Why sculpt three dolls at once? Seems the money you're using to work on your other two dolls could be going towards finishing your first. A finished, cast doll will sell more than a doll that isn't even done yet.
I think you’re seriously underestimating the cost of mold making and casting, OR overestimating the cost of prototyping. There is no way I could possibly get the funds for molding a doll and continuing to make prototypes didn’t take more than an insignificant fraction of that money.
Also, my main reason for making dolls is for myself, as I’ve stated multiple times but everyone seems to have a hard time believing. They’re my characters that I’ve wanted to bring to life in doll form, and besides I flippin love to sculpt ;) The fact that I’m showing them to the world and offering the option for other people to get them is just an afterthought here, an added bonus if you will.
To get a little more real about the costs we’re looking at here, let me give you some numbers. I remember looking all over the place for this kind of information before I first got into doll making, to just see what I was getting myself into, but to no avail. Seems like all the doll artists are content leaving everyone guessing or just dismissing it as “a lot”. Gotta hand it to Freakstyle though because I did see they had a post about casting service fees about a year ago I think.
Anyways, assuming you do have the tools, which will otherwise be a pretty big initial investment (trust me, there is no way getting around needing a good dremel tool, and that can be anywhere from $20 for one that will break inevitably and soon upwards. The “upwards” is really unlimited but starting at around $100 everything on the market is probably going to be a safe bet. Plus you will need to get a respirator because sanding. Also there’s the other tools like exacto blades and other knives and sculpting tools if you use them. Again, one time purchases mostly) sculpting a doll is actually dirt cheap.
The best option I found for sculpting is the clay called Darwi Roc, which costs under $10 for a 1kg package. A finished SD doll is going to require anywhere between 2 and 5 packages depending on the size as well as your work style and experience. Some people waste loads of clay, others use it all up and it’s not a case of “better” or “worse” skills, just an approach. The clay is extremely durable, one of the best on the market in terms of properties both wet and dry, and practically non-shrinking. You’re also going to need some aluminium foil, some cling wrap, a few straws of different sizes and a few sanding sponges in different grits, as well as a set of wooden beads if that is your preferred way of making joints. All of these are ridiculously cheap and you don’t need much of them at all. Then there’s the finishing process which will require about 3-5 400ml cans of primer. If you’re using an air dry clay like I advised above you’re in luck because you can use car primer which can be bought even in dollar stores, usually about $3 a can. If you went with polymer clay, don’t risk it because there’s a huge chance it will refuse to dry. Ever. I advise going with brands targeted towards model and miniature makers. I love Vallejo primers, they’re amazing quality, super fast drying and have some filling properties to them which speeds up work, but pretty much everything you’ll find on that market is a safe bet and the same price range which is $10-$12. I really wouldn’t recommend blowing huge amounts of money on Mr Surfacer. It’s a great primer, sure, but it only comes in 100ml and 180ml cans at almost $20 each. Do the math and see how ridiculous that is. Oh, don’t forget about some filler! A standard tube is around 30ml in size and it may or may not be enough for a single doll. You’ll probably end up using something a little under one and a half tubes. Lower end fillers are $2, the good stuff runs around $10. Definitely worth the investment as you will be getting much better quality, but the cheapest still does the job.
To sum up, making a complete SD-sized prototype from start to finish will cost you between $35 and $80. FYI, my Youji was very close to the lower estimate and Virven was probably somewhere around $50, and I’m pretty much stocked up on everything I’ll need to finish them entirely.
Now, molding and casting… Molding silicone seems like a decently priced affair when you look at its price by weight: you can get one good enough for this purpose starting at a little more than $20 a kilo. This is very much deceiving though, because boy do you need a lot of it. First, visualize how each of the parts of your doll separately has to be completely submerged in a box that’s about two inches larger than it in each dimension. Second, realize that silicone is Really. Damn. Heavy. High density means more kilograms in the same volume. Also, you probably don’t want to go for the cheapest option you have because you likely don’t want to be redoing all your molds for the actual resin run of the doll, and cheap silicone tends to wear and tear quickly. Tl;dr: a big jug of decent molding silicone runs around $100-$150 (always go for the biggest container availble, it’s cheaper). You’re going to need 4 if you’re lucky and your molds are thin-walled crap, 5 and more to do this right.
Let’s assume you only want to cast one doll, so you can have it to show off in pretty pictures. Even given that, 100% all perfect casts don’t happen and you ARE going to waste at least some material, so when in doubt add around 1kg extra. That means a 2kg doll will mean you need 3kg of resin, and so on. Again, if you want to just make this one prototype cast that looks okay NOW but not necessarily a month later, your resin will be about $30 per kilo. The better the qualities (durability, flexibility, light absorbtion, texture, smell, compatibility with dyes, yellowing, crumbliness, anyone? And that’s just the beginning of the list), the more expensive the resin and really there isn’t an upper limit there.
Molding and casting a single doll will therefore run you upwards of $600. Now tell me again about how making two prorotypes at once had an impact on whether or not I’m able to cast my first doll ;) Which by the way brings me to another correction - I do have three dolls in the finishing stages right now, yes, but Endou was finished up to this point almost a year ago so I only worked on Virven and Youji at once. And the reason I did that had nothing to do with money in the first place - they’re a pair and always together in my mind, and also about 70% of sculpting a doll is a waiting game, trying to pass time while your parts dry. By doing two dolls I was able to work much more efficiently!
You’re welcome to contact me with any further questions, I’ll be glad to answer ;)
putting this one in the tag for a change because hey guys, here’s some info about how much making a doll actually costs for you! ;)
