Aneirin- Saint to Monster, part VI

This is part 6 of a series.  (Other posts may contain Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity.)
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Well, it's been a long haul, and the most intensive modification I've ever done, but he's pretty much finished.

 I went back and did more contouring to his faceup, and an absurd number of coats of Tamiya spray enamel to the lengthening mod I did on his neck. He has two pairs of ears so far, the Shy/Sad/Sleepy ears, shown above, and his regular Upright ears. I mean to make a few more pairs, but those will be further projects. These are his minimum needed ears. (not a phrase I ever anticipated typing...)

 Here is his full body glory! (but this was before I added color to his nipples. Oops.) I may be adding more color to his claws on his feet, since they don't photograph like I blushed them. He does stand on his own pretty well.

 

Here he is all finished up and wearing his little raggedy kilt wrap. People on Den of Angels commented that he looks confused about being indoors. he does look quite baffled by walls and carpet, when his preferred home is a forest. I can't wait to get him outdoors for some photoshoots.

Thanks for following along! I really appreciate everyone who's been following this whole long escapade! 

Aneirin- Saint to Monster, part V

It's been a long term project, but we're almost there!

 (This post and the links below are likely to contain Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity- NSFW or for especially shy people) 


This is part 5 of an ongoing project.
See Part 4
See Part 3
See Part 2
See Part 1

I've been very busy but I've had snippets of time here and there to work on my dolls as art therapy against depression. It helps. 

Here's what Aneirin's leggies look like now!

They've been  bulked up with Apoxie Sculpt, sealed, and sprayed with Tamiya paints. His hip sockets, which were prone in testing to chipping, have been sueded with actual leather pliver suede. This helps him to stand pretty well by himself.

Next he'll need body blushing. I was gonna do some of that today but the weather turned out too cold.

I also made him a raggedy lil' skirt cloth thing to wear. He's not big into bothering about his clothes.

I remade his wig, because the poofiness was bothering me. This time I made a "hard" style cap and applied the little yarn dredlocks to that.

His new hairstyle is a lot of dreds with the top half of them tied back. I also started his faceup in this shot. Just some basic contouring and color. His ears will get done when I do his body blushing. He looks weird without his eyebrows. So:

All that's left to do is a few more touchups and then to get this boy body-blushed!

Next part! 

Part VI

Aneirin - Saint to Monster, Part IV

  (This post and the links below are likely to contain Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity- NSFW or for especially shy people)
This is part 4 of an ongoing project.
See Part 3
See Part 2
See Part 1

I've picked up with this project again, so there'll be more added to this post over the next few weeks as I update.

I got the right paints to go over my modifications, and I've been sanding the mod work carefully, so this evening I put on my mask and did some spraying. The grey is a surprisingly close shade to match the grey resin. Blushing will even it out. The off-white is called Racing White, but it seems to have gone on sort of... glossy, so I'll be trying another lighter coat later. I've also been doing some adding bulk to the thigh parts.

Update, Oct 20

Here's a shot of the built up thighs, in the rough stages:

On to Part 5!

Aneirin- Saint to Monster: Part III

As of April 2013 (just posting this here now!)

This is part III of an ongoing project.
See Part II.
See Part I.



Post contains Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity

Been working on Aneirin's wig. Felt cap, fancy yarn, hand-stitched a loop at a time to the cap. Certain yarns give the effect of messy dredlocks.

Practice shots with those ears of his...

I also worked on adding some better locks to his joints so that he'll be able to stand unaided. Balance is pretty tricky on them big ol' legs.

This is a pre-existing lock at the knee joint, but those little points were not high enough for the fit I wanted, so I added to it.

I built these ridges on the fronts of the hip parts to stop him pitching forward when he's standing. They will get sanded and smoothed like the rest of everything I've modded.

  I obtained Soom wrist parts for long fingered Soom hands! He won't be using his default Little Monica hands that came from that company with his body. They're cute, but hardly right for him.

I have dyed his pinky white Little Monica body parts, so that they now match the more greeny-yellow Dollshe and Soom parts. I used a bit of Rit Liquid Lemon Yellow and a lot of Rit Liquid Apple Green. He's still WS, just a different tone now. Here's an undyed LM hand in pinky white against the newly dyed midsection.

So now the white resin all matches, with one ironic exception- The neck and chest part. It's the right tone but not quite deep enough to match the head, so it'll get some blushing to make it match perfectly.

Advance to Part 4!

Aneirin- Saint to Monster, Part II

This is Part II of an ongoing Mod Project.
See Part I

Update! 4/12

Had a stressful month so far, and having this project to work on is good therapy.

Here's an example of the progress on the ears. They start out rough (Left) but I can get them to look smoothly sculpted by sanding them (Right). Later they'll get smoothed even more.


To get the proportions I want, I am shortening the calf section of the legs by a considerable amount.

Each leg piece gets a section cut out of it in the middle.

I am saving the original socket so that it will still fit on top of the foot part. I've joined the pieces back together after taking that middle section out.

The joined sections have to be smoothed out inside so that stringing won't get caught on it.


Then the outside of the joined parts have to be smoothed over too.

I tinted some white Apoxie Sculpt with acrylic paint to get it roughly the shade of the grey resin. That'll make it much easier to blush over and smooth into a nice finish later. (The top one hasn't had Apoxie yet, the bottom one shown has) The Apoxie cements the joined bits and makes them look like they're supposed to be this shape and size. Once it cures, I'll be able to sand it so that it looks much better.


Work also progresses slowly on the knee joints, but there's nothing much worth photographing just yet.

More later!

Update, 2/13

Today I drilled the holes into the headback for magnets and glued them in. They may get a very thin layer of Apoxie and then paint over them.

I'm also still refining the ears, but they got drilled for magnets today too.

I've been sanding and cleaning up the reconstructed legs and still working on the knees. The thighs also need added bulk next.


Update 2/15

I did a test stringing today. It might be a while before I am able to work on him, or it might not, but before I get much further I needed to see how his weight sit on his joints.

Good thing I did, too, because he still can't stand by himself yet. I think some adjustments and tighter stringing will fix the problems easily though. He's starting to look like himself.

He can do the Soom Crouching Pose at least. He's a long way from done but he's showing promise at last.

More in Part III.

Aneirin- Saint to Monster. Work in Progress

(Post contains Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity)


I finally got my Grail Dollshe Saint heads... and then had no idea what to do with them. No character concept I tried would fit, so I thought maybe I should Mod Them. I did a sketch of the head with big wide ears, and suddenly a concept and a character just sort of dropped on me, demanding to be shelled as a doll. So here he is, and boy, is this gonna take work.


(Yes, that's my actual handwriting. Yes, I am a grown woman. -_-;; This is why I type.)

Aneirin is this monster critter who lurks through the forest by night and strangles his prey with his long strong fingers. He's kind of a bogeyman, frankly. He has pale skin, possibly matted dreds for hair, and wide faun-like ears, but no horns or tail. He's got big gargoyle feet.
I have seen one doll hybrid somewhere that was vaguely similar in shape to this, which is probably where my subconscious pulled the idea of the general silhouette, but this doll will look nothing like that one, trust me.

I'll be using a set of Saint heads, probably some Soom Monthly hands, and Soom Monzo feet. I'd always loved Monzo feet but never had an excuse to own any. I found a body- Little Monica Harmony A type, which has beautiful musculature and jointing that I like. I plan to make several changeable sets of magnetic ears for this guy so he can show his moods.

Steps:
Acquire parts- waiting for the hands

Body
-Sand all seams- Working on these as I go.
-Carve new knees to fit Soom Monzo Legs- partway done
-Alter wrists as needed to fit Soom hands- Not needed, got the right wrists.
-Mobility mods on LM body?
-Apoxie: Lengthen neck a smidgen.- Done
-Apoxie: Modify legs a bit- Done
-Apoxie: build up thighs to have more muscle and bulk
-Apoxie: possibly build up arms, etc for more muscle definition?- Nah.

Heads
- cut and sand off regular ears- Done!
-drill holes for rare earth magnets-Done!
- glue in magnets and cover them and smooth the area
-sculpt sets of monster ears - Partly Done
-drill ears to hold magnets, and glue magnets into ears so they work with head magnets- Done!
-cover and smooth magnet holes on the ears.

Aesthetics
-cover all mods, smoothing, sanding and painting.
-Sueding- always a Must. Wiring arms.
-body blushing, blending grey legs with pale body
- faceups
-make the wig


Update 1/11



I have finally combined the head with the body. It is a lovely sculpt. I think I'll be adding a bit of height to the neck just to give him a more inhuman and elegant shape. He is a bit on the bobblier side than what I prefer, but adding neck length will help that, and he's not human anyhow. Edit: I am getting different heads for this, in White Skin, but the same Saint.

Testing out the fibers I will be making his wig from- I like the greens and blues against his copper eyes.

Update, 1/16

Got the legs! Here they are, and I will be getting fancy on the knees here to make this combo work.



As you can see, the LM body has knees designed almost exactly opposite to the Soom grey legs I want to use, so I'll be more or less making entirely new knees. The angle will need to be set carefully so that the doll maintains a good center of balance over these digitigrade feet, but I think it can be done. I'll be cutting the LM leg a little higher up, where the width of the LM thigh matches the Soom leg better.

I am altering my mod list of steps up there at the top of this first post accordingly as I figure out each of the steps this project will take. Stay tuned!

Update 1/21
I have figured out a few things, so for the next while I'll be working on the body until I get the rest sorted, and believe me it will take some work!

Here's a ridiculous but useful shot of how the torso looked before I started to do anything to it.


Then today I worked on defining the muscle a little bit more, particularly underneath the pecs.


Those of you who are shy of body parts, avert your eyes please...

The Little Monica body is nicely sculpted, but it had a pitiful representation of what ought to have been anatomical bits, so I am attempting to give him a bit more dignity and realism. I've never understood why a sculptor can include the nuances of musculature, and then stick on an oval dot and call it genitals. I don't care what size they make them but the attempt should be made to get them to resemble actual parts.

I carved the knees away from the thighs to give them the right proportion of length to the grey lower legs, but as I compare them to the lower legs, I think I am going to use Apoxie Sculpt to form the new joints. Then I'll be adding bulk to the thighs, in the style of Soom's Chalco legs.

More to come, of course. When, I am not sure.




Update February 8th.

I've done some work on the Saint head and faceplate set, and started the rough sculpt of the monster ears. The original ears got sawed off neatly.

Here's a shot of the faceplates, de-eared and smoothed out. The sawing took moments, the sanding took hoooooooours. Uf.

This is the neutral-pose set of ears, made out of Sculpey polymer clay. They need refining and sanding of course, but this is the rough shape. Eventually they'll be much smoother and sleeker.

Updates continue in Part II!