Sarah's music box was one of the earliest prop replicas I made, and it definitely showed in the execution. Version one was made around 5 years ago, so it felt like it was time to do some upgrades... just the exterior stuff mind you, the internal mechanisms are fine (Probably because they weren't done by me, they were handled by my friend who knows how to put together a circuit).
He did the internal mechanisms, I did all the external stuff: The figurine and the casing. The original figurine was cobbled together with some mini figures and fabric I had on hand (Which was not super accurate to the movie), and as for the casing I didn't know the best way to finish the 3D printed parts so I didn't know about the wonders of filler spray primer. I tried to just sand everything down until it was smooth to my finger, but paint reveals all your sanding sins. So it's about time for a 2022 redemption!
First off to upgrade the figure I replaced the head of my original figure with another smaller head. The body is from a Disney "Little Kingdom" mini figure (Anna, specifically), and the head is from a "Frozen II POP Adventure" playset (Again with Anna). I did have to use some Apoxie sculpt to fill out the tiny Anna head to round out the cranium/build up the nose bridge. After that which I covered up the different skin tones with some acrylic paint mixed with mod podge, adding in face with acrylic paints and pastels for the blush.
As far as I know we don't have great reference photos of the music box, so I resigned myself to squinting at screenshots. I started thinking the doll maybe had a fabric or flocking layer on the skin based purely on how from some angles I got the impression there was maybe some subsurface scattering going on. I figured a fabric layer might make the figurine look a little higher end, so that what I went with.
I took some nylon tights and sewed a small tube-like pocket, leaving a gap around the neck to slip the figurine in. Then it was a lot of fussing and pulling and sewing to try and make the nylon fit nicely against the figurine. All the seams are in the back, where they'll be hidden by the clothing/hair.
Note, some of the below photos are from an earlier attempt with a different body/head combination that I discarded because I realised the figurine was too big. The process for wrapping it was the same so I'm including them here.
Also note that I avoided putting nylon on the arms since I wanted to reduce bulk under the sleeves. Only the shoulders and hands are visible, so I just made sure that those were nicely covered.
The "tights" were made by just sewing a line of stitching between the legs.
The skirts were made by stacking layers of fabric into a layered circle skirt, then gathering it to create the rounded shape. There's two separate skirts, with the top one having a bit of gathering to give it a bit of pizazz. The sleeves/bodice were made with a few layers of different organza fabric stacked together, with a zigzag stitch around the edges to act as serging, and I put a scrap of lace around the bodice to help tie it to the skirt (Which uses the same lace in one of the layers).
The decorative bits on the bodice were some different coloured embroidery thread rolled into balls, then secured with krazy glue. I also added a few beads, the same beads that are on the figures head piece (Which is just some jewelry wire twisted into shape. The hair comes from the Doll Planet on Etsy ("Americano" colour), and comes pre-curled (3mm size). I just glued the ringlets on, and the figurine was done!
Here's a comparison of the new figurine versus the old. Honestly it's a little embarrassing to see the difference in quality, the earlier version is looking pretty rough, but I guess it's nice to know that my skills (And eye for quality) has improved a lot over the years.
Refinishing the printed parts is pretty boring by comparison, I just used some primer filler spray and did a few passes of spraying and sanding. I ended up stippling on some liquitex modelling paste into the inset areas, I kinda liked the different in texture and figured the modelling paste would help disguise the print lines a bit, and that way I could get out of some sanding.
I had to spray/sand/paint the music box mostly whole because it was all glued together, and I didn't want to risk breaking any of the internal mechanisms by forcing it apart. This was a huge pain in the butt and the results aren't perfect, but they're definitely way better than the original.
Anyways that's enough talk, here's some more glamour shots:
