Shelling Characters Head/body for Estinien (FFXIV) cosplay?

Okay, I am also very new to this hobby, but I have played FFXIV, so I do know what Estinien looks like. You might try looking at Telesthesia & Dragon and see if any of those seem right to you? Estinien has a very straight and narrow nose bridge, and I think some of their guys have similar.

Elezen have incredibly funky proportions (I say as someone who used to main a male Duskwight Elezen lol) so getting a doll with the extremely long neck and broad shoulders with the ridiculously long legs proportionally might be a challenge. But check out the Telesthesia & Dragon 72cm boy body v3, maybe - I think that's relatively close.

 

Another FFXIV player here and @Casriath is right, Elezen do have quite proportionally long limbs. Having said that you’re not a sculptor making a model of Estinien to sell as game merchandise, you’re wanting to base a bjd on a favourite character so total accuracy is not required and ‘close enough’ for your satisfaction will suffice.
What you go for in the end is entirely up to you.

Quite a few of the Chinese companies thankfully do make their male dolls with quite narrow sharp facial features even the companies with more realistic ones. As well as the already mentioned one there’s also Ringdoll, Loong Soul, Doll Family-A, Doll Family-H and many more. Have a look at Alice’s Collection, they’re a dealership in China that carry many companies.
BJD - Alice's Collections - BJD Dolls, BJD Accessories

The best way of figuring out what face is closest to Estinien’s is to do a line drawing with no distractions such as colour, lashes, eyebrows or hair. That way you’re seeing the actual face shape. If possible have drawings of a 3/4 view, side profile and front facing. You can always trace from screenshots if you don’t feel confident drawing free hand.
Armed with the sketches looking at pictures of the blank bjd heads should be easier. Estinien has quite a severe almost grumpy expression most of the time but again that might not be what you personally want.

Good luck with your search!

Edited because damn autocorrect is clueless!

 

It's all entirely personal when making dolls based on characters. I have quite a few and actually have an Estinien! One person's choice may not reflect another's so it really comes down to how you, personally want them to look. But for reference, here is my Estinien
He's an old, discontinued Doll Family-A sculpt called Xiangyi that my sister had lying around. That's the default faceup and everything. I do think some of their current sculpt could definitely work tho! The ears are add ons from someone on etsy, I believe (can't remember who right now) and they just slip over the original ears and stay on with putty.
He's currently on an Angel of Dream body because he doesn't actually have his own and has to share but I'm eventually probably either going to get him the same one or a Resinsoul Cen body. They're both pretty thin while having some muscle definition (and don't break the bank) and that's plenty for me in this case.

I also second looking at sculpts with refs of the character at different angles and compare to the doll's features. Company photos typically have many angles as well so this is a good way and what I usually do when choosing dolls for existing characters.

 

I'm a fellow FFXIV player, too, and I've been working on making Hythlodaeus. I ended up getting Ring Doll's Lu Su for him, in no small part because I just liked the general vibes of the face sculpt. Definitely having the multiple angles of both the character and the various selections of sculpts helps, but also for me, Lu Su had a certain smile in his eyes that I felt was perfect for Hyu. And just like face contouring with IRL make-up, I should be able to make some subtle changes just with his face-up in terms of some of the exact details, like the shape of his lips and such.

I look forward to seeing how your Nyan comes along!

 

Ooo I can't wait to see your Estinien! Have you posted in the ffxiv thread over in Brigadoon? Someone there might have sone ideas for you. I made Aymeric with a Charmdoll Baron. Well, working on him anyway. His body is perfect for an Elezen, but it is just impossible to find anything that fits him at much less something in character. He is too skinny and a weirs hieght. Just something to be aware of. I also made my WoL, Luna, using a Doll Family H sculpt. She just needs her ears done better and she is good.

@oneironym omg I love Hyth! I can't wait to see him! I have been wanting to shell him too, but gave up finding a good sculpt for him decided that once I gwt the skills I am just going to make my own. Same with a few other OCs I have.

 

Right? I just adore him. At this point I would be hapoy with anything that could fit him. I do have a few things that he can wear, but they are too big or too small. I'm gonna have to just comission something.

Brigadoon is really hard to find at least to me, so here is a link to the ffxiv thread.
/threads/so-final-fantasy-14-anyone.829420/page-2#post-12849011

Edit: If you dig I'm pretty sure there's a link to an imgur pic I have of my WoL and Aymeric if you want to see them.

 

Sorry I didn't notice this until today haha. I had to just kind of guess but I think it said it should fit over most SD size ears. You can type in "bjd elf ears" on etsy and get a few results from different makers. Just make sure it says SD or DD and not Blythe!

 

Hi, fellow FFXIV player and Estinien lover here! I've also wanted to shell him for a while now. Sculpt wise, I'd say don't focus too hard on the pointy ears - you can always make or commission someone to make ears for the head! One suggestion, if you're fine with social media, is to check out XiaoHongShu (CN social app), and see what heads other people have used for him! (Just looking "ff14 bjd" on a search right now popped up a post with someone's Estinien doll, but that might be because I like a lot of art of him on there...)

One of the heads I see someone using is "Carter" by LOOK MOUNTAIN, which on Taobao is still available it seems? It's a very apt sculpt for him, I think. There's like three people who have posted about their 1/3 sized Estinien's on there, the other two I can't seem to find what sculpt they used but I'm sure someone here can figure it out just from their photos.


I think the harder part will be finding a body that matches how elezen look, tbh.