Building a doll from scratch

Androol · Post by **Androol** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 2:04 am

Maybe adding a simple o-ring under some pressure at the joining of each finger part may do the tricks?

I totally agree on the taste point, the best benefit of doing your own doll is she will be perfect for you.

MIKE238 · Post by **MIKE238** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:24 am

Well, here you go. This is a trial assembly of all the pieces now just to see if everything fits together - and they do! In a way it's surprising that all the parts fit near perfectly. Of course I had to fill in the seams as shown earlier but it worked fine. All the parts on each side are completed and joined with epoxy. After the epoxy set I could then fill in the seams between parts. Right now you can see the seam between the two sides as well as the head because, again, this is just a trial fit. It's kinda cool, though, to discover that the entire body is well balanced and, as you can see, she can stand on her own feet.

The next step will be the laborious one - sanding and smoothing both sides before the final assembly. This will take quite awhile but I found that starting with 100 grit sandpaper works quite well.

Onward and upward!

samara78 · Post by **samara78** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:04 pm

Beautiful work thus far.

MIKE238 · Post by **MIKE238** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:12 pm

Thanks! Long ways to go, though but at least the parts are done.

abracadabra · Post by **abracadabra** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:12 pm

I've been following this thread since you began and I am quite impressed this is some very nice work

The Doll Laboratory · Post by **The Doll Laboratory** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:29 pm

Hello Mike238,

Excellent work. Impressive result!

But I am also impressed by your clean workroom. Mine is always a mess!

Von Rubber

MIKE238 · Post by **MIKE238** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:56 pm

Heh, you caught me, Von! You haven't seen what it can really look like when I'm hard at work.

And thanks, abracadabra! It's been quite an adventure so far.

mannequin man · Post by **mannequin man** » Thu Apr 06, 2017 10:38 am

Dude, ..Totally Awesome !

FlashGordoll · Post by **FlashGordoll** » Thu Apr 06, 2017 11:39 am

I'm loving watching your thread Mike !

Keep leaping over those hurdles!

xsdolls · Post by **xsdolls** » Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:14 pm

Mike,

congratulations on your progress - it is exactly the same way I am doing the molds for our upcoming dolls.

In my opinion the worst part (after waiting for the parts to be printed) is the sanding - it will take you days if not weeks if you are as picky as me. Be very careful not to create "bumps" as they are not visible when you make the mold, but in the finished doll later.

Good luck on your project and if you ever hit a problem you cannot solve - let me know, I might be able to give you some pointers.

George

freezenator · Post by **freezenator** » Thu Apr 06, 2017 1:36 pm

This looks great. I was wondering what 3d printer are you using. It looks like you are printing large parts in one go. Can you tell me more?
Freezenator

Unknown2 · Post by **Unknown2** » Thu Apr 06, 2017 2:09 pm

This is fantastic work! I'm hooked lol.

Yeah which printer do you use?

Unknown2

EBmoist · Post by **EBmoist** » Sat Apr 08, 2017 11:23 am

Just a thought-- you have made a positive doll-ready to cover in rubber to create your own Negative Mold!
meaning you could sell this to Playdoll or WM, or any one who wants to create their own line of dolls!

CF · Post by CF » Sat Apr 08, 2017 4:01 pm

What a hottie! It looks like you and George are pioneers in doll creation!

I am going to go back and re-read it from the start. It's very, very interesting to see how this design process works. Very cutting-edge.

freezenator · Post by **freezenator** » Wed May 31, 2017 1:38 am

MIKE238 wrote:Okay, here are some more pics as things move along. I haven't gotten as far as I hoped by this time as I had some problems to deal with on my 3D printer. At first I found the printer was no longer able to read the SD card upon which the files reside. It turned out to be an easy fix, though, by simply blowing into the slot that the card is inserted. Don't know why I thought of that but it worked! Must have been some dust inside there preventing a good connection. Then the other problem was an adhesion issue on the printer bed. The first layer of the print must have good adhesion to the bed, otherwise you'll end up with a meaningless pile of extruded plastic. In the warmer days that we had a few weeks ago - almost summer-like weather - I had no problem with adhesion. But as the weather finally turned much colder - and I tend to keep my house pretty cold (63 degrees) during the winter to keep my heating bill down - the printer bed got a lot colder and I think that's what caused the adhesion problem. I'm going to use what's called "blue tape" to put down across the bed for much better adhesion. Once I get the tape I ordered I'll be back at it.

So, this first photo shows the printer in progress with one of the upper leg parts:

Here is the finished upper right leg along with an arm:

Here I have a hand attached to the arm - perfect fit!

Next is a photo of the articulated fingers I'll use when the doll is completed, the fiberglass mold is made and the doll is ready to be poured. I still have some work to do on these fingers but at least you'll get the idea of how they will work:

Finally, here is the jaw and the upper teeth. The upper teeth will be attached to the skull once I get that printed:

So that's if for now. I'll have some more photos in the coming weeks.

I am also in the process of preparing to 3d print an entire doll, but I am having some difficulty with Meshmixer. How do you specify the thickness of the shells and the peg inserts in Meshmixer? There must be an easier way to do it other than doing it all by hand. I am also noticing that Meshmixer tends to crash on me when I am in the middle of the project. Do you have any tips and suggestions? Please let me know. Thanks.