So remember how I was all emotions and reflections about 2018? Well it's more than halfway through '19 and to be honest, I'm not doing all that much better. In some ways I'm a lot better! But in a lot of ways I'm actually worse. But this is not about me, this is about dolls. So let's ride this really smooth transition all the way to a conversation about Citrus which is happening in 3...2...1...riiiiight now.
About a month ago I was giving up on my house search and decided to spend some cash on BJD stuff; namely, bodies for Citrus and Herbert. Both characters are meant to be quite short and the heights weren't lining up well with the rest of my boys. SEE, WHAT HAD HAPPENED, WAS;
Back in the 10+ years ago when I was first getting into this hobby, dolls at ~60 cm were it. I mean, you have 1/4, 1/3, and a smattering of minis and 70cm giants. Now, 60 cm is actually on the shorter size of SD-sized dolls and it gets harder and harder to find bodies under 62cm. So I have Casper, Daichi, Stefan, and Mene on these bodies that are short-torso'd and long legged and only up to 62cm tall and the rest of my boyos are getting upwards of 65 even when it makes no sense for the character. Daichi is the youngest one in the house and although he's probably taller than Herbert (and maybe Citrus) he certainly isn't taller than Casper, Stef, and Mene, let alone my shorter characters like Muno and Ally.
Enter buying new bods.
I really wanted to explore different options for Citrus. Having no gender (in a non-human, reproduces non-sexually way) I wanted Citrus to have created a body for himself that was fairly androgynous, especially since he would have easily seen men and women in equal amounts (if this makes no sense feel free to check out his character videos, though they are old at this point!). I decided to try a female body for him and mod off the ultra perky boobs all BJD females come with. I've been admiring the SD sized male body from Dollzone for a while, so I grabbed the female body for a better height and curvier figure.
Man, did I fall victim to some fancy ass photos.
Honestly, Dollzone did nothing wrong. They did no dirt on me. I really should have paid attention to exactly how thin those limbs were. She showed up lookin' like Zendaya (zendaia? zendiaya?) in that "spiderman takes a field trip" movie. WAFER thin. Thin like peach fuzz, like the little baby hairs all over your mammalian body thin. Thin like a watered down mimosa at an all-you-can-eat bottomless mimosa brunch at that corner restaurant people only go to when they don't mind being ill. I mean, she had wrists like my pinkie finger. She showed up with little bird bones. Little hallow bird bones. Like if I picked her up she would scream and fly into the window and break her neck on the safety glass and die.
SO, long story short, although the body is beautiful and SO curvy (unlike zen-disney in spiderman: batman: arkham asylum: twilight new moon) she's just not right for Citrus. Even with mods and going for a more alien aesthetic her sculpting is still too far off from the rest of my crew with their substantial limbs like...I dunno...something dense. Old coffee cake.
As it turns out, I was still itching to do some mods. I grabbed Mene's old B&G body and sanded the WHOLE THING *weeps* to get a brighter white. Then I removed the sculpted peen and shortened the neck to accommodate Citrus' iplehouse head. It's a good fit, but I'm not sure if I'll keep him on this body. The height is okay, I like the hands, but I'm just not sure if the body feels 'Citrus-y' to me. Maybe it will, though; Citrus' first body was my oldest B&G body (this body now officially lacks a head and has become resin to experiment with. Everything finds it's purpose) back when Citrus was a luts NaNuRi '07 head.
Herbert (or maybe Citrus - it could work) also has a body on the way, but his won't be a huge mod project. The concern is that the body will be far too short. It seems that while any size between 60 and 80 is now commonplace, finding a 55cm+ abjd is freakin' impossible. *weeps more* *profuse tears*
IN OTHER NEWS----->
I gave Lemon and Daichi new faceups! Daichi just needed to be cleaned up when the fixative didn't take to one side of his face. Of course me and my super smart brain over here forgot that Daichi has to be blushed to match his body, so every time I want to change one thing on his faceup I have to redo the whole thing starting with the wrong color resin. It's so fun said the liar.
Lemon's faceup has been needing a re-do since last I did it as well. I keep thinking that I want to see a more sheer version of the black lipstick Lemon has, but every time I go to paint that my shitty dollar store materials end up in the gutter. This time, after my fading disappeared in before I even got the gloss on, I just went for a solid shine rather than an understated look. I figure that works well enough for the character anyway.
I've also been sewing! A lot! I'm hoping to make a video about it soon if I ever figure out how to be awake enough to do things at the end of the workday.
SO THATS THE WHOLE STORY PEACE OUT