Modification Project Franken-Deer

Hello folks!

I've always wanted to do a project like this since I first joined the hobby in 2012: to collect a bunch of disparate parts from various places and cobble them together into a single, coherent doll. As a bonus, I wanted them to be either cheap or "junk" parts. Nothing fancy, expensive, or limited. Well, I finally have enough parts pulled together that I'm comfortable starting on this project. Meet "Frankie", short for "Franken-Deer", my soon-to-be several-company hybrid.

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From top to bottom, she's an HTT Bambee head, a Resinsoul 60cm girl body, and Resinsoul Mu/Ai hooves. They were bought secondhand from different places, and except for the body were sold in essentially "junk" condition. I have plans to add some more fantasy parts and probably swap out her hands (I need to identify the hands I have, whoops). As far as extras go, so far I only have her deer ears, which are actually "rabbit" ears from DreamLanddollStudio on etsy.

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Instead of adding these onto her headcap, they'll actually replace her current ears.

Here's the Big List of Things I need to do:

Head:

• finish cleaning stubborn faceup bits
• sand off elf ear mods + ears
• attach magnets for new ears (second picture - rabbit ears from DreamLanddollStudio)
• create fanged tooth part (she still has the original I just want to swap)
• additive mod for better neck fit

Body:

• suede wrists
  
• add chest structure to stop her from falling in half
• swap out hands

Legs:

• sand off the hip flanges
• resculpt hooves and ankles for more realism
• suede hips and ankles
• fix any dents/scratches/chips that the resculpt doesn't cover
• add new notches to the hip joints

Other:

• make wig (fiber is already picked out and processed)
• faceup (I will be sending her out)
• acquire more parts (tail and horns at the least)
• eyes
• outfit(s)
• dye bath for everything but the ears (she'll be brown/tan)

My aesthetic idea for her is some sort of cryptid deer thing, with a swampy-witchy-monstery vibe. It's vague, but I'm sure it'll tighten up as I work.

All I have done so far is make sure the legs will go into the hip joints and string onto the body, so I have a long way to go, but I'm super excited to start!

 

It's too dark where I am to do any outdoor work, so all I was able to finish tonight was the thorough head clean and making the base for the new tooth part. I also tested out the eyes and hands I was going to use, and neither were the right size, so it's back to the drawing board with those.

 

Today was a dremel day! I got a few important bits done.

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She looks so silly without ears lol. Don't worry, I'll replace them soon! Weirdly, she still has ear holes on each side, but those'll be covered by the new ear base.

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I also sanded down the flanges on the hip joints, since her body doesn't have the slots for those. When I strung them on before, they wouldn't stay still.

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I pared down the hooves quite a bit. I always hated how these hooves looked like one soft piece rather than two hard halves, like hooves should. So this is the starting point for the resculpt, getting rid of a lot of the excess. The last thing I did was sand down the tooth-piece base that I made last night, but that's nothing special to look at, so no pics.

Tonight I'd like to get some apoxie sculpting done- mainly the new ear bases and the hoof reshape. We're making progress!

Edit: done working for the night, but I've made a lot of headway. The ear bases are on, I reshaped her hip joints, added the chest component, and gave her some dewclaws on her hooves. Photos tomorrow!

 

Apoxie work from last night:

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Added dewclaws to the backs of her ankles, some steadying shape to the back of her hip joints, and an extension in her torso to keep her from folding in half, which she used to do... often. Look, she stays up straight now, even unstrung!

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And now for the ears. I sculpted the bases yesterday and added magnets this afternoon. Eventually the bases will be painted to blend in better, since they stick out a lot now, but the idea is that she'll have long hair, and I wanted her ears to poke out.

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And I also wanted them mobile for different "expressions".

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Next I'll probably work on sculpting the fur around the hooves before I clean up all of the Apoxie work. I'm super excited for how she's turning out so far!

 

I don't have pics yet since everything is precariously drying, but here's what I got done tonight:

- added fur texture to the lower leg/ankles, changed the shape to a more natural one
- removed and remade the dew claws, they were in the wrong spot aesthetically
- complete resculpt of the hooves. I wound up going at them with the dremel again before the apoxie
- added a bit of structure inside the neck hole so that her head isn't floppy on the body
- worked on the new teeth part, it's almost done

I'll take pics in the morning when everything's dry.

 

Okay, picture time!

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Now that it's the next day, I think everything looks pretty good except for the fur details around the ankles. I don't like them so much, so I'll probably redo them, but I'm leaving the extra bulk I added, because it looks way better imho. the left hoof needs some more work, too. I didn't say so in the previous post, but I also did some drilling on her hooves and ankles to improve range of motion, so now she can point her toes. this was something I was weirdly adamant about her being able to do, probably because it's a more realistic pose than the flat feet.

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As you can see, I strung her up as a test. For some reason, even though I'm using the exact same elastic, she's really tight now and it's making things difficult. I'll have to find some spare elastic around here soon. In the meantime, I did get her to stand for approximately 30 seconds.

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I'm starting to feel like she's coming together nicely. It's been a lot of work, but there's even more to go.

Edit for a quick note about the vaseline in the background: I discovered it's really useful for apoxie work. you smear it on something, and the apoxie won't stick, so I used this to check the fit of the neck piece, the torso piece, and the teeth.​

 

Franken-deer's fangs are finished! say that five times fast.

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which means all of the head mods are complete!

 

Hey everybody, been a little while. It's summer where I live, and it's been extremely hot here. I haven't been able to work outside as much as I'd like.

My only update for today is some progress on the hooves and ankles. I've been sanding like crazy, but we're still not done. Soon, I hope!

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OKAY after many, many small adjustments, I'm finally calling the hooves and lower legs done.

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It took me forever to get that fur on the backs of the legs just right. I was trying to emulate the style of the fur on the rest of the doll. this is the closest I've come, so I'm keeping it.

Additional adjustments: sanded ear bases to same size, sanded down the neck mod to reduce visibility, and sanded off the mods I previously added to the backs of the thigh/hip joints. I have a better idea to put notches there like her human legs had, kind of like the ones I had to sand off to get the legs to fit. I'm basically just re-engineering this whole thing, it's fun. anyway once the hip/thigh notches are on, we'll be ready to test string her and then the additive/subtractive mods will be done!

 

and before I slam into bed, here's the notches I added to her thigh/hip joints:

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these allow her to stand without falling backwards, but she can also sit with them. I test strung her and she's fairly solid- she can even stand on one hoof!

(with guest appearance by warren)​

so that brings the additive mods to a close. I'll probably shave down these notches a bit so they stick out less, but otherwise, it's onward to the dye phase. I've decided her legs will be a super dark brown, while her upper body will be slightly lighter brown. since all the visible epoxy is on her legs, I figure hitting it with a long bath will help the dye set in.

 

I've been pretty busy the past few months, but I had some extra time this holiday season, so I've finally moved forward with the project. I did a thorough deep-clean of every single part, and then- the dye job!

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mmmm chocolate.

anyway, I used a three-step process for this: holding the pieces in the dye pot until they were about the right shade, then plopping them over into a bucket of hot water, then stepping them down into a tub of cool water with soap. this was to shake off any extra dye without a sudden temperature change that might crack the resin. overall, I think it went pretty well! the mods took the dye better than I thought they would, and I'm proud of the fact that I got all of the pieces roughly the same color. not bad for a first real dye job.

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well, okay, her headcap is a different color, but that'll be covered up anyway. there's a lot of streaking and marbling, but she's a gorgeous dark brown and I'm so so happy with how she turned out!

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once she's dry I'll get her back together (and reinstall her magnets, oops) and I'll post more pictures of how she looks.

 

@Quiet and Insane you're right that it does make it look more realistic, I was just thinking that as I took more pictures. real people have blemishes, highlights in their skintone, darker areas, etc.

in any case, here's her all back together:

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love the overall effect, especially her leg fur. it finally looks like a coherent sculpt instead of slapped-on epoxy! here's some additional details from the whole process. first, ew:

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she had some hot glue sueding left over that I didn't see or feel before the dye job, and it turned a nasty green. after I picked it out it's just her original color underneath, but it's all in her joints so it's not a big deal. a fun fact: originally I was going for the color of the inside of her headcap:

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it looks nice and even here, but when I got her head and hands (the first pieces I dyed) to this shade, there was horrible streaking, so I just went darker. I love the color she came out, though! and finally, here's some spotting on her torso/arms:

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Idk I kind of like them.

anyway, the next steps are getting her a faceup (not by me, I don't do faceups), re-sueding some joints, and making her wig and outfit. swapping out her hands, as well as adding additional pieces, may be something I do in the future, but I wasn't able to source the parts needed for those yet. we're so close!

 

Thank you everybody! I just realized I forgot to post my most recent progress in this thread: she's got some clothes now!

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I'm working on more, but this is her first outfit, some linen shorts and a daisy-patterned reversible shirt-dress-thing. I wanted at least one outfit that showed off her torso and arms.

Currently working on her wig! I'll have pictures of that soon.

 

Aaaaand wig time:

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Her wig is made with brushed yarn (perhaps obviously) on a hardcap. The colors were chosen to evoke "forest" vibes, including dark and light greens, browns, and red/orange for dead leaves. I'm leaning toward her being some sort of weird dryad, which would help explain why some of her parts are slightly different in color- she's partially made of wood, maybe?

Anyway, she's really starting to come together, and now I just need to get her a faceup and some eyes, then it's on to minor adjustments.

 

Almost two years later, and I have... a minor update! Franken-deer now has eyes!



All that remains is to get her a faceup, but I need to wait a bit on that, since I just paid for a different one and don't have the money at this exact second. Soon, though! Thanks to everyone who's still around for this unexpectedly long journey, haha.

 

Thank you! The headcap is a different color because I didn't dip it for as long. I figured it'd be covered by a wig all the time, so I didn't bother lol.

Thank you! And I haven't picked anybody out yet, it'll have to be someone who works on heavily modded and dyed dolls.