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Modification Sculpted hands and feet for incoming doll?

Mar 6, 2023

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    1. Hopefully I'm putting this in the right place! Has anyone made hands and feet out of Apoxie Sculpt for their dolls? If so, how does it hold up?

      I'm in the process of shelling my character Jack - an active, mischievous, rabbit pooka in a zoot suit - and I need a bit of advice. Hopefully someone here has experience and can help me out. Here's my current situation:

      I just bought a Birdcube Lipu head secondhand in the marketplace from an awesome DOA member and ordered a DF-H muscular body from Alice's Collections since both fit his character. The body will take several months to get to me, but that's okay. Unfortunately, after months of searching for MSD sized four fingered hands (three fingers and a thumb) that aren't paws, I've come up short. Also, I can't seem to find rabbit leg parts for sale that are either just the feet or the feet and lower legs.

      Any idea how hands and feet made from just a wire armature and apoxie sculpt will hold up? Should I just mod and sculpt the custom parts onto the incoming hands and feet? Should I sculpt them and try casting them in resin instead? He'll be my tenth doll and I've done bits of modding before, but never hacking off fingers, toes, or part of the foot. It's better to ask if there's someone experienced that can give me advice. Here's a picture of Jack for reference. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

      [​IMG]Jack_full by Mandy McMahon, on Flickr
       
      #1 Kaiyashu, Mar 6, 2023
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    2. I'd say if you cannot find fitting parts, modding the existing hands and feet are your best option.
      The head, hands and feet need to be able to deal with a lot of tension due the strings being attached to their ends. Feet need to withstand that AND the weight of the doll on top.

      If you mod the existing parts, you not only have the extra stability, you also don't have to deal with getting the jointing right. It's more stable, easier and faster. If you don't want to destroy them, you could even look to get an extra pair from the company.
      Also, it's cheaper and lighter! Making a full foot out of Apoxie requires a lot of clay AND Apoxie isn't that light.

      So yeah, I'd vote for modding the existing hands and feet. In case of the hands I'd probably remove the pinky and smoothen out the area to make it look like he naturally has four fingers. For the feet, it would depend on the exact look you want.
       
      #2 Ara, Mar 6, 2023
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    3. I was worried about the tension that the elastic would have on the wire/apoxie mix, so your advice is making me feet a lot better! I have probably five or so months to wait for the body, so if some Mylo/Teschen rabbit feet show up in the marketplace in that timeframe, I might spring for those. Maybe I'll put out a WTB.

      In regards to the hands, I'd like to take out the middle and ring finger, sculpt in a finger in that space, and thicken up the rest of the fingers to match if possible. Would that be doable? I kind of like the width of the hands, after all.
       
      #3 Kaiyashu, Mar 6, 2023
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    4. I'd certainly try a WTB!

      Regarding the hands, that's certainly possible. The biggest issue will probably be sanding, because sanding between fingers is a pest :lol:
       
      #4 Ara, Mar 6, 2023
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    5. Haha, oh yes, I'm sure it will be! Thanks for the advice, I'm feeling much better about modding instead of fully sculpting now! :D
       
      #5 Kaiyashu, Mar 6, 2023
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    6. I made hooves for a body of mine, and went the apoxie method. He's had them for a few months now and I had to reset the screw eyelet with super glue on one hoof (it's there to catch the hook and is tougher than the apoxie), but he's standing just fine. I did sculpt the hoof directly against the leg with a few layers of plastic wrap between them to get a snug fit.

      I feel that on an Msd sized doll the extra apoxie weight is negligible.
       
      #6 Thymeseer, Mar 6, 2023
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    7. Ooh, that's also something to consider! Maybe I'll do both and have spare feet!
       
      #7 Kaiyashu, Mar 6, 2023
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    8. I've sculpted alternative hands for my minifee. It was hard to find clawed hands that would fit. Also the issue with having to mod a magnet for the wrist. I just bought extra hands from Denver Doll Emporium and sculpted over them using epoxy. They're holding up super nicely.
       
      #8 Lady Sai Inu, Mar 7, 2023
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    9. This also sounds like a great idea! Perhaps I can boil the hands to soften them up, stick the middle two fingers together, and mod them that way. And then sculpt over the other fingers and knuckles to match. Then I wouldn't have to remove any fingers and it would provide a solid base!

      Thanks for the idea! :D
       
      #9 Kaiyashu, Mar 8, 2023
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