Velouria the Mad Scientist's Minidoll Vivisection thread

[Velouria]

Hello there! Time to start a thread here for my little mods- i understand mini dolls are a bit of an contentious issue here, but I'm a freak, because I actually love minidolls. They work better for female characters, though I think they are badly in need of more bad-assery. I'm particularly impressed with the new Elves theme.

Here's the simplest mod ever, but I thought it worth sharing. It's a Farran elf with Legolas' wig. I call him Duplolas.

Also- I'm no purist. In fact I love to mod! I'm completely new at modding Lego, but I have a long history of painting miniatures, modeling, sculpting, doll making even! So that comes in handy.

Here's what is on my desk today:

Velouria the Mad Scientist

This is my little self-elf so to speak, and I love my Doc Martens and leather jackets! She wears Farran's wig.

Evil Overlord Emily

She's actually mostly painted with nail polish. The yellow is acrylic paint (vallejo 953 amarillo mate) but all the rest is polish. Bourjois 10 jours anti-choc no. 23 is a sort of army green, Bourjois 1 seconde no.17 is a gunmetal, and HEMA Long Lasting 821 is matte black. These work great, and really stay on well. Trick is finding one that covers well, and keeping the layers thin. So maybe a tip?

Her helmet and over sized sword come from the Lego store's byomf bins, so no idea where they come from. I modded the helmet to give it bigger eye holes, as these mini dolls have quite large eyes, and she couldn't look out before!

The last project is still ongoing.

Trixy the Trollhunter and the Ban Hammer of Doom!

I have to make do with what I can get in cheap polybags and small boxes, and this fig comes from 41000 "water scooter fun". She wore shorts, and these I changed into a small skirt with a little epoxy clay. I partially repainted her face. I plan to turn her into a Xena type character eventually.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Velouria

[ED-209]

While I'm not a fan of minifigs myself, your mods are great! I love the Docs!

[Wout]

These look all very cool.

Your self-elf looks maybe even better than the original minidolls.

I only think Duplolas looks a bit better with long trousers, but I don't know if they have that sort of legs.

[Velouria]

They have, but especially the male minidolls are rare and come in the more expensive sets. I would also like to lay my hands on the long-skirted ones that come with the Disney princess sets- But I don't want to buy these sets, they are far too pink for my taste. Maybe I should look on some of the trading sites...

[Velouria]

the butchery of innocent minidolls continues. As many have noted, the articulation of these figures is not ideal. There have been attempts to rectify this, as customizers Darkdragon and Brandon Bannerman show in this blog post. But I thought there was a simpler way to articulate the legs.

I used 4 things. A pin, a drill as thin as a pin, a little bit of glue and a little bit of two component epoxy clay. I used the clay to fill in the hole in the pelvis part. The thing about epoxy clay is that it gets extremely hard. (I use apoxie sculpt but milliput or magic sculp would work too)

A hole was drilled trough the whole essembly.

A small dimple was drilled on one leg for the head of the pin, and a small drop of two component glue was inserted in the other.

And then it was assembled and clamped and left to set. To my surprise this did the trick quite well. The trick is having a drill bit thin enough, so the inserted pin has enough friction. I also did her wrists, which again work with a piece of a pin held in by friction. I had trouble centering the drill precisely, so the wrist and the hand do not align well enough. Better luck next time! But the method works fine.

This young lady can now hunt zombies while dancing the can can.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Velouria

[Velouria]

I would totally buy the Mad Max Friends Lego theme.

[Borex]

Creative with minidolls! Excellent!

[wendyw]

Those look really good.

I love the leg fix. Why couldn't Lego have given them the ability to walk in the first place?

Your self elf looks great too. :)

[Velouria]

More messed up minidolls! I think there are not enough Elves in the world, so I made some more! Now, minidolls are tricky to decorate- they have tiny torsos and all surfaces are curved. It took lots of experimentation.

These have all been repainted with nail polish, and a little bit of solvent based marker. I find that nail-polish is available inexpensively in many colours, stays on extremely well and is easy to remove. The surface of the plastic will never be the same, though, so be sure that you have no wish to recover the original look of the figure.

There's a little faun, who wears the headpiece of the series 14 gargoyle. The eyebrow ridge has been carved down and painted, and made to look like hair. Hannah the Hipster chick wears an ironic cat t-shirt. This is a very small water transfer that comes from a shop that supplies materials to nail art professional. The same thing goes for all the other tattoos and shirt prints in this series. Also, she wears Legolas' wig, repainted and she has articulated wrists which makes her job as barista much easer.

Series 14 witch hat with hair on the last figure, Wicca Gwendoline. This hat looks great on a minidoll, unlike the older no hair witch hat!

Here's Gothic Gaby and her cat. The argyle pattern on her skirt is done with a different nail decoration technique- "Konad". This is a way to transfer a pattern etched in a metal plate to a curved surface trough means of a silicone tampon. Sounds complicated and it is kind of hard to get right. Her hair is a repaint of Legolas' wig.

Urban Ulla loves her beats and wears a shirt with another water transfer.

Metal Maggie is into loud guitars and tattoos!

So, that's it for now. What do you think?

Another look at the wig repaints and transfers.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Velouria

[Xaran Alamas]

Oh wow I love these! As a fellow fan of Minidolls (I love Minifigs and Minidolls equally!) especially the Elves range it's great to see how customizable they can be!

From your last post I LOVE Gothic Gaby, she looks great! As for the rest it's hard to pick favourites >.<

In regard to where the helmet and sword from your first post come from, the helmet is used in various places but I'm most familiar with it from the Castle ranges generally used for 'evil knights. As for the sword, that's the Dragon Sword of Fire from Ninjago! (A fave range of mine ^^)

I'm also very pleased to see Farfan's hair works well with a female figure. I'm actually contemplating making a female version of Farran (I'm not keen on him, he just feels like the token male character and it bugs me a bit that they made the one male Elf (other than the baker) the 'leader' of the group ) and I wasn't sure what to do for her hair-wise but thanks to you it looks like the same hair would work fine!

May I ask if you've found a specific technique for replacing Minidoll arms? I've been too afraid to try for fear of breaking them

[Darkdragon]

Your moving legs mod is a lot simpler than mine. I think I'll give it a try!

[Velouria]

I just pop out the arms, Xaran. I know they look fragile but I haven't had one breaking on me yet. As for the legs, I use a small flat screwdriver as a lever to give me some leverage while separating the legs from the pelvis piece.

Darkdragon, I would like to note the legs fix needs to be clamped together well while drying.

Edited October 13, 2015 by Velouria

[Xaran Alamas]

I just pop out the arms, Xaran. I know they look fragile but I haven't had one breaking on me yet. As for the legs, I use a small flat screwdriver as a lever to give me some leverage while separating the legs from the pelvis piece.

Darkdragon, I would like to note the legs fix needs to be clamped together well while drying.

Good to know, thanks! :)

[Xaran Alamas]

Sorry for the double post but I may I ask if there is a specific technique /angle for removing the arms? Like how with normal minifigures I've read (and from experience know) that it's best to rotate the arm so the hand is facing straight up and then kinda 'fold' it out of the hole (rotating towards the back)?

Thanks and sorry again for slightly hijacking your thread ^^'

[Velouria]

Yes, that should work nicely!

[AmperZand]

Those look really good.

I love the leg fix. Why couldn't Lego have given them the ability to walk in the first place?

Sorry for the delayed response: I only just saw the question. The answer is cost. It's cheaper to produce and assemble a single part for both legs than two separate leg pieces.

[Xaran Alamas]

Sorry for the delayed response: I only just saw the question. The answer is cost. It's cheaper to produce and assemble a single part for both legs than two separate leg pieces.

Also in the case of the ones with a skirt, some of the designs wouldn't be possible or would be very ugly if the legs were jointed. That said I do wish the figs had a bit more motion, especially as Elves is intended as more of an action theme.

[MrFishboy11]

Hi! Awesome work. Do you think you could post all the products you use to modify the figures? I would love to know specifically what pin and drill sizes and brand you use, the clay, the water decal paper, etc. Thanks!

[Velouria]

Hello mr. Fishboy! I have tried to include as much information as possible in the posts. The transfers I used were bought from a shop that specializes in materials for the manicure industry. They make very small and detailed transfers for decorating nails, and I found these come in a wide range of designs that work well on the small minidoll torsos. Drugstores often stock these as well in their nail section.

As for the pin, ordinary sewing pin. The drill I used comes from a modelling store, sorry no idea how thin it is but it is very thin indeed. I use a proxxon micromot 50/e power drill, an extremely versatile piece of kit I highly recommend.

There are several brands of two component epoxy clays on the market but what you can get may depend on your location. I recommend Magic Sculp and Apoxie sculpt. Milliput may be easier to get, but does not have as fine a texture.

And as for paint, I use nail polish. May not be everyone's choice but it works great for me :D

[Darkdragon]

Your creations are really great, do you use nail painting specialty brushes as well as the paints and decals? I was considering buying a kit for just this purpose recently.

Have you had much issue with chipping of the paint?

[Velouria]

Nail polish is designed to give an even smooth surface, and the brush that comes with the bottle works just fine for that. If you are not a regular nail polish wearer it's best to practice on a piece of plastic first to get the hang of it. The stuff is kind of gloopy and opaqueness varies a lot between different colors. Light colors tend to be sheer; matte colors are more prone to chipping.

it should come off easily with a non-acetone polish remover, but be careful, because this will degrade the plastic and even dissolve it if there is a lot of it.

But it's not ideal for small detail and fine lines, so I use a thin solvent based felt tip pen for that. I have tried using polish with a thin brush, but I'm having trouble getting a thin and even line. I have had some success with masking tape though. (tamiya masking tape)

As for chipping, all my figures hold up just fine so far.

Your hands take a lot of wear and tear and nail polish is designed to put up with that. Also, it contains a solvent which reacts with the plastic underneath and forms a strong bond. I can't scratch it off when it is set properly. Allow for a 24 hour drying time! Of course, it's never going to be as strong as the paints the Lego company uses to print their parts, but it works for me.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Velouria