New dolls for sale soon and updates!

I've been super busy with work and other projects the past month or so.

I've found that it's just too humid for me to cast right now too. I need to have no more than 30% humidity or the molds get bubbles. Right now it's still the rainy season in NorCal, so no casting.

I DO have two casts that are nearly done, however. One will be around $300 and the other, who is bubbled, will be around $250 maybe less.

The major problem is they both have some bubbles in their faces. Since I can't cast new heads for them right now, they're just going to have to go out like that since I don't want them sitting around. Pieces get lost that way. What i'll probably do is give the recipients a voucher for another head to be cast later this summer if they want one.

I also got one of my sanded dolls back from my friend, Tiffany, who does the sanding for me. I've been painting him and he looks amazing if I do say so myself. I'm calling him a Scarab for now... It's certainly his coloring!


I've had quite a few questions about the girls as well. I'm still hoping to remold them this summer so i can start casting them as well.

I'm still working on the mini-machina as well. I actually hooked up her hip joints the other day and started the parts for her shoulder balls. that's going to be interesting since the design calls for them to be perfectly round, something i haven't done before.


I will leave you with a preview of Scarab so far!

Junk Cast Raffle winner!

Congrats to Rainbow_warrior who was lucky #70! I used the random.org to generate the number. Sorry it took me a bit to do the raffle today, but i'm pretty swamped with work at my day job!


thank you so much to everyone who entered! I had exactly 100 people enter! so exciting!


i hope to get back to casting tomorrow and have another boy ready for home soon. I switched back to the polytek so most likely he's going to be an off-white or very light gray machina!

Junk Cast Raffle take 2!

Okay!  Since i can't take cash for raffle tickets, i'm going to ask something else of you!
in order to be entered in a drawing for the junk cast just email me at batchix at yahoo dot with "I WANT A MACHINA!" in the title and tell me:

A) Who is your favorite transformer or giant robot and why?
   this doesn't need to be an essay... just let me know!

B) If you don't have a favorite transformer or robot... just tell me who's your favorite cartoon or comic character and why!


Answers can be like, "I love batman because he has a great outfit."  or "I like Optimus Prime because there are moments he sounds creepily like John Wayne." or even "I like my OC because she can wipe the floor with you, then bake a cake!"

I'll put all the emails into a file and number them, then use a random number generator to come up with the winner!  Or i might print them all, cut them up and draw them by hand.  but that depends on how much time i have. XD


CUT OFF DATE IS MONDAY, January 31st!

Winner gets the doll, who will be strung but uncleaned and have no eyeballs or wig or accessories, and both heads.  He has a lot of pinholes, bubbles and a few chunks missing.  One face has colored swirlies all over it where the resin dye didn't get mixed.  Paint and apoxy sculpt will fix all of this, however I'm just not up to doing that and I don't want yet another unfinished bot sitting around looking forlornly at me! X3

Please only enter once and play fair!  I will do this again later this year... granted that person is going to have one red thigh and one green thigh so maybe i'll save that till christmas! 


Winner must pay shipping!  


The doll is free to the winner, but shipping will have to be paid.
US shipping is $12
Overseas shipping will be determined by location.  Usually it's around $20 usd.

Thanks guys!  Good luck! :D
feel free to link to this or repost if you feel like it!

Working on a new doll

I'm sure i'll think of a name when she's done.

I think the first two i cast will be called Bit and Byte. XD


Might get started on sculpting next week.  really happy with her front design.  I wanted to give her granny panties as her part there.  Kind of want to not give her even an indication of breasts... but we'll see. 

I looked at Bubblegum Crisis, Roll from Megaman, Samurai Pizza cats and this person's art: http://extvia.deviantart.com/  for inspiration.  As well as all the misc little robot girls i have floating around on my HD, but giant mechs and sexy transformers are much more numerous. XD;;

There's a lot of the old sanrio animation style from Unico and Winds of Change in there too. 

New boy is up for sale!

I put him up on my etsy and i'll be doing that from now on. :3

Anyway!  Check him out here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65282360/gamma-machina-paperwhite-imperfect

He is imperfect, so the price is lowered to $210.  Normally I wouldn't lower the price this much but there's a chance he could be serious impaired. 

Just copy pasta-ing what i wrote there about his condition:

Here's what happened:

After I finished casting this boy, I found out in the later color casts that the cups I was using to mix the resin in had trace amounts of moisture in them! This caused small sprays of bubbles in random places in the doll. In the white resin it is nearly impossible to see the bubbles, so I don't know if he's okay or not.

Why it matters: The bubbles are lurking just below the surface, so if you sand your doll at all, it could uncover them. If you put a face-up on the doll, the paints and pastels will collect in the bubbles when you remove the face-up and be almost impossible to remove. If you dyed the doll, as this resin should dye pretty well, the dye may collect darker in the bubbles. The bubbles don't affect structural stability in the least bit and I'm fairly certain if you did a whole body paint job, like some of my example dolls, the bubble would be covered and invisible.

Here's what the bubbles look like after i've sanded and rubbed pastels and then removed the pastels from a tan head: http://g36.net/ocdesigns/photos/Sculpting/BubbleHead.jpg

Other than that, he is a perfectly normal machina! He has some filled places where there were normal pinholes(these happen with every doll that is made without a vacuum chamber or other pressure system). most specifically i also filled behind his upper abdomen(you will most likely never see this area) for added strength.

OW.

So I cut myself the other night... badly enough that i had to go to the emergency room!  A tetanus shot and some liquid stitches later, I am recovering but I can't work on any dolls in the meantime. :<  i've got a new boy done except for cleaning his sprues.  I hope to get back to work after christmas! 

Woo!

Finally got my resin last night!  There was a mistake on the address which led to me waiting all day wednesday, thursday and friday for the delivery and having several heated discussions with their hotline.  It ended last night at 8pm with me almost literally chasing down the delivery guy.

But last night another boy was successfully brought into the world!  Just gotta recast one hand, then I'll go through and shore up any small bubbles.  He is a pure, paper white and very pretty if I do say so myself.  Hopefully he'll go up for sale next week.


I thought I'd give you some random facts about my process so you get an idea of what it's like to cast.

• It takes me about an hour to set all the molds up for casting.  Each mold has to be powdered with talc on the inside- this encourages a smooth fill and a matte surface.  I also pre-pour my resin so that hopefully even the tiniest of bubbles will rise to the surface and pop.
• Once set up, the casting takes me about an hour, sometimes two.  If there are any parts that didn't come out to my satisfaction I have to start the process all over for that mold.
• I can only cast one complete doll every few days even working at my fastest.  because...
• I am allergic to the hardner in the resin.  Too much exposure and I break out in hives all over my arms.  I cast with a respirator, gloves, and long sleeves.  When the cast is complete I leave the room and leave the window open to ensure the fumes dissipate.  Most people are not nearly so sensitive as I am.
• The resin I use has a work time of about three minutes before it turns to a gel state and heats up.  I have to work very fast.  It's sort of stressful because I hate wasting resin.  If I hesitate at all, there's a good chance I won't get to use all the resin I just mixed!
• In some resins, like Smooth-on, adding color can cause the resin to set up faster and not give up it's bubbles so easily.  For some reason I don't have this problem with Alumilite or Polytek.
• I have to remove the casts from their molds before they fully harden.  If they're too soft they'll warp, but if they're too hard they can damage the molds and the sprues are harder to remove.  
• The little star-burst shaped marks you see sometimes on the casts are where a sprue was removed. I usually sand them out, but sometimes I miss a few.
• While I don't sand the entire doll, I will often run a 400 grit paper over any seams that seem sharp to me.  I have actually cut myself on the seams sometimes.
• The process for the doll goes: Casting, filling any minor imperfections(which sometimes involves mixing up a matching color of apoxy sculpt), drilling the hands and feet, cutting and filing down the bars for the hands and feet, stringing the doll, and then gluing the bars and magnets in place.  This takes a lot longer than it sounds. XD

That's all i can think of right now.  :3