OMG NEW TUTORIAL!



Ok, I'm officially making the database into a few different sections. So far it will be TOOLS/MATERIALS and CUSTOMIZATION STEPS/TIPS. This is the latter.

I will be updating this now and then as I make customs. For the moment, I will walk you through a custom I am currently making of Syaoran from the Tsubasa manga by Clamp. Though, I did not take as many pictures as i would like, i will add in other pictures in between when i make other customs to clarify the steps a bit better. It is rather hard taking pictures as you're working, or to even think of taking them so there will be mystery left for you to fill in as you go!! (*cough*itachi is too stupid to pick up a camera and take clear shots while concentrating on a custom and apologizes*cough*).

also, if there is a better way to do anything, please let me know. most of this stuff i had to learn on my own, ESPECIALLY using clay as a base to make things. i have only officially finished 1 custom, but i have over 25+ unfinished. so, i am by no means an authority on customizing! i am a rookie, at best!  most of this is just me stumbling through a custom and figuring stuff out as i go, so you get to watch and heckle me

REMOVING PAINT
A a basic need for any customizer. i STRONGLY SUGGEST you remove any paint before you start customizing your piece (though i am usually lazy and overeager and don't take my own advice half the time. DON'T BE LIKE ME! lol~) and here's how:
For Syaoran i used a tank top as my victim-to-be:


I usually wear some gloves if they're around to prevent the nail polish remover from absorbing into my skin (i'm sure it can't be that good for you)


I get an old sock and put it on my hand, then put some remover on it (original tip from robot):


I rub the sock around on the paint to remove, while rotating it to a clean part of the sock that doesn't have paint on it. if you just use the same part of the sock, the paint won't adhere to the sock and it will just slide around on the pinky, which we don't want.


finally you can get into those lil' hard to reach sections with a q-tip cotton swab. again, make sure that you rotate it and get a new one when it's filled with paint.


TIPS: do NOT soak the part in remover. it is not good for the plastic, and many times too much remover will cause the paint to literally soak into the pinky's plastic, permanently staining it (like a bruise). also, by soaking it you are not creating the wiping friction needed to take the paint off. i highly doubt the paint will simply dissolve if soaked, and i've heard enough horror stories to know it's not a good idea.
in that vein: don't keep at a piece for a long time with remover. that can stain it, too. so if you are either repainting and making a mistake, or just plain removing paint, if it's not working and you've been at it for a while, let it rest and go back to it. remember you can't go back from staining a pinky's plastic. (don't be afraid if it takes over 5 minutes, but over 20 or 30 minutes may cause some problems).
DO NOT sand directly after removing paint. the epoxy tends to get soft in an odd way, and sanding something soft is never a good move.
cutting after removing paint is sometimes a good idea, though. if there is a big chunk of plastic you want to remove/hack off, the remover will soften the plastic and make it easier for you to do so.
DO NOT use when removing paint from sculpey. i just learned recently that it will dissolve sculpey to a small degree, and i lost some detail to my custom that way. it was a bit nice on the larger parts, though, as it smoothed out the sculpey so i didn't need to sand so much. so, it has its benefits and its evils when sculpey is involved. i haven't seen this effect on epoxy putty.

Because i'm an over-zealous fool, i made the cape first. and also because i am a fool, i didn't take the appropriate amount of pictures so i am going to use another custom i made in conjunction with syaoran to shed more light on the process.

First I mushed a very rough shape of clay onto the piece, then formed a main rough outline that i wanted for the size and basic structure:


the reason i use this clay is because it is very hard to make an independent object that has nothing to rest on when you're working with a non-structured material. i.e if you make a skirt of epoxy and try to make it flair out it will just warp and flop as it can't hold itself up.
the only time i have OK luck without using clay as a base is with Sculpey Firm:

it took a lot of poking and prodding, and i would not suggest it, especially when clay is such and easier option (though it, too, has its dangers).

next i cut out a decently detailed description of what i wanted it to look like:




i take equal parts of epoxy and mix it, so that the curing agent is activated. i make sure my hands have lots of lotion on them so that the epoxy doesn't stick to me and make a horrible mess (when first mixed, epoxy is sticky then over time it becomes less sticky and hardens).


(the second picture isn't the best for how to mix, but i can't really take a picture and mix at the same time LOL  )

i then take epoxy and either roll it into sheets, or smush it in my hand and apply it to the surface of the clay.  the basic idea is for me to get the shape copied down, and for most of it to be the same thickness. I use my metal tools to ease the epoxy into the cracks and manipulate it. it is easiest if you are patient and wait a bit for the epoxy to harden enough so that that it doesn't stick to the tools as easily and will settle down with a bit of water on the surface to smooth it.

*DON'T USE VASELINE!!! - many people like it because epoxy won't stick to it, but i hate it and only use it when i need it desperately. unless the vaseline is washed off or wiped away, epoxy will not stick to itself! so if you need to put epoxy on itself (which happens 99% of the time for me), when you go to sand or cut, it has a very good chance of breaking apart where you put the putty together, and it doesn't seem that the vaseline will simply dissolve or evaporate. it will be between your epoxy forever! i STRONGLY suggest water or hand lotion as an alternative.

*IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT!! - the nice thing about epoxy is that you can just keep building on top of what you were working on. don't feel like you need to get every tiny detail done on the first go.

afterwards, it looks like this:



please note (sorry for the small pictures, they were blurry and this was the best i could do  ) that you can see the clay underneath at some parts. these parts will have to be reinforced with more putty because the putty is too thin to be supportive. wait until the epoxy cures the best it can, then reinforce in those areas. i've found (with the clay i use) that the epoxy doesn't cure 100% on the area directly touching the clay. for me, this usually means i need to reinforce to make sure that the epoxy on top cures all the way to make a stable piece. if you can still bend the epoxy, it is not cured and not ready do have the clay removed. it will not be strong enough to make it on its own. this can be a tedious process, and being overeager to see a result can ruin everything.

at this point, sad to say, i was overeager and removed the clay below, worried that the skirt wouldn't cure. the skirt split apart at the 'seams' where i applied different patches of putty due to the use of vaseline. the clay, epoxy, and vaseline also had a bad reaction to each other and the epoxy was very sticky and had a gooey coating where the clay touched it. so, i got a sticky mess that crumbled in my hand and i didn't have the clay base to put the epoxy back on.

with the cape i had more luck. i was patient and learned my lesson. i made sure no gray  clay was showing, and the epoxy was reinforced in many areas. i tap-tapped the cape and it made a nice hard sound. i cautiously removed the clay (i used an exacto knife for part of the removal, but after chopping my finger (see red circle) i thought better and used one of my metal tools with a curved end to dig out the clay (too; 'J' from the tools database, i think):




where the clay and epoxy touched it was a bit sticky, so i will later clean it out with water, soap, and toothbrush (not sure if this happens with all clay but i'm not that worried about it).

i hold the cape to the light to see the areas that will  need further reinforcement (problem areas circled in red):


err... regrettably i didn't take many pictures when i made the body. but i'll do my best to explain from the semi-finished product:




the best thing i can tell you is to take your time. you can always add more epoxy, you can always cut and sand it away.

shaoran full outfit reference:

(believe it or not, that was the best i could get from the first manga ahaha! i was too lazy to dig out the others) having lots of reference shots is a must!! make sure you have enough on hand to get a complete view of what the character should look like 3-dimensionally! 

(for each step, assume i let the putty cure before going to the next step). 
STEP 1: with a brand-new exacto blade (attached to a handle, of course) i cut away the area that i don't think i'll need. i usually cut away more than i should, because it's easier to manipulate epoxy than to manipulate pinky plastic lol! in this case i cut away most of the socks and the top of the shoes.

STEP 2: i add a glob of epoxy and make a few folds, as syaoran's pants are a bit baggy and hang lower than the pinky piece i am using. i do this with extra epoxy from my cape process as i am working on both the body and cape at the same time. it's usually good to have a couple projects going that are independent from each other so that instead of agonizing over the epoxy curing time of one project (and picking and prodding at it until it's practically nothing and is ruined), you can focus on another and not waste your extra leftover epoxy.

STEP 3: I wasn't fond of how the 'bulge' was above the folds (now, that is not meant in a perverted way!! it's just that fabric tends to build up and bulk above folds commonly and i felt that it didn't represent how the fabric would fall after having bulked up around where his legs create folds due to bending) so i added more epoxy and 'melded' it into the folds (i used water when it was partly cured and non-sticky, and a bit more solid to 'wipe' the epoxy into the areas i wanted and also to smooth it).

STEP 4: I used some epoxy to smooth out the area where i had hacked away the pinky plastic.

STEP 5: i cut a small sheet of putty and wrapped it around his legs for his boots (reference picture below). i could just glob it on there, but i wanted a relatively equal thickness and amount for adhering to the idea that his boots are the identical size. i can add or sand away later, which i probably will. i know the very top where the boots connect to the pants will not be seen as his pants are longer than the part i am using, so it will be covered in putty later.


STEP 6: I decide to be lazy and not sand any parts of the tank top. instead i slap on a glob of putty and mold it so that the pinky 'female' figure is lost and a male one takes its place. when it's mostly cured i used my exacto knife and run it along the sleeve end to cut away and make it a proper sleeveless top, and also to get a good edge to the sleeve (i use a reference pic, see below). i do the same to cut away a decent area for where i want to attach the open high neck part.

believe it or not, that pinky piece actually does have a collar bone that i could measure against!! 

STEP 7: with fairly cured epoxy i cut a strip for his high neck part. i attach it to the shirt, though it stretches a bit in one area and doesn't quite line up in the back (see back picture). that's ok, i'll just sand down the stretched part and add epoxy to make it even in the back. if i tried to hammer out the details at that point, i'm sure the top would have been ruined.

i usually try not to add epoxy to more than one section of the piece i am working on. i tend to lose myself in what i'm doing in one area, and find that i completely smush another area that i'm working on. so, to avoid this i usually wait for one area to cure. since the top didn't have much detail to smush, i felt it was ok to work on the whole shirt at once. I also added some detail to his... err.. 'derriere' section so that it was slouchy and fell lower than the original part (to match the front). when the epoxy is mostly cured i can smooth out the whole thing with my finger.  lastly, when the epoxy was almost completely cured i made a small vertical line down the front and back to be true to syaoran's seam lines (see reference image below).


i fit the cape on the body to see how it looks (EDIT: pictures of before/after added below so i took pictures out because they are the same. see below:

hmm... what do you think?  (i think it needs a lot of work!!  )

Continued!!


As usually happens when working on something, it got tweaked. I didn't like the original hood (thought it was too small), and some of the folds needed to be softened. I could have gone with something sharp, crisp, and angular but i felt this cape would do better with a softer feel since it's supposed to be very worn.
 After seeing more references of Syaoran's cape (got my manga back from my friend that was borrowing it) i decided another 'fold' from point A to B would not only bulk up the hood, but make it feel more oversized. You can still see the original hood base in the final product, but now note it hangs down to the first fold, point C.
I don't know if i mentioned it earlier (i looked quickly but didn't see) that i used the same process for syaoran's shirt collar that i did for his hood (used a sheet of epoxy and applied it). In which case, i knew that his cape didn't really connect together at his chin, but it would be easier to make the hood and neck fold, and then cut away the excess epoxy once it was hardened at point D.
Lastly is point E where i cut ridges and rips into his cape like they are in the manga. this was actually a bit difficult for his hood since it ended up being rather thick, but oh well. i still think the hood looks OK.
Ah, almost forgot to mention that i was lazy and didn't want to sand the inside of the cape (LOL!) but i knew i could never reach all the inside properly so i resigned myself to cutting a corner by rolling out some epoxy and laying like a sheet on the inside, and it worked SO WELL! laziness pays off!! it ended up also reinforcing the cape in a fantastic way, so now there's really zero chance of breakage, even when i pressed really hard while sanding. i used Mr Epoxy to do it, and i think that it is better in some ways than tamiya, but also has its downfalls. MUCH better for rolling into sheets, and less sticky. from now on i will always use mr epoxy if i need to have a thinner sheet or cape.


SORRY IF THE PIC IS LARGE!? i have a really high-res monitor so it's always a bit hard to guess how big it will look on older monitors 

I really, really wish i had taken some more/better pictures of the cape to see how it's changed (i think i was a bit sad that the cape looked so bad when i started, i didn't take many pics  ). it's always neat to see what things were in their more raw unfinished form as opposed to their final product. i still need to add a clip that attaches the cape at his chest, but that's about it. I think this is a testament to the fact that things don't need to be perfect when you are in your preliminary stages. I used to hate sanding but now i find that it's equivalent to the inking process: a great way to finalize and shape your piece. i greatly enjoyed sanding this cape (it was really an impending doom at first) and watching it change, and i am actually surprised and proud of the final product.
To be honest, i was kind of winging it with this cape, and i'm glad my process worked!! 
You can probably notice (if you have a keen eye) that his left leg and torso changed as well. i added a bit more epoxy to his torso to even it out so he didn't have as much of a 'figure' as the girls do. his leg i added the proper fabric falling of his pant leg and true to improving my patience, i waited until it was cured and now i can do the other leg (then i'm done woo-hoo!! ... except for those odd black strappy things i need to add on his shirt and boot/pantlegs, and now that i think on it i might sand down his boots to make them more accurate).

Next time will be the hair...  hoping to have him done within the next month or less!  (very exciting, my first finished full custom!!!  )

ZOMG I LOVE THOSE FACES YOU MADE! Hahahahaha it reminds me very much of a Nendroid ~ Kyaaa and the tops you chose have hand positions that seem fitting for their faces lol!! 

I'm using my bro's comp now and argh its a bit wonky! I'll read this later tonite and be sure to comment about it!!
(PS. btw, I used the exact same top as the base when i did my syaoran too ohohohoh!)

    i love it 
its so cute i only hope i could be that good at customizing
  im no good at customizing   
but ill practice     

Hehe I'm back to comment! Good job on the tutorial! Its super detailed!

Hmm and your putty always looks so smooth! The pictures of syaoran are before sanding rite?! 

yea, i was sanding him a lot yesterday... i still need to add a bit more putty then sand, sand, sand 

it's not so bad, though. his top barely needed any sanding at all. it's the cape that's taking so much time 

Oh, that is so awesome!  (Those faces are too, especially the Air Gear ones  )

Omigosh its impossible to make (for me )
Its soo cool 

Great work, great tutorial !

Oh wow! I had never though of using clay as a base! Good lord! <3 Such a good idea..

Ok I read both your tutorials and am very interested. I've never used Epoxy or Sculpey or  clay..or anything so sorry! 

I'd probably understand a lot easier if I had all the materials and was reading along as I was doing it but heres my questions.

After reading your materials tutorial, I think that 4 hour harden sculpey is what I'd buy. I don't know what it looks like when it hardens though because for some reason I couldn't see any pictures in your tutorial. 

When you sand the hardened sculpey, wouldn't it get all scratched up? Or does it actually make it perfectly smooth like a Pinky st.?  For some reason I imagine sandpaper scratching it to hell lol. But I have never sanded before.

Ok say I sanded down my custom, do I do something else, or apply something before painting? I have also never painted before. 

Are there any video tutorials around somewhere showing the steps in action? because I got a little lost. So first I remove the paint from the Pinky.

Then I use clay to make all the custom pieces of clothing first? (What clay did you use?)

Then put a thin layer of Sculpey over the clay, wait 4 hours, and remove the clay?

Then once I sand the hard sculpey it's finished?

What I'm lost about is the use for Patrolium Jelly, water, and the tin foil...When was I supposed to use these? 

If there is clay between the pinky and the sculpey, then how does the sculpey bond or stick on the Pinky?or is it not supposed to.

Aww I have so many questions but it would make a lot more sense to someone who has 0 experience like me if I visually saw the process. Pleaseeeeee, Make a video tutorial for us!  I'm sure it would be awesome.

I really like your tutorials and I've read them over a few times each. I think another problem I'm having is not being able to see any of the pictures... 

So yea good job and I'm jealous of your craftsmanship.

Eroge:

ahh, i've tried to make video tutorials (i've actually filmed about 4 hair pieces being made, a total of 3 hours of film) but they don't come out well. since i work very closely with a small object, it's really hard to get the camera to see what i'm doing, and i can't hold the camera as i carve either. plus the camera would obstruct my view. it's been a long-term dream of mine to make one, though, but i can't justify buying a small action cam to make it happen. 

steps for customizing are:

remove paint
mix epoxy, add it to pinky parts to be modified (it will STICK to the pinky and not come off)
sand (use several grades... yes, at first it will possibly even make scratch marks, but that's why you go down to lower grades of sandpaper so that eventually the piece is smooth as butter. higher number means less grit)
wash pinky (usually a good idea, gets all the epoxy dust off the pinky so that you can prime)
prime (many primers come in a spray can, just hold it a foot or two away from the pinky and apply in even coats)
paint

the clay i use as a base if i'm doing something that i want to be independent from the pinky yet i still need to retain form (ie. a cape or a skirt). i wouldn't suggest getting that ahead of yourself if you're new to customizing.

it's VERY time consuming and an absolute labor of love!!

it's odd that you can't see the pictures, i use yahoo as a host (it's where my domain is). if you really get desperate, you can right click->show image in new window.

unfortunately, i haven't reached the painting/priming part of my tutorial yet. these things take a lot of time and making a tutorial takes hours (if you can believe it). 99% of these things i learned for myself, so the best advice i can give you is just to buy some materials and go to it. watching what i do will give you a good idea, but you'll never learn unless you get your hands dirty yourself. it's a trial & error hobby lol!

if you're absolutely dying for some painting help, e2046.com has very informational forums that can help you. i believe one of the members even posted a video tutorial on youtube for how to assemble & finish a garage kit.

good luck!

Um...Maybe you can strap a camera to your head as you work? That might work....

I *so* want to do this...

Great toot!

updated (see bottom of first post)! i'm pretty much done with the cape (yay!!!) and will move on to tweaking the body and adding smaller details, then i will finish with his hair.  wish me luck! 

it's looking wonderful! i just started my first custom hair piece, and i'm not very far. i'm making some stuff that i need to have done around the end of the month for an art project. eep! best of luck finishing him!