Sasara Kusugawa - Valkyrie version from ToHeart2

When Volks said that they were re-releasing Sasara I was hoping that they would release her Valkyrie version. Since they didn't, I did it myself

 

 

I patterned & created the armor from scratch over the past few weeks. Everything was made to fit the DDdy3 body perfectly but still have flexibility to move & pose the doll. There are a few things I want to edit (the way the skirt hangs bugs me >_<) and I do plan on making her shield & halberd later this summer.

 

(Blurry horrible photo of the patterning process LOL)

 

The armor is made using Worbla. Worbla looks like this before priming. It's a thermoplastic that's infused with glue so it bonds to itself. I didn't need to use any kind of special adhesives.

 

I used aluminium foil to protect the doll parts from my heat gun - and also to prevent glue residue from sticking to the doll while the Worbla was heated. It looks like I'm baking weird cookies

 

Worbla has a bit of texture to it, which is why you should prime it and then sand it to get a nice smooth finish. Thank goodness for my rotary tool and my dust eater fan (LOL - I use these for my nails usually! Good to have another purpose for these tools!) It took between 5-12 layers of gesso to get a workable surface for sanding. I was literally waiting for paint to dry @_@"

 

Everything was then painted with Vallejo acrylic model paints. (The same stuff Volks recommends for their model kits and Chara-gumin kits now). I like that it's water-based & non-toxic, and extemely pigmented. Sometimes one coat was all I needed for complete coverage, which is amazing. With craft store paints I always need 2-3 coats! I was working on a deadline not waiting for paint to dry was really helpful. Vallejo doesn't make the exact blue I needed for most of the armor so I had to mix small batches at a time as I went. Since the paint dispenses in drops it was quite easy to measure out what I needed.

 

I used their Liquid Gold paint to get the beautiful metallic finish. It's a non-toxic alcohol based paint that required constant stirring to keep the pigment particles in suspension but I've never found a more beautiful gold paint!

Here are all the armor pieces - everything is separate because I wanted the doll to still be able to move and pose.

 

Special thank yous to Puppy52 (chun) for helping me find the perfect fabric to use for the bodysuit & to xoHimitsuox for reference pics of the back of the armor and the late night motivation!

I'm so pleased to have won 2nd place in the 1:3 category at the Doll North doll masquerade yesterday! (1st place went to a beautiful recreation of Sesshoumarou from Inuyasha.) I wasn't expecting to win anything - I just wanted to show her off and spread the Dollfie Dream love

 

I'm still recovering from convention exhaustion. When I dump the photos off my camera I'll share some better photos of the armor.

Fantastic job!! the armour turned out amazing! congrats on your win I have built a lot of garage kits, so I can understand the pains of waiting for the paint to dry

 

I'm *hoping* to attend Anime/Doll North maybe next year

This is really awesome I love it! I think you really did an amazing job making armor seems very daunting, and it's something I need to do for my Zelda. I really appreciate you showing the process!

 

You deserved to win something for this it's phenomenal, Sasara looks stunning!

Amazing work

Your Sasara is stunning !

Such wonderful work you did! Congrats on winning 2nd place too! I love seeing what others make when doll companies don't fulfill certain aspects of their characters. It forces people to get creative.

Such wonderful work you did! Congrats on winning 2nd place too! I love seeing what others make when doll companies don't fulfill certain aspects of their characters. It forces people to get creative.

 

Thank you

 

This is really awesome I love it! I think you really did an amazing job making armor seems very daunting, and it's something I need to do for my Zelda. I really appreciate you showing the process!

 

You deserved to win something for this it's phenomenal, Sasara looks stunning!

 

Thanks Amara77 ^__^

This was my first time working with Worbla and it was quite forgiving. I've used Wonderflex and Fosshape in the past but for something that requires such small curves and details Worbla is definitely easier to use.

 

I added a few more progress shots to my blog and elaborated a bit more on the process. I initially wrote the blog very quickly just to have something up when people started linking to it after seeing my photo of Sasara @__@"

 

I won a really cute alpaca BJD as my prize. He needs a face up but I'll share pics soon.

 

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Here's a higher quality photo of the armor that includes the boots and legs

 

wow your work is awesome !

Good job !

Congrats on 2nd place! Well deserved. Looks like 1st place material to me though

 

Worbla huh? Never heard about it before. Looks like a pretty useful material.

beautiful job on the armor