Modification The Automail Workshop

Perhaps because I'm a glutton for punishment, I am going to be doing not one, but two Automail mods on two separate dolls! Since this is going to be a pretty intensive project, I figured a project journal might help me keep on track with it (as well as sharing how the mods are being performed for anyone who's curious).


The victims by vicemage, on Flickr

Of course, I need to start with a couple of volunteers. While this all started with a desire to get a proper body for that MNM head up there... he's actually going to be replaced in the near future. He's either bobble-headed on bodies I like, or fits bodies I don't like, and his range of motion is just dreadful, so when I get the body for my floating MNF event head, I'll order it up with a Shiwoo head for him, because I'm quite fond of it on the LTF next to him. For now, both of them have had their heads/faces, wigs and clothes tucked safely away from the sharp tools.


Automail Schematic by vicemage, on Flickr

And this is the primary reference I'm using (visible in the image above too); it's a nice clean line drawing, giving me a good clear look at where the various lines and planes of the design are. I'll be accomplishing this mod through a combination of carving out with an Xacto knife and sandpaper, and building up with Milliput, with the intent to keep the mods as close to the size of the original limbs as possible.

 

Day One

So in looking at all of those parts... I decided the easiest place to start is the thigh, and the connection between automail and skin. And the easiest place to start is the LittleFee limbs, as they are much rounder and smoother than the MiniFee ones, where I'll need to build up parts a bit to even out the musculature. Looking at the reference, the connection is about 1/4 of the way up the thigh, which unfortunately on the LTF leg cuts right through the back of the knee joint, so I moved it up to just above it instead.


LTF Thigh: Back by vicemage, on Flickr

(This shouldn't be a problem on the MNF leg, which should therefore be more proportionately in scale to the reference.)


LTF Thigh: Front by vicemage, on Flickr


In this case, the modification is purely subtractive; I cut a small "shelf" into the leg all the way around and sanded it even and smooth to create the illusion of a piece set over the flesh, without having to build up around the joint area. I then sketched the scarring in place, in approximately the same locations and style as shown in the image (though I didn't shoot for exact, since cutting changes it a bit anyway). Once I had lines I was happy with, I gave the whole thing a light sanding. I'd like to find a way to get down further into the scars, though at the same time, I'm considering that a bit of texture in them might not be so bad. Still, I'll want to work this out before I reach some of the mechanical parts that absolutely have to be smooth.

This part of the mod went really quite easily, and I'll likely restring the LTF body and do the same step on the MNF one, going back and forth on the same parts. With the MNF, there's some nice sculpting around the kneecap that I'll have to cover up with Milliput, making the process take a bit longer, but this being the simplest individual part, it should go just as easily. And hopefully by Spring when I can do blushing again, I'll have decided the best way to paint these pieces, as I would rather have them actually metallic, rather than just grey. (I welcome suggestions on this part!)

 

Oh, that looks fantastic, SilverWinglie! Thank you for the tip, I'll have to go check out those paints (or see if I already have any in silver)!

And even though I haven't posted an update recently, I am actually still working on this, but the MNF leg port is taking quite a bit longer. I've got all the carving done, and will be doing the Milliput to remove the detailing from the knee this afternoon, and will absolutely post an update of it afterward!

 

Day Two-Four

This part took about three days of off-and-on work, but I'm pleased with how it turned out!


MNF Leg Port: Front by vicemage, on Flickr


That's (obviously) not how I'll be painting the leg for the finished design. But since I didn't bother trying to tint the Milliput and it didn't match the resin color at all, the matte paint lets me see where there's any rough spots in the mod. And for the most part, all the careful smoothing and sanding did the trick! The little dips around the knee are gone, and the piece is evened out to closer match the designs.


MNF Leg Port: Side by vicemage, on Flickr

...except for right here. There was a spot where the Milliput didn't get fully mixed, that was hidden under a thin layer of cured material, and wasn't exposed until I started sanding. When I mix up another batch of Milliput for the calf plates, I'll strip the paint off the thigh and patch that spot.



MNF Leg Port: Back by vicemage, on Flickr

And the back, which, like with the LTF size, governed the placement of the carving. It's a bit larger overall than the picture on the table shows, but I'm not willing to mess with the joints just for the sake of 100% accuracy. I'd rather have it look as good as possible within the constraints of the jointing, and keep the awesome posability these bodies have.

The next step will be the calf parts, which will be a combination of carving (the shaping at the back) and sculpting (the plate on the front). Again, I'm starting with the LTF body (you can see the start of the guidelines for carving in the top photo) since the legs are closer already to the final shape and won't need the extra material added in to even them out.

 

kaylee49, I'll definitely keep tossing updates in here! I'm going slowly, though, because I want really clean, precise edges on everything. I'm currently in the carving phase on the LTF leg, which is slow due to the sheer amount of resin removed with nothing but a knife.

As for what I'm doing, I've definitely been studying that line drawing of Ed with his automail visible in detail as I proceed. I'm working out what order I have to do each part in, and drawing one line at a time on the piece. The reason I started with the leg is that there's far, far fewer details to the leg than to the arm, so it's a good starting place; likewise I'm starting on the LTF limbs first because they're more simple than the nicely defined MNF limbs, letting me work out some technique before I have to worry about evening things out.

One thing I definitely saw as I was looking for other people who attempted this was that most just sculpted the most visible plates, stuck them down, and called it done, but there's a lot more detail to the automail than that (and with a 70cm doll you'll have lots of room to fit all that detail in!)--these are permanent mods on expensive dolls, it's worth it to take the time to do a job you're going to be happy with (and I personally won't be happy with anything sloppy on mine, hence the slowness). PM me if you want a higher-resolution version of the lineart I'm using for your own reference, I'll gladly shoot it your way!

As far as materials... I've got a plain, basic Xacto knife that I'm using for the initial resin removal. I've got a few tiny files for getting in to tight spots and evening them up, though I've largely found that the knife tip is effective for this. I've got a 100-grit and "fine" (came from Volks with no specified grit) sanding sponge, cut into smaller pieces to use more easily, and some 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper to use in between those two. I'm using Milliput as the sculpting medium for building things up, though there's other media out there as well; for working with the Milliput, I've got some older plastic and metal carving tools and some water-based lubricant to keep it easy to work with. There's a lot of tips out there for working with Milliput and other epoxy/apoxie media around the customization forum that'll be good for you to check out!

And as I keep going with this, if I encounter problems, I'll definitely post them too, though I'm hoping I don't!

 

So while I have no photos for this update (the amount of resin removed from the LTF calf means a massive amount of sanding, and I took a brief break from the project to clean and blush another body; he won't take long and I'll be back to the automail soon). However, I think I've stumbled on a perfect solution to the automail painting! Which I'm hoping will work well, because that little bit of craft acrylic on the MNF knee is binding up the joint and preventing it from working properly. The interrupt doll is a slightly darker-than-standard-ns resin, so I grabbed some Purity Seal from the local Games Workshop that I stumbled on about a month ago by pure chance; after chatting with the guy running the shop, he showed me the line of (resin safe) paints they have, which are designed to stick close to tiny details without bulking them up--which seems perfect for the issue I'm having with binding in the leg joint, as well as keeping my details I'm carving in! I may or may not be partially "priming" with some black dye (or alternately, some solid masking and the black spray primer they sell, since I need it for some incoming figures anyway), then layering over that with the darker, more steel-like of the silver options, and going over that with a deep blue "shade" to make it more of a steely color. I'm very excited over this, which means I need to get back to carving that leg so I can get to the point of painting!

 

Miyukisetsu, don't worry, this is still underway! I had to pause a bit both for the second-half-of-the-semester workload (this is now finals week), and to wait on a special little something to be ready. Once I get back from my convention next week, I should have more to show!

 

Ooh, I hope you'll post pictures of that project, SteamWitch! I love seeing mods, and especially mechanical ones like that!

(And I hope to start updating again in another week here, once I'm back from a trip.)

 

Just a minor update here... but things are about to start happening again! Yay!

I previously alluded to a "little special something" arriving for this project; well, I received it today and am ready to share! When I was starting the work on fun-size Ed's leg (because I don't dare call him "little"), I realized that there was something I really, really didn't want to do.

I didn't want to sculpt teeny tiny screws and bolts by hand.

So I dropped a note to BJD_Boutique's KellyinDallas, who does 3D-printed props and offers the option of custom-designed pieces, and asked about 3D printing the bolt heads. And they are perfect! I'd take a photo, but the ultra-detail material they're printed in is kind of clear, so I'm afraid they wouldn't show up, but I've got a full assortment of tiny for the MiniFee body, and extra-tiny for the LittleFee, and enough to do both legs, both arms, and the hands, and even a few extras for when I inevitably drop one and can't find it. So now that I have those, I'll be able to move from the carving stage of the LTF leg into the sculpting with Milliput part, and incorporate the screws as I work on it. I'm so excited to be able to start back up on this!

 

Whelp, I got pretty derailed over the summer. First by my summer class, and then by the fact that MNF Ed's new head finally arrived, and I just didn't want to take him apart for a while... then the Triathlon happened and before I knew it, the workstation I need for these guys was totally buried.

Today, I finally got it dug back out, so I can resume work on LTF Ed's leg. His is always the starting point, because MNFs have a lot more muscle definition I need to work around. No carving or sculpting happened today, but I did get a little something done once I got his leg off again:



That beautiful (horrible) phone photo is the result of painting concentrated liquid Rit dye on resin. It doesn't soak in very well, unfortunately, so I suspect it's going to take a little time to get it settled, but I'm aiming to do the base coat of paint + mod podge on the parts as I go along, and then hit his body blush when I disassemble him to build his shoulder port. The knee is getting the first test of this method, and yes it's on bare (unsealed) resin, because this is not a mod one goes back from anyway.

I've already got the back of his calf carved and with any luck in the next few days I can get the front part sculpted, at which point I'll unstring the MNF leg and repeat the process before tackling the foot. I've been working my way up in complexity, toward that foot; once I do it, it's on to the much more complex arm pieces.

 

There was no way I wouldn't! As for the Rit dye... it was honestly kind of a failure. I globbed it on as thick as possible, and when I rinsed it off... there was hardly anything. The unsanded kneecap piece came almost entirely back to its original tone, and the sanded leg port area just took on a faint grey cast.

So I moved on to plan B! No pictures at the moment, since I'm going to do a collage of the whole process of getting the silver color in place, but I've had a plan B in mind from pretty early on:

After rinsing off the dried dye, I heavily masked off the leg with blue painter's tape (and some cotton shoved inside to keep the spray out of the stringing channel), then hit both pretty solidly with some Citadel Chaos Black primer. It likely won't be as resilient as the dye would have been, had it worked, but testing on the base of a figure with my haemostats, I wasn't able to do any damage to it, so it's at least likely to be a little sturdier than paint alone. I guess I'll find out how it works! And in the meantime, I'll have to decide what I'm doing with a full bottle of Rit dye... maybe one of those Munnies sitting around could turn black...

SteamWitch, I saw those, they really turned out cool! And I was also stalking your progress on OfKa Lukas, what an amazing project!

 

Another update!

LTF Leg Port: Painted by vicemage, on Flickr

After the failure of the dye to do more than leave a slight grey cast (you can see a hint of it in the first stage above), I went with my plan B of primer-in-a-can. The primer not only stuck very well, but really brightened up the color of the silver paint that went over the top of it. (I compensated with a little extra painted over the upper portion, but because of that line, when I do the shoulder port I'll need to be very careful and clever with my masking, to get masked right up to the edge... that'll probably mean another trip to seek the wisdom of the Games Workshop guys.)

The photos don't show it, but in person, the paint has tiny little mica flecks in it, giving it a wonderful metallic look; it's much more metallic than any of the other silvers I've tried in the past. The last layer of gloss sealant was more for resilience than sheen; I actually had a hard time telling where I'd brushed it on. Since none of the leg pieces will have any further blushing beyond the painted layers, I won't be spraying sealant over them, so the kneecap is now effectively done. (The thigh will still be blushed a bit more.)

Two side notes on this: one, I did this all on unsealed resin, which is generally a bad idea (for anyone who doesn't have much experience with blushing/modding/painting who's watching this). Because of the extremity of this mod, however, and the fact that there's no way this part will ever not need to be painted up like this without a significant reconstruction (or just straight up replacement of the parts), combined with my desire to try to make it as resilient to chipping as possible, I've been working directly on bare resin here in an active attempt to cause staining. Which you probably shouldn't do. Second, the final layer doesn't show too terribly much (the third photo above); "Drakenhof Nightshade" is one of the "shade" line of colors, which are prediluted washes; this one's a blue, and does give it a slight blue cast. It reduces the yellow and gives it more of a "steel" look in these pieces, but won't really "shine" (so to speak) until I get to the next part--its other intent is to deepen shadows and bring out the carving and details of sculpting. There's just nothing of that in these pieces for it to work on.

Next up is finishing the calf! The carving's been done for a while, and the front plate is sketched in. I'm hoping to have some time today to mix up the milliput and sculpt that piece; if not today, within the next few days!

 

Your projects have been fantastic! I couldn't compete with the commentary in OfKa Lukas, but I sure enjoyed reading it, along with watching him come together!

I'll have to do a test with the masking fluid... I've got a pair of badly yellowed Delf hands here that are my resin test material now, so I could certainly give it a shot to see how well it worked! Alternately, I know that the Warhammer guys use sticky tack as a flexible masking material, and I may give that a test, too, to see how sharp a line it'll create. The shoulder port has a lot of curving lines that I'll need to work around, but I have to finish up both legs before I get to it!

And don't worry, my lips are sealed.

 

And the work continues...

None of these pieces are "done" yet, but I thought I'd do some in-progress shots, instead of waiting to finish off the pieces completely. The major thing I've been working on lately is the LTF calf piece. I carved in the back quite some time ago, as well as getting the tiny 3D printed bolt heads that will be set into the front, but only recently started in on sculpting the plate across the front of the calf, in stages.

Stage one: rough sculpt
LTF Calf: Rough Sculpt by vicemage, on Flickr
You can still see the pencil lines I had on the piece in this first sculpt; I used them to guide me on where I placed the milliput as I built it up. I want to avoid bulking up the original pieces too much (since in Arakawa's art, there's not a significant difference in size between the real and automail limbs), but it's tricky to lay the milliput down that thin, and smooth, and get those indents/vents in the front, so I elected to do a thick coating instead. This is before I started sculpting; the edges are fairly finished (though are cleaned up in the next step), while the top is only slightly smoothed, to make cutting easier. I also added "pilot holes" for some later drilling.

Stage two: thinned, sanded, and defects removed
LTF Calf: Defects by vicemage, on Flickr
The edges were cleaned and surface reduced by scraping with an Xacto blade to bring them down to the thickness I wanted; as you can see now, the piece is much thinner... but not very smooth. As before, with the MNF Leg Port, the milliput was hiding defect areas that were uncured. (The box of milliput is fairly old, and has hardened slightly on the outside of both parts of the compound; from here on out, I'm being more careful with what I take from the sticks, to avoid getting the hardened bits that cause these flaws.) With them carved out, it's time to mix up a bit more to fill them back in. You can also see the fully-drilled holes, and a hint of the carving on the back!

Stage two and a half: While we're at it...
MNF Leg Port: Defects by vicemage, on Flickr
Since I was mixing up a small amount of milliput for repairs, I decided to clean up the old rough paint job on the MNF leg port, and more thoroughly clean out the defects present (which is why they now look both rougher and more numerous). This picture finally gives a better look at the role the milliput played here, as well, in taking out the definition of his knee.

Stage three and some change: Patching complete
Milliput Patchwork by vicemage, on Flickr
With a very small amount of milliput, a lot of time and patience, and several small, sharp, pointy tools (and my fingers), I now have the defects in both pieces patched up and curing. Then, since I still had some milliput on hand, I decided to use the rest in some detail reduction on the MNF calf (removing definition around the knee, again, as well as smoothing a bit of the "bend" MNF legs have; I may smooth it a bit more toward the ankle as well), and for removing the toenails from both feet (which will likely be fully carved mods, rather than the mix of carving down and building up). Everything's now hanging out on the workstation to cure, and will get a final sanding once done, followed by a new round of priming on the completed pieces, as well as the ankle parts for both dolls, and the MNF kneecap. In the next update, I should have more finished, painted pieces to show!

 

This is honestly the first time I've done anything like this, lillian. Though I've done other, smaller mods in the past, I've never done something as substantial as carve up and reshape large portions of one. But once I got past making the first cuts, it hasn't been too intimidating!

 

Time for another update! The LittleFee Leg is DONE*!

* but not the foot yet

LTF Leg: Full Body Turnaround by vicemage, on Flickr

Since it's a magnetic foot, however, I've gone ahead and restrung him to test aesthetics and mobility. I'm personally loving how it looks! The color is bright and metallic in person,the wash did its trick of bringing out the details on the calf, and the 3D printed bolts worked fantastically!

Here's a closer look:

LTF Leg: Turnaround by vicemage, on Flickr

The back of the leg was carved out with an xacto knife, very painstakingly, and sanded even. The notches on the top half were done using a pin vice sideways. The plate on the front is sculpted milliput, sanded down and carved back with the xacto, then patched back up. I drilled in holes for the bolts (which do go all the way through the resin! the ones on the bottom had to be trimmed down since they poked through), and glued them in with a thick jewelry glue. The bolts themselves were 3D printed through Shapeways (modeled by another user here), and luckily perfectly fit the holes left by the pin vice.

You can also see where I've taken away his toenails, in preparation of the (mainly subtractive) work to be done yet on his foot.

LTF Leg: Chipping by vicemage, on Flickr
Unfortunately, because of how tight FL joints are, there's already paint scraping away on his knee, and the piece is binding up in his leg. I'm leaving him strung up for now so I can continue focusing on sculpting, rather than getting hung up on the finishing, but I'm also working through possible solutions to this. I may have to strip off the finish and reduce the size of some of the pieces so they can move freely with the extra thickness of paint in place. Regardless, I'm happy so far with the sculpt and finish, and will just have to work out these minor matters (and be prepared for them on the MNF leg as well).

And a bonus picture!
Primed pieces by vicemage, on Flickr
The latest round of painted pieces, all primed and ready to go. I tried a very close masking on the MNF thigh, but unfortunately a little paint got under the tape, so my next attempt will involve either a masking fluid, or some gum arabic, or something along that line so no extra paint gets on the chest. (What hit the thigh was within a scar area, so I simply carved it back a bit to remove the painted area.)

 

Mareepu, I actually tried a black dye previously, but it didn't take. I may try again with a different dye technique after shaving down the ball a bit, however; but that's going to be a while before I get to it, since I'd rather get the LTF foot and MNF leg sculpted up than keep working on this one little piece. (On the upside, I now know that, as I work on the MNF leg, I'm going to need to sand down the knee ball, so hopefully the problem won't repeat over there!)

Besides, I do have a Winry, so she'd kick his *** if he let it rust.

Thanks for the luck, too!

 

Steamwitch, thanks! I was really pleased with those bolts; they're impossibly tiny and something I could never successfully have sculpted by hand as nicely as the 3D print is. I'll get his joints fixed, at least, so I'm not too terribly worried right now.

Kitkaze, I did a 48 hour cure on the top coat, which may have been a little too soon. I will say, it's not the stringing that's the problem, it's just how incredibly snug the pieces are with each other. I may go ahead and try a second dye bath, once I get all the leg pieces for both boys done, so I can do them all together, and I'll probably still go ahead and sand back the joints a bit too to loosen them up and make space for the layers of paint. The MNF's definitely having a similar problem (though he's not strung up yet) where the paint layers on the kneecap are making it barely even fit into the thigh anymore. They certainly didn't leave a lot of extra room with those pieces! (I've still got the bottle of black dye, and even if it ends up a dark brown, it's still better than the stark flesh tone; I've got an old pot hanging out in my studio, too, for uses like dying doll bits.)

 

Fush, Urushi, I've considered the mod podge... but I know it'd add thickness, and the pieces are already ridiculously tight! It might just do the trick in conjunction with sanding the joints down a bit, however, but first I have to tackle the problem that they're too thick just from the paint layers.

 

Thanks, [MENTION=62271]Advntr.gal[/MENTION]! I'm gearing up to get back to working on the two of these guys, once I get the last few things cleared off my workspace, so hopefully there'll be new progress shots with them soon!

 

I kept this project on hold for the spring, since I had some faceups and blushings I wanted to get done... but now it's July, and here in Omaha, that means one thing:

HUMIDITY.

So that also means it's time to set aside those projects until fall, and start back in on the automail! It'll be another day or two before I start posting pictures again, but I've determined how I'm going to approach the joint problem... and part of the answer is "very very carefully." I won't be jumping in on the joints first, but rather onto MNF Ed's calf, however, I've been shopping around for dremels and flex-shaft attachments (though what I'd really like is a pure flex shaft machine!), and I'll be slowly and carefully skimming away resin on the inside of each joint piece to make space for the joints.

In addition to that, I'm probably going to give dying a shot, at least on the parts that are fully painted (I'm not confident in getting sufficient protection around the ports). After seeing the multi-dye tests, I think I'll be seeking out some iDye Poly, to get as black (or maybe grey) as I possibly can (I'm waiting for the results of using it on modded resin, but the critical part is of course the joints, which are fully unmodded). That means there won't be any repainting until I get all the leg pieces done, so I can hit them all in one round of dye, rather than wasting packets on smaller pieces. And I may also mod-podge at the joints, too, just for extra protection. Because I love photographing MNF Ed, so he's going to get handled and posed a lot. He definitely needs some solid paint work!

I'm hopeful that both "loosening" the joints and "reinforcing" the paint job will handle the scraping problem... but mostly, the next period of work is going to be reducing the curves in the MNF calf.

And on a parting note, since it's never been posted in here... Ed's replacement head sculpt:
Return by vicemage, on Flickr

 

What's on the Workbench? (7/28) by vicemage, on Flickr

IT'S TIME.

Amongst all this stuff on the workbench, MNF Ed's leg and foot are right in the middle, on the towel board at the back! I was actually planning to start in on this last night, but I couldn't find the other pieces on the same board (my cat girl's headcap and ears, which need a little hole filling). Today's going to be a mix of working on smoothing out MNF Ed's calf, and starting in on the carving on both Eds' feet. I'll also in the near future be starting to strip off the existing paint job, since after a little time, I've settled on my new approach: iDye poly!

It's carried at the Blick down the road here, so I have no problems with availability, and from reading the main threads on testing it, it seems that, as long as I have a well-sealed bottle, I can store a concentrate and do a few parts at a time. So, taking a cue from the old Bluefairy Automail Jerome, I'll be underdying everything in grey, then painting the silver back over the top of it. This should hopefully allow for a slightly thinner coating of paint, giving me a little more wiggle-room to add some mod podge over the top. (I'll also be hopefully getting a dremel in the next week or two, which will allow me to open up the inner joints a bit as well, for the rest of the wiggle-room I need for him to move again.)

That dyeing plan is why Liora's parts (and that extra hip hanging out by the miniatures) are in this shot: Liora's ears are going to be dyed in the very near future (as soon as her tail arrives, so I can dye everything together). They'll have some milliput on them at the time they're dyed, so I'll be able to use them as a "test" for how the dye will affect milliput vs resin. Similarly, the hip will be taking a brief dunk in the dye pot, as well--I'm going to apply rubber cement, watercolor masking fluid, and possibly a third or fourth option (hot glue maybe?) to see if resin can be "batiked" a bit--if it can, that'll allow me to underdye the "port" pieces on his thigh and chest. If not, I'll stick with the undercoating of Citadel on them, instead. (I'll also test "painting" the iDye on that hip, and I'll toss some removal tests with W&N into the main threads on the stuff after I do all that!)

The next time I come back here, hopefully I'll have pictures of feet and a new calf to share.

 

And after several hours of work (with a brief lunch break):

End of the work day! by vicemage, on Flickr

I mixed up way, way too much milliput, so I grabbed MNF Ed's arms and smoothed them, too. They'll need to cure until at least tomorrow before I can sand them, so all those parts (along with Liora's headcap and ears) are hanging out until I can wash them up and start sanding. So, since I was in the mood to keep going, I did all the carving on LTF Ed's foot! (Which revealed to me that I probably need to do some smoothing on MNF Ed's foot tomorrow, to be a little more precise with it; it's easier to fudge a little on the smaller size.)


Both of those are pre-sanding (the foot's much more smoothed out now), largely because I wanted to have a picture or two showing "yellowing"/mellowing of resin (once I sand, the difference isn't as stark). It's also pre-drilling, too; there's a small screw hole in the heel in the schematic that I'd forgotten to drill at that point, and added in during the sanding stage.

At this point, LTF Ed's entire leg is essentially complete, aside from some slight opening of the joints to improve mobility. Once I finish up MNF Ed's leg and all the joint reshaping, I'll be dropping the parts in a dye bath to turn them grey, and following that up with a full repaint!

 

I'll definitely be updating with the results of the iDye Poly test both here, and over in the iDye threads! Liora's ears are going to be a great test on the mixed milliput/resin blend, and the spare milliput will be going in as-is. (And it probably won't be long before I go grab some grey iDye to do the legs!)