DDH-09 Marin Kitagawa Process

I've really enjoyed reading/watching My Dress-Up Darling, but didn't love any of the larger dolls that they have made for Marin so far, so decided to start working on my own Dollfie Dream version.  I don't have a body for her at this point, but I wanted to grab a DDH-09 head from Volks since it seems like they were running low on stock.

The first step for this customization was to mark and drill (with a pin vise) all of the piercing holes into her ears.

Holes all drilled - the holes for the industrial piercing especially worried me, but I think it ended up working out ok. I ended up having to carve out part of the upper left ear to get the industrial piercing to fit without bending the metal bar; it wouldn't go straight through the front and back of the ear otherwise. On a random note, it seems like the placement of the piercings in her right ear in the manga aren't quite the same as the anime. I was basing the location based on a panel from the manga, but noticed the middle piercing on her right ear seems higher up in the anime 😅

 

After somewhat struggling with the piercings for an hour or two, I added blush with pastels. The cover art for the manga portrays her with a lot of blush, so I tried to get a similar look.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't really take any progress pictures between the blush and the near-final faceup, but I used water color pencils for everything else like eyebrows and eyelashes. It was difficult to decide what to do with her mouth/expression as I'm used to seeing her with a big smile, but the head has a closed mouth, and I didn't feel comfortable trying to modify that to an open smile 😆

 

Final faceup with eyes - I'm not a huge fan of the giant shiny spots on these eyes, but this was what was left in stock that seemed most similar to Marin's eyes. I'm hoping I can try out some different eyes in the future or maybe even try making my own eyes (but that seems difficult).

 

For now, I'm waiting for her wig to arrive so I can maybe dye the ends of it, and waiting to buy a body. I'd like to get the new base body 2.0 whenever that comes out, but at this point I'm not sure how long of a wait that will be/if I'll have the funds ready right away. I'll also need to figure out how to make her nails, so if anyone has tips for extending the nails, please let me know!

Oh, this is incredible! I've never read or watched My Dress-Up Darling, but I always adore Marin whenever I see her! (Similar to Rem and Ram from Re:Zero, I consider myself a casual fan of her despite never seeing the series!)
Given how amazingly you've done the face, I have no doubt you'll do great with her wig as well! And when it comes to nails, I've seen three methods: Making your own press-on nails with plastic straws (painted after pressing), using 3d-printed press-ons (painted beforehand), or extending the nailbed with resin (can either mix a resin color or paint them after).

Amazing work. Me and my girls loved that show. I wish Volks would release Marin but maybe the earrings would be a hassle.

On 6/2/2024 at 9:14 AM, PlasticJester said:

Oh, this is incredible! I've never read or watched My Dress-Up Darling, but I always adore Marin whenever I see her! (Similar to Rem and Ram from Re:Zero, I consider myself a casual fan of her despite never seeing the series!)
Given how amazingly you've done the face, I have no doubt you'll do great with her wig as well! And when it comes to nails, I've seen three methods: Making your own press-on nails with plastic straws (painted after pressing), using 3d-printed press-ons (painted beforehand), or extending the nailbed with resin (can either mix a resin color or paint them after).

Thank you! I can relate with Rem and Ram - I've never seen the series, but I have some figures of them because they're just too cute 😆

Thank you for the tips for the nails! I'll have to try out the different options and see what ends up working ^.^

 

On 6/2/2024 at 10:15 AM, Xiongmao said:

Amazing work. Me and my girls loved that show. I wish Volks would release Marin but maybe the earrings would be a hassle.

Thank you ^^ I'm still hoping they release her one day as well! I don't think I can recall any official releases that did have more than just the standard two earrings, so it would be interesting to see how they'd do it if they do ever make a character with more 😮 

Edited June 4 by kurimu

Always thought that Marin would work great as a doll because of the whole dressing up theme to the story.

Personally not a big fan of the existing pre-made Marin dolls right now (azone, harmonia, nendoroid) so seeing a custom Dollfie is refreshing! Always wished Volks would make Dress Up Darling dolls as it could be a good showcase for all the ways you can dress it up.

Excited to see how it turns out!

20 minutes ago, howasaur said:

Always thought that Marin would work great as a doll because of the whole dressing up theme to the story.

Personally not a big fan of the existing pre-made Marin dolls right now (azone, harmonia, nendoroid) so seeing a custom Dollfie is refreshing! Always wished Volks would make Dress Up Darling dolls as it could be a good showcase for all the ways you can dress it up.

Excited to see how it turns out!

It would be really neat if they had multiple versions for all the different cosplays - it's unfortunate that the dolls so far really just have the school uniform version, but the makeup wouldn't match so I can understand why it would be too challenging to have a lot of options.

Today's update: I ended up making custom eyes for her to match the manga cover artwork ^^ I learned the hard way that I needed to use glossy photo paper to print the eye designs, and that any sort of matte paper doesn't work very well..😅

Your Marin is coming along nicely. I like how bright her eyes turned out to be!

A bunch of updates for today!

 

First, I made a hand with nails for Marin using tiny pieces of human-sized fake nails and gel polish. I'll have to wait for a body to make her two "normal" hands.  I tried using gel-cure nail strips at first, but I wasn't able to get them the shape I wanted since they were too squishy before curing 😅. The process involved cutting clear acrylic nails into tiny pieces, using a base coat gel polish to attach the nail to the finger by putting a drop under the nail and curing with a UV lamp, and then painting the fake nails with the pink polish and curing again. I used a metal jump ring for her ring.

 

Then, because I apparently wanted to suffer, I decided to cut the eyeholes more open and add an open mouth - a very cursed image 😅 I liked the shape of the eyes I had before, but it was bothering me how far the edge of the eyehole was from the eyelash line. I apparently decided to go crazy and start cutting everything apart since I also cut out the mouth I had already finished 😨 I guess I couldn't get used to seeing Marin with only a slight smile instead of her usual big grin! I was definitely very worried that I would ruin the entire head, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't try to change it.

I didn't get a lot of photos of the process, but I used an exacto knife to make rough cuts and needle files to sand it into shape. Random note - one side of the head was way softer than the other, which made sanding each side of the mouth completely different..I don't know how people make their open-mouth mods so symmetrical.

 

After a ton of filing, I added some more details to the faceup to make her lips and try to make the eyes look less creepy with the new smile.

I made the teeth using fimo oven-bake clay and a watercolor pencil to draw the brown line so her teeth didn't look like a giant blob. The teeth are held into her head with sticky tack.

 

Here is my mess of a table with some of the failed attempts >-< I had to make several eyes and mouths before I was happy with the results. Making the mouths from clay was a lot harder than I expected it to be because there's so little room to put the mouth into the head. I also recommend working with lighter color clays first, because I stained three different sets of teeth from accidentally getting remnants of the dark red clay onto the white clay despite trying to carefully separate them and wash everything in between -.-

For the wig, I started with a blonde wig from Etsy that ended up being way too long, so I had to cut quite a bit of it off. I used Rit dye for synthetic materials to dye the ends of the wig. I had some leftover pink Rit dye for natural fabric that I tried first, but it did basically nothing ^^; I'm not sure what material this wig is made from, but if you need to dye a wig make sure to check that it's for the right material or it will barely tint it >.<;;

 

Here's a final test picture borrowing my Fumiko's body (my DDH-03). Fumiko has a flesh body, so I had to edit the picture, but this at least gives an idea of what Marin could look like other than being a floating head on a table.

 

Now I just need to wait for the 2.0 base body to come out so I can get her her own body ^^ I also need to work on her accessories like her choker and bracelets, so I still have something to look forward to! Thanks for reading all my rambling if you made it this far ^.^

Wow! What wonderful result! I’m so glad you decided to cut the mouth out it definitely makes all the difference for her Marin-ness. The wig turned out spectacular too!

Wow, so well done!  You really captured the essence of the character!  The mouth cut out for the smile really clenches it too, it's perfect! 

This is an absolutely incredible custom, great job! The hands and mouth mod are so impressive!

Beautiful custom, she's really cuteee 

She looks incredible!! Her smile is on point and so perfect for her character!!

On 6/30/2024 at 10:30 AM, Richellem said:

Wow! What wonderful result! I’m so glad you decided to cut the mouth out it definitely makes all the difference for her Marin-ness. The wig turned out spectacular too!

 

On 6/30/2024 at 11:18 AM, DesertPhantom51 said:

Wow, so well done!  You really captured the essence of the character!  The mouth cut out for the smile really clenches it too, it's perfect! 

 

On 6/30/2024 at 12:56 PM, PlasticJester said:

This is an absolutely incredible custom, great job! The hands and mouth mod are so impressive!

 

On 6/30/2024 at 3:21 PM, bubblysoda said:

Beautiful custom, she's really cuteee 

 

11 hours ago, CatGirl said:

She looks incredible!! Her smile is on point and so perfect for her character!!

Thank you all so much for the kind words >.<

Amazing work! She looks very true to character 

Ahhh she turned out super cute!! I'm glad you took the plunge and decided to try modding her! The original concept you did with her was super cute, but you're right the mods really make her feel more like the character! I hope you can get a body for her soon <33

Amazing! It's like the manga cover has come to life ~ just incredible. I can't wait to see what you do next

On 7/2/2024 at 6:35 AM, roro_robot said:

Amazing work! She looks very true to character 

 

On 7/2/2024 at 12:21 PM, bandycam said:

Ahhh she turned out super cute!! I'm glad you took the plunge and decided to try modding her! The original concept you did with her was super cute, but you're right the mods really make her feel more like the character! I hope you can get a body for her soon <33

 

On 7/3/2024 at 4:45 AM, meteorite said:

Amazing! It's like the manga cover has come to life ~ just incredible. I can't wait to see what you do next

Thank you all >_< I'm glad I have such a nice place to share my updates!!

the manicure is adorable. Overall she came out super good

It's been a while, but this will probably be the last update to this thread in terms of doll progress! I finally got in my base body 2.0 and gave her a manicure and pedicure. The hands are definitely a lot more time-consuming than the feet, but I'm happy with how they turned out ^^

 

Too bad I didn't have a tie for her, but in terms of Marin herself, I'm happy now that she finally has her own body! Thank you all for looking! >.<