Blog

Last week's topic was assembling the skeleton, which only applies if you got the Final Boss grade cortex kit.  This week's tutorial is about hiding seams will apply to both Ninja grade or Final Boss grade.  You can kindof sortof get it to work on a pre-assembled doll, but the most effective method of seam blending (using plastic model cement glue to fuse parts together) won't work if you've already had your doll glued together. Wait, what about the assembling it bit?  Watch Danny's video.  Yes, it's long.  Yes, you should still watch it.  I watched it when it first...

I've been waiting for the Cortex Mirai dolls to come out for years.  That isn't an exaggeration--literally, years.  The reason is, I really like hard-bodied dolls with non-strung articulation.  Vinyl is nice and light, but it's like a stain sucking sponge, and you're always a little worried you're going to stick a pin through it when using it to fit for sewing.  Resin is nice and strong, but heavy and a paint in the butt to pose, even if you've sueded and wired the body.  You can make it easier to pose, but it will never really be able to...

This week, the topic is SCALE!  This is often a problem in the doll world, because people don't understand it properly.  People say they have a doll of such-and-such a height as if that's the only number that mattered. Nope. So here's a representation of a adult human figure, who we'll say is an American woman of average height, which is 5'4" or 64 inches. At 1/3 scale, that person would be 1/3 the size, which is 21.3 inches, or 54.1cm At 1/4 scale, that person is 16 inches, or 40.64cm. At 1/6 scale, that person is 10.7 inches, or...

Hand sewing is fine.  It's slow, but it's precise, and precise is the thing you need most with doll clothes. If you're reading this because you're wondering if you need a machine, the answer is NO.  You do not. Machine sewing was developed to do the most common hand sewing techniques faster.  It started off with a straight stitch, which is about 95% of all sewing work at the time.  Later zig-zagging was added for knits, which was another 4% and then sewing machine designers started competing with each other to get that last 1%.  It only makes sense to...

Last week we covered how to prevent sun damage.  This week, we're turning back the clock on items where it's too late to start preventing yellowing! You may have heard about the 'retrobrite' solution.  This is a method for de-yellowing plastic that involves high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (brown bottle, probably in your bathroom for treating cuts) that was developed from hobbyists trying to reverse UV damage on plastic computer cases. Hmmm.... reverse yellowing on plastic... This is different from de-staining.  It's supposed to JUST remove yellowing, so if the thing was originally pink and is now orange from yellowing,...