Puppit Productions Firefox W.I.P

Haha thanks ^^ I'm hoping to visit Ldoll this year (as a visitor, not a stand holder), perhaps I'll see you there?
If not, I aim to have Nevas and Seraphims for sale with me next year at dolliverse

 

Tried a new resin for the firefox version, recommended to me by a DA artist I contacted in the down-days.
Alumilite polyurethane. "Pure" it works very well, no significant difference between it and my regular resin (Axson) save for the colour (brighter, less translucent white). However, when I add colouring... Nope.
Bubbles again. And lots of them.
I honestly don't get why, as this other artist casts quite dark dolls with it as well and says to experience no trouble with it... And I'm sure I did everything right. New, never before opened bottles of both resin and colouring. Absolutely moisture-free mixing tools and cups. Warm moulds, dusted with talc powder. Didn't add too much colouring. Added it to the right part of the resin. Mixed carefully, without beating air into it. Poured slowly, at an angle, along the side of the casting channel so any bubbles have plenty of chance to rise to the surface before getting stuck in the mould.
And still bubbles. :/
Very weird. I might still try another resin recommended to me by DA doll makers Daiin and Enid-Art (not sure if they're on here?), a French one, but if that fails as well I have to decide whether to invest in a pressure pot (really don't like that option) or ship off the firefox to a casting company (like this option even less).

Left to right: Alumilite + colouring, pure Alumilite, pure Axson (not yellowed: it's naturally off-white).
I tried capturing the bubbles (which are quite visible in the tan parts, really), but even in natural light no camera seems to be able to pick it up. Even though you can spot them immediately with the naked eye. Odd... It's like my camera tries to cheer me up where my resin keeps bugging me.

 

Thanks guys ^^
Here's weird thought though... My DA pal vonBorowsky pointed me towards several anthro artist dolls that are just extensively blushed instead of cast in different colours... Some even dye their dolls afterwards with special plastic dye (sort of like fabric dye).
And I intended to give Seraphim a white throat and chest during face-ups. I'm wondering... Would it be a solution to just airbrush the white "base" of Neva? It DOES make more sense to paint something dark onto something light than the other way around.
But of course this would mean easier scratching and such.
What do you guys think? It's more work to finish every Seraphim this way, but on the other hand, there's less miscasts due to bubbles and marbling, and less eating away at my moulds (tan skins are the worst for moulds).
The price of machinery + paint (pressure pot and polyurethane pigments or airbrush and paint) would probably be about the same... But it SOUNDS more fool-proof.
I think I'll try it out with some regular blushing (pastels and paint) on some Neva parts to see how it looks.

 

BAM.
Not perfect yet (some bubbles where headcap and face touch - these bits face upwards when they're in the mould), but by far the best result I've had in casting a my tan fox! This head is near acceptable!
Still some moisture bubbles due to added colouring, but not the foamy effect I used to have, and a beautiful even colour on the first try, no marbling at all!
This was done with my favourite resin, Axson f18 (it's cheap, it's strong, it has an ultra-low viscosity and it's easy to mix with it's 1-1 ratio), and Alumilite colouring.






The bubbles, which I finally managed to capture with a camera:


A pressure pot should take care of the rest. Now to build or buy one -.- I'm leaning towards build, since the prices of the pre-assembled industrial things are INSANE (around 800 Euro). Not that I know anything about these things, so I'm off on a whole new journey of discovery...
I'll still try the blushing thing though, for some parts it could be a better solution. And if I have a compressor for the pressure chamber, perhaps I can also attach an airbrush to that same thing (just switch the hoses/tubes/whateveryoucallthosethings/IcantremembertheproperEnglishword).

 

That's exactly the one I had in mind, actually! I'm just not sure if the paint gun thingy is also suitable for dolly airbrushing (that would be nice: two systems in one!). This particular set goes to 5.5 bar, or 80 psi (the pressure needed for curing silicone, resin is done at 4.3 bar / 60 psi), so that's perfect. The fact that the lid is see-through is also a bonus (I'd like to know for sure moulds didn't top over or something). My dad still had a compressor but it's huge and very noisy... I'd rather have something silent, of course, and the neighbours would probably prefer that as well xD
I'll figure something out, I found some DIY-instructions (though they're all American, which probably results in different measurements of bolts and stuff like that), and it should be relatively simple to hook it up.
I say SHOULD be relatively simple, so I probably blow up the house or at least fry the electric circuit... ^^'

 

Acquired a pressure pot! A second hand one of 8 litres, previously used to pump oil. So it's a little dirty on the inside, but otherwise in great shape. Once I've cleaned it up it should do nicely. Now to find a suitable compressor...

In other news: I still had some junk cast parts lying around to test the "Blush Phim" option: Blushing/airbrushing Neva parts instead of casting the tan skin Seraphim. Though I'm not going to go with that option any more now that going for pressure casting, especially since I didn't like the feel of the blushed parts and the stuff started flaking immediately in the joints... I've got to say it looks rather spectacular. Even with junk casts with unsanded seam lines and shoddy blushing.




At the very least it's nice to have an idea what Seraphim will look like with a complete face-up and a bit of blush (won't be blushing the inner sides of the limbs or the belly, but I like that white tuft on her chest).

 

Dear everyone, my apologies for the lack of updates. Things have been busy over here. Unfortunately, they weren't very Seraphim/Neva related... My illness a while ago left me with lots of medical bills.
And to make matters worse, I discovered that my previously favourite resin was faulty after all: Not due to how it reacts to moisture this time (bubbles), but due to how it reacts to UV light...
It. Yellows. Like. Crazy.
I put two headcaps, cast on the same day in two different resins by the window for about 2 months.
While both of them yellowed, the one cast in Alumilite (expensive resin that was about just als bubble-free as my favourite) could still be called white. The one cast in Axson F18 (my favourite: much cheaper, available and semi-translucent -which I all liked) turned almost light brown.
:s
So... I can't sell Neva heads like I planned to replenish my bank account... Let alone invest in new resin and possibly a compressor for pressure casting (not to mention I might have to re-do my moulds if pressure casting does indeed turn out to be the right path - and the silicone for that is hella expensive).
So I'm afraid there's a bit of a delay there... I'd really like to be able to open the pre-order for both girls by the end of October (Halloween seems like an appropriate release date for these foxy monsters), but as things are now it doesn't look like I'll be able to make that.

Long story short... I need some help with this. I'd rather avoid things like Kickstarter due to the earlier problems (no guarantee that I'll be able to deliver on time), so I'm doing this the old-fashioned way...
Earn the money.
This means I'm looking for commissions! Now, you creative lot here I probably can't offer anything... But I hope some people on the regular (Dutch) forum and Deviantart will order something. Preferably props, mods, additions (ears, tails, claws) and repairs, but I'm also willing to do face-ups and blushing, or repairs of that (I love repairing stuff).

I'll keep you updated, as long as there is anything to update about -.-'

 

Somehow I completely forgot about my thread here, and since I re-installed my computer, typing things into the address bar starting with "bjd" didn't automatically suggest this page anymore :P

Updates!

I managed to scrape together some money and ordered new resin (more orders are still very welcome though)...
This resin is a French one, called Résine PU 84. It's sold on Artificina.com. It's slightly translucent, and is used by two doll-makers who both claim to have zero bubble issues... Though they've only cast light-coloured dolls so far, so I wasn't sure it would also be the case with my tan skin fox.
I also acquired a UV-protective serum that is to be added to this resin, as it yellows quicker than opaque resin: probably similar to my old resin, Axson F18.

The situation is now as follows:
Artificina resin: expensive, needs UV serum, MIGHT be bubble-free.
Alumilite resin: expensive, but less expensive than Artificina, hardly yellows at all, bubble-properties similar to Axson, needs pressure casting.
Axson resin: by far the cheapest, needs UV serum, bubble properties similar to Alumilte, needs pressure casting.

If the Artificina would really be as bubble-free as they say, it would be the obvious winner because it wouldn't require pressure casting (which would also mean I'd have to re-do my moulds).
If the UV-additive works wonders and Artificina wouldn't be significantly less bubbly, Axson resin is the way to go. Because even though it would require pressure casting, it's much cheaper than the rest and easier to get a hold of (I can pick it up nearby).
If the UV-additive doesn't work for either resin and Artificina wouldn't be less bubbly, I'll use Alumilite because it hardly yellows... And in the end, you want a lasting, quality product, even if that means using expensive resin AND tricky equipment (and re-doing moulds... sigh).

I have cast test versions of each resin in every possible combination (with UV-cut, with colouring, with and without both) and they are now on the windowsill:





The idea was to see which resin would respond best to UV-exposure, which one has the least bubbles and which one is best for colouring.

Unfortunately, the Artificina one seems out of the race already: the bottles were a few months old (bought them end November), but they were vacuum-sealed and unopened... Yet they seem to have deteriorated a bit. Also, one of the bottles had its child-safe cap on so ridiculously tight, that the entire bottle started to bend and twist when I tried to get it off. I had to demolish the top part with a knife, and then use pliers to get the inner part to budge :/
Also it's hella expensive and used naturally, the Artificina resin has sort of a greenish hue. So even for Neva I would have to use (white) colouring, while Axson and Alumilite are naturally fine (Axson being a bit more ivory than the pure-white Alumilite).

So it's between Axson and Alumilite now... Seems like I'll end up using pressure casting after all (dammit! >.<).
I hope the UV-cut stuff (Sun Devil) works wonders for the Axson one, as that one is still my favourite. It's the only one I can get nearby (no shipping!) and when used new, it accepts colouring just beautifully, as can be seen a few posts back (brown fox head was cast using Axson). Alumilite seems to "age" a little better though, both the opened bottle as well as the cast piece in terms of yellowing (without any additive). Time will tell...


In the meantime, I'm doing some re-designing, as it looks like I'll have to re-do my moulds anyway. Thanks to a fellow Dutch doll maker I found an easier way to switch heads (previously you needed re-stringing equipment for that), so that's a new feature.
I thought of integrating the previously pronounced hip joints more into the bottom/pelvis: I once made the choice to make them stand out like that because I wanted both movement AND a big butt. Normally, you'd have to cut open the lower part of the buttocks to allow for good movement of the leg backwards, but that often makes the behind look smaller and the doll often gets to rest on her hip joints instead of her ass when you sit her down. But, as Seraphim/Neva's behind and hip joints are both perfectly round, I thought there might be a way clip her behind a bit and move the joints more inward without her optically losing any volume in her hindquarters.
I've now made a butt like that by basically modding a junk-cast, but I'm also making an entirely new behind and new upper legs. She could actually use a little more junk in the trunk, and that would allow me to integrate the hips even more, distributing the weight in a more straight line down her legs onto her feet, making her more balanced.
The hip joint with double-slot-and-lock will stay, I'm completely in love with that invention. It works perfectly and I haven't seen it on any other doll yet.

A silly little Christmas preview of the new butt:


So that's it for now. Pictures of the new head system and new butt/hips/upper legs will follow, as well as of course the results of the resin tests.

Oh, and for any of you wondering what will happen to the old Neva, my prototype shown on Dolliverse... She's not cast with any UV protection, so she'll yellow like crazy if I don't keep her out of the sun... And even then, she might be a different resin/colour from the new ones. And I don't really want an "extra" snow fox of a slightly different kind in my doll family. But I'd feel sorry for her to just be discarded, so I'll make her my play model: I'll drag her along to conventions (might cast a new butt for her if I go with a new design), so that customers can play around with it and test the posing and stuff, and don't have to touch the "real" dolls for sale. That way she can still help her sisters and come along with them.

 

Okay, re-designing Seraphim/Neva's butt might just have been the best decision I have ever made.
Miss Whiny-pants-won't-stay-in-place has been transformed into Lady Holy-shit-steady-as-a-rock!
Seriously, it's ridiculous! I knew the pelvic piece is the most important part of a doll's overall balance, but this...
I can dangle her around by the neck, stretch the legs somewhat, put her down and BAM! She stands! I don't even need to lock the knees and ankles! Even in walking position, with 2/3 of her weight on one leg! Even bent over, or bent backwards!
Without wiring, hell, without proper stringing (she's floppy as fuck)!
Check. This. Out.





I still need to smoothen the lines a bit, make the thighs a bit thicker, place the tail a little higher... But DAMN. You show me one anthro this big and this mobile who can pull this kind of shit off without support!
-Please excuse my language, I cannot be held responsible while in a semi-permanent state of joy-combustion.

 

Thanks Earill

I'm nearly done with refining the butt and making new upper legs & hip joints, but I still need to sand everything.
As mentioned before (I think?) I also learnt a new trick, an easy way to take off/ switch heads. Special thanks to Enid-Art (who I believe in turn learnt it from Mewiefish) who showed me.
Bigger version to be found here: http://puppitproductions.deviantart.com/art/The-easy-head-switch-system-513467530

 

Thanks so much ^^
The tail is teddy bear armature. It's basically like a spine of pawn-shaped joints clicked together that don't require stringing. If you've got a big/specialized store in the neighbourhood that offers things for doll- and plushie making, like felting supplies and eyes/noses, you can probably get it there. Regular craft/hobby shops usually don't have it, though. I got mine at this shop: http://www.probear.com/ (You can find the armature, as well as a clicking/detaching tool and dividers/cross-sections under "others" - not under "joints", confusingly enough).
You can also find it at teddy bear / classic doll conventions.

 

Thanks Dunwych!

Even with the limited winter sun, the first results of the resin UV-test are coming in. The UV-additive DOES seem to help, but it's not as effective as I had hoped. The Artificina resin (French resin) is definitely out of the race now, though: Apart from irritating bottles, a high price and a very limited shelf life it yellows even faster than Axson resin, with or without UV-additive.
In regards of UV-resistance, Alumilite is still the obvious winner... But I am still very much in love with the feel and translucent quality of the Axson resin.

Someone told me a while ago that Alumilite is fairly soft, and that for a big doll like this, any strong stringing and stress on the joints might cause them to warp a little over time. Now theoretically, I think that should only improve the fit... But it did get me a little worried and I looked up the shore hardnesses of my resins, since I never gave it that much thought. Hard enough is hard enough, I thought.
Both my first and second master cast had a 70 D shore hardness. Alumilite has 72 D. And while I never string my dolls extremely tight (if a doll poses well this also shouldn't be necessary), both models have been lying around for a while and they still work just fine.
So even if there is any change to the fit using a resin of this hardness, it certainly won't be more than you would usually get just from wear over the years. I don't have to change my resin choice just for that.

I could try other resins, but I after two years of experimenting I doubt I will find better ones than Axson and Alumilite. Both have low viscosity, are easy to handle, accept colour quite nicely and give very little bubbles. So now I have to make a difficult choice: Do I go with a more expensive resin, which doesn't feel as nice but doesn't yellow at all, or do I go with a cheaper resin, which feels much better but yellows pretty quickly?
Mastercast 2, who has been sitting in the shade for almost a year now, shows no yellowing, but the headcap I put in the window sill last summer has turned almost light brown :/ While it's collegue in Alumilite has only become off-white...
Dillemma

Another pro to perhaps go for Axson after all, is that it has a little longer pot life than Alumilite. Alumilite's is 2,5 minutes, while Axson's is 3,5. Add additives like Sun Devil and colouring and it should stretch to about 4,5 to 5 minutes: which should be just long enough to use pressure casting.
I might try another resin after all if it turns out the pot life is too short for pressure casting. Perhaps one of the Task series, though they are very expensive and probably yellow as crazy as well as most of them are semi-translucent...
But right now I'm still saving up money for a compressor... And after that I'll have to buy new resin anyway, because what little is left has gone past it's shelf life, making it useless for any accurate tests.

 

Yeah, I feel myself leaning more towards the yellowing resin more. I tried analysing myself, trying to find out if I wasn't just being lazy or prejudiced or cheap by secretly preferring Axson, but with about 1,5 litre of resin per doll, the price of the resin is only a very small part of the price of the doll, and ordering resin from England over the internet isn't exactly more trouble than picking the tanks up in the neighbouring town. And with that slightly longer pot life and the lovely translucent glow... I think I'll just try to fit in as much Sun Devil as I can, and perhaps offer a light spray-over with UV-cut MSC for those who are extra worried :P
I planned on printing some instructions on how to take care of the doll with the authenticity certificate anyway...
Let's hope all goes well when I get to pressure casting. God knows I could really use some luck by now >.<

 

...It's been a while, hasn't it? Stuff came to a bit of a standstill after my last update. I was indecisive, out of money and frankly, out of courage. Nearly three years and still no sell-able dolls. But today, at the anniversary of drawing the original official work plan... I return.

First, the result of the UV-test with the junk casts! At this scale it's a bit too small to read, so... The combo's with the faces are cast with Sun Devil, the parts below that (just ears) aren't. From left to right: Artificina coloured, Artificina pure, Alumilite coloured, Alumilite pure, Axson coloured, Axson pure.

Now, keep in mind that these are all old bits of resin who have gotten quite moist-bubbly or even flaky in storage. It's not about achieving the least bubbles or a perfectly equal colour here, it's about how it responds to sunlight.


The inside of the heads and ears didn't get any (direct) sunlight, so they represent the original colour of the cast. Put side by side like this, it's easy to spot which parts changed the most.


Another comparison, by kind of resin, ears cast with (left) and without (right) Sun Devil. Inside head for colour original reference.



Oddly enough, there isn't a uniform "better" resin: While Artificina shows the biggest difference in using or not using Sun Devil, this is shown mainly in the pure, uncoloured version. The difference isn't nearly as big in the coloured version, and the pure version still yellows a lot more than Alumilite, which turns out to be bleaching, rather than yellowing. :/
Poor Axson is, even with Sun Devil, completely unsuitable for snow foxes. Even with protection and in colour there is a pretty extensive colour change, but it could serve as a back-up if the nr.1 in colour turns out to cure too quickly for pressure casting.
The obvious winners:
Artificina for Seraphim the fire fox, and Alumilite for Neva the snow fox. Both with Sun Devil added.


Now, for some more resin-related news:
I have acquired a pressure pot annnd... compressor. A second-hand hospital one the size of a fridge... But it's in good shape, and also doesn't make much more noise than a fridge. Since I'll be using it inside the house, located wall-to-wall in a regular neighbourhood, it was essential that I'd find a silent one. Those were plenty available, but often not powerful enough (if I'm going to use fast-curing resin I need big one, to fire that pressure pot up to 3 bar/ 40 psi in under a minute and/or hold a big amount of compressed air) or very expensive. I got lucky with this one, but it still cost me a few months to scrape together enough money.
I still have to find or make a new rubber ring for the pressure pot (this one is kind of old and shifty), and I'd like an extra tap/faucet with a moisture filter on there, so I can minimize the risk of bubbles even more, as well as fill up the compressor's own tank up front, and then releasing it directly into the casting pot when I've put the moulds in it and closed the lid.

I also stumbled across an unusual way of resin colouring. I've tried quite a bit (gouache powder/ ground soft pastel/ glitter and of course official colouring pigments of several brands), but they always gave quite a bit of bubbles, didn't mix well, or came in limited colours... Making it very difficult to get a consistent colour ("one drop red, one point five drops of yellow, half a drop of gree-AHHHH crap I've put in too much!"). Even the Alumilite, who offers some beautiful ready-mixed realistic skin tones didn't have the one I needed: After all, Seraphim doesn't have a realistic skin tone. She's a fox, and she's not human-skin brown but rusty-iron red.
A few months ago I ran into a thread on some model-making forum where several people had been using oil paint to colour PU-resin. I was flabbergasted, because I've always been told oil and PU do not like each other (like you can't use oil pastels or oil paint for face-ups). But I was at my wits end anyway, so I decided to test it with an old, soon-to-be-discarded mould. If it didn't cure or turned into some other kind of abomination, no big deal.
But it turns out.. It worked PERFECTLY.

You've got to take care that you don't get any weird spots/ bits and stir perhaps a little more attentive than with liquid resin pigments, but it dissolves remarkably well. If there is some left at the bottom of the mixing cup, it's not much more than you'd usually have when putting in liquid pigments (those who do casting know that annoying little bottom-of-the-cup-swirl you'll end up with when you scrape out the last bit to fill your mould).
These test parts (they're lower arms by the way) have been in the window sill almost as long as the heads and ears, and though they show the usual bit of yellowing, it's no more than on their official-PU-pigment-coloured colleagues. There is no weird oily residue, no sticky feeling, no softening, no brittle bits or any other sign that the oil paint and resin are rejecting each other. I tried rubbing a clean white cloth against it as hard a I could, and it came back perfectly clean (well, maybe a bit dusty). I'm over the moon, because this means I can just buy a tube of mass-produced paint and keep the colour much, much more consistent!

Now, for the last update... Me + the boyfriend have bought a house and we'll move there in the next few weeks. So I guess that puts a hold on things for a bit again, but the good news is that I'll finally have a proper work place. An actual ROOM. With daylight and fresh air. Instead of an attic with one teeny-tiny window.
Also I have re-modelled Seraphim/Neva's pelvic part, hips and upper legs. She'll be standing much, much more solid with this one and if the slots and lock systems I made paper tests out of work just as well in real life... She'll even be more poseable, without breaking up the luscious curves!

 

Hey guys, guess what...
I'm back!

 

Hey guys, quick question!
I'm fine-tuning the new pelvic part for Seraphim/Neva, and I thought of something.
I always wanted to give her a little bit of sculpted fur around the attachment point of the tail, just to make the transition from furry tail to smooth plastic butt & back a little less abrupt.
I think... I might give her some sculpted pubes too. It would be weird for a fox girl to have hairy paws and fur on her lower back, and then be perfectly smooth at the front. It would be fairly easy to have it modified for customers who don't like it, they can just sand it away.
What do you think?

 

The new pelvic part (still in the rough on the outside) with the new tail mechanism!

Old mechanism:

Previously, a nut was embedded into the lower back and the tail was screwed on. Which worked pretty well, but had a big risk of scratching the butt with the screw, it could go askew, and could encourage people to use too much force to get it on tightly. Also, when bending the tail at the base to the left, it could cause the screw to come loose... And it was a pain to get that screw straightly embedded into the tail. All in all, it just wasn't practical.

The new mechanism:
Originally, I tried avoiding magnets, because I've seen these used in other, smaller dolls with tails and they're usually a pain. Often not strong enough, and causing the tail to rotate on the base. With a big tail like my fox's, there was no way that could work without using insanely strong magnets... Or so I thought.

A perfectly fitting, almost click-on attachment point at a better angle provided not only a more fluent transition from back to tail, but also gave me more room for stronger magnets, and due to the shape and fit, the tail won't just fall out, even without magnets.
A cross-shaped but rounded lock provides a strong extra grip for the tail, preventing unwanted rotation, and the magnets pull it in place almost by themselves. I would advise to look whether you are holding the cross-shape right before putting in the tail, though: It prevents wear on the lock.









The tail-joint with the lock shape and magnet will be cast separately, after which I can glue in the magnet, click on the rest of the tail joints (oh how I LOVE that teddy bear armature!), and then hoist the "sleeve" that is the tail + stuffing over it, and sew it shut.

 

Not quite done yet (okay, not at all done yet), but I promised Lemendik I would update somewhere this week, so here you go...

You've seen the new pelvic part before, but only in an earlier stage (a first test that proved her to stand much more solid, and a quick shot at an earlier stage for Christmas where the tail took up most of the view).
The lock system in the hips will remain more or less the same, a little notch on the upper leg you can pop out of the hip joint and slide into the horizontal gap to allow for more sideways movement, but I'm also looking into how to embed the hips more with the overall design without losing back-and-forth movements. I think I found a way, a comma shaped hip joint and a strong upper leg that can lock themselves in "over-tension" when needed (basically a pull-out joint, but not quite... It should prove more fluent)... You'll see when I manage to make it work.
For now: I like big butts and I cannot lie!
The old butt looked fine, but the hips didn't merge (the ever-ongoing dilemma between nice shape and nice poseability), the tail attachment was difficult, and frankly, for her overall size, it was too small! Her buttocks were about the same size as her tits, and while it looks nice from the back, imagine some fairly muscled arms on there and you see the problem... It's just not a good figure for the kind of doll I had in mind. So, moar curvez.




...And of course I will also give her nicely defined lady-parts.

 

Now that I've finished a bucketload of commissions, I'm working on my foxes again.

Raw epoxy sculpt vs. sanded:


With & without tail (not locked in, just leaned it against the lock to illustrate):



Serving suggestion:


:P

 

A little something in between. Merry Christmas from Neva 1.5 - Neva 2.0 will hopefully hit the market this upcoming year!

 

I'm back at work!
But since there was finally some pretty snow I couldn't resist making a bit of a "teaser t(r)ailer".

(This the 1.5, who's yellowed- for the 2.0 I picked out a better resin)

 

Ugh, don't remind me >.< Especially this last year was a pain, I made some other stuff but I hardly prioritized finishing my foxes- all the failures over the years have made it pretty daunting, you know.

Anyway,
I'm working on some better pelvic part for her, and the hip joints and upper legs have to follow suit, otherwise they'd look really weird.
Her thighs are going to be a bit shorter, thicker, and stronger. Earlier on I already made a better tail lock.

 

Muscley legs progressing...


And Stripeycat, your elephant is so cute! Loving the legs, too. Good luck with her!

 

I'm not dead! Just figuring out some issues with the hips.

 

Still here!
I think I worked out the problem, now to actually make it... Have a random construction shot.

 

I can't be entirely sure of others, but there's a high probability it's the same reason as mine: It's simply the result of adding a layer (of coating, of clay, of anything) in a (slightly) different colour to something previously sculpted. Revisions, revisions, revisions- And like digging through the earth's crust, you'll see those layers of history emerge while you're sanding

 

Y'all know how I got some marvellous plans for those hip joints, making them super-mobile despite my doll having quite some junk in her trunk?
Yeah. Well. My brilliant plan to work around that made use of a pull-out system that unfortunately did not correspond well with the joint's lock system for sideways sliding (see pictures of previous model, where the hips still protruded a lot more). Basically, when wanting to make use of the new pull-out system for locking the leg in a forward motion, you'd automatically also unlock the thing for sideways motion. -.-

The only way in which I could solve that resulted in something very fragile, that would be very difficult to cast, not very easy to handle (especially when strung under tension) and only provided a tiny bit more range than a radically more simple solution:
After much revision, I decided to drop the separate hip joint altogether.

To make sure this new, simpler, one-piece version would actually work before I would do a whole lot of sculpting on the real thing (again), I made a quick mini version. Like a 3D sketch (Why have I never thought of this before?!).
It works perfectly... So now it's on to the big version.

 

Ah yes, using existing materials that already sort of have the basic shape is great as well! Careful with PVC though- it's even more toxic than PU or ABS resin. You're wearing a mask when sanding, right?
I consider myself to have quite the bit of spatial awareness (like, I can close my eyes and picture a 3D semi-transparent model in my mind, to be rotated, turned and re-shaped at will), but with so many different locks and tricks in effect I guess my mental CGI program malfunctioned :P

Couldn't resist trying to cheat that resin & elastic out of some more range of movement, though...
Silly, really, because this has been a standard trick of mine to give single-jointed dolls a bit more reach for photoshoots... Yes somehow it never occurred to me an insertable pin would be an ideal non-permanent lock to force-hold a limb's position beyond the 90 degree angle. It would require not stringing the doll too tightly- but I've never been a fan of that anyway. Good joints don't need hyper tense elastic- they'll have enough grip all by themselves. I'd rather suede/hot glue a doll than over-string it.

Introducing: the pin lock!


It worked on a small scale, now for the big ones (and yes carrying a spare piece around can be annoying but you can always store it inside the head or something).

 

Apparently Photobucket decided to pull a really nasty move and charge an insane price (four hundred dollars. FOUR. *Hundred*. dollars.) for embedding photo's you stocked on their site onto things like fora and stuff- which is what people primarily use it for.
Honestly, at first I thought it was a phishing scam. Or the site was hacked, or something. But no, it seems legit.
Best evidence can be seen right here in this thread.

If this were a reasonable fee (say, the amount you'd also pay for website hosting), all right. I get that. Your servers cost money. Third party hosting takes power and nobody will see your actual site- with advertisements 'n stuff to pay for it all. Okay.
But this is downright ridiculous, and I will NOT be blackmailed.

It's going to take me some time to find a good solution to this (I'd rather not replace everything by links), so in the meantime expect some annoying "please upgrade your account" images to pop up here or on other fora, until I've found another host.

My apologies for the visual abominations in the meantime.

PS- for anyone worrying: your images are still on their site. They just can't be accessed directly from another site anymore.
Still, if they start pulling this sort of crap we have no idea if they may at some point charge a fee for not replacing those links or something. Better safe than sorry: replace any links as soon as possible or better yet, download all your stuff, find a new host, and delete your Photobucket account because these bastards are sure putting the "host" in "hostage situation".