Homunculus! Very big, very kicky, but she's been fun! This is homunculus, she stands just just under 120cm, but I plan for her to be closer to 97-98 once I finish her final body. Her body is partially printed at the moment, and will remain that way through the final prototype up until I cast her, if I decide to do that. As it stands her hip peanuts alone ate 4 bricks of ladoll clay. I can't even begin to imagine how many bricks her whole entire body will take if sculpted start to finish with that. So I will be printing a detail-less base and sculpting over that. (Since I don't have body shots yet, I'm definitely welcome to critique on my super basic 'blueprint' lol) Current things I need to improve: Made her leggies too long. Either need to shorten them, or scale up the rest of the body to fit them, thus making this girl even bigger. Though I'm not sure if she needs to be any bigger. Made her arms too short. Need to lengthen them. Making the back of her hip peanuts fit with the curve of the thigh part and the butt worked to keep her from leaning back. But now she kicks forward. Need to add little notches to try and prevent that. Head too small, more defined eyelid shape. Debating jointed toes and fingers. Ill be pulling a dollchateau with this, with the fingers/toes just bending at the knuckles. Debating making her chest area detachable through magnets. I have a plan on how to do that. I just need to see if I can find some magnets that will hold a whole tiddy piece on. I need to stop being a coward and actually sculpt this poor girl some actual ears. Old stuff here↓ Spoiler Current things I'm working on: -Find a clay that doesn't gouge easy, taking suggestions. I don't want paperclay or polymer clay. I used Ladoll clay but it nicked and gouged so easy. -Her entire lower body is actually botched under those clothes. Does not fit with the chest piece and she actually has a massive hole in her butt and upper back where clay crumbled. This is why there's no naked pictures yet. Despite the stringing, her underclothes are helping keep her stable. :C -Legs are too thin and kicky, I plan to alter her joints some to lock better. She can stand and balance if I wrap her knees. The clay on her left hip crumbling. -Arms, all of them. They are still 100% printed. In low quality too. -I'm happy with her face sculpt, it just needs some polishing and touchups. Especially around the nose. I tried a realistic look for her, But I didn't like it. I want her to remain somewhat uncanny and stylized. Doll in picture is Gem of Doll Dianna, there for comparison to a 1/4 size doll.
My go to when I need a durable sculpting material is epoxy. It's very expensive, though. Another option is to make he original sculpt out of something that is easy to work with (such as paper clay) and then cast the piece in a stronger material. The polyurethane used for on topic BJD are not the only option. I have had good resaults with a material called "plasticrete" for example. It's an acrylic resin with a chalk filler. Very cost efective, fairly safe and easy to use (compared to plyurethane) and it can be cast in vinamold, moulage and similar reusable mold materials making the whole process fairly low cost, even for large parts.
Another option that might work is sculpting in a less durable material and then sending the part to be 3D scanned so you can print it in more durable resin. There are some artists on Instagram that will scan clay parts for you (syntheticephemera is one). Your girl looks pretty cool at the moment! She is definitely giving me Doll Chateau / Dream Valley vibes - which is a good thing in my opinion.
My vote is for Apoxie sculpt, which is an epoxy 2-part clay. It’s actually harder and more durable than resin. A 4lb tub of it is about $45USD. When it’s immediately mixed, it’s as soft as foam clay. It’ll be workable for about 2 hours as it hardens. It’ll go from super soft to firm (similar to Sculpey firm) and it’ll dry within 24-48 hours, becoming similar to resin. At her size, Homunculus will probably be really heavy, though (about slightly heavier than a resin doll her size would weigh). Another option, that I’m considering myself, is to sculpt a doll in a soft paperclay like ladoll and then make plaster or silicone molds and cast it in Apoxie sculpt. I also wanted to add that I think Homunculus is suuuppppeeer cute. I love her face sculpt, eyes, and clothes
I’m considering apoxie too tbh. Ladoll gouges too bad for me. Xc. I like it but it doesn’t like any form of sharp object, fingernail, tool I get near or. what would you recommend for sanding apoxie? The price isn’t an issue for me but in the past when I’ve used it I had issues getting it smooth. also thank you. I’m glad people find her cute. X3. Dollchateau is my favorite company!! So totally taken as a compliment. and thanks for the recommendation. Might be useful to look into for doing alternative expressions. oh I never knew about plasticrete. Definitely will look into that. ^^ ty.
The trick to sanding Apoxie is wet sanding. Sanding it dry will gunk up all sandpaper and will make it hard to smooth. But, even more importantly, once you got the volumes and shapes built up to your liking, while it’s still workable, you need to smooth it out as much as possible with water. Just wet your hands and smooth and blend. I consider this “sanding pass #1” and it’s the most important step, imo. If this step is done well enough, you most likely will only have to do a few wet sanding passes to get it really smooth if any at all. I rarely need to sand after my Apoxie is cured.
So I uhh... forgot this thread existed. Mostly because I only got to work on her between long shifts at work. But! Between printing and sculpting in clay. I got her second body done. She ended up just a bit under 120cm. Which was bigger than planned. Gem of Doll Dianna for comparison. Im ready for working on the final version now. Which I do plan to scale back in the size department. Maybe. Just... maybee. Ill update the OP soon with a full list of what I plan to do.
Ahh! She is so cute! I adore how big she is, and her nose is my fav feature I'm curious what clothes does she fit? Jointed hands would be so neat Youve gotten so far, can't wait to see more of her development when you get time c: I did a little doodle of her Hope you like it!
Omg thats so cute thanks a bunch! As for clothes, she barely squeezes into T4 sized pants. I might have to move a size up. Her tops she wears 0-3 months old. Thank you. ^_^