Modification World of Warcraft Pandaren mod - updated 16 August 2018

Hello! I thought I'd make a thread for this epic project I play a red Pandaren Hunter in World of Warcraft and it's been a longtime goal to make her into a doll.

I've had a Cerisedolls Loonette head for years now, waiting for the perfect body - and then that body was finally released, in the form of Peachdaydreams' beautiful reptilian doll Onedat.





Onedat has unique reptilian hands, and she's an odd size. So I'm using these parts which I just happened to have laying around. Fantasy Doll SD boy wrist balls, and a spare pair of Dearmine Nocturne hands (1/4 boy). I haven't yet decided whether to remove the pinkies to give her the correct amount of fingers - three fingers and a thumb. I've sanded the wrist balls to fit inside the hands, and have added epoxy to close a gap on the underside (see further below).



Adorable toes! I've rounded the edges with sandpaper to make them look less reptilian.



I've narrowed and rounded these 'heel' parts on her lower legs, whatever they're called, to make it look more mammalian. I used a dremel first then smoothed it out with sandpaper. I'll be finishing it off with a fine grit later.





Additive mods time! I've had this black Apoxie Sculpt for years and I was pleased to find out it was still good. I've given her claws and added epoxy to the wrist balls to close the gap between the hands. I'll sand the epoxy smoother once it's cured. I'm using black epoxy because the resin will be dyed black.





That's my progress for now - later is more sanding, a dip dye bath, airbrushing, and more

 

If Blizzard made Pandaren druids with red panda forms they'd be down a subscriber because I'd have died of cute.

Adding bulk to her arms would be great, BUT unfortunately I'm not much of an artist... I think if I tried to sculpt anything that detailed without knowledge of muscle structure it'd just turn out blobby looking haha So she won't be as muscled/chubby as a real Pandaren, but I'm envisioning her more as a stylised version The Loonette head is pretty big and cartoony after all!

 

Sunday was dye day, so I set up the folding 'craft table' in the back yard and laid out my supplies. While waiting for the water to boil I finished off my subtractive and additive mods with fine grit sandpaper.



I mixed iDye Poly brown in hot water in a small bowl with a whisk, then poured it through a mesh strainer into the big boiling water pot and added the colour booster packet. I let it come back to the boil before testing the dye on an Onedat hand to make sure it'd dye to the colour I wanted. I also had red dye on hand in case it needed more red but I didn't end up using it Here's a video of the test.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=502592910082651

(Link to the video if it doesn't embed)

Then it was dye time!



The colour took slowly at first, so it’s easy to control in the beginning, but speeds up dramatically once it starts getting darker. It took between 30 seconds to 1 min for each piece. After getting all the pieces to a uniform shade, I put the hands and wrist balls in for an extended period to get them to a very dark brown, almost reddish-black. I then re-dyed the feet to match the darkness of the hands, and dipped the shins and forearms to get a gradient effect.



Very happy with how she’s turning out so far. Got her base colour down, and a nice fur gradient going from red-brown to near-black. After I took this photo I gave her a light scrub with a small amount of Tamiya X-20A thinner on cotton balls to remove excess dye. (I tested it on the dyed Onedat hand first to be safe). I think she looks like she has a more smooth and even colour now, but it could just be psychological haha.



Not sure what step I'll do next Probably repairing or reattaching the bit of epoxy that came off one of the wrist balls right before dyeing. orz
I want to jump straight to airbrushing white patches and rusty red panda rings, but she still needs a tail and I have to make sure I do things in the right order lol

Thanks for watching!

 

Thank you all for the kind comments! Here's another update

In order to start the tail I had to order Milliput online and wait for it to arrive. I was going to make a tail piece entirely from scratch but realised it was easier to just sculpt on top of the existing Onedat tail instead ^^

I built up the core and basic shape of a red panda tail around the existing resin using aluminium foil in order to make the end result lighter.


I mixed two boxes of Milliput Teracotta and covered the tinfoil in it to make this brown lumpy poo


After more shaping with my fingers and fingernails, I left it to dry for a little longer before using wet pieces of sock to 'polish' the surface and make it smooth.


After it had fully cured, after a day or so, I took to it with really rough sandpaper to smooth down any remaining lumps and bumps. Then I worked my way down in grit until the surface became completely smooth and shiny.


I think it turned out really cute. As expected though it’s quite heavy, even with aluminium foil providing inner bulk. It still hangs on with the existing magnetic tail mechanism, but I’d like it to be more secure. I’m thinking of drilling a narrow hole in the hip piece inside the magnet depression above the magnet, and inserting a wire pin above the magnet in the tail part, so that you can put the tail on by just inserting the tail pin into the hip piece, but I’m worrying about screwing it up. I could just hot glue it but that'd make dressing her a pain... Anyway, I’ll paint the tail like a cute red panda tail once I figure out the attachment.

And just for fun, here's how the rest of her body turned out! Her face is still blank and her eyes are temporary, plus I've strung her arms too tightly so she just wants to stick her elbows out at the moment lol







Thinking about sculpting my own ears for her, since the bear ears I have for her currently are too small for that big cartoony noggin...
Thanks for looking!

 

Test string of the tail part!



Thanks to your suggestions, I raided my magnet stash and it turns out simply adding the thinnest, strongest magnet on top of the existing ones was enough to make it hold much more strongly. \o/ Relieved, no further modding to be done there! It’s still very heavy and tends to pull her backwards, as you’d expect. I think I’ll need to hot glue suede her legs, even possibly wire them. But she stands with it on, even on a smooth, slippery surface!



Next step... Sculpt red panda ear parts? And loosen the elastic in those arms, dayum.

 

Long overdue pics of my red panda girl from World of Warcraft showing her eyes, bow and outfit. The wig’s bangs are way too long so she has a silly temporary hair clip haha. Soom 20mm silicone eyes fit the giant Cerisedoll Loonette eyes much better than 18mm acrylics did. The outfit is from Loongsoul and the bow is a 1/4 replica of Hanzo’s bow from Overwatch. It’s made of metal and quite heavy so it’s not exactly suited for a BJD to hold properly D:











But I’ve been really kind of discouraged about her and haven’t worked on her since August 2017.

• I keep wavering between thinking her big head is cute and cartoony, or totally wrong and ridiculous. The top-down foreshortening in phone pics doesn’t help either. I’ve been looking around to see if there are any 1/4 heads to suit a Pandaren but the Loonette face is just so perfect. Looking at Dearmine Angela as a possibility but... :/
• I don’t know if I want to make some kind of neck piece to elevate the head and thicken the neck.
• I don’t know if I want to remake her epoxy tail in a lighter material.
• I need to sculpt her panda ears.
• I need to restring her again to somehow get the amazing posing back that the Onedat body had when she first arrived.

All of these things have combined to cause total inaction! DX

 

Thanks, @chalyss and @ultrapandachan! I think you're definitely right about the ears making a big difference. I should maybe just mock up some rough ears and a neck piece in clay and sit it on top of the head/neck to see whether it makes any improvement...

 

Yeees, Photoshop is always helpful for me to figure out things... I've done so many mockups over the years I should have thought of it sooner haha.



Here's a quick and nasty one... Any thoughts on how the head looks now? Added faceup, stripes airbrushing on arms, ears, and seeing if a thickened neck could improve proportions… Hmmm. Problem is the way the head-back is constructed, there isn’t any room to increase the neck size, and I don’t think I can put epoxy on top of dyed resin and be able to sand it smooth without sanding off the surrounding dye :/ Colour matching wise, I have terracotta coloured milliput and can always airbrush over the top of the epoxy but it'd inevitably chip at the neck... Gahh!!!

I had a thought I could buy a separate bust piece - Fairyland or Souldoll or Unoa, lots of options. That way she'd have some more canon boobage to fill out her clothes, and possibly wider shoulders and thicker neck...

Thanks for all your comments, it's actually feeling less overwhelming after being able to talk it over with people ^^;

 

I've just been running around taking measurements of all my MSDs and it seems like a Kid Delf romantic bust would work the best, if I went that route... When I get time I'll take my KDF Yul Centauress apart to see if they have a hope of fitting together with some subtractive and additive mods to the chest part ^^
Another idea is to sculpt a piece in white epoxy that fits like a cap over her existing neck and extends down her chest like a thick white fur ruff... That sounds a bit exciting to try!
Well at least chatter has gotten me a bit more enthused about the project again haha. Or is it just that I'm procrastinating from doing my real life job right now? :p

 

Yeah, she doesn't have magnets in her head, but she does have holes in the headcap to string the Loonette rabbit ears through So depending on how I position the ears (when they exist), I might modify those existing holes to fit magnets. Otherwise, I'll just tape magnets on the outside underneath the wig Magnets taped on top can add a little bulk to the wig though.

 

Just another mini update! After being very busy with uni, and disheartened about the proportions, I got my energy together to take apart my Luts Yul Satyresse and try her torso on the Onedat body. To my surprise, it fit perfectly! And it vastly improves the proportions of the oversized head, plus is a bit more accurate to the chubby Pandaren body type. I'm much happier with this look.

Original chest


Kid Delf romantic chest




Unfortunately Luts has suspended production of option parts temporarily and there don't seem to be any on the MP just now, so I have to wait to be able to get her a bust of her own T___T
Aaand ears-wise, I've ordered a pair of these 1/3 size adorable round ears from Loongsoul which I'm hoping won't take 6 months to arrive!