Modification Making a Demon out of spare parts (and a luts lu wen head)

For a while now I've had a spare body, and a (already lightly modded) luts lu wen head that I bought from the second hand market place years ago. I had always intended to combine the two but the idea of modding was really off-putting to young me so once I realized that the head and body I had bought didn't fit together, the head was swiftly shoved in one of my doll drawers and the body given to a different head while I worked up the nerve to actually work on this project. Several years and several dozen 3D art projects later, I finally have the confidence to work on this project and give it a good go. It also helps that I'm dying for a demon doll.
To be honest, I don't really have a complete plan for this project. I'm not shelling one of my characters this time around, and I've only made a couple sketches outlining what I want to do with this project. My plan for it can be outlined like this:

1. mod head to match my current aesthetic
2. shave down neck to allow for the head and body to match up
3. mod body to allow for second pair of arms
4. carve out ribs to give a more sunken and starving look
5. add some scars and other stuff to detail the body
6. carve out the arms to look more skeletal
7. dye doll (probably grey)
8. final blushing and face up!

I think it probably sounds a bit more grotesque on paper than I have planned. I overall just aim to make a cool looking demon guy with some quirky design choices to more match my aesthetic.


The first thing on my list is probably the one that'll take the longest, I kinda expect to be working on this head throughout the entire project, adding detail and sanding it all down. But the first thing I wanted to do was change the shape of the eyes and nose. I wanted the doll to have smaller eyes a larger nose so that was the first thing on my list of things to do

My Lu Wen had come already pre-modded when I first got him with an added horn and an open eyes mod. I adore the horn so that's just part of my plan! Here he is after the first pass with apoxie, pre-sanded and rough as can be. I know that smirk is going to give me trouble down the line but I wasn't ready to carve into the face at this stage.

After a bit more apoxie and sanding the shape was really starting to come out (I was also modding my doll chateau bella when I was first working on him, she had a much smaller mod)

At this point, the body still had the giant issue of not fitting the head so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and go out to sand down the neck the even out the roughness of the face. I think the neck was only a cm or 2 too big but it felt like more with all the sanding I had to do but after a lot of work, he was finally coming together!


this was about the 3/4 there mark, as you can see the head still didn't quite fit yet.

and here's the doll all sanded:


I think my next mark will be carving out the smirk more, I did a mild mod on my iplehouse leonard to give him more of a smirk and I'll probably do the same thing for my demon boy here.

Lots and lots of work ahead of me but I'm excited! Up next should be the second arm modifications and adjusting that smirk, I'll post again once I have some updates~!

 

@Rurimas I wish you luck! I think the hardest step is just getting started, I know that's what kept me from modding in the past.

 

Just a mini update. Got his smirk going but I think I'll definitely need to smooth out the face more and add more detail around the horn, I eventually want to add a scar going down the eye and neck but that's going to be something that I wait on.

In terms of the body, the first step for me was figuring out where exactly I wanted the arms to go. I had initially played with the idea of having the arms come out of the back but my partner pointed out that that would probably inhibit their mobility and that the arms would probably be most effective at the sides. (also please excuse the eye molds, I was also making resin eyes that day)

I also made some sketches on the secondary arms to make them look less like they were coming out of shoulders, my wonderful partner again suggested that it might be a cool idea down the line to create some sort of shoulder blade type look coming out the back so there would be two sets of shoulder blades effectively. Something I'll need to sketch to be sure since I much rather this boy look spooky over silly

This is where I'm at now, I've started shaving down and creating holes within the sides. I'll probably be working on this a bit to make sure that the arms and sockets fit as well as they can together and have the best mobility possible

and I'll need to increase the size of the hole for elastic of course but that's another thing for down the line.

He's slowly but surely coming together, hopefully next time I update I'll be able to to string both sets of arms!

 

Adding arms was a lot easier and faster than I had expected! Still needs some small adjustments but he's coming out to be a super expressive and surprisingly poseable.

 

First things first, I went out and carved away into the body. Before doing any additive mods, I wanted to get the general shape of what I wanted to emphasize done and to start by giving him a more hollowed out look. After about 2 hours total of sanding, he was looking ready for apoxy! Side note: You can really see how yellowed this body was, I thought that this body was originally a NS body because of its current color and I quickly realized that this was a white resin body at some point

I ended up having a fair bit of trouble with the apoxy at this next stage, my gloves were too big and sliding all over the place so I was having trouble applying anything, I'll probably need to do a second pass at some point for some feature. I wanted to emphasize the ribcage and collar bone as well as detail the horn a bit more and make the body slightly more mobile with some mild modification


During the sanding process, I ended up having some mishaps where one the ribs accidentally fell off. I planed on doing another pass anyway to fix some minor issues but it was still frustrating! I still was too excited to restring him again though!

and a slighty less posed picture so you can see the body a bit better


The modding never ends, once I have the energy I'll be working away at the arms and shoulder joints again, I don't know how much I'll really sculpt them since that seems like it'll be an intensive process. I'll leave that up to future me to decide how in depth I'm able to go with detailing the arms. I'll probably also be removing the scaring underneath the right eye, It was an interesting idea but I think it really falls flat. That's alright though, that's what experimentation is for!

 

Been away for a while, I've been doing a lot of modding and now there's only sanding left before I can dye the doll. The sanding part has been put on hold with most modifications because I'm moving in the next week or so and need everything to be packed away, that said, there has still been a lot going on here. Let's just get into it!

The chest has gone through quite the change since I started carving it out. The bottom right example is actually before sanding but I think it shows off the change quite nicely. After adding apoxy, I carved out the area between the ribcage to give a more starved look. I also excentuated that clavicle and created the beginnings of a scar in the center of his chest. There's also been a lot of modifications around the hands but those are still really rough, I've probably spent 5-8 hours already sanding out the hands and chest since the last pass with apoxy but they're still so unfinished. I was hoping to get this finished before packing everything up but that ended up not happening. Oh well, it'll get done soon enough.

a lot of this week has been dedicated to wig making, the fact that I haven't had the a plan really going into this has both been a positive and a negative, usually my character designs go through 5-10 passes before I okay them but it's been really fun to just feel my way through the project.

here was the start of the first wig, I made a wig cap using the stretch knit fabric and modge podge glue and then attached yarn wefts around the side. If anyone is curious to those methods I'd be happy to link some videos explaining how to make easy wig caps and yarn wefts.

After creating way too many yarn wefts and almost finishing the wig, I realized I didn't like it at all. It wasn't staying on well, the style was too plain for what I had in mind and well, I had been working on shelling one of my characters at the same time (creating a wig and custom outfit for him) and by comparison, this guy didn't look nearly as good.

Spoiler: this is the other doll I was working on for anyone curious

Back to the drawing board. I went about it again only this time creating a sewn wig cap.

I was pretty hesistant at first about making a sewn wig cap, mostly because I couldn't easily find any patterns. But, luckily, I have about 4 years of sewing experience from working as a custom plushie maker online, so this was far more in my comfort zone than I'd thought it would be. I was playing around with some hair that I had left over from another project and realized that I just loved the silhouette that this created. It was 100% not what I had in mind at all but it was too fun to ignore. So, I ran with it!

I didn't quite have enough hair to make it all the way around but I figured it was time to get creative! I made more yarn wefts and sewed them in place onto a back ribbon to help them hold form.

Then hand stitching, because of the style I hade in mind (kind of like a fade in the back with long bangs), I would go around the wig cap sewing a layer and then styling it to make sure everything stayed in place. I hadn't done this much handstitching in a while but it was fun!

The wig isn't quite done yet but I doubt I'll finish it before the move and i wanted to give an update sometime this month lol. Here's how he's coming out, I still haven't thought of a name for this boy yet so any suggestions are welcome!

 

thank you!

 

Been a while since I've been able to update here. Most of my time has just gone to sanding hands and filing the nails as of late but this week was a colorful adventure, by that I mean there were a lot of failures in coloring this doll to a different color.
For starters, while I was in the middle of my move, I finally decided to start sketching out this character and thinking about his outfit and how the design would work together. I know I should've done this sooner but honestly I have so much fun just trying different ideas out. The main reason I decided to do a proper character sheet was mostly because the design was feeling a bit aimless and a lot of the pieces I was imagining didn't seem like they'd work together well. This picture is also a work in progress still but it's done enough to give an idea of where I'm planning on going with it all (Fable of Nox is the name of the comic I'm working on and my name on my social medias.)

I imagined him being more punk but he ended up way more yokai like with a bit of indian influence as well.
The main reason for this huge shift is because, well, dyeing didn't go so well. After a long round of dyeing, the color was spotty at best and absolutely hideous at worst. So I knew that I was going to be airbrushing. I didn't take any pictures of it, mostly because it was that ugly.
So, uh, time to paint! I also immediately had problems there, I was trying to get his skin color above and after a lot of mixing, I got a color that seemed pretty good but uh....


After drying I realized it was far too purple......
Okay, so third times a charm, I tried a couple different color mixes and finally got the base where I wanted it!

Spoiler: Minor Doll nudity

Every piece here is in different points of being sprayed, the head and chest have already recieved 3 coats of paint, the lower torso and arm in front have just gotten their first spray and the arm in the back really shows how bad the dye job was....
That's all for now! I'm finally going to be able to start blushing this boy soon and stringing him together. I'm really excited at this point but there's so much work left to do (but thank goodness I'm done with that hell that is sanding)

 

Been a while since I posted but I've been working steadily on this project, I have been doing some spraying here and there but there's still a lot to be done on that front. My main accomplishment is actually painting the face and upper torso.


I was really inspired by the makeup of the medicine seller in monoke and then I just went crazy from there. I just have a lot of fun painting faces like this.
That's all for now, it took me weeks to get this far but hey, that's just what happens!
ETA: I made a small collage of this guys transformation thorughout the process, it's really fun for me to see how my work over the last couple months has come together, hopefully he'll be finished by halloween next year

One more edit to add a picture of how the body looks so far, still have a alot of painting to do but this is what I have brushed so far:

 

I'm a stubborn one to be sure, it may take a long time to finish this project but it will be finished!

 

Hey! It’s been a while, I stepped away from this project for a bit because 1.I wasn’t happy with where it was going 2. I started a restoration project on another doll and 3. Illinois in winter is so much colder than Texas, I couldn’t work outside without my hands freezing up really fast

now it’s warmer, my restoration project is done, and I have at least a bit of direction for this project. The first thing on my list was fixing up the apoxie mods because, well, they didn’t look that great. They weren’t properly sanded and I was waiting out on getting a new x-acto knife which I’d need to carve out all the details. So that’s first. I also was going back and forth on if I wanted to spray paint the whole doll and because I have very limited energy I knew that would be too much for me to do (it just took me months of back and forth to admit it). I’ll figure out what I want to do color wise with this project, I’m not in any rush to have everything figured out since this is really just a fun project for me. It’s supposed to be messy and a learning experience since this is by far the largest mod I’ve ever done.

right now I’m just back to sanding and carving out the ribs, the left side is the side Ive already started, the right is still waiting to be done so you can see a comparison of what I’ve done so far. I have a much nicer workspace now than I had in Texas since I have a whole garage to work in instead of a balcony. I’m happy to be back to this!

 

yeah, you're 100% right on that. I started this project not knowing what I was doing at all, and with that I was using apoxie that was very old. I have a bad habit of just hopping feet first in and learning through experience.
I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future! I really appreciate the feedback

 

I feel bad writing this but I reworked the design to make it a bit less intensive for me to do. I planned on reworking it so I wouldn't have to dye the doll but for some reason I couldn't get away from making it a non human skin color
This was after several redesigns that I went with this one for a couple reasons, one was that I have some mesh fabric that I love that would make a good top for the doll and 2 I wouldn't have to worry about how I was going to color the torso (a lot of my redesigns involved really detailed designs on the torso portions that I knew would be difficult to dress for). As I've mentioned before, I have very limited energy and around 4 hours of work is usually my limit in a day before I just get too tired to do anything. And I knew that spray painting the whole body was straight out of the question. All in all, this design focused on simplifying as much as possible.
Okay, now how was I going to do this? I had luckily saved my dye water from my first attempt at dying the doll and so I decided to give the dye another shot.

Spoiler: minor doll nudity

It's honestly not perfect but in the top right corner you can see what it looked like before. The dye really just mellowed out the skin color and while it's more grey-ish in person, this will probably be what I go with. I tested out the dye on pieces that I had modded and they came out much more uneven then the base body. Luckily there's a simple solution to this for me, I'll only have to spray paint to match the pieces that I've modded. That would be the head, upper torso, and both sets of hands. Much more manageable than doing the whole doll. I'll probably skip on spray painting the lower torso since it won't be visible under his outfit and I can always come back later to spray it if the need ever strikes me.
Hopefully next time I post the doll will be all put together and in his final color. I'm splitting the dying process across multiple days where I take sets of pieces, dye as much as I can, and then clean those, bringing any back that need to be a darker color.
This project has been a big lesson in both modding and learning to deal with my limitations. It's frustrating that I won't be able to make my original design but luckily I love the new one I've come up with

 

right now he's still not together yet but I have made a lot of progress!
At the top of my list was getting a color that was at least a 95% match for the dye and I think I managed just that!

the leg in my hand is one of the dyed pieces and everything in the box is spray painted to match. I just need to dye the last couple pieces and he'll be ready to put together - or at least his body will.
the head has gone through a bit more recently, I started doing his faceup again after spraying the doll and well, I wasn't happy

Please ignore the horrid eyebrows. I made this guy some eyes, got him sprayed and well, I hated it. I must have started this project about 7 months ago and I was no longer happy with the shape of the nose and brow. I hate to admit it, but this is kinda normal for me. If I don't like how a project is going, I'll throw it out and start over. So that's what I did!
I took the head to the garage, took off my beautiful spray paint and removed all the mods that I had worked months refining.
I used some of the suggestion I got in this thread to reapply some of the face, though I plan to work on the brow ridge more in the next coming days and redo the scar going down the eye

I also made a sketch of what I wanted to go for eventually, so I'll definitely need to bring out a couple different features. Mostly I just wanted to straighten out the nose and clean up the area around the eyes so when I go to apply the faceup later on it'll be a lot smoother.

I'm sorry that I go all over the place, I don't really mean to but my creative process is pretty weird and involves a lot of reassessing and adjusting. If something isn't going well, I don't really try to brute force it as much as readjust and start again. I actually have a lot of fun like this, it's always cool seeing how it ends up versus my initial idea.

 

yeah, I'm glad I'm not alone in redoing things over and over
As for name, he's still missing one. We've been calling him Kuro for the time being but I don't think it's a permanent name

 

Well! The modding part of this project is officially finished! I'll post another set of photos once he has some clothes and a faceup and wig but outside of a pair of hands that needs to be spray painted, he's all together at last!! I'm really happy with the character and the way he ended up, Now I just need to decide on a name for him