Modification The Automail Workshop

Thanks, [MENTION=39311]Rosslyn[/MENTION]! I'm really looking forward to seeing the legs assembled on both of them, especially with how long I planned to do this project!

And I'm definitely excited to see how the iDye works on the milliput, enough that I'm having a hard time holding myself back from just going and doing it! (I'm still waiting on one more part that needs to go into the dye pot, but I do have both rubber cement and liquid frisket to test on the spare part now). Ultimately, though, even if it colors a different shade, since all the modded automail parts will be painted over anyway, I'll probably still go with it! This is just an idea I'm using to try to minimize both the number of paint layers and the evidence of scratching and chipping in the joints.

In actual updates here, too, I finally went and picked up a dremel, so in the next few days (after I get around to finishing sanding big Ed's arm and probably putting it back on him for now), I'll be very slightly thinning the joints on both legs in the hopes that they'll be able to move freely again after the next round of paint.

 

I'll definitely be letting the coatings dry a lot longer this time around, and thanks for the tip on using pliver/flannel inside! I'm going to try to avoid any paint on the inner cups of the joints, and may also add the flannel in. Of course, Fairyland knees are still really tight, so I'll still have to open up a bit, but the flannel will hopefully help out.

It's been ages since I've used any kind of Dremel-esque tool (the last one I used was a proper Flex Shaft, which is what I would prefer to own, but a Dremel with the attachment will do the trick for now), but I do remember them skipping and bouncing a lot, which is a large contributing factor to my decision to do this mod almost entirely by hand. I want very careful, precise lines, and while a Dremel is definitely fast, the skipping takes away a lot of the precision that comes from working slowly by hand, as I have been. I'll probably have to figure out how I'm going to get the power cord outside to work, though; that's going to be an interesting challenge. (My window's full of holes, maybe I can drop the power out that... and make a point about how full of holes my window is in the process.)

 

While I've been taking a little time off from the physical mods (my RSI has been acting up, making it tough to do fine detail work like this), I haven't been stopped entirely on working on Ed. I've just redirected my attentions away from the automail, but onto something just about as important:

Red Coat 01 by vicemage, on Flickr

Since I cosplay as Ed at anime conventions, I've made his red coat in full scale. More than once, actually! My most recent version was made as a way to improve the wearability comfort at conventions--the original is much too warm (I now wear it as a light fall/spring jacket!), so I got a lighter linen fabric to make it cooler. And when I did that? I saved every last scrap more than just threads. I not only had enough for all the parts of MNF Ed's coat, but I should still have enough for LTF Ed! (Delf Ed, who is not getting automail mods, will probably require me to buy an additional piece of linen, due to the size of the pieces.)

And not only is this the exact fabric used in my coat, but it's the exact pattern, too. We'll match quite nicely at conventions. (I'll even be using the same silkscreen to do the back--in a prime example of planning ahead, I burned the screen at multiple sizes, so one's bound to be perfectly scaled for him.)

Since scaling patterns isn't an exact science, and the assembly directions for the large version won't work the same at this scale, I did a full muslin test and tried it on him, too:

Coat Test: Ed by vicemage, on Flickr

Poor guy's still waiting for me to give at least his arm back, but I can still see how he fits the coat! The hood's too small for him, but it looks good, and in this case that's more important.

 

Ed's New Coat! by vicemage, on Flickr

And the clothing-based interlude is complete, more or less! I still need to screenprint the back (see below), but the actual construction is done, and the coat will be getting washed tomorrow to remove all the various markings and basting stitching so I can take care of the screening and call it done.

As I mentioned above, this is an actual scale replica of my own full-size coat. There's only a very few small differences: Mine has a few hidden pockets (pocketless costumes suck), and the sleeves and hood are scaled back slightly from the pattern. At Ed's scale, the sleeves were about the right size (I need them a little bigger at his scale so I can get his jacket sleeves down them), as was the hood. Neither hood actually looks good up, which doesn't matter--it's more about how it looks laying down against the back.

For fun, I did a comparison against the big one:

Two coats: Front by vicemage, on Flickr

Two coats: Back by vicemage, on Flickr

 

[MENTION=66036]SteamWitch[/MENTION], he's definitely happier with both of them back! When he loses the arm again, he'll have his leg back for good, so that won't be so bad, either. (He'll also have to "go to pieces" first, since I'll likely do the shoulder plate before the full arm, so I can get him blushed and back together. (The arm won't need blushing since it'll be fully painted instead, so once the shoulder's sculpted, I can finally go ahead and do his final blush.)
[MENTION=66160]Quiet and Insane[/MENTION], thanks! The big one's actually been done for years (I wear it at conventions at least twice a year), and I've been likewise saving the stash of leftover fabric for years so I could use it for Ed's. The catch is that, when I saved it, I was only planning on ONE Ed, and now I have THREE. (One isn't getting modded, though, thank goodness.)

I'm getting a little cleaning up done today, and then I'll go climbing for the box that I think has my screens in it, so I can figure out which flamel is the right size and get it taped off for some printing tomorrow. Tomorrow is also my dye tests, which are occupying the workstation temporarily, then it's back to carving his leg!

 

DYE EXPERIMENT TIME!

I did a handful of experiments, all of which are relevant to both this thread and the general dye experiment thread, so I'm crossposting to both, but with some different information each time.

iDye vs Milliput by vicemage, on Flickr
So, milliput takes iDye really well! It also doesn't take it in the same color as resin, at least on sanded areas, and all of the automail is a "sanded area." I'll be interested to see what color silver-grey takes as, but even with the lack of matching, this still demonstrates it as being an excellent option for undercoating...

iDye vs Resist by vicemage, on Flickr
...but only on the pieces that are 100% automail. The port pieces will NOT be getting dyed, so I'll likely be doing some very careful masking followed by spray-priming them again...

iDye vs W&N: Light touch by vicemage, on Flickr
...Particularly because this stuff doesn't come off. I attempted a touch-up of the lighter masking patch with a Q-tip soaked in Winsor and Newton brush cleaner, and while the swab got pretty brown, the resin stayed pretty brown, too.

iDye vs W&N: Heavy touch by vicemage, on Flickr
The upside is, it may be removable, but it'll take a lot of W&N and a lot of work. I think it'll be easier and "safer" overall if I mask and spray-prime the ports than if I attempt to partially dye them.

I also went back to Blick to pick up some pastels to blush the dolls who were dyed yesterday alongside the experiments, and discovered... Blick only carries silver-grey iDye Poly online. But, good news! It looks like (unless the person I talked to on the phone was looking at the regular iDye option), the craft store down the street has it. So hopefully I can pick that up in the near future, and not have to order the color online! I've cleared the dye dolls from the workstation for now (various parts of five different dolls all at once was a little much), meaning I can get back to MNF Ed's leg, and hopefully get some dyeing and painting done fairly soon.

 

More progress!

MNF Leg carved! by vicemage, on Flickr

I had an unexpected day off today (accidentally asked for the wrong one off at work), so I decided to spend a chunk of it working on carving into the MNF leg. There's a lot more curve and definition in the larger limbs, so there was a lot more cutting down than on the LTF version. The initial cuts looked more like a dent into the back than two separate planes; a decent amount of resin got cut off the back to get the right look here.

The next step (which will likely still be this weekend) is to mix up some more milliput, and start laying in the piece that goes across the front of the leg (which overlaps with the carved section). I'll do my best to get some in-progress shots of that for this thread!

My run of steps to finish the legs is getting shorter and shorter here (who said short?)--I've got the rest of the sculpting on the MNF leg and foot to go, and the dremeling to loosen up the joints on that side a bit so the paint (and possibly flannel) can fit inside without causing them to bind up anymore. After that, I'll be dyeing both--luckily, the shop down the street did in fact have silver-grey iDye Poly! And then it's a fresh coat of paint and a restring, so I can get some photos and enjoy them both briefly before I start tackling the arms.

The end (of the legs) is in sight!

 

I'm definitely curious to see what color it actually ends up, myself. It's just going to be an undercoat, rather than the final color (that'll still be the Citadel paint from earlier in the thread), but based on what I've been seeing of iDye Poly's resilience, it should do a nice job of hiding further scratches in said paint. (I'll also be interested to see the difference in color on unsanded, sanded, and milliput areas with that color.)

I think that combo would work pretty well; the base brown in iDye is fairly reddish so you might not have to add too much red to it! I'll be curious to see the results of turning parts copper, too.

 

I've been held up a bit on things thanks to a mass influx of assignments at the start of the semester, but my friend was able to stop by today, and considering this was only about a ten-minute task for completion:

Coat Completed! by vicemage, on Flickr

It needs just a little touchup on the back where some unevenness kept the print from taking perfectly, but it's covered by the hood, barely noticeable, and I can't get to my paints anyway because I'm also trying to reorganize my studio and the paints got buried (at least I left the inks accessible).

As for the mod itself, the "grill" for the front of the leg is drawn in, and I've roughed up the resin under it a bit with a pointy carving thing so the milliput will stick well to that area (since it's quite smooth). With luck, I can get the sculpting part done soon!

 

[MENTION=66036]SteamWitch[/MENTION], it's fitting him wonderfully, too, so he's still wearing it (and only that and boxers, it's easier to steal his parts when he's on the shelf mostly undressed).

At this point, I've got enough to passably get him into his full "Ed Elric" outfit, too, since I bought some tight faux-leather pants at a convention last year, and ended up with a snug black shirt through a GO a while back. Once he gets his leg back, I'll put him into everything for a few quick photos before I take him apart completely and get his chest done.

 

@Ryuichi Sakuma 13 soooo.... His leg still isn't done, but he's still with me and still intended to be finished!

What happened is that not long after that last update, I moved out of state (and in a bit of a hurry, the time table was faster than I planned). Things were in disarray for a while, and when it finally was settling enough that i could work on him again... I moved. The new place needed renovations, so i literally didn't have a studio for about a year.

I've been really itching to get back to him and my other dolls, though, and I do finally have the studio pulling together, so I'm optimistic I'll be back to work on him early in the new year! Then I'll get to find out how this modding story ends, too.

And thanks for the heads up on the photos, I'll try to get them fixed asap! Though i also have all of them here: Journal: Automail Workshop