Monday, June 6, 2011

ResinSoul DJ Girl Body Pelvic Mod for Sitting.


ResinSoul has very nice facial sculpts and I generally like the shape of their bodies though there are a few details I don't like. Since we're only looking at the RS 42cm girl double jointed bodies for now I will focus on that.

Aesthetically I don't like the half melon shape of the bigger bust which you can see on deer hoofed Yao but that is acceptable compared to the fact that these girls can't sit up by themselves. I think it's odd that they didn't bother to fix the sculpt since standing and sitting are the major requirements of BJD posing.

Anyway I've been putting off this mod for a while since I was scared to work with tan resin and leaving a white scar. Fortunately the mod was a lot easier than I expected and with proper sanding, there is no scar. The resin pigment for Light Tan dolls from RS/BBB is distributed throughout the resin.

Tools Used:
1) Pencil
2) Foredom (You can use a dremel or carefully cut with a craft knife.)
3) Respirator! (Very impt. Resin dust is toxic.)
4) Sandpaper in a gradation of grits. (I used 220-800)
5) Water. (Don't dry sand. Wet sand for a smooth finish and to reduce resin dust in the air.)

Process:
1) Figure out how much I want to cut and draw a pencil guideline.
2) Use Dremel/Foredom/Craft knife to get rid of most of the resin to be reduced. Don't go right to the pencil line. If you make a mistake here it would be hard to get rid of the mistake so leave some space here.
3) Wet sand using lowest grit until you reach the pencil line. This makes for a nice smooth even curve which may be hard to get with a knife or even a dremel. Make sure you round the edges a bit so it's not a harsh straight edge.
4) Finish off by wet sanding with higher grit sandpaper until you reach desired smoothness.

So here are the pics. I didn't take any in progress pics since it's pretty boring and self explanatory.

The pencil line I drew on the unmodded pelvis piece and then the modded piece. No scar!


Yao and Li have the same stomach and pelvis pieces. The thigh pieces for Yao are just modified thighs from the normal 42cm double jointed girl bodies so the upper ball area is the same. Yao is unmodded and Li is modded. As you can see the difference isn't very noticeable and they both stand solidly after restringing. I will suede them later just to improve posing. For now they are just restrung and Li is modded.

A closer look at the pelvic area. Li's pelvis piece has slightly higher leg openings.

Li still doesn't sit perfectly. As you can see she leans back a bit. I can mod her hips a bit more so she sits straighter but for now I'm pretty happy she can even sit up on her own. ResinSoul really didn't do a very good job designing the bodies for posing. As you can see the shape of her buttocks and thigh muscles causes the sitting pose to naturally lean backwards.

On the other hand, sitting with a lean is still much better than what Yao can do. She needs to be held to be in any sort of sitting position.

When laying down, Li can hold her legs up at about an 95-100 degree angle. Yao cannot do that at all.

From this angle, you can see what the changes are. With the legs still angled to the body, Li's thighs are pretty much flush with the modded leg openings while the original shape of Yao's pelvis does not allow the legs to bend toward the body. (I am holding Yao's legs.)

Voila! It's a pretty easy mod but any kind of mod scares me before I do it because I don't want to mess up the doll. I do feel more sure of myself now though and if anyone wants their RS pelvis modded, I can add it to the list of commissions I do or you guys can try it yourself! It's really easy.

EDIT: I realize from some questions ppl asked on forums that they are not sure how much to cut. I am adding a picture to illustrate.

1) While doll is still strung, position leg in a sitting position to the body so you can see the amount of gappage. The width of the gap is the same amount of room that is needed for the leg to sit correctly in the pelvis.
2)Using a pencil mark the same gap width above the highest arch of the pelvic cup for the leg.
3) Draw an arc similar to the curve of the leg if it were sitting correctly.

This is how I figured out the curve. I basically did this once and didn't have to remeasure or retrace. when I cut my pelvis and sanded I sanded directly to the line and the leg just fit perfectly. I think this was purely luck, but you can also help luck by being careful! So just prepare yourself well and things should go well!



5 comments:

  1. Updates YEAH! :D xD

    The Satyr (?) Yao looks really nice, hope to see her finishded soon ^-^

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  2. Just wanted to comment on "I think it's odd that they didn't bother to fix the sculpt since standing and sitting are the major requirements of BJD posing."

    ResinSoul HAS fixed the problem. The new hip piece is even higher than you have modded yours--she sits up perfectly nice and straight on her own now. All newly cast Rong/Li/Yao dolls have the new modified piece as of the beginning of May 2011.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/freque/DSCN6194.jpg
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/freque/DSCN6193-2.jpg

    The tan doll in the picture is my newer Rong body (arrived April 28, 2011), while the light girl is my older Li (Jan, 2011).

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  3. Thanks for the update Raesha. I learned after I posted this that indeed ResinSoul has fixed the hip so that their dolls can sit up straight now. The did mod it quite a bit higher. I think for Oun (my Yao) I will have the line somewhere between where I have it on Zi'li and where RS has their new hip socket. I'll probably take away a bit more on Zi'li so she can sit up a bit straighter. Not as much as the RS but more.

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  4. I'm so happy i got to see then up close and personal at the Saturday meet. Hi hi my name is Stephanie I had the Bobobie Apollo and the resin soul boy An. I love your face up work i need one on my boy An

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  5. Hi Steph. I checked out your blog earlier. I'm happy to have met you too. I used to think there were no BJD collectors in NY and I'm so glad I'm very very wrong. I will try to make the Sunday meet so maybe I'll see you again there?

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