Final Fantasy XIII Lightning: the Ball Jointed Doll

I am someone filled with crazy ideas all the time. Like Alice of Wonderland, I think of at least 6 impossible things before breakfast as a rule. My latest idea stemmed from my love of cosplay.

I have a Final Fantasy Lightning cosplay from the first game, but then Square Enix decided to expand her wardrobe quite extensively with 80+ garb choices in Lightning Returns...and then she had to go and model for Louis Vuitton, too. As if she wasn't already alluring enough! I fell in love with so many of her new outfits and am currently working on her Dragoon Armor cosplay to wear to conventions. I want to create so many more costumes of hers but I'm a mom with not a lot of time or space for such things.

Then, I remembered the BJD hobby. I had dabbled with an inexpensive MSD doll many years ago but ended up selling it. Then recently Volks came out with their Sailor Moon Dollfie Dream and that sparked my burning need all over again. I own her and her Super Sailor Moon outfit as well. That got me thinking...what if I could create a doll based on my other favorite "magical girl/goddess"...Lightning? Then I could make as many outfits from the games as I wanted without using as much materials and still feel like I had recreated something glorious.

So the adventure begins!

Head and Face-up

This is the head I bought (link). It was only $19 and seems to be good quality (then again, I am a doll noob so it might bite me in the butt later).

I wanted to make sure I had a head that looked more realistic and could closely resemble her facial structure. I found a cheap one from China on eBay that is actually quite beautiful. The main problem is that it's probably a tad too big for the body I bought. I will make a wig for it and continue on with the project as planned but know that it might look a bit wonky. The inside of the head says "Legend of the Doll", "The Gem", and "Puss in Boots". I couldn't find any information about the sculpt but maybe some doll connosieur could tell me more. (I've since learned that it is rather frowned upon to buy "recasts", however, I feel that it's fine as long as you are trying to mostly get the real thing if it's possible. I own an official ResinSoul body and finding the right face for this project was difficult. I think you should do whatever fits your budget. I think that's my Nihilist mindset speaking. You do YOU.)

Beginning stage of the faceup. Just adding blushing in the valleys/sides of the face

The face takes on a much more "alive" quality when you start blushing the skin! The purple mold is where I was making plastic eyes. Off to the right are the piles of pastel dust for blushing the skin.

Eyes

I bought some glass 14mm eyes and felt that they were just too large to look realistic. Then I discovered tutorials for making your own and looked at photos of small iris-type eyes. I cast some eyes out of white plastic and had a hard time painting the small details. Making a perfect circle at that size is tough! I was able to create two glitter eyes that matched each other well enough.

The iris just kind of fills the entire eye. Fine for some dolls, but this doll wants to look more mature like Lightning in the background!

Clay models that will be molded with silicone putty. Yeah...they are kinda all over the place as I was shaping them by hand. I put indents for the pupils with the back end of a paintbrush. Next time I will probably just buy a mold if they have small iris molds.

Here is my first pull of severely misshapen eyes haha. I did a pair with glitter that matched up okay enough and will probably use those.

Kinda looks manly here, but we will be adding lots of pretty makeup soon!

Body

I followed on a popular BJD Facebook group for a while and then I bought secondhand a tall, thin female Resinsoul body for $150. She didn't come with hands but was in good shape and the color was great. I did the blushing myself. I felt this body was very true to character with its lanky limbs and proportions.

I slightly modded the doll by sanding off her nipples and groin area. I have no problem with the human body, I just have little boys and yeah...wanted to keep it at Barbie levels I guess?

I also added some sticky back moleskin to the sockets of all the joints to help with posing. I heard that it helps the doll hold poses a little better. There is also a method where you use vinyl or hot melt glue to make it stickier. I will see how this goes first.

Hands

Bought the hands on eBay for $36 here. They are fully jointed and come assembled. They are slightly darker skin tone than the body which I might try to mask a little bit but not a big deal to me. They fit well and are super poseable!

Wig

Here is a separate tutorial I made for the wig.