The Doll Forum

She's shaping up fine!
You might try to make some contour shapers to help final smoothing by cutting various concave and convex edges out of semi rigid plastic. I do this when applying auto body filler. This also helps keep paired muscles uniform to each other.

How much Silicone will your doll need?

Awesome project!

Sodium wrote:How much Silicone will your doll need?

I initially wanted to make the doll light, so I'm considering using expandable polyurethane foam similar to DS Dolls but I am still researching it.

Omega_Vato wrote:

Sodium wrote:How much Silicone will your doll need?

I initially wanted to make the doll light, so I'm considering using expandable polyurethane foam similar to DS Dolls but I am still researching it.

Careful on your decision of materials and make sure they are compatible. Silicone doesn't bond well with many foams. That's why some SFX prosthetics use silicone for molding and a poly rubber material for casting, then a poly foam to fill it. Before going full on with your doll when it is ready, I would make a mold of your own arm then test out your process and see if it is the consistency you want. Also mixing expanding foam is tricky if you haven't done it before. Sometimes you get a nice soft foam like you should, other times you didn't mix right or you spread it too hard and it ends up dense. I buy my materials from brickintheyard.com They also have some good instructional videos too. You can also get sample materials for cheap. You want to get the right firm or softness of the skin. Too soft and you get a sticky silicone skin that will pick up all the lint in the air.

ren28 wrote:

Omega_Vato wrote:

Sodium wrote:How much Silicone will your doll need?

I initially wanted to make the doll light, so I'm considering using expandable polyurethane foam similar to DS Dolls but I am still researching it.

Careful on your decision of materials and make sure they are compatible. Silicone doesn't bond well with many foams. That's why some SFX prosthetics use silicone for molding and a poly rubber material for casting, then a poly foam to fill it. Before going full on with your doll when it is ready, I would make a mold of your own arm then test out your process and see if it is the consistency you want. Also mixing expanding foam is tricky if you haven't done it before. Sometimes you get a nice soft foam like you should, other times you didn't mix right or you spread it too hard and it ends up dense. I buy my materials from brickintheyard.com They also have some good instructional videos too. You can also get sample materials for cheap. You want to get the right firm or softness of the skin. Too soft and you get a sticky silicone skin that will pick up all the lint in the air.

Keep in mind, I said I might do just straight polyurethane foam. I am not 100% certain if I want to use silicone unless I really would like to and I want it to make it lightweight but with a curvaceous body almost similar to plush dolls. Brickintheyard.com is a go-to site and I have went there plenty of times even though I haven't bought anything from there. I have watched plenty of their videos on YouTube and have subscribed to their channel. That being said, I'm just debating on this because I am still in the sculpting phase. I will take everything into consideration.

Alright. Since it's Memorial Day weekend, I'm currently working on the project. I don't have a new update with the sculpture just yet but I will taking pictures of the sculpture by Memorial Day. While I'm doing that, I've been going over on the material for the doll and remember when I said I wanted to make the doll lightweight? Well, I've found one material on the Smooth-On website called FlexFoam-IT! and more specifically the version I was looking for is this:

https://www.smooth-on.com/products/flexfoam-it-6/

The material is pillow soft and I wanted the doll to be soft like a plushie but articulate. Once I've finished making the fiberglass mold I will, hopefully, pour in the contents on both sides of the fiberglass mold, add the PVC skeleton on one side, and combine them together and let it cure for a few hours before demolding. Any input from experts are suggested.

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of what the sculpture looks like now:

I'm not sure if it's the camera but the images looks like the sculpture is still thin. Also, I still have much to work on this body. The torso looks like it seriously needs a lot of work and I need to smooth out the legs and arms because it looks lumpy and I have used rubbing alcohol, blow dryer, and baby oil to smooth them out.

Wow, I am seriously impressed! Very nicely sculpted thus far! You have some of the definition in there, the body tone looks right as well. Proportion wise, you look to be almost spot on.
Amazing job!

You could maybe add a little foam in one mold half, let it cure then try to cut away for the skeleton to fit and for the other mold half to fit. Then join the halves and add more foam.

Don't plan on pouring in foam to both mold halves, adding the skeleton then try to clamp the mold halves together. You have 35 seconds to mix and pour the foam before it starts expanding.

SCULPTING UPDATE: I'm about 85% complete with the sculpture. I've added details to the abdomen, shaped the buttocks more and smoothed out most of the sculpt. It's not 100% clean but it's looking ok. As far for the foam, I'm about to order a trial size of the foam before I attempt to buy, I think, 5 gallons of the foam (let me know if that's doable or perhaps I should use less).

More updates to come.

Wow this looks like a tremendous amount of work. Well done

So today I received a trial version of Flex Foam-It 6 from Smooth-On to test it out just to see if this is the material that I want to use to make the doll.

First test:

I shook up parts A and then B and poured about 5 ml each in a container. Then I stirred the mixture for about 35 seconds. As I as about to finished, the mixture then started to expand reaching up over 400 ml. I let it cure for 2 hours. After curing, the test foam was light and squishy to which that I was quite happy with it. PASSED

Second Test:

I wanted to see if it can cure inside a rubber glove. So, like the first test, I poured and mixed together parts A and B and then poured the mixture in the glove. Surprisingly, the mixture was able to expand outside the glove and the mixture was at least 40 ml! After two hours (actually less because I assume the hand was cured 100%), the hand was completed...but with some complications. I noticed the foam was stuck and as I soon tried to remove the hand from the glove and it tore off a small part on one of the fingers. I also noticed the foam created rough skin texture to which felt kinda okay. Ergo, I was elated by the results albeit with serious imperfections. ACCEPTABLE

Third Test:

Wanting to improve on the hand, I tried it with another rubber glove. The one thing I forgot to do was shake the bottles before attempting to do the third test. After pouring in the contents inside the glove, I thought I was going to see the same results like the first two tests. WRONG! The foam expanded, created a mess on the carpet and then it shrunk! After 100% curing, it did create a leather texture but the fingers were in bad shape and the thumb was missing. I tried doing it again and the same thing was it expanded and then shrunk down. Highly disappointed.
FAILED

So, I dumped the last few ounces of Parts A and B together and poured all of the contents in the cup. So far, unlike the third test, the mixture did expand and also created a smooth texture from the cup.

In conclusion, I think I am going to use Flex Foam-It but I do know it's expensive though with it I think I can be able to save $800 because I might just use 2.5 to 3 gallons of Flex Foam-It.

Maybe the foam had a bad reaction to the glove?
I know you are not to use latex gloves when working w/ silicone.

Does the foam instructions say to stay away from Latex, vinyl, etc?

rubherkitty wrote:Maybe the foam had a bad reaction to the glove?
I know you are not to use latex gloves when working w/ silicone.

Does the foam instructions say to stay away from Latex, vinyl, etc?

I took a look but to no avail. The rubber gloves inside has a leather texture while outside is rubber. One thing I do know was that on the third test I rubbed petroleum jelly and baby oil inside the glove. The reaction was that at first it started to expand and then the reaction started to shrink down quite badly. The fourth test I've tried it without the jelly and oil; same issue. I might have not measured parts A and B equally so I need to remember to do it equally and vigorously shake the bottles before mixing. These are lessons that I must vitally learn if I want to make this project successful.

Also, I don't think I am going to add a skeleton to the doll because I really don't think it might need it unless it's a wire skeleton coated in rubber.