Tiny Anime Action Figures

[potootatos]

The variety of materials and level of detail available to the Form 2 is incredible and I have been absolutely squandering all those incredible materials and qualities by using mine to design and print tiny anime dolls that are heavily inspired by Mega House’s Desktop Army figures…

I really like the Durable, but anything that doesn’t need that slight flex (like joints, hands, and faceplates) works really well in Pro Grey and Dental Model, with parts of clothes working really nicely in Elastic and accessories in Clear.

Moving forward I intend to experiment with pigmenting the Durable resin, as well as printing my own waterslide decals. If you want to mess around with the base body models they are available here for free. Good luck and have fun!

[lconover]

I love this project.

I’m hoping to use my Form2 for a similar endeavor - remixing ‘Monster High’ dolls into new characters. They’re modular, they have good sculpts - but the down side is that often their hands are MIA when you buy them from eBay or from thrift stores…

I have been trying to brainstorm how to scan/model the few hands I have from them so I can print a bunch. (And it would be even better if I could figure out how to bend the digital file into different poses for holding objects, or have a precise hole to insert a magnet for props. But since I’m not…well, handy, in 3d sculpting I may end up simply casting them in silicone rubber and old fashioned 2-part resin.

How did you make the 3d files for the hands?

-Laura

PS: If you have any good resources that you know of for ball jointed doll printables, let me know! I’m on the search for printable props as well, such as D&D inspired treasure chests, furniture (modern and old fashioned), swords, and other fun things that I can print and paint. for the dolls to interact with.

[potootatos]

Thank you!

I actually modeled them in Solidworks and then sculpted over them to smooth it all out. Sometimes I use a file I set up with the palm+peg and separate fingers but, aside from the gripping hand, I can get away with just doing everything in meshmixer+sculptris.

[potootatos]

Updating my base models as well as my hands and my articulation!

I really, really love Durable, it’s my favorite resin by far. It’s a great combo of ‘chewy’, impact resistance, and easy to pigment. I’m contemplating mixing a batch with some Elastic for figure clothes/hair purposes, anyone have any experience?

[rkagerer]

Did you model just the articulating joints and some bulk material in Solidworks, to later sculpt in the other tools?

If you used Solidworks to model such beautiful, organically shaped people, I’d love to learn more about how you did that!

[potootatos]

The raw Solidworks forms are pretty close, but the sculpting does a ton!

[rkagerer]

Makes sense! Thanks for sharing that, it really helps fill in the gap on how you got from Solidworks to final. The finessing on the fingers in particular looks great.

[potootatos]

Thank you! For the latest version I actually removed the fingers from the base and set up a file of just individual fingers in a variety of positions. I just mix and match those to make new gestures, it was time consuming to set up but easy to use.

[potootatos]

Using some of this quarantine time to sculpt. I’ve got some parts already printing in pigmented Durable, it’s a very relaxing way to spend this month’s apocalypse lol

[potootatos]

And the finished printed parts. Just have to sand a few supports. The flesh tone is slightly warm irl and goes super nice with the primer grey I use for most clothes/hair/accessories. I have two other flesh tones I will have to demo later, super happy with how they turned out.

More hair on the way!

[potootatos]

Updated the joints and fit, now they can sit crosslegged! I need to make some ‘bracing against the ground’ hands because their wrists can only swivel but otherwise I’m happy.

Gotta work on some clothed bodies while some alt fleshtone sets print.

[potootatos]

This isolation is keeping me busy!

I’ve been loving having the time to actually sculpt and I have a number of characters and option parts in the works. All of this is printed in pigmented Durable, still my favorite resin!

[rkagerer]

How many different colored bits there did you pigment vs. paint?

[potootatos]

All of it is pigmented, the only difference is anything that doesn’t have any fleshtone portions is printed in grey Durable so I can see what I’m doing as I work.

[rkagerer]

I’m confused - the yellow stripes on the vest or dress or whatever in that last photo look like they’re painted. I’m basically wondering if you made a bunch of different colored resins (blue, black, white, yellow, skin-tone) and assembled it all from very small bits, or if you printed a few skin-toned and grey pigmented parts then painted them. Might be more straightforward if I simply ask, what (if anything) was painted? Basically anything that’s not skin-toned?

[potootatos]

As the before paint photo shows, all of the resin is pigmented. The only base color visible along with the paint in the end, though, is Flesh. Anything that has no Flesh visible are printed in Grey to make sanding and painting easier by making details more visible. I don’t print in ‘raw’ Durable anymore because the transparency makes it harder to see details and support nubs

Here’s a good example. Grey parts will be completely painted, Flesh parts have areas that remain unpainted like shoulders, neck, and legs.

Grey pigment is for refining and painting visibility, Flesh is to achieve consistent translucency with subsurface scattering that paint doesn’t allow.

[rkagerer]

Now I understand, thanks! They look great.

[potootatos]

Just needs a few minor details and she’ll be done.

[F1RST_DISCIPLE]

I’m curious to know if your experiment with mixing flexible worked out for you? I have yet to see and example of flexible resin used for detail work (mixed or unmixed). Great work and can’t wait for your next post.

[potootatos]

I haven’t had a chance yet but eventually I’d like to see. I’ll post the results here!