40–49cm Dolls several projects (Update Sept 2021 help requested!)

Jphobia, yeah I guess he would be! But then I wonder what's wrong with the girl vers. since she's so much smaller/shorter. I'm probably just obsessing over insignificant things and it'll look fine in the end haha. Oh yeah the joints, they just didn't seem like they'd hold in a full range of positions, like they're too slippery or the wrong shape. That could partly be the lack of grip of the material, or the stringing isn't as strong as it will be idk, but I want to be sure of the joint design before committing to resin. I think I'm getting somewhere now though. This elbow joint design seems to work okay, I can see why it's so popular.

glimmer, ahh thanks #^^#! Hmmm trying to remember but I think this clay was a mixture of some sculpey firm with a whole bunch of 10 year old scrap clay leftovers from my sculpting box lol. So there was also some regular fimo, cernit mixes, premo, a bunch of old prosculpt which I hated and could never do anything with, and some random bits 'n bobs. Once it was kneaded together it was really soft so I leeched thin sheets of it between paper for a week until it was a good hardness. The clay's not really amazing to work with but it seems to bake well at high temps and is pretty strong (stronger than sculpey firm). Honestly I don't think the exact clay matters that much since you adjust to whatever you're working with.. but for fine things like fingers you probably want to tend to a harder clay.

Actually I was going to do a progression thing but just forgot to take photos of the last couple stages the next day I was so worried about accidentally crushing two days of work so ran to the oven as soon as they were done. But since you asked, here you can see the early steps anyway, I basically just carved the clay with an exacto knife until it was close to the right shape and dimensions (including fingers in the correct position.. no bending the clay later), then gently smoothed the sharp edges with a combo of needles and ball/rubber tools. What's missing is adding knuckles, creating nails, smoothing the finger creases, adding palm lines, some slight reshaping, and then the oil stage (which is where the whole thing gets soaked in mineral oil and smoothed carefully with a paintbrush to remove anomalies and get a nice surface. The second to last photo I just took so excuse some of the paperclay crud. And the last pic is my tools.. a rusty old exacto knife, one slightly sharper knife, a (t)rusty old big needle I've used for years, a new smaller needle too (because it grabs the clay surface differently), and that beautiful set of sculpey ball tools I just bought and am adoring, both ends are extremely useful for blending.

Hope this helps a bit! it's not nice and thorough like a video but I'd probably get so nervous the hands wouldn't turn out at all :[.

Oh and that single completed hand in some of the pics is the too-large one, it worked as a good comparison.

 

Wow it's been ages, lots of things happened to get in the way of my sculpting for years but here's an update at last ^^ I've acquired some casting equipment and have stated making junk molds to polish up a master for my unicorn boy (and hopefully finally finish one my projects). Pretty exciting to be here after so long! But I'm a bit stumped.. actually I'd love your guys' opinion about his head size. After coming back to him just recently it struck me that his head really does seem a bit too big and bobbly looking for his style, to me. Just a tiny bit, I'd say no more than 5%. But the thing is I'd sort of like him to look decent next to other larger head styled dolls too, such as minifee and unoa maybe. He's 49cm and I've made mockups comparing him to these dolls and he looks okay with his current head, but not sure how accurate that'll turn out to be in person since I don't have any mature mini girls yet.

So I'm not sure what to do, or if it's just tunnel vision afterall. What do you think?
(edit 2018, don't have these pics anymore, sorry)
(edit 2021, I've remade a pic of what I suppose the original must have been)

all copy by thatbee, on Flickr

second photo: real head on the left, shrunk 5% on the right. Sorry for the crud pics btw, this was from a while ago and I can't currently string him up.
For shrinking there's a few other concerns to take into consideration. I can either cast a flumo head and tidy it up, but this softens his details a bit which I didn't like, or try shrinking a silicone mold with mineral spirits which I haven't tried before, so not sure how accurate that'll be either.


edit to reply to some posts (better late than never XP) OutsideTheBox thanks so much! I still love an miss your boy and hope you can finish him some day, he's so fantastic sculpt and joints wise *admires*.
glimmer *trying to remember* I think this sculpey was pretty firm as long as it wasn't handled, but it was also really flexible and not brittle like 'sculpey firm' can be, so I didn't have any trouble without an armature, it held itself up pretty well. I absolutely can't work with wire though, it alas just creates holes inside the clay from my meddling and causes more problems than it helps, so got no choice in the matter. If wire works for you I'm a bit envious actually :p

 

Thank you guys sooooo much, you've made me feel a lot better about his proportions, I think I'll leave him be then! I was getting so stressed about this, really think I must have just been looking at him too much and his image was starting to warp in my mind from exhaustion. Really happy now, his current head size does look better to me now too, think it fits better the size of his thighs and arms/hands/feet. Think I was just thrown a bit by his shoulder width, but it aligns with his concept sketch so I shouldn't worry so much ^^;

Thanks for all the kind words too, it's so encouraging that he's liked :3 I don't know if there would be, but if there's enough interest I want to get him procast once his masters ready since casting/moldbuilding is so much work, SO expensive ($1100 down so far -__-), difficult and messy. I've had sensitivity in the past to resin so don't want to get to that point again. If all goes well he should be available soonish. Otherwise I'll buy more silicone (auuuu lol $$$) and finish him up myself 'cause I NEED MY BOY TOO. Can't wait to get him 'born' Right now I'm waiting on some silicone to finish his head and shin molds.. turns out 1 gallon of oomoo wasn't enough for a 49cm doll

Berrysdoll Glad you like his silhouette especially! I had to make so many changes by thickening him up from my last post, he's practically half new :P Lol yep he's not on par with that level of stylization! Even if it turns out his head is a titch large I guess I don't mind if it means he may look okay next to other mature minis. Really wish I had a unoa to compare with right now, though. Gotta keep saving and looking...
His head is about 6.5" now, may shrink a bit with casting. Hopefully not too much. I actually do have photos with a wig, should've posted that maybe.

Ohhh, sorry about the missing photos, I totally forgot they were probably linked to my flickr account which I cleaned out when they made all those changes last year. They should be up on my ipernity though: http://www.ipernity.com/home/thatbee

 

Berrysdoll: Ahhh, thank you for the comments :*3 I'll reply soon! I don't know how much more progress there is to see though, should definitely be more after all this time but I just haven't been able to work.
Yeah it's a shame but I don't mind too much, the hunt is exciting too. I've been poor and missed so many opportunities for unoas though, urgh. Almost bought one of the boys that were up on Mandrake a while go but I really want a girl, so.. And I really want her in kit form still, so my pickiness doesn't help :p
I agree, and I just love mature minis the most! But you rarely see as many choices as in 1/3 bjds. Like if dollshe, for instance, made his boys in mini form. I'd die. And starve. There's so many sculpts I love but can't get because of their size. Which I guess is my inspiration as well.
Oh thanks again for the vote of confidence about his proportions, I think I was just going mad second guessing myself lol. You all have brought me back to earth
About anatomy, oh no I'm such a faker, I really know so little about it, but am studying super hard to try and get better! I guess this is something you can study your whole life though. Thanks though
Yep, initial set up costs are a killer. And silicone too, that'll never be cheaper.

wilga Aw thank you! Well his head is proportionately smaller than unoas are compared to their body, so even though he's taller his head should be a reasonable match to a unoas right now. He'd be like a taller guy next to a shorter girl compared to a Sist or Lusis.

 

Thank you or your input as well OutsideTheBox I'll always listen to more opinions on the matter. Me too, and hopefully soon :p

Well, some sort of update, my first junk casting was a disaster. Oh man, I don't know what went wrong, I think the resin started setting up earlier than expected.. maybe it was the weather, or maybe I just dawdled, anyway it was heating up and I was frantic to pour it in the molds, and some of my pour spouts were too small and the resin didn't want to go in, and then it started thickening AHHHH!! I had made some funnels to pour the resin into so when i degassed it would'nt overflow, but they were too slippery for some reason and just popped out again ;__; And then when I put it in the vacuum chamber it of course bubbled EVERYWHERE, and all over the chamber D: I had to go find mineral spirits to clean it up fast 'cause it was hardening already. sigh.

So I couldn't even degas enough and some of the parts didn't get fully filled due to the spouts, etc... here' a pic of my molds after curing, you can see the horrible mess -__-


To top it off the casts have wrinkles/creases all over.. not certain why but I think it's from pouring too late when the resin wanted to set up already, and it seems as it hits the silicone it cures faster? So it had a partially cured skin of resin, which I then degassed and it got shift around a bit in the vacuum? hmmm.

He can't be strung because of the missing upper shin, but here it is compared to the prototype:
(edit 2018, lost this photo in a HD crash, sorry ;_;

So, failure. I need to get some large syringes and inject the resin into the tiny spouts, then hopefully things will go better next time ;_;

edit: arrgh I thought the attachments fixed themselves, but now they're missing entirely! I'll try and upload again -_-
edit: fixed now?

 

Haha yeah it could have been worse, but I still hoped for better :P here's a slightly closer photo showing the creasing, I don't think there's a single piece without it:


Yep, the molds had some residue from sculpey and dust, etc so I expected this to be a waste anyway, but it didn't even fill in entirely so there's some spots that will still have residue on the next pour. Oh well, practice makes closer to perfect I'm getting some syringes today and will try again. Thanks for the link and the rooting also, every tip helps!
I am using the long set resin, totally didn't trust myself to be able to pour in just minutes, but even so I spent too long making sure it was mixed probably. Will be quicker next time. Been thinking about using talc as well, it's good to see what works for others and their techniques

 

Miss_Pygmalion I'm using smooth cast 322 which I thought had a 30 minute pot life, but apparently it's 10-20 minutes, so that explains the initial troubles(must have gotten it confused with the silicone). Not sure if there's anything from smooth-on with a longer pot life, but maybe from a different manufacturer.. I'll look into it! I would like a slightly longer pour window because of the time it takes to vacuum. The 322 is pretty thin and watery though, it's easy to splash. I'd actually like a bit denser/heavier resin anyway, this stuff seems nice but kinda light compared to my prototype, I'm so used to his hefty weight now, maybe there's something out there..

Ohh I think you're absolutely right about the resin folding on itself. Thankfully it's an easy fix now I know the reason. Part of the problem is my vacuum chamber is pretty large and it takes a while to pull completely down. I've been degassing the mixed resin first then pouring and degassing again, but I'll probably just try degassing in the molds next time and save some time. Thanks for the vote of confidence btw I'm much happier with the second cast lol!

Anyhoo the second junk cast was a success thanks to the most invaluable syringes! Well mostly, except for some trapped air in the shins, realised I put the pour spout on the wrong end so it couldn't escape 9_9 so I need to cast a new set. Other than that it was a near perfect replica of the prototype. Still in pieces waiting for sprue cutting/sanding, but OMG that feeling seeing your whole doll in actual resin for the first time, even though it's not the master yet. I couldn't stop just looking at him. So exciting/amazing. I just wanted to bounce and clap my hands like a kid

now comes the real work xD

 

Got the first junk cast done and roughly trimmed, then put him together to see how it looks:
(Edit2018:sadly lost this photo, i'll continue to look for it)

So looks like he shrunk a bit, maybe 1/2 cm? Though I'm not sure exactly where the shrinkage is located. There was an issue with the torso joint on the prototype not fitting as flush as it should after I primed it, and with the junk cast none of the joints fit as tightly as before (with quite some gappage in places), so I think part of the shrinkage is actually the torso fitting lower like it should.. the junk cast is still nearly 49 cm while the prototype is a bit over.

Interesting to note the sculpey firm prototype weight (with more hollow pieces) is 1000 grams, while the cast is just 842 grams.
Now to do tons of sanding and refining. I'm thinking of redoing his elbows, and I totally forgot his back lock fell off before molding so that needs to be remade as well, :[.

 

First off super belated thank you to everyone who commented on my junk cast ahaa, ^^; only what, 7 years late? But I did really appreciate them all, you guys made my month. Also enjoyed rereading them now, gave me lots of motivation

So while I'm working on completing my bird fairy and making good progress, I glanced at this boy again and thought, "that's it, I'm finishing him too for better or worse!". So set to polishing up what there is, however, I want to redo his feet since I've never been truly happy with the shape of them. So I have a question for anyone who might be more informed about this (I've been realllly out of the loop the past years), foot size? At first I had sort of tried to make his feet small enough to maybe fit some 1/4 size shoes, but for the few pairs I own Nope, they would definitely not fit even his current feet, plus they are all very childish looking, meant for younger dolls. I know there are now some 50cm+- male dolls out there, but are there shoes to fit them?? I can't seem find info on this... His feet are right now about 6.2cm, and I sculpted a new foot that is 6.7+cm but the new one may be too big proportional wise, not sure. Anyway If there are shoes out there to fit a 50cm mature foot like this I'd love to know what size I should make his new feet!
Edit: So apparently JID and FID have similar size feet! And iplehouse even sells shoes, though they are pretty pricey. I think I'll try and keep the feet under FID size then. Thinking about maybe making some slipper feet to fit in 1/4 shoes as well, though still not sure if 1/4 mature shoes exist.

Sadly I lost a few wip photos of the junk casting process due to a hardrive failure and the transition to DOA, but here's an old pic showing off all my wips, the boy in question is center:

DSC08300 by thatbee, on Flickr

another older photo showing the prototype next to junk cast. poor focus and posing, sorry.
DSC09100 copy by thatbee, on Flickr

 

I've made some new feet, they turned out smaller than his originals hm. Need to joint them and see how they look on the body still. Did a progression of the sculpting again just for fun, here it is!
foottut2 by thatbee, on Flickr

original size: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51445356485_3ed6b2a249_o_d.jpg