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Improving the Fashionista

Barbie, Jenny, Fashion Royalty, Obitsu and 1/6 resins - basically anything 10-12inch/21-27cm or in the neighborhood.

Improving the Fashionista

Postby Kd_Bunchanumbers » Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:24 pm

So goes the age old saying: Why on Earth doesn’t a Fashionista Barbie body get the same amount of motion as her Pivotal cousin, Fashion Royalty rivals or even Monster High despite having a similar system of joints? Well, turns out the only reason why this is so is because there’s WAY too much plastic around the joints. This gives a smoother appearance but it definitely affects the play value of the bodies to me.

I’ve been meaning to test this theory for awhile but in between lacking a good carving knife, moving, and having a lack of test bodies I haven’t been able to properly put to the test.

But then I picked up a Fashionista body from Savers today before crashing at my boyfriend’s house, with the intentions of painting it to match my Wicked Witch doll’s head. But I realised with the current Fashionista joints it would chip really badly, so I figured i put my theory of expanding her motion range AND limiting how much joint friction there would be for this test body.

So I asked my bf if he had any sharp knives I could whittle my doll body with and he whipped out this crazy sharp knife cuz he’s into that kind of hunting biz.

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I first turned her upper arm elbow socket from a U shaped socket to a completely straight line so her arm could turn inwards at a 90 degree. I then carved a crescent moon shape on her forearm following her elbow joint so the arm could in deeper. I whittled her upper arms to taper to her lower arms to look nicer aesthetically but to also minimise the amount of plastic between the joint so she could get the maximum fold.

I then carved the plastic around her wrist to expose as much of the hand post as I could without exposing her wrist post so she could get at least a 90 degree bend.

I left the arm on (our) left untouched to show how limited the range of movement is in comparison to what I did to her right arm.

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And here are some photos of my Fashionista body with her arms modded. As you can see, she can actually touch her face, place her hands on her hips and in general has a better range of poses than the default Fashionista arms.

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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby Lamia of the Dark » Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:10 pm

Ooh, nice... I might need to do this with my Fashionista Ken... his wrist joints are practically useless as is.
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby catshem » Mon Aug 19, 2013 1:59 pm

Awesome! I'll be doing this to my Teresa soon.
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby WhiteDove01s » Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:01 pm

I'm very likely to add this to my list of projects - poseability is very valuable as far as the Theater project is concerned.

All other projects are on hold until after the 26th (or whenever I'm done sewing, packing, and shipping - whichever comes first), but it'll be on the list.

Any further hints/tips as far as the whittling process? I'm thinking I might try doing it with my dremel-knockoff instead of a really sharp small knife. ... I haven't had the best of luck in the past with really sharp small knives. XD Except my little razor craft knives, I haven't injured myself with those. Yet. Drat, now I'm probably jinxed.
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby MelodyT » Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:43 am

I think you guys are very brave! I would be way too nervous to try this on any of my girls. :(
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby KatyaR » Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:59 pm

May I pin this to my sixthscale board?
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby Kd_Bunchanumbers » Thu Sep 05, 2013 12:03 am

Any further hints/tips as far as the whittling process? I'm thinking I might try doing it with my dremel-knockoff instead of a really sharp small knife. ... I haven't had the best of luck in the past with really sharp small knives. XD Except my little razor craft knives, I haven't injured myself with those. Yet. Drat, now I'm probably jinxed.

I personally would sand matte the area before whittling cuz it'll give your knife a bit more grip but yeah there's nothing special to this asides from making it a certain shape in the end :)

KatyaR wrote:May I pin this to my sixthscale board?

Sure! The more improved Fashionistas the better :)
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby Lamia of the Dark » Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:24 am

MelodyT wrote:I think you guys are very brave! I would be way too nervous to try this on any of my girls. :(


My Fashionaista Ken only cost me $5 and I'm not particularly attached to him... if he was one of my favorites I would be more hesitant to break out the modding materials. :lol:

Still haven't made time to try this out on him yet, though.
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby MelodyT » Sat Sep 07, 2013 8:15 am

Lamia of the Dark wrote:
MelodyT wrote:I think you guys are very brave! I would be way too nervous to try this on any of my girls. :(


My Fashionaista Ken only cost me $5 and I'm not particularly attached to him... if he was one of my favorites I would be more hesitant to break out the modding materials. :lol:

Still haven't made time to try this out on him yet, though.


$5!!! :o I can't even find a Fashionista Ken where I live! :cry:
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Re: Improving the Fashionista

Postby Lamia of the Dark » Sat Sep 07, 2013 10:56 pm

MelodyT wrote:
Lamia of the Dark wrote:
MelodyT wrote:I think you guys are very brave! I would be way too nervous to try this on any of my girls. :(


My Fashionaista Ken only cost me $5 and I'm not particularly attached to him... if he was one of my favorites I would be more hesitant to break out the modding materials. :lol:

Still haven't made time to try this out on him yet, though.


$5!!! :o I can't even find a Fashionista Ken where I live! :cry:


I found him on sale at Kroger last summer.
I have so many dolls that I can't fit all their names in my signature anymore. @__@
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