~20cm Dolls Knobbly, the nasty Goblin

I am at it again!

This time I will make a goblin, sized to work with my other tinies.
This is what I've got so far, I am only just beginning.


I don't have a firm deadline, but at the very least I want to be able to have him in production by the end of this year. That should be plenty of time.

I do intend to cast him at home. There are a few things that needs to be found workarounds for, such as a reliable way to cast the hands (long narrow fingers likes to trap air) and find a colour that I can cast that still reads "goblin" to me. I would love some saturated greens, but that won't happen, so I will have to experiment to see what I can do. Luckily, humidity is still low enough that I may be able to do some tests before the weather gets warmer.

Thanks for looking.

 

More work done! This is what the torso looks like right now.

 

Any time!

It's great to be back at the sculpting table. Casting is fun and all, but so much more stressful. It's nice to have someting a bit more relaxed and creative to do.

 

I've been working on the knees. Here is a first, very careful string test. No outside shapeing yet. Function first, pretty looks later.


The ambition is to make a leg that can support the body both in the hunched stance of the drawing in the opening post and with a straight leg. And, preferably, smoothly take any other position from straight to floded all the way in as far as his legs will allow it to go.
To make that possible I need a lot of friction and that means a good fit of the joint above anything else so at this stage I am a lot more interested in getting the joints to work than about the look of the thing. If at all possible I want to avoid locks, but if I have to resort to that I will try to only do them on one half of the knee joint, leaving the other half to move smoothly. This way most inbetween poses should still be possible, allthough with a little less control.

 

Thanks! It's great to have a place to share projects like these.
I fully admit that I may not able to get him to behave quite the way I want him to, but I like a challenge. It may be beyond my skills, but there is no real physicall reason why it shouldn't be possible, so as the very least I will give it an honest try.

 

I've started working on the shoulders.

 

I've been making some progress on the arms.
I'm trying a double joint this time. We'll see how it translates to casting, but it should work.
In any case, holding poses doesn't seem to be a problem, at least not at this stage. This test is strung with a very soft elastic, both ends of the elbow joint are in an unsupported in-between position and that clamp is way heavier than a hand will be. So far so good.


And I've started on a pair of feet. Right now the priority is to get something foot shaped done so I can test string for balance when doing standing poses, as soon as possible.

 

He stands!

In a hunched stance.


And with straight legs.


Obviously, with the arms and head the doll may behave differently, but it is a promising start.

 

So, the arms are coming along nicely. Still no hands, but I stung him with clamps today and he stands pretty well despite the added weight.

Besides the general adjustments to joints and slow build up and refinement of his over all shape, I have spent a fair amount of time with moddeling clay, experimenting with head sculpts. I've never sclupted a goblin in this size before, so I need the practice before I do it in polymer clay. No pictures of that, but I thought I'd mention it so it doesn't seem as if I just magically somehow know what to do when I start the head proper.

 

Hands are taking shape and wrist joints have been created. Not very refined, yet, but at least now I can test the elbows properly.

 

More elbow tests and refinement of the joints.
Here are a few poses with the different parts of the elbow engaged to different degrees. It looks promising so far.


And the arm fully extended.

 

Some real progress on the head, at last!

I can blame spring depression and pollen allergy all I want, but the truth is that this should not have taken this long.
I've done at least a dozen trials, tests and false starts, but now I finaly have a finished rough sculpt for the head.

Say hi to Knobbly!

 

Thanks!

 

@sluggoislit @Tippetarius & @chrstphrl Thank you, guys! I have started on the mechanical aspect of the head, it shouldn't be long now before I can string the entire doll for the first time. I can't wait to see him all together.

 

First string test of the head!

 

I'm glad you like him!

 

Today I stung the whole doll for the first time!

Standing both straight and hunched still works. Ignore the clamp in the back, it just holds the excess arm elastic.



And while he can't stand on one leg, he can do things like this quite reliably:


Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done, but I like how he is coming along so far. I have high hopes for this one.

 

Thanks! I hope to have him finished by this fall.

Thank you @Vimes. I'm having a lot of fun with this project.

I whole heartedly agree. Besides, how can we have knights and heroes and bold wariors if they have nothing to fight?

 

Thank you! He does have a surprizing amount of personality even at this early stage, doesn't he?
I'm having a good time with this project.

 

I'm happy you like him!

Right now I am working on refining his shape and that does not make for very exciting pictures. But I'll try to take som of what is going on today to keep ypu all up to date.
Priming is not too far off now, at least for some of his parts.

 

Refining hands and feet. This is where I'm at with those right now.



These are the last parts to get any actual reshaping, the rest ony has surface and finishing work left on them. (Until I discover something that absolutely needs fixing... This stage of the process is kind of endless.)

There is one more part that I need to make a decision on.
I am debating one of those little inset parts to guide the elastic at the top of the mid torso part. You know, that little intermal bit you often see on bigger dolls.
As he is, his posing is ok, but I worry a little bit that his open mid torso will be prone to slide too far out of position once he is cast and strung with full strength. Narrowing the channels in the torso part itself would increase the weight and make the part harder to cast and potentially cause more wear on the mold, while casting it fully open is a lot easier. But an internal part is a extra part to cast, so that adds to the over all work load and cost. It does need to be thought through.
I am leaning towards an internal part right now. I can make that part easy to cast and rather two easy parts than one that is prone to miscasts.

 

Today I oficially started the priming stage! All major shaping is done, ahead lies the endless cycle of priming and sanding.

 

Priming-sanding-priming-sanding...



But since I know it can be hard to look past the blotchyness and scattered pieces, here is a primed leg between sandings to give you an idea of where he is at right now:

 

Thanks! So do I.
This project is moving along very nicely right now. I'm working on him almost every day.
(Only slightly hampered by the typical Swedish summer weather, that can be summed up very accurately in the word "unpredictable" that makes spraying primer a bit of an adventure, some times. )

 

Hehe, you never forget your first.

 

This guy is getting very close to mold making now!

Before doing the final finish I took the oppurtunity to string him to get a good look at him without the distraction of of the uneven surface and colour. I took some pictures and all his measurements and tested out his posing abilities (in other words, I took some time to play around with him and have some fun).



Turns out that, even standing stright, he is only about 18,5 cm. I will have to change the label on this thread.
(I measured my original sketch and sure enough, he is actually about this height on that as well, I messed up when creating the thread, but at least I seem to have followed my plan, so there is that.)
He still stand very well, both with straight and bent legs. I'm not too worried about this not translating to the cast version, he is stable enough that even with the difference in friction and the slight difference in weight distribution he should still be able to do this easily.



I sized him to fit with my human tinies. Goblins are small creatures so I wanted him a bit shorter, but not soo small that he appeared out of scale. As I worked on him some of his parts did feel very small, so I worried a little bit that I wouldn't like the size when he was put togheter. Now that I've been able to handle him a bit, I am very happy with the size.
Even a very light tension is able to hold him up fairly well and I have no doubt that the higher tension possible when he is cast is going to compensate for the difference in surface friction well enough.



Another thing I looked out for was his thigh joints. His very large, exposed joint did have the potential to look a bit jarring, but now that I can see the images I think I worried over nothing. From most angles his outline is actually quite nice. I designed him like this specifically to get a large range of mobility while still maintaining the stability of a large joint surface and I think it payed off.

There were a few poses that I managed quite easily in his current form that I don't believe he will be able to do without some type of sueding or other trickery once he is cast, such as this one:

Keep in mind that he has no mobility joint in his thighs, nor is the joint over bent and he is not leaning on anything. He was able to hold this pose on his own, even when picked up from the surface. Not bad a for a single piece thigh. I am a little bit proud of this one, even if it may not actually translate over to the cast verison, I still wanted to show it off.

 

Thank you! I am a little bit on love with this doll right now, seeing him all together like this was a treat and made me fall in love with the project all over again. Like, I want an army of theses little things. Right now, I don't even care if he doesn't sell I just want him for me!

 

So... He's mostly ready for moldmaking, but my regular silicone choice is out of stock. I'm waiting for a reply about if they will get it again soon, but otherwise I will have to find another source. I hope I can still keep my time estimate and have the first cast done by early octobre, but we'll see.
Why, oh why is there always something that gets in the way just when things seem to go smoothly?

 

@Vimes Painfully true. As soon as you think you know what you are doing, something changes.
For this doll I've allready been forced to re-test all my materials with not one, but two new types of primer. Guess what I'll have to do if I have to get a new type of silicone...

 

Good-ish news from my supplier! They think they'll have the silicone back in stock in a few weeks, so with a bit of luck it will still work out. At least they replied very quickly. Luckily I do have some marigins built into my time plan so I believe I can keep my deadlines.
I just hope it won't be the same thing when it comes to the resin. At least I do have some left overs since the last casting period. Even if it is approaching the end of it's shelf life, it'll be fine for colour tests and prototyping. The actual "good" casting won't have to start until after orders are in, so that's an extra month of wiggle room.

So, while waiting for the silicone to come in, I will finish the pieces to perfection and then I think I take the oportunity to do some well needed proper cleaning in my work room and a bit of organizing so that everything is ready when moldmaking can start. If I can resist the urge to sculpt additional hands and stuff... We'll see if I can maintain dicipline.

 

Thank you! It's slow going, sometimes, but I am genuinely happy with this doll. I can't wait until I have a cast version in my hands and can start to play around with him properly.

 

@Konape Thank you! I am so happy that poeple like him.

I am still having problems with getting materials for the casting. After promising weeks, then delaying because of a web shop overhaul, they suddenly closed down.
I am more than a little bit annoyed about that. Had they told me the first time I contacted them I may have been able to keep my original time plan. As of now the new deadline is to have the cast prototype done by the end of december, but we'll see. Right now it seems I am just treading water. I have not found a good substitute yet. It's all very frustrating.

 

Guys, things are moving again!

I've hade to source my material from a less than ideal place, but at least I can keep working.
I've been making molds like crazy the last week or two and now I am casting my first prototype.

There are a few minor issues that I need to figure out and I am getting used to then new materials (that are not exactly bad, but certainly different).

 

@JennyM Thanks! I'll try to take some proper pictures of what I've got so far, tomorrow.

 

And here he is, in all his junk cast glory.


Will you look at that! He stands incerdibly solid with straight legs and while it takes a bit more careful posing he holds him self up well with bended knees as well.


And his sitting poses don't dissapoint either. I am so happy and relieved that most of his posability traslated over to the cast version.

Some parts still don't cast quite right (mainly hands, as ususal, new mold is curing as I write this) but the most important thing for me right now was to get enough of him together to be abel to evaluate his joints and make sure he can still pose in a way I am happy with and I have to say I am delighted with how well he is taking and holding poses.

He is so much fun to play around with!

Next big task is to figure out any kind of acceptable goblin colour for him with wich I can actually get a good cast.

 

Thank you!

 

Glad you like him! It feels great to finally have him at this stage.

 

I couldn't agree more!