUGE. They lock well,
but a lot more than I want, and they push the ball out while it's bending. The joint would probably work and hold well without them. I'm going to sand them down at least partway.

And the arms (ugh):

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More on Instagram
They did this literally immediately. (Pic 1)

This happens all the time. It's similar to what happens with the knee. The ball and socket are shallow...
So you bend the joint...

It's shallow enough to rotate...

And the shape of the elbow ridge pushes the ball at just such an angle that...

The string channel catches on the socket and now the arm's all wonky till you pull it apart.

I hate this joint. Also, the whole arm is oblong, not round, so the balls don't rotate in the sockets, which is part of why the socket pops like that so easily. There are probably things I could do to fix it... but I hate this design of double joint anyway, so I think I'm just going to rebuild the joint into a round ball joint with a hinge (a la Minifee elbows) using milliput.

Oh, and I forgot to upload the image, but the shoulder joint is similar to the upper knees: it has a huge catch.
It poses okay, but the catches are kind of excessive and push the ball out in mid-poses, so I'll be shortening those as well.

Wig Progress

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Cut the wig cap today! Their face is free again, haha.


Yesterday I happened to find some light yellow yarn of the recommended wig-making brand at the thrift store, so I picked it up and spent a few hours last night brushing it out. It's really soft, shiny, and stronger than I expected (after 75% of it gets combed away). Starting with so much yarn and ending up with so little hair is so unsatisfying, though! Also, the color looks lighter in the fibers than in the yarn. I think I'll have to get some of the darker yellow to mix them together.

REAL MODDING PROGRESS (doll nudity)

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So, today was my first day fully off... and also the first windy and rainy day in a while, argh! I stubbornly went outside to dremel on the 3-foot-wide dry spot on the deck anyway, but had to go back in after a couple hours because the wind picked up and I started getting cold and wet.

First, I of course had to pull them apart. There was a lot of dust in the channels and joints, eep! I wiped the faceup and marked off some straight and even chunks I want to take out of the legs.



And here's what I got to do before I had to come in. I sanded down a LOT of resin on the mid-torso to rough in the wasp waist and lessen the muscle definition. Then I sliced about a centimeter off the top (I'll keep that chunk handy for dye tests) and sanded it down from there, shortening the torso significantly. I expected to make the torso look short, but it was so elongated that it looks more normal than where I started, haha. Mostly, I want to make the arms look longer proportionally.

It's also now a rounded joint instead of one with a ridge like the original, so it can be moved without pulling. (I'm leaving the underwear joint as is, though.)

The waist is a bit high now, though. I'll be sanding it down more. Luckily, the resin is pretty thick.

I also just started shrinking the nether regions. I'm not that fussy about them, but the body is a bit too well-endowed. =#

That's all for now! Next update hopefully much sooner. I'm hoping for clear weather so I can get back to dremelling tomorrow.

 

So, nice clear day out today, which means I spent most of it out dremelling! I did a bunch of stuff... starting with the same stuff I did yesterday, but more, haha.


A couple more pictures:

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I'll just list the stuff I did:

• I moved the waist further down like I said. Then I decided that I still wanted the torso shorter, so I chopped off another big chunk and rounded it off again. This far down the torso, the waist did start tapering a little, so the upper torso ended up overhanging a lot. So...
• I significantly reduced the bottom edge of the upper torso. I didn't change the shape of the joint, I just ground down the edge and the chest. I flattened out the chest as well, which sounds like a weird thing to do on a male body, but the shape actually looked more like modest breasts than pecs, especially with my waist mod, and Myr doesn't have breasts, so I flattened it out to a more ambiguous shape.
• Opened the mouth! I'm been feeling bold but this was a scary one. I had to carve out a lot more resin than I expected; the lower face sure is thick. Drilling was the worst part and I wish that it hadn't carved into the upper lip, but that was the smallest bit my hand drill has. I still need to finish the carving with hand tools but I like the look in general! Seng certainly had the lip to spare.
• Sanded down the catches on the shoulders and upper knees.
• Tried to fix some of the issues with the lower knees. Honestly, they're just not very well shaped or designed, but I tried a few things that might help. I carved out more of the back so that the edge of the cup is surrounding more of the ball and flattened the sides of the ball. We'll see how it works out when I add milliput into the socket. And least one of the lower knee's balls seems like it needs to have a much more circular profile, but they're really not the same.
• Sliced the thighs into two pieces and carved a crude mobility joint. I was able to do more with the resin that was there than I expected, but I would've driven myself batty trying to get a fitting joint just by carving, so I'll fill it out with milliput so that I can fit and rotate it.
• Sanded down the tops of the ears so I can sculpt the downturned ones. RIP Seng's cute ears.

I'm very pleased with the body shape now. I was going to take a chunk out of the ankles, but I think I'll leave it. I'm not trying to match the height to anything, just to create proportions that look small and lanky. This way, the arms hang closer to the knees but I preserve more of gawky look of the slim legs.

Next step is milliput work! I could have carved out the socket for the arm's new ball joint, but I don't want to lose any length in the arms, so I'll be sculpting it on. It'll be relatively knobby (because the arm is oblong) but I'm fine with that. I also need to sculpt the joint itself. Then I'll worry about carving out the lower arm. I also want to do some more mods on the face, but I'm kind of waiting on the eyes to do the eye mods because I don't have any similar eyes to test it with.

 

@marthakins Thank you! Well, here's one now, haha.

I did a test-stringing today because I wanted to see how the proportions actually looked with everything put together. I used some thicker skintoned elastic I picked up from Dollmore way back when and honestly that alone improved the arms (which I haven't messed with yet) quite a bit. They don't pop as much, but I still really don't like the way they rotate. Also, I'm pretty happy with the body proportions. I still wish the arms were longer, I might be able to add a little bit with the new elbows, but not too much. The original body had some really short arms!


And a few more:

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After that I started with the milliput. I pressed some half-balls for the new elbows with my homemade (ie not great) ball molds, filled in the knees, and made nicer plug parts in the thighs. Then I realized that I had mixed too much milliput and, after apoxying all the other non-BJD stuff I could think of offhand, decided to slap on some rough bases to sculpt the ears on, since the apoxy was fairly stiff at this point.


Next will be continuing on the elbow joint, filling in the socket part of the thigh, and sculpting the ears proper. Also, lots of sanding to do of course, but I figure I'll start that once I have milliput parts to refine as well.

 

@purple_monkfish
Thank you!

Yeah, the limbs are super funky. I did successfully keep the knees from spinning so I'm okay with them now, but the arms I'm just... doing over, haha. Ever when they're working correctly, the rotation looks so unnatural, which is a shame since the sculpture of the arm is nice.

Thanks! Technically they're a "they" and not a "he" but they're not terribly hung up about it since the concept of gender is literally alien to them.

Yeah, I was planning to go the "insert into the wig's hard cap" route. I also like the shaved feather idea someone here gave me, but I haven't tried it yet.

I actually commissioned an artist for some urethane eyes! They're called Lemon Jelly Eye Shop, they do colored scleras and small iris, and the price was only a little more than the DIY eyes. I'll let you know how they turn out, but I'm sure much better than I'd do making them myself, haha.

 

Minor update. I have been working, there's just not much to show for it! I've been making balls for the elbows (horribly difficult to do with Milliput by the way, I miss LaDoll joint-making) and tweaking the knee and thigh joints. Today I finished those and strung the body together, though. It may look basically no different since the last test stringing, but I'm quite happy with how everything works now. The knees are perfect now, stable and non-spinny. The thighs function how I wanted, but don't look perfect. There are two problems: one is that I couldn't get the upper part with the plug perfectly flat, and the other is that the string channels aren't through the center of the thighs (or even in the same spot on each thigh) so the edges aren't very flush when rotated. Neither of these things bother me much, though. I'm happy with just having the mobility when I want it and I'm not planning to do a lot of posing with the upper thighs exposed.

The longer calves are actually making the posing a bit more difficult, though. I'm leaning back towards cutting them down.

Images:

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Oh! Today I also ordered some dyes. I got iDye Poly in silver gray and yellow, and some acid dye in yellow. I'm not happy with the color of the brushed yarn for the wig so I want to try dying one of my many natural fibers.

 

@Akiraniu Thank you!


So, I realized that I haven't updated this in a bit! I had a long dolly day today, but before today I did work more on the head and the elbow ball joints. The head went pretty well! The mouth is more or less in shape. I also smoothed out and shaped the ear bases somewhat. I still need to actually sculpt the ear, but I thought it'd be easier to smooth that part out before I sculpt the 3D shapes.
Then I spent a long time on the elbow ball joints... and shattered one. Ugh.

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Breaking the ball joint made me doubt the viability of rebuilding the joint I wanted in milliput, which is actually good, because it made me figure out how to fix the existing elbow joints. And I did! It actually wasn't a difficult mod, so if you're struggling with double jointed Resinsoul elbows (from Wu or Rong or whatever body) you might consider it.

Basically, the elbow cup piece is actually pretty round on top, but the upper arm's socket is oblong, so the joint doesn't work like a ball joint and won't rotate. But! The upper arm's socket is actually round with the exception of the pieces that extend down the sides. If you cut/grind those down, you get a regular nice round ball joint that actually rotates and works well.
That alone reduces the annoying rotate-and-popping thing the bottom joint does, but I really really hate that so I wanted to make it impossible. I did exactly the same thing I did in the lower leg: I carved out the inner joint area of the lower arm (the bottom of the ball part) so that the double-joint/cup part doesn't get pushed out when it bends. Uh, it makes more sense when you see it.

I didn't change the middle/elbow/cup part at all. I did also flatten the sides of the ball part of the lower arm; that probably didn't make a difference right now, but I want to suede the sides of the joint when I'm done.

The arm is no longer a terrible obnoxious pain. The top part moves freely and with sufficient friction (because this joint actually fits well) and the bottom no longer rotates (no more Z elbows) or pops. I also suspect the bottom bends a little further, but I didn't really check.

Here's a comparison of my modified arm (top) and the original (bottom):

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After that, I sanded... literally every other modded part of the body with 150 and 320 grit paper. Lots of tweaking and refining. I thought I'd get sick of it quickly but I actually found it a lot more relaxing than doing any of the milliput work. Resin is pretty nice to sand.

Once I was done sanding for the night I strung them back up to test everything together and just have the satisfaction of them being a whole doll for a bit, haha. Of course it was totally dark and I'm not dragging out photography lights, so here's another lovely kitchen counter photoshoot.

(The privates aren't really detailed or anything, just defined enough that you can actually tell something is there now, so I'm preserving their modesty a bit.)

Another picture:

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With that, all of the mobility mods are finished! I think I still want to remove some lower leg, though. (Their height is currently 40cm if anyone was wondering, so apparently I've shortened them by about 4 cm?) Those long calves kind of get in the way. Other than that, I need to finish the ears and teeth and do the eye mods. I'm still waiting on my commissioned eyes to start on the eye mods, though.

 

@Calabri
Thank you! Luckily Seng had perfect lips for doing this mod. They're really big and the crease is very deep so there's plenty of space for teeth without making the lips too thin.

@Alternatewarning
Thanks! I was going for a bonier chest that didn't look male or female so I hope that's what I've managed. I have to admit, the way Resinsoul sculpted it was pretty weird. Presumably they meant to sculpt pecs but the shape was more like breasts.

@Wolfie Pie @Akiraniu
Thank you both! I'm glad the project is interesting to people.

Update for today! It feels less exciting (probably because it isn't ending with them being assembled again) but it's still pretty good progress.

First I went out for the last round of dremelling. I enlarged the inside of the tooth-hole (because I found it hard to get putty in there) and chopped half-inch chunks out of the ankles like I had originally planned. That's the same amount I cut of the thighs, so the legs are pretty evenly proportioned again.

Then I did milliput work, which I still find I don't enjoy, haha. I roughed out the rest of the ear shape (still needs a lot of reductive sculpting), stuck the ankles back on (very thin layer here, I'm not concerned with it being super strong since this isn't a stress area), and made not one but two different attempts at tooth blanks (both when I had mixed too much putty and shoved the extra in the mouth hole). That part is harder than I expected and one of them looks pretty weird but I'm hoping the second will work out.

After that I did a bit of sanding, moving up to 400 grit on all the pieces (except the lower legs) and 600 on a few of them. I also worked on slightly reshaping the shoulders to be more round while preserving the catches, but I think my torso sanding is wearing away at the edge of the arm holes as well.


Sanded pieces:

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Tomorrow my dyes are supposed to be in, so maybe I'll play with the hair a bit and take a break from sanding. Lemon Jelly Eye Shop also says that all previous commissions should be finished this week, so hopefully the eyes will be here soon and I can start on the last mod (changing the eye shape).

 

@Follow-the-Wind
Thank you! Ears are pretty difficult. @_@

Today I had another long bout of sanding everything. Seriously everything, the only pieces that haven't been sanded are the elbow cups, hands and feet, haha. Some of them still need more sanding to be smooth and scratch-free, but I think I'll wait to do the final sanding after I've done the last face mods, which are waiting on the eyes to come in at this point. The teeth aren't final yet either, I don't think I've been approaching filling the cavity correctly but I'd rather wait until I'm doing more milliput work to continue on them. I still want to do a little more shaping on the ears, too. Anyway, here's semi-decent photos (I got out the foam board to hide the kitchen counter at least)



More:

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The dyes did come in, but I haven't tried to dye the hair fiber yet because it's been too hot for me to want to stand over a stove. I might do that over the next few days though.

 

Relatively long time no update! I'm still waiting for my commissioned eyes to be finished. In the mean time, I've been working at a leisurely pace on the wig.

First, dyeing the wool! I wanted yellow so I got a bright yellow acid dye from Dharma Trading. I dyed two batches of Tibetan lamb wool pelt.
The first I did according to the directions, adding the dye to the pot, then the wool, and then the acid, but it took the color much too fast and too dark. Not what I expected from bright yellow! Also, the leather part curled up in the water and made it hard to manipulate. In the end it was a pretty nice hair color anyway, sort of a natural ginger or like the color of bleached dark hair, but not bright yellow like I wanted.
For the second, I added the acid to the pot then just briefly dipped the wool, which I had strung to fishing line so I could pull on the leather to stop it from curling. This worked much better.

Dyeing photos:

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After the pieces were dyed, I started messing further with the wool. I determined that I hadn't done a big enough batch of the light color, so I would have to blend with the darker wool. Blending the curly locks would be a pain, plus I didn't want the hair to be super curly, so I decided to try straightening a bunch of it. I used some conditioner and it worked reasonably well. It's still very soft and kind of poofy.

Then I glued it all into wefts. I would've liked to pull out more of the short hairs to have less poofy wefts, but I was afraid of running out of fiber.

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And today I put the wig together! I have less than two inches of weft left, so I was right about barely having enough fiber.

This is probably the neatest wig I've ever made. The rows are orderly and the hair is firmly glued and not shed-y. However, it is still poofy. Styling is in order. Luckily I used waterproof glue.
I also used the split part method for the first time. I just cut it apart, glued wefts to the inside and sewed the cut back up again with a ladder stitch in a similar-color thread. For this size wig I think it works well, but it would probably be better if I had a. had thicker wefts to use for the part (again, lack of fiber) and b. kept both sides of the part from combining so it was distributed as evenly as it originally was. Still, it beats the visible glue from my last attempt.



Split part WIP picture:

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@Housebatdolls Ah, thank you! I just figured I'd go all out on the mods. I'm pretty happy with them, but I still need to sand everything more because of the dye. (Otherwise I'd be totally satisfied with how they are now.)


Today I styled the wig, which ended up being more of an endeavor than I expected! Doing the front wasn't bad, but the ponytail proved pretty tricky. I think I tried 3 or 4 different ties/braids. Most of them lost the hair on the far side too easily, so I went with the fairly tight (I rubber-banded each step) French fishtail braid. (The shoulder section is a normal braid though.) The downside of this is that I didn't make the wig with a tight ponytail/braid in mind (the wefts are made to go straight down, the wefts on the far side are nearly being pulled backward) so the wefts are more visible through the top layer than I was hoping for. If it bothers me too much I might redo the braid to be in the center instead of over the shoulder.

Because the very top layer/part is needed to hide everything, I left it loose and just have it clipped back so I can adjust it as needed. This works for me for now, but I'd like to work out something a bit nicer. Oh, also, I tied off all the non-buried hair bands in the braid with thread and then cut the hair bands off.

Anyway I'm happy to finally have something done-ish that actually looks like Myr!


More pictures:

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@Gypsy Aw, thank you! This has been a really fun project so far, I'm enjoying it a lot so hopefully that shows.


Today I actually have a real update! My custom eyes from Lemon Jelly Eye Shop came in. The domes over the iris are imperfect (as warned), but the colors are gorgeous, the irises are small, the domes are nice and flat, and I love them. There's shimmer in both the sclera and the iris, they catch the light really well and they're just super pretty and well worth the price I paid.
As soon as I was into free time even though I knew they wouldn't fit Seng's weird eye wells.

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Then I went on to do my last bout of Milliput work! I still really don't like sculpting Milliput but luckily I'm done now. I wrapped one of the eyes in plastic wrap and tape for multiple layers until I had a well-protected eye with a tape handle, then used that to form the eye wells. You can see how excessively wide Seng's eyes are. I decided not so sculpt this while it was wet because I'm more comfortable shaping the eyes with sanding, so here's some really ugly milliput work, haha.

Also, teeth! I decided to use the hard but not-quite-filling tooth part I'd already mad, but with the end trimmed down, so I had a hard base to work on. I used no plastic wrap between the mouth hole and the tooth piece, just water, and that helped a lot, also I wouldn't have been able to pull the piece out while I was sculpting if I didn't have the hard base already. Then I just made the teeth individually, put them on the base, and kept testing the piece in the head and tweaking the teeth to my satisfaction.

I had extra (pretty hard by then) milliput that I tried making some tailor's chalk with. In retrospect I should've used that to make a handle for the tooth part to make it easier to pull out, but that did not occur to me at the time.

More:

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Oh, I also did a final sanding (going over again with 1000 then 1500 all over, trying to be even and thorough with it) on the torso and thigh pieces today so they're looking pretty good and ready for dyeing. No pictures since they look the same, though! I'm trying to decide if I want to endeavor to give the hands and feet and allover sanding or not.

 

Today: Sanded face!

First I sanded the milliput mods on the eyes, which didn't go as easily as I had hoped. A couple of parts chipped off and left marks. I'm not too concerned, though, since around the eyes is the easiest place to hide flaws and the whole upper half of the face will be painted over. I also opened the top to a different angle.

After that, I decided that the brow was too heavy over the eyes for the expression I wanted, so I started sanding that down. And once I did that I started tweaking everything. The nose now has much more defined angles, as does the bottom of the jaw, although you can't really see that from a normal angle. I also sanded the right ear to match the left a bit better.

More sanding to smooth stuff out is still needed, but I think I only need one more sanding session before it's time for the dye bath.


Couple more:

Spoiler

 

@skyealloway
Thanks! I was really surprised by how little work it ended up being to fix them in the end.

@grimgoblin
Ah, thank you! I finished resanding the pieces today so I'm hoping to dye again tomorrow. I have 3 different dyes to try now, I'm sure I'll like one of them, haha. I haven't updated this thread yet because I don't want to post lots of redundant content in the forum, but here's the thread:
Help troubleshoot my dye job! (Color change between pieces)

Ah, that's really cool! I really want to see him when you work on him. The body needs work, but after the changes I made I honestly really like it. It's nice and light and fun to pose, and the weird elbow cups give a comfortable range of motion without ever making a square elbow which is a huge aesthetic pet peeve of mine.

If I was to do use this body again, not specifically to make Myr, what I'd do to it would be:
1. Arm mod I mentioned!!! Maybe not the bottom, just the top. Cut off the sides of the socket. Worlds better.
2. Shorten and round off the top of the middle torso section, like I did the first time here. Not quite as short as Myr. You really need a dremel for this though, otherwise it'd take 50 years. Also, add a little more waist.
3. Trim the bottom of the chest piece down and flatten the pecs slightly (not quite as much as Myr)
4. Cut the thigh joints. I wouldn't try to keep a plug of resin like I did cause I can't get the joint totally flat around the plug. Just cut them both flat and then add a plug, it isn't under much stress anyway.

Other things I did, like flattening the sides/filling in the knee joints, are probably pretty unnecessary. Hot glue sueding thicker than normal would do the job fine and avoid having to sand more than necessary.

 

@Wolfie Pie
Thank you! (You don't have to wait long =p) Yes, Noel was awesome and did a great job interpreting my request! Part of me is fussy about the dome, but then I remember my years of suffering with high-dome glass eyes and I realize how much better this overall look is, haha. If I needed more fantasy eyes I'd definitely go back.

@Candied Noodles
Aw, thank you so much! I feel the same way, once the wig and eyes came together I started to actually see them. About the dye job...


I did a pretty long post in my dye job troubleshoot thread about my results, which I'm now going to copy/paste here under a spoiler.

Spoiler

I tested my three dyes in a small but more saturated bath, without color enhancer this time.
I misjudged on the iDye black and went darker than I would've done, but you can get an idea of the shade anyway.
The iDye silver, like I thought, is totally pink/purple. Not right at all without the yellow.
The Rit Dyemore Frost Gray is clearly the grayest here! Actually more neutral than I originally planned, but I decided I'd prefer that to being too purple, so I decided to press on with the one.


So, I went and set up my big pot. I added more than half the bottle of dye with my pot filled up a couple inches higher, so it was saturated. I used the candy thermometer to ensure that the water held at 100 degrees C this time. (It did splatter at me sometimes though.) I tied new fishing line shorter than last time and held the pieces, 2 at a time, on tongs for much better control so the pieces stayed centered and in the water. I wiped every piece down freshly with gloves and rubbing alcohol before putting them in the bin of water that held them right before I put them in the pot. All the pieces were equally as well sanded as before, if not better!

Basically, I followed all best practices, better than last time. The dye came out much splotchier though.


Whatever magic was with me when the pieces dyed perfectly evenly brown-orange was not here for this Rit Dyemore. The color didn't shift over time (and my dipping times had to be adjusted only slightly, I was from 1:10 at the beginning to 0:55 at the end) but different sanded parts of the resin took the color differently despite my thorough finishing with the same grit. Seam lines appeared on the arms, legs, and hips. The arms and legs came out particularly splotchy (especially the hip joints I barely sanded, wtf hip joints)

After I did the limb pieces, I was definitely noticing the splotchiness compared to the iDye so I took a gamble and added a splash of the color enhancer from the iDye. I believe this made a difference. The torso is much more even compared to the limbs. The hue got ever-so-slightly colder after I did this, I think (moreso on some pieces like the head and knees) but not enough to really bother me like the rapid saturation last time.

Still, I'm not sure if it was because of the shorter dips, the nature of the color itself or the quality of Rit Dyemore vs iDye Poly, but my final results are worse, smoothness wise, than my bad batch.
For me this isn't a dealbreaker, I'd rather have a doll in the color I like than one that's perfectly even. I like the naturalistic/heavy blushing/textured skin style of painting and this character is getting scarred up and striped anyway. Most of the face is getting painted in a darker block so I'm not concerned about that at all.
In the end I alcohol scrubbed everything thoroughly, then did a bunch of strategic magic-eraser-ing to try to even out the color between pieces some (skipped the arms for the most part since that's supposed to be the most heavily burnt, always-hidden area) and kind of create some bodyblushing, which was pretty fun actually.

Here's the picture:


Other than the dye job, also pictured here is full pliver sueding to protect from scratches and because I like how it handles. I'm going to let everything sit until tomorrow before I string them back up. Then I'll be back into my comfort zone, aesthetics! I'm anxious to get a face on them.

 

Long time no update! I will save the boring excuses. There's been draining RL stuff and given the choice between using my time to work on them or update the thread I want to work on them, haha.

Thank you both! I still don't really know why that dye went so much worse than the first wrong color, but I'm not overly bothered by it, I'm glad to hear you still think it looks okay.

@Rosslyn Thank you for the suggestion! I looked but no stores in my area carry it and I really didn't want to try to color match over the internet.

I have two sets of "nice" pastels from Goodwill (Rembrandt and discontinued Grumbacher, yes I got ridiculously lucky at Goodwill) so I ended up using those. I mixed up a color, heavy on the white because Rembrandt's white goes on very opaque, and did two layers on the face, legs (avoiding the joints) and upper chest. Unfortunately, once sealed that very opaque white goes pretty transparent, so the coverage is not as good as I had hoped, but the color is at least fairly unified. I painted the stripes by sponging on acrylic.

After all the base coating, they have a fairly rough surface, especially the face. This is mostly because I used Citadel Purity Seal in but hotter weather than I'm used to. I got some grainy coats before I realized that the sealant was drying in the air and I had to move the can much closer than usual. This doesn't bother me texturally, but it made painting the face pretty tough! Oh well.

The faceup isn't my best but I was working on a painted and pastel-ed face that I really, really didn't want to redo, so I was pretty conservative. The watercolor liked to bead up on the surface in certain spots and painting with a light touch gave a grainy effect. The stripe doesn't look that dark for me, but it was dark enough that the matte coating made my black paint nearly disappear. I had to gloss things like the eyebrows to get them to stand out, even though I don't like doing that!

Myr's design calls for burn scars/skin grafts on their chest and arms. These aren't meant to be shown off, but I wanted to have something there. First off, I moved them from the chest to the back because the chest dyed so nicely I didn't want to cover it up! Then I did something very experimental for the patches. I took a used dryer sheet (mayyy contain some non-resin-safe materials, but clearly the ship of this doll being non-damages has already sailed) and cut up pieces (strategically to cover the worst dyed bits). Then I permeated the pieces in clear school glue and stuck them on. Instant texture! When they dried I used a rough sponge to dab on acrylic paint, darker then lighter. I dabbed on the varnish to seal them as well, so they're a bit glossy. If I was being fussy, I'd go bad and add details to the seams and transitions, but for scars I plan to hide, this will do!

One other thing: I realized that I had forgotten the antennae for so long that I didn't find them important to the design. So I'm just not going to do them.

So, pictures!


Assorted large pictures:

Spoiler

Teef! They're hard to photograph.





WIP shots:

 

@iamkathybrown
Ah, thank you! I tried putting the photo and drawing side my side and I was surprised that the proportions came out pretty similar. They just need bigger feet and hands! I briefly considered buying some of RS' SD-sized hands but that'd probably look ridiculous.

@Rosslyn
Oh, thanks, that's good to know! I didn't think of buying a set but I might if I do another project where I need to do skintone-matching. And thank you so much!

@Draiol
Oh, thank you! I actually have a bit more bio/backstory information about Myr if you are interested. They're actually an AU/reincarnated version of a very different character that I have (guy on the left in my icon).

Spoiler

Myr:
A young goblin who recently fled their planet to avoid the draft. A skilled tailor and a slightly-less-skilled gambling addict.

Impetuous, impulsive and unambitious, as goblins tend to be, but generally kind and good-natured. Social and excitable, but also rather skittish. Thoughtful and generally good at reading people. Has a strong mistrust of authority. Not terribly honest. Eats out of the garbage and sleeps a lot.

Tries not to offend, but has a tendency to do so (or to unnerve) others due to their confusion with alien social conventions. Hits on others indiscriminately, considers dead bodies as usable materials and is incredibly unsentimental.



They sigh slightly and lean back, continuing as if the explanation they give is tedious. "My planet is small and harsh. There's not a lot of things that can live there. There are basically two intelligent species, us goblins and, like, elves or whatever you'd call them?" They shrug. "I think we started out as the same species, but they're bigger and stronger than we are. They started gathering in big territories around the best resources while we were more like nomads. So, they formed their society, and we weren't a part of it. Then they started running out of food, and they decided we're basically animals and fair game. They killed a LOT of us. The ones that survived got small and lean and fast and twitchy. We broke into small groups and scavenged everything. All the leftover parts the elves thought were gross. The groups that ate the worst stuff did the best."

"After a while we got too hard to kill and not good enough to eat. I guess we taste bad? We lost taste back before that. So they started hunting and farming the little animals and then we had even less to eat, so we had to go closer to them again and keep going with the scavenging, you know, eating garbage and taking what we need to live. There's a lot more of them than us, and the elves are SO civilized," they roll their eyes, "that they think we're nasty wagon-raiding baby-eating barbarians when really they're pricks who stopped eating us relatively recently and literally never bothered to try to speak to us even though most of us had picked up at least some of their language. But, thing is, by this point we're really tough nasty barbarians and they're big inefficient civilized people who can't survive a plague." They shrug. "So there was a big plague and, when it started wiping out their villages, we moved in and lived in their houses and it's all pretty good for us. They didn't really notice or care, because, you know, they're dealing with the plague."

"Now we had more goblins living close together than before. We don't have much of a government, just things like heads of the village, and we pretty much keep to ourselves. But there's this one goblin village that doesn't do that. First the elves tried to take back the village, but the goblins fought them off. And they're really surprised. They never thought they could do that, we were all still scared of the elves. So their leader became a hero. Those goblins started going around the other goblin villages and telling stories and getting people to join them and fight, cause they realize that they can take the elf villages that were weakened but not totally killed off by the plague. Every time they won a big battle, they got more people to join and follow their leader. After a while, they became the goblin, uh, king I guess. Lots of people and villages united under them, they accumulated a lot of the stuff of value. The elves started trying to send representatives, but the king isn't... diplomatic."

They look down at their hands, tone turning more personal. "So... now there's a real war. With the goblins and the elves. Even after the plague... the actual elven armies are strong. The ones from the big towns. There's a lot of casualties. The king has to convince people to fight and they become the god-king." There's derision in their voice. "I guess it's not that hard, most of the goblins thought they were really special, but... serving the god-king became mandatory. When they couldn't win against the elves, they went after the heathen villages that didn't fight. They'd burn us out, pull out the able-bodied adult survivors and call that a win." They touch their fingertips together. "... The first time they came around my village I was a kid. Around the time I heard they were coming back, I also heard some weird foreigners had shown up a few towns away and they could get you out for a price. So I took what I needed and I booked it."

Thanks for the heads-up on the pictures! I'll put them somewhere else and go fix them.

@Housebatdolls
Thank you so much! I'm really happy to hear that you like the expression; while I was working on them I was worried the open mouth was going to make the face really blank and I changed my plans for the brow position last-minute.

 

Thank you so much to everyone! I'm really flattered that they've been so well-received. ^^

As a note: I just got around to uploading all my photos to Flickr, so if anything happens to the photos in the thread again you can find them all here in this Flickr album.


Anyway, I actually do have an update! I made Myr another wig with brushed yarn because I found a nice yarn in a good color. (It's Lion Brand Landscapes yarn in Mustard, and it is criminally easy to brush out and very long and sleek.)

Because my last two wigs were too thin I kinda overcompensated and this one is too thick! I had to chop a lot of hair out of the middle and it's still thicker than I'd like.

I like the color variation and wild look of the Tibetan lamb wig better, but this one is closer to my art, not see-through on top and the style isn't held in place with wishful thinking. (Those loops are glued in place.) Having the choice of wigs is nice.

The eyelashes I ordered from eBay also got here while I was making the wig. They're yellow! Generally speaking I hate lashes, but they make the eyes look sleepier and I figured if I didn't like them I was only out $1.50. For now I think I like them.

Spoiler