Arthur's tpe doll repair thread inc. Rachel's resurrection

Post by **Slew** » Sun May 05, 2019 3:28 pm

Oh man, Rachel is such a lucky doll.

Arthur, I'm in awe of you.. this is just really amazing work. You definitely have a talent for it.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sun May 05, 2019 3:35 pm

Thanks Zippy81, yeah that's mainly why I'm posting this as it goes to show if I can pick up some of the basic skills then others can to, plus I'm finding it quite a rewarding experience. Here's a couple of pics now that all major holes have been filled, (not in that way!) Rachel can already strut her stuff and show off those 155DD curves! I still need to work on her lady parts and do some smoothing here and there and I need to finish her head too as it needs sticking back to her skull but we are getting there!

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sun May 05, 2019 3:40 pm

Slew wrote:Oh man, Rachel is such a lucky doll. Arthur, I'm in awe of you.. this is just really amazing work. You definitely have a talent for it.

Thanks Slew! Well I'm so lucky to have this wonderful resource at my disposal, I wouldn't have been able to do what I've done this weekend if I hadn't seen the excellent video posted by Mishka recently!

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sun May 05, 2019 3:45 pm

djcdoll wrote:That's very impressive indeed Arthur1960.
A massive improvement on the original gaping hole in her elbow.

I can see a potential small business opportunity here, mending dolls that live in your part of the country!
I'm sure there would be quite a demand for your services.
It would be like being back in a hospital again: "Arthur's Dolly Hospital".

Ha ha, thanks djcdoll, coincidentally I was just saying as much to my daughter on the phone! I would certainly be happy to do repairs like this for someone, I can only improve with practice. If my cabin in the garden wasn't full of my kayaks I would definitely turn it into a doll hospital!

Post by **Tsall** » Sun May 05, 2019 5:17 pm

Great work. If I ever need to do something similar I will watch Mishka's videos and reread this thread.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sun May 05, 2019 5:32 pm

Thanks Tsall, I must say, when I saw Mishka working with tiny pieces of tpe and melting them into a wound I thought 'now why didn't I think of that'! Once you do it then you realise that it makes repairing deeper cuts etc entirely possible, you just need to take your time, gradually working in the tpe a bit at a time.

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sun May 05, 2019 5:51 pm

Nice man! Yea it just kinda looks like a natural elbow's skin now!

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sun May 05, 2019 7:27 pm

Thanks Zippy81, yeah I'm happy with the colour match, I might smooth it over a little more but elbows are naturally a bit wrinkled anyway so I may leave it at that.

RGC_0767 · Post by **RGC_0767** » Mon May 06, 2019 10:01 am

To confirm solder iron work is bar none a great way to repair, here is a repair I'd done close to a year ago. I had wanted to see how my dolls standing foot was made so I cut it open and had a good look

I'd made a 3 to 4 inch cut along sole

tater-foot.jpg

Had made too long of cut, because was quite confident in my ability to seal it back up. Well, the iron did damage because there was tension on the material. I especially mangled the heel

You can see on the heel of the foot on right what standing a non standing doll can do. The heel was compressed to make a divot lol

damage-by-iron.jpg

The white stuff is just filler TPE, I'd used a hot air gun to melt it smooth into the void. With the tension that I did not realize was there it started to split toward ankle. Meh! whatever will be will be... I knew I could fix it. I pulled the leg skin up quite a bit, to relieve tension and was able to continue with no problem.

To finish off I'd used the TPE from neck of doll. Since I did not have spare material. Did not need a whole lot anyway.
A combination of air and iron and the job went forward quite well.

finished-foot.jpg

You can see a bit of dark there. Possibly it could be from tarnished iron tip(s) So it is very important to keep them as clean as possible.
I did this June 2018, and it has not come apart

This was done to see if a standing mod could be implemented, but once I saw how much work it would be to make it a proper foot, I aborted mission

To fill a hole I do work from outside edges in, meeting in the middle. Just build it in layers.
Smooth with air and tight pored mineral oil dampened sponge for texture.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon May 06, 2019 12:48 pm

Hi RGC_0767, that's excellent work indeed and thanks for sharing. I'm certainly sold on this method of repair now! Today I glued Rachel's face back onto her skull which thankfully made her look much more like the good old 46 that she is. I used the silicone permatex stuff which seems to have worked really well for this particular job although I doubt I would use it anywhere else on a tpe doll but her head looks and feels much better now. I've given her some bottom eye lashes and redone her makeup and with the short black wig she looks quite presentable. Unfortunately she did have some damage to the tip of her nose and I'm open to suggestions as to the best way to fix this, I suspect I may have to add a tiny bit of tpe and then shape it with the soldering station but I'm going to need a bit more practice first. Ok I probably won't post too much more here now aside from when I tidy up her lady parts but there's no hurry for that, she's earned herself a pass on bedroom duties! So here's a pic I took this afternoon shortly after sorting out her head...

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon May 13, 2019 5:26 am

I've decided to keep this thread going for now after doing a little more work on another doll that was in need of some TLC. Last year I caused some rather nasty damage to my original YL148D body that had previously been used by Sarah but more recently by Elizabeth. Basically I was overconfident following some initial success with minor surface repairs using a hot air rework station so thought I would try smoothing out those irritating micro tears you can get in the groin area, especially if you have left a gal in a sitting position for too long, which I had done with Sarah before I knew better. This was a mistake which I won't be repeating as the tpe in the groin quickly opened up leaving a tear about 1/2" deep and 4" long. Having previously used tpe filler successfully I thought it might work here, this was my second mistake as the filler just ate into the tpe even further and spread the tear up along the top of the leg, so I now had a much deeper hole and wasn't sure what to do next! Then a few weeks back I saw Mishka's video tutorial demonstrating how to tackle deeper cuts and tears by using small pieces of tpe gradually melted into the area using a soldering station. So over the weekend, encouraged by my recent work on Rachel, I set about repairing the groin on my 3 year old YL148. I also needed to fill a hole on the right elbow (having had to tighten a loose joint) and also smooth the tpe on the left hand which had looked a bit rough. Here's a link to a short video showing the result of the repair using Mishka's method, the area will benefit from some further smoothing but, so far, adherence seems good:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... aIeVrz7oVv

In these first pics you can see the initial damage which I then gradually start to fill, first using some natural tone tpe that I had more of before finishing with some matching tpe cut from the neck...

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Mon May 13, 2019 5:36 am

Just watched your repair video Arthur1960.

Very impressed with your repair work. She looks a LOT better with those big holes filled in. It shows that our girls can be repaired.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon May 13, 2019 5:37 am

One important point I took away from Mishka's video is to take your time with a repair like this, it isn't something to be rushed, I did this work over a 3 day period, gradually laying down layers of tpe, so this is the result today which still needs some smoothing but the colour match is pretty good. The last couple of pics are of the left hand which has been 'freshened' up with a bit of hot air and my pushing the finger wires well back into their springs.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon May 13, 2019 5:44 am

Thanks djcdoll, I was in two minds whether it would be useful to post or not but then I thought that it's by us all sharing that we learn and I certainly wouldn't want anyone to make the mistake I made last year with this body. My objective this week is to get Elizabeth reunited with the bod and in a swim suit so watch out for that!

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Mon May 13, 2019 6:13 am

Arthur1960 wrote:Thanks djcdoll, I was in two minds whether it would be useful to post or not but then I thought that it's by us all sharing that we learn and I certainly wouldn't want anyone to make the mistake I made last year with this body. My objective this week is to get Elizabeth reunited with the bod and in a swim suit so watch out for that!

Yes I'll keep an eye out.

I've got a few little repairs to do on Tiffany soon. Her elbows need a look at again.
I'll have a go with my heat gun at some point.

Also I'm watching the progress that MannequinFan and Panther68 are making with the new hand plates.
It's looking good so far. Hopefully I can manage to get a couple of those hand plates for poor Tiffany once they finalise the design.