Kai's Garage Kits

(i call it the moment of truth but in truth i’m just having a moment)

It’s time to bring everything together. Well, some things. The important ones, at least.

Arms, legs, feet, head: even though everything was cut from a single initial sculpt, the places where they join up no longer form perfect seams. They’ve had extra clay added (intentionally) and smooshed into new shapes (unintentionally), and now every part needs to be re-fitted. My goal is to make Yume-chan’s seams invisible after assembly by positioning them where there would be natural shadows and separation: the openings of sleeves, the collar, the pant legs, et cetera. Let’s take a look!

I added some rings of clay to extend the edges of the sleeves so that they covered the ends of the arms, giving the impression that the skin continues under the fabric. I formed these sleeve extensions to shape and then blended them in to the rest of the sleeves. I added a hem as a final touch. It’s those little details that really bring a sculpt to life!

I tried to make the interiors of the sleeves fit fairly closely to the arms, while still giving room to insert and remove the latter. Since the arms aren’t perfectly round, this will serve to key them into the intended position; in other words, it’ll prevent people from inserting them backwards. Admittedly, it isn’t the most refined way to create a key… but if it works, it works!

Next up: the bottom of the shirt. After leveling it out (it had somehow developed quite a few lumps and bumps) I followed the same process there. Ring of clay, form to shape, blend, realize that the fit is still wrong and that this area is going to take more work than the sleeves… wait, I guess it’s not quite the same process after all! The top of the pants and the bottom of the shirt were, as it turns out, too closely matched in size, and so the former was not going to nest nicely into the latter without some modification. I could have flared out the bottom of the shirt to fix this, which would have been a ridiculous but kind-of-funny solution, but somehow my sensible side won over and I decided to shave down the hips instead. Yeah, I ruined some of the wrinkles in the process. The pants still needed a lot of finishing anyway…

Once satisfied with the fit, I carried all the details down to make the whole thing cohesive. You can see where I added little rolls of clay to extend the wrinkles, as well as the strip of fabric where the buttons are (which is apparently called a placket! I looked it up after writing this. The more you know!).

The pant legs were next. You know the drill by now. Ring of clay, form to shape, blend, fix the fit, repeat steps 2 and 3 as necessary… Arms, ankles, what’s the difference, really?

No pictures of fitting the neck, sorry. I did that when I finished off the head sculpt. I think at this point you can guess how that went, though.

And now the moment of truth… bringing everything together at last! I put the pieces into place, held them in position, and basked in the results. The arms and feet were light enough and the fit tight enough that they just stayed in place when I inserted them, at least for a little while. I’m assuming this is a good sign? It seems like one!

The neck and the pants fit cleanly, too. Very nice! At this point I may have breathed an actual sigh of relief. Rational or not, part of me always feels like something’s going to get screwed up at the last moment…

WAOW! SUGOI! I DID A THING!

I still need to refine the pants and accessories (and, y’know, cast it into a resin kit…) but Yume-chan is practically a real sculpt!