I'll just start this out by saying I've never attempted making a doll before so if anyone is noticing a red flag or has any suggestions for how to make this work better I'm more than willing to listen! View attachment 303 Trying to figure out how to engineer this doll, I’m thinking I might try a suggestion I got to do the head with a removable face plate instead of a removable scalp and see if I can fit in a little pocket where it joins the back of the cranium that ears could snap into. Because one it’d be cool if it had moving ears and two it’d probably be easier to cast and attach them separately anyway. I think it works out to 20 segments in total (22 with the ears, I guess?), I’m still not sure how to best handle the stringing inside, maybe a hook or bar in the main chest cavity that the legs link up to and one in the butt that pulls straight through the torso and neck into the head? I feel like if if just pulls through from the feet to the head it’ll pull the legs so they splay out and make it hard to get him to stand and pose properly, but if there’s something like, say a loop in the top of the chest cavity for the elastic to pull against it might keep them straighter? The only large quadrupeds I could find breakdowns of were centaurs, and the most sturdy of that breed seemed to loop the elastic for the back legs through a rod in the horse chest. his front legs are going to support most of his weight and I'd really like to be able to get away without having to put a locking mechanism in the joint to keep him upright just to keep it as posable as possible, but I guess that'll depend on how heavy he is and how competently I can string those legs. Originally I was planning on doing the neck as one piece, but breaking it into a few segments might fix some problems I was anticipating with how to get the joint I want where it joins the jaw and where it joins the shoulders without making the neck itself look like a clunky odd shape. (and it’d make him more articulated which is always a plus) Hoping to make him fairly large so I have more wiggle room with the pieces while I work, like 16” to 18” long or something? This is probably going to take me forever to get through because I have a super demanding day job, but I figured I should run the concept past some people who know what they're doing before I start chopping styrofoam. Any suggestions for handing quadrupeds (or anything else that might be a problem beginners tend to mess up on!) is more than appreciated! I'm prepared to screw up on this a lot before I get it to work.
Wow, you've already got a cool plan drawing made... I really need to get on what I want to work on. P: I can't wait to see what you come up with!
