Nothing fancy this time around. Just happy to report that me and the fam survived the 'rona. 

Dang, it's been a while. I guess a small update is in order. First of all, for anyone wondering how that wig turned out; it was a decent idea. I made a few more versions of it and they turned out pretty well. They aren't water proof though so avoid water. 

Now, on to business. Over my three year hiatus I've learned to crochet, and I've wrapped up a few other projects that have been looming ominously over my head (I can hear them judging me when I start something new). My paper figures have been one of the few things I didn't finish... But they're fine. They like their tiny plastic priso- err... enclosures. 

....Anyway... I have a new project in mind. A new challenge. Maybe I'm behind the times and somebody else already did this, but I want to make a Ball jointed doll out of paper. Something that can hold up against the tension of the elastic. 

The number one reason I started making paper action figures has been for the customizability. I don't have to scour the world trying to find a figure that's close to what I want. I don't have to cut plastic figures in half. I don't have to sand. And I can have as much, or as little articulation as I want. Plus I can actually make them clothes. Real clothes. I hate sculpted on clothes. I hate them. I get why companies do it, it's easier and probably cheaper than sewing tiny jackets and thing. But I still hate it, and no body is going to change my mind. 

Back to what I was saying. I have a character in mind that I want to make. I've thought about using clay, but clay takes time, and sanding. One of which I don't have in bulk, and one I'm trying to avoid like the plague. Not to mention clay can crack, break, and burn. Paper can burn and tear, but if you step on it all you have to do is puff it back out and maybe patch it a little. 

I've made this character before, the hardest way. I used a Monster High doll as the base. I cut up the whole body, and modified it to be the right height and close enough build. But the key problem for me is the face. It works for the character, but it's not her face. It's someone else's. Someone else's character, someone else's work. It's not a deal breaker, I like the modifications I did. But I feel... Like I cheated? Like I took the easy way? I'm not sure. 

Long story longer, I'm making my character now, exactly how I want, with her face. I'm going to try and chronical my progress here as best as I can. 

Just a small post during the apocalypse. First, I hope that all of you that subscribed and those of you that visit, are safe and healthy in these times.

Also, I hope you haven't had to break into a perfectly good store of toilet paper for it's named purpose. I just wanted to post an alternative activity that you can do with spare unused napkins, and Elmer's glue.

I don't know where I got them, but they look like the cheap ones that come in plastic baggies with plastic silverware.

Unfortunately, with toilet paper becoming a rare and highly valuable commodity, these will have to do.

Normally I like to use plastic wrap and modpodge, but I don't have any plastic wrap.

So what we're doing, is taking our acceptable napkins and tearing it into strips, that we will then carefully glue together around our dolls head.

That's right, our doll.

Because he needs a wig, and I need something else to do that doesn't involve articulation and frustration.

So from there we create a wig cap, being careful NOT to glue the fragile material to our doll head. It should look like this:

Glorious, I know. You can see all my years of academy training shining through in this photograph. 

Keep going until it's kinda smooth and there are no ugly bumps or weak spots.

Now, if I can pop this puppy off without ripping it or damaging paint, I'm gonna drown that sucker in modpodge until it's stronger than a turtle shell. 

Sorry this isn't my usual content, but I have taken quite a break from my paper figures, mostly due to work and other projects that need my attention. I'll try and get back to the original stuff (especially if we get quarantined) so we can have at least one pub open.

Once again, I hope everyone is staying safe, and that all of you have enough to survive.

I'm not dead, just lazy.

Please forgive my absence and accept this photograph of the new lower leg I was working on.

I'm still working on my paper babies, I've just been working on other non-paper projects too. I'll get back to paper soon.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

For this part I'm going to cover the knee joints, beware that for this part you're going to need some very advanced tools, and some very specific techniques, for this part of the figure you'll need to "Eyeball" it.

That's right the guaranteed way to make sure things kinda-sorta match.... When you squint.

So let's begin.

First, you're going to need the thigh that we just made... Or more specifically, you're going to need the paper tube that we rolled up and put inside the thigh.

This tube provides support for the leg exterior and also acts as a point of insertion and rotation for the knee joints.... And it minimizes the amount of work you'll be doing on the next steps a little.

Next you need to draw out the individual pieces for the joint. I'm going with a double joint because I like my action figures to be able to do action poses.

As you can see, one looks like a jelly Bean and the other one looks like the head of a blow dryer. Now cut them out and trace them... After you poke a hole through those nice little black dots.

Like this.

Then this.

Now, from here you have a few options. The jelly Bean piece is the center part of the joint. You can either trace them all individually, scan it into Photoshop and copy/paste, or you can trace it on to a large enough scrap, fold it and cut it that way. 

I went with the fold and cut. It'd take time to boot up the computer, scan it, and copy paste. That's too much time wasted. Gimme my pencil and my scissors, and don't forget that needle tool.

(Don't forget to poke the holes)

Once you've done this an ungodly amount of times and have a satisfactory number of parts, get the glue.

My method for the joints has always been 3-6-3, meaning; the outside parts, the dryer heads, are half the number of the jelly Bean piece. I tried making them even all the way through ONCE and it ended with the joint splitting. 

So this is how it works, look at the pipe in the thigh and in the calve, if you have one... Which you should. This is where the eyeballing comes in because you need to figure out how many layers will fit. In this case the "measurements" are 3 outside-6 inside-3 outside.

So take the parts and glue them with their matches. I like to test them once they dry to see how they fit.

Like this.

Also, you're not done.

In order for the finished joint to fit together and function properly, you need 6 little wedges (or however many layers you have for the jelly Bean, the wedge has to be equal to it). The wedge goes at the bottom of the dryer heads and helps support them, because it won't work otherwise... I've tried.  

Oh, and you're going to need.... About 21 more dryer heads. It takes six to make ONE HALF of ONE knee joint. So once that's done, and you've cut and glued together the wedges, glue the wedge to one half of the dryer head and let it dry. And repeat with the other piece.

It should look like this. Now repeat this three more times for the lower leg, and the other leg. You only need two of the jelly beans in total. 

This is what one joint setup should look like. Parts in total: 12 dryer heads, 12 wedges, and 6 jelly beans. At least for this particular figure, it always changes depending on scale of the figure and the thickness of the knee. 

Here it is all smooshed together for a test fit. Also notice, the dryer heads are too big at the point of connection. I had to trim the down so they didn't hit each other on a rotation.. eyeballing, sometimes it works, sometimes it almost works.

All the parts for leg two......

And we're going to move onto how to connect them. I've considered many things. Railroad screws like those used on model trains, wire, paperclips, etc. 

But there's a problem with using metal. Metal rusts. And when metal rusts, it tends to rub off on it's fellow surfaces. Now I personally would prefer that my figures not develop a rust orange tan. So what do we use? The amazing, non-staining, never rusting: 

Toothpick. 

Yep, this little bad boy is my pin of choice on a paper action figure joint. 

Personally I don't recommend dollar store toothpicks, as one container has a varying range of quality and stability. Go big on this and buy your toothpicks somewhere fancy, like Walmart.

(I also like to take a ten minute break to build a cat. It's very soothing)

Back to business, you want the toothpick to pass through twelve (or so) layers of paper, this is hard and it takes a little bit of finessing sometimes. But remember that hole in the piece? Take your needle tool and push it GENTLY through again. It'll take some finessing for that too, and if the toothpick still won't fit take and x-acto blade and thin it out CAREFULLY (if you are under the age of 18, ask a parent for help, and don't sue me). You don't have to carve it, just give it a little shave. 

If it works, trim the toothpick to fit (wear protective goggles, toothpick trimmings can fly) and glue around the outside where you cut it.

It should look something like this.

And function like this.

Thank you all for sticking around and waiting for the next post so patiently. I really appreciate it, and I'm sorry it took so long to get it up here. Next post might be on ankles.... Or feet... Maybe calves..... You'll see when I figure it out. 

Happy (late) New Year everyone!

No pictures this post.... Well, no real updates either. I mean, aside from the fact that I GRADUATED!!! But nothing really big or anything.

So I do plan on posting now that I have more free time to actually work on my personal project, and I'm not having an emotional breakdown because the indigo paint didn't mix right with the orange to create an almost black color (no, seriously, this has happened). I'm gonna post, and I'm gonna finish my projects.

To close out this very short update, I'd like to say, I haven't forgotten or abandoned the pub and I'm going to keep posting. Secondly, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year (just encase I forget).

Today, I want to talk about miniatures. I'm thinking about making this a weekly/bi-weekly bit where I let everyone know that I'm not dead, by posting about crafty people that inspire me.

Classes have been keeping me from my paper-y love, and I do need to keep on this site.

For anyone that doesn't know, it's almost impossible to find accessories for action figures in the 1/12th scale. I have a fairly large collection of 6" action figures, but barely any accessories, save for the ones they came with.

This is a problem.

....Or it was until I got on YouTube.

Myfroggystuff. Probably one of the most resourceful/crafty YouTubers I've seen so far. She uses common items that you can find around your house to make some pretty darn good looking accessories.

Here's what I did from the tutorials I watched of hers....

ALCOHOL!

Yes, I made little wine bottles for my action figures (thus the reason my blog is the Papertoy Pub, and not something classy, or professional). I found the labels online and shrunk them as needed.

Her miniatures are more.... Child friendly, and can easily be modified..... As you can see. 

She also does tutorials on miniature foods. And I don't mean just pie or cake, she does food tutorials. And a lot of them.

But, my figures aren't concerned about a healthy diet, especially when there's pumpkin pie to be had.

For those looking for more adventurous items, she's made telescopes, tents, and bows and arrows. 

All in all, if you're looking for a quick prop or something for your kid (or kid relative), or something to do with your kid on the cheap. I'd recommend you check her out.

I was not paid to promote, I just like to promote people that do things well and could possibly be an inspiration or aide to someone else.

Next time, paper figure stuff, I promise.

PART 2

And so it begins.

It took a little longer to post than I expected, but here it is the promised part 2.

What does it cover? The torso.

Let us begin

First of course, you want to build the frame, in this case I left a little extra on the top, lengthened the neck, and added an additional tube of paper to the hips, to act as the stomach, hide the joint that will eventually be there, and to add a little more height.

Also, you can see the head from the previous post. I did both of them at about the same time, it just took a lot of extra layers to fill her out.

I like to begin this part, by putting down one long piece, like you see in the above pictures. This acts as a placement for her breasts, and also let me know in this case that they were saggy because I didn't account for the added height. Oops. 

Also at this point, glue a thin base layer around the waist cone. It helps secure it, and blend it.

Please enjoy a step by step on how I build paper breasts.

Glue, glue is very good. Use it at your discretion. I like a little bit more for this part of the process. It bleeds out the sides of the napkin and blends the edges to the surrounding material.... Probably because it's pulp at that point. But it works.

Simply repeat the process. Over and over and over........

Now, about this point I'm pretty happy with the basic profile for the chest. It's small and can be built on, if I so choose.

Now, if the chest is good enough for now, it's time to move on down. Personally, I like to balance the hips against the chest, so I do the hips.... And the butt, after the chest.

As I hope you can see, there's a slight division, I try to make sure that it's always there. Every so often I add a piece of paper in between.

As you can see below, I've added more on the lower portion of the butt, I'll blend it into the back in a bit. This is usually how it goes.

I'd also like to point out that the hips have now been blended to the tube.

I like to turn the figure as I go so I can decide if the silhouette looks good.

Now, same thing with the head and the chest, you repeat the process until you're happy.

This is about where I was happy.

So that's "sculpting" the head and torso. I hope you enjoyed it, sorry it took so long to post them.

If anyone has any QUESTIONS as to how I do things, I'd be happy to answer them as best as I can.

I would also like to take a moment to appreciate the versatility of paper. Below is an image of all the different characters I started working on using the same base model. I love paper.

Until next post, Fare well.