~20cm Dolls Malon the Mini-Dragon

Well, the printer I'm printing Amara on is broke and replacing parts will be a bit, so I decided to start working on a new doll - to get more practice sculpting and cutting joints, plus he's smaller and pieces should fit on my resin printer I've got on the way.

Malon is a mini-dragon; I'm still playing with scale, but he'll definitely be in the smaller category. I started with a rough design earlier, but hadn't had a chance to play with it much:


Getting the rough well-proportioned is the most time-consuming part of the initial sculpt; adding in details isn't as difficult as long as the base is good. So I've spent my post-work hours on that, and:


Looking pretty good! Might remove some of the scale details later - I like the ones on the legs and head; less sure about the back and tail. I'll start cutting joints tomorrow, probably; we'll see how I feel tonight. Generally speaking that's the worst part, but I'm hoping it goes easier this time around. Planning on the standard joints, possibly with an extra joint or two in the tail, which will be strung, to give more poseability.

 

First print! (Resinsoul Xun for scale). The back foot joint was backwards and completely nonfunctional; the wing joint was too small for the elastic. Otherwise, he strung quite well and is a good poser. At 15cm long in his default pose, he’s about the size of a medium dog compared to a 1/4 doll.

The back foot problem is annoying, but should be easy to fix. The wings are more difficult - I’ll have to increase the size of the wing base so it actually has enough room for a decently sized peg.

 

Thank you everyone!

I was having a hell of a time stringing his wings, so I made another prototype with some adjustments (PLA because the resin is expensive):


He was incredibly easy to string, so that’s nice, but I’m still running into issues with some sockets not fitting especially well, particularly the back legs and tail. I’ll be working on adjusting that this week.

I’ve also picked up some smooth on resin for both him and Amara, so hopefully I’ll be on the next phase soon!

 

New draft! Fixed joints not fitting.

At this point I think I’m ready for another resin prototype. Exciting stuff!

 

Malon is complete! I won't be working on him further; because of constraints in how he's jointed and the tunnels are run, he can't realistically be cast very well.

If you'd like Malon for yourself, I did post the files to print him on Thingiverse - search "Malon dragon BJD" Like everything on Thingiverse, they're free - and they're licensed so you can tweak him to your desires. Thank you everyone for following this project!