Armature for Life Sized Doll

Finally! I am back to my large doll project.  It feels as if I have been away from it for months.  Today I have pictures of the first attempt at the armature.  I say the first because it needs a few improvements before I get on with filling out the body.  As with any experiment, there can be a few things that need to be tinkered with here and there before I get it right.   At this point, the armature is only dry fitted, not glued together permanently, but it is enough to give you a general picture of it.

You will note that the hips appear to be uneven.  That is   because the pose the doll will be holding will have the doll making a short jig step.  In that position the hip would be raised.

Some of the parts that I needed for the armature are not available locally.  Most of the fittings are readily available at the hardware store, but I found that some parts are specialty parts that I would either have to order online or find a work-around for them.  Being that this project is on a deadline, I decided to try to work something out from locally available parts. 

Note the bend in the leg.  Need to replace hip joint connector.

One of the specialty parts was a four way piece that would be used for the neck.  It is a four-way connector.  When I was looking at pictures of armatures online, the connector was used to connect the spine, neck, and shoulders.  There was no such piece at the hardware store.  I decided that I would have to cut down the length of the pipe on the spine in order to add an additional three way connector and some pipes to form a rectangle to represent ribs.  the top part of the ribs will have another three way connector to form the shoulders and neck.  That may be a bit complicated to visualize, but I will be posting new pictures of the re-worked armature next week.  I don't consider this new concept a total nuisance.  The "ribs" will give me another area of support for the materials used to fill out the body.

By the way, it appears that the pipe at the

Neck needs a four way connector.

shoulder says nine inches.  That is upside
down.  It is a six inch pipe.  I will give the
measurements for the armature once I have
reconfigured the armature.

Another specialty part that might have been helpful is a PVC joint that has been designed to articulate the shoulder joint.  I have seen them used in posts by people who do the haunted houses at Halloween.   However, I plan to have the joints for this doll fixed in place rather than be able to move, so I did not pursue trying to find this particular piece. 

Also, during the time I was traveling, one of my ninety-degree angle pieces seems to have vanished.  No doubt I will find it sooner or later under all the debris that has piled up while I have been dashing in and out between trips.  For the moment, one hip is being held together by a three-way connector.   That will be replaced with a ninety-degree joint when I fix the armature.

What I really wanted to focus on for the moment was the legs.  You will notice that one leg has a bend at the knee without having a joint.  I wanted to blog about that because I may have some useful information on the process.  It might save readers the cost of a few lengths of pipe if I can give you a heads up on part of the process.

I used a heat gun and softened the pipe.   This was the type of heat gun used to help strip paint, rather than the type used for craft embossing projects.  I did not try a craft heat gun, but from my experience with the one I have, I do not believe that it would be hot enough for this project.  Anyway, you aim the heat gun at the pipe and try to get heat to all around the pipe, not just the underside.  It took less than a minute.  That was easy enough, but here is the part that you need to know about.  It did not bend exactly where I had marked that I wanted the bend.  You will need to heat the area slightly higher that the place that you want to bend.  If you just heat it at the mark it tends to bend below it.

As always, when working with any type of material, you should use appropriate safety equipment.  Wear eye protection.  Use heavy gloves to protect your hands.  I did not notice heavy fumes, but I worked outside when I was bending the pipe.  If you can't work outside, make sure your area is well ventilated.  The heat gun is very hot, make sure that you have a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.  Also, make sure that you have a safe area to set down the heat gun when you have finished using it.  It takes a long time for the heat gun to cool down.

The bend in the leg was not just a random angle.  I decided on the pose I wanted the doll to hold by striking the pose myself.  Then I measured that angle of the knee with a digital angle ruler.  Once the intended angle is found, you can tighten the device to hold the angle so that it can be transferred to the material. 

The angle finder is somewhat expensive, and replacing the button battery can be a little pricey.  If you don't have one, there are other means of determining the angle.  You could use a flexible curve if you have one, or even a fairly rigid piece of wire.  You could even make your own angle finder out of two straight pieces of cardboard and a brad.  Once you determine the angle, tape the cardboard so it won't move.  If the actual number of the angle is important, you could use a protractor to measure it.  There are plenty of ways to determine the curve, so don't let the lack of a particular tool discourage you.

You might also notice that the lower arms seem a little long.  This was not a mistake.  My plan is that the pipe length includes the length of the palm of the hand.  When I make the hands, the pipe should end at the beginning of the knuckles.  More on making the hand in a future post.

That is about all for now.  By next week, I plan to have the armature reconfigured.  I should be posting new pictures.  Check back next Sunday afternoon for an update on the project.