Sculpting Making Faceplates?

Well, I'm going by the Unoa faceplate system as a general guide, though I'm also thinking of using Sharmin's system of swappable ears. You basically need a head back that attaches to the neck, a face plate that fits it, and some way of attaching it.

For Unoa, the "cut line" between the faceplate and the head back, when viewed from the side, consists of a diagonal line from the upper forehead to the back of the ear, and another at a ~90 angle from the ear to where the jaw meets the neck. The rest of the jaw fits over the part of the headback that cups the neck, concealing it when seen from the front. Aaand that probably makes very little sense if you can't see it, sorry. I recommend finding some pictures if you can. I haven't even gotten started on the way it hooks on. Which is very clever, but personally I'm gonna go with magnets, along with some sort of pegs, probably. More secure and easier to design.

For the actual sculpting, I've settled on making an underlying base out of wire mesh covered with a thin layer of Apoxie. That gives me a rigid armature that I can sculpt on using Super Sculpey Firm Gray*, and since it will form the back of the faceplate, I don't have to worry about trying to remove it -- I destroyed two promising head-sculpts that way.

And speaking of destruction, I think if I wanted to do a variant of a head, I'd just mod one of the casts, rather than changing the original.


(*This is good stuff. It's opaque, so you can see the details as you're working, and it's a nice medium consistency, despite what it says on the packaging about "extra firm." Sculpey runs towards the squishy end of the polymer clay spectrum, for sure.)

 

http://dec66292.dreamweb.co.kr/shop/step1.php?number=352 The Elf doll method looks interesting. It seems that that the cut line is very similar, but instead of just pegs, the elastic pulls the face plate into the head and holds it on. Could be an interesting way of doing it?

 

My Hana Angel's faces are attached with magnets, no elastic. They work very nicely.

 

Ah what I thought was elastic coming out must have been the magnet. That must be such a breeze to change.

 

Yup, stick your finger nail in the seam and it comes right off. The head back is held on the body like any other doll, Narae, Unoa, etc.

I find Hana is just not for me though