He Can't Believe It...

SEE? He's DONE~ All painted - after 3 years in a box ^_^!

Meet cute little Mr. Nibbles:






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A Toy Comes to 'Life'...

UPDATE on another project I've been working on...I have had this little
guy FOREVER it seems...neglected...taken apart and resting in his box since I got him July of 2007...

A Pipos Doll Curo, fullset:


I named him Mr. Nibbles, and he was to be Ava's (my Dollstown Seola) 'imaginary' friend...no one else could 'see' him as she does - which is, her favorite toy come to *life*. I thought I would paint him like a British spotted rabbit in black and white. Then I saw photos of the same markings in brown, and liked that better. So the idea sat in my brain...and poor Mr. Nibbles sat in his box...and I'd go to doll meetups and get 'scolded' gently by my friends that I haven't painted him yet. One of my friends even gave Mr. Nibbles a little carrot prop, thinking that might prod me into finally working on him. ^_^

Here he is a little while ago after I got him out of the box to take pix of some eyes for a friend:


WELL! What finally prodded me to start on him last week was an upcoming beach trip all of my 'dollie' friends take once a year - we're leaving this Thursday. What better time to get poor Mr. Nibbles onto the work table and *surprise* everyone by bringing him all painted and together! I'm allllmost done with him....just a few more little details - painted lines in crevices...and dying him with coffee (to add an 'antique' feel to him - he's supposed to be made of wood, so the dye should help that look as well as the brush strokes I need to add) and he'll be ready to string!

Teeeeeezr:


Hopefully I'll have him all done by tonight so I can post pix of him.

I found a great group on flickr that helped me with his concept...except he's the opposite...more like an 'overly loved' toy...sort of like the Velveteen rabbit...

Here's the group - "Unloved Toys"...some of it's kind of sad though...

Comfort

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Some Resin Comparisons...

By request here's some comparisons of pale resins by Dollshe (old and new) as well as
Spirit Doll:

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A Ghost for Company

Rikter has...abilities.

Not everyone understands, but he can 'see' that which is not
normally there for the average person. He finds friends in ghosts,
as seen here...(if you can see his friend like he does...^_~)



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Uriel Flies!

Wings are all done! I got them finalized and the armature covered with fabric and more feathers. They pose great and are holding up wonderful for photo sessions which is more than I would've expected. It's interesting how the wings make himlook more imposing!






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Wings Update!

I got the magnets glued to the doll and to the wings successfully, yaaaay!
Here's a couple pix
(click thumbnail to view fullsize):


(The epoxy on the doll was from an earlier idea that *failed*. So I might as well just sand that off).

After the magnets set (the glue had to set for 24 hours), I attempted to attach the wings to the doll and....SUCCESS! It was so much better than I'd hoped. The magnets hold brilliantly and the wings don't even *try* to fall off. The only minor issue is the magnet on the wings likes to try and rotate left or right depending on how I have the wings posed, but I'm getting a couple more magnets in the mail that I might try attaching in between that would prevent that. But it's not really that bad at all, so I may just leave it alone.

The armature I used is from Armaverse, The armature I used is from the individual Phase 3 parts, and I'm really happy overall with how it works. It's so smooth and easy to move, yet holds a pose great. It's much better than using wire and I know that it will last. Here's several shots I took today of Uriel in his different wing poses.

Wings folded. This will more than likely be the most common pose.
(I'm posting clickable thumbs cos there's a lot of pix!)
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Wings forward


From the back, lowered - then raised


Fully extended


More pix extended and raised
(I was digging how the wings created a prism effect as the light shown through them!)




Closeups of the armature, lowered and raised



So all that's left to do really is create the cover to go over the armature. It'll act as a sort of 'cape', but will then velcro down. I'm still working on exactly how I'll do it. It will have smaller feathers cut out of a lighter plastic sewn onto it so it will blend in.
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UPDATE: For information on how I created custom 'dumb-bell' parts long enough for the wings
armature, see here.