When Volks announced last December that they were re-releasing Dollfe Dream Sasara Kusugawa from ToHeart2 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 the white sleeves aren’t puffy enough >_<") and I do plan on making her shield & halberd later this summer.

(Blurry horrible photo of the patterning process LOL)

For pieces that I needed to be perfectly fitted I wrapped the body part in cling film, then covered that in masking tape, drew the shape I needed onto the tape and cut it off. I then transferred the design onto paper.

For curved pieces I had to cut darts to accommodate that extra thermoplastic would be needed to create the same shape.

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 to make the filigree details adhere to the armour.

This was my first time using Worbla and I found it extremely easy to work with and very forgiving. If I stepped away and noticed the details weren’t symmetrical I could reheat it and nudge the Worbla “noodle” with a tool (I used an embossing tool/ nail art dotting tool).

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 😛 For things like the shoulder armor and the foot armor I did a bit of free-form sculpting using aluminium foil to get the shape I wanted before shaping the Worbla directly on top.

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 so 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!

I sprayed everything with Mr. Super Clear sealant, but then went back to touch up the gold with a gloss varnish because the sealant mattified the metal 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.

– ♥ Archangeli