Modification Look a like modding project (finished!)

It's been approximately a year and a half since I decided to take on a modding project. My last project ended up as a failure with me needing to scrap the entire thing, and I just haven't had a good project since that I wanted to dig my teeth into since.
That changed with the release of Doppel Maiden Kappa. I have a long time character that I had already made into a doll. He's a fun character whos most defining feature is his unsettling smile (my sketch of him pictured below, alongside kappa)


Love it, it's obviously a great choice for him. They both have a very similar vibe. Seems like an easy choice!
The problem is... I already have a doll for this character - and I'm not terribly interested in reshelling him since he's been the doll for the character for a good while. But, that is hardly the end of the story because while I'm not interested in reshelling him, this would be a good excuse to make him a second expression head!
And that's the start of my idea for project look alike. I could tell from the photos that the nose was probably not going to be a perfect fit but I wasn't quite sure and I thought maybe some contouring could solve the problem if it came to that. This seemed like a project that would be resolved with the right face ups. So, for the next step, I just had to wait for the heads to come in and see the scale of the differences between them.
And ho boy! I was not prepared for where this project would take me.

For starters, the facial features are actually pretty similar! The eye shape wasn't bad, it just looked like he was looking down, the cheek bones and face shape were similar enough, it all just came down to the nose. These two noses were not the same size and a little contouring wasn't going to fix it. Not to forget that my original boy desperately needed a lip reconstruction and was dying for a new faceup but that was already a part of my plan.
Nothing left but to sit down and start the nose construction! It needed to be bulked out but luckily i had my 3d model right there to help me through the process.

Several hours later, the nose had a good shape to it! I'll just let the sanding pictures here speak for themselves throughout the process.


just lots and lots of back and forth sanding here. There was a good couple of weeks between the first pic of the original construction and the second pic that shows a sanded version of them.
To be continued in a following comment

 

This is where I made a sort of amateurish mistake. I tried to jump right into doing the faceups here. I didn't put down any sort of primer or anything and tried to continue as was.

I got about this far before I had to wipe them. There was a small issue with the left ones eye that I had modded, there wasn't a proper slope for the transition between eye lid and eye and so it didn't match up with the other side. But, the far more pressing problem was that both heads were dimpled with little holes and the paint transition between the modded and unmodded parts was very obvious in person. This was pretty frustrating and i put down the project for about a week while I waited for some tamiya paste to come in.

Here some post sanding on the eyebrows. The lips and chin still needed to be sanded so its more just a general thin layer there. You can see all the parts that had little dimples since they're a darker grey.

then here it was after some proper primer! its smuch smoother now and the transitions were much nicer. I put down a final layer of paint primer before sprayed the heads to match the body they would share.

And here they are getting a new faceup! This is where the heads are now. There is not obvious bumps or transitional parts between the modded and unmodded parts. I'll post some pictures once the heads are all done in probably a week or two! I'm really happy with the mods and the lip reconstruction. I think this is the best project I've done so far!

 

thank you! It's so nice to hear someone else say they look similar!
I wish you the best of luck on your future project! having multiple faceplates/heads is so much fun for photos

 

It’s more like a finishing tool as opposed to a sculpting tool. I forgot to mention it but the majority of the mods were done with epoxy sculpt. Which is a lot better for modding dolls. The tamiya paste is very thin which makes it perfect for filling in holes/dimples that can’t be sanded out for whatever reason.
I used a wet sanding method(wetting the sand paper before sanding) since it minimizes air particles, and I think that contributed to the dimpling in the epoxy. So I finished the mods with the tamiya paste to fill those in and then sanded again to smooth it out!
let me know if you have any more questions though about my process!

Thank you so much . I worked so hard on these boys here and I’m so incredibly happy with how they came out. I think it’s just the ridiculous amount of sanding I did that gives the illusion of skill - I still have quite a lot to learn in modding

 

Sorry for the wait! I got distracted by NYC dollcon and forgot to actually upload the photos. Here's how the boys turned out!
First here's the pictures of just the faceups

Then all together!

Let me know what you guys think! I'm really happy with how these tired boys came out!