Volks pureskin SD, SD13 leg break

I'm reeeally really worried right now. I've found a small white line in the resin on the back of one of my Nana's knees. Could it be the beginnings of a crack? I am EXTREMELY carefull with her, but it is known that she was man handled by a previous owner. What should I do? ;___;

Should I not panic? If I used epoxy on the inside of the joint now, will it hold? I don't even think we can get epoxy in this country! T___T

 

Where exactly is the white line? is it in the same location as the break in nakitama's pics? If it is it might be the beginning of a crack.

You could probably get epoxy putty, but it might only be available in specialized stores or called something else.
I just ordered mine from HLJ: http://www.hlj.com/

 

It is, I took a closer look last night and it goes all the way through. T___T

Is epoxy easy to use? Will I need to practise using it on something first?

edit: also, could you recommend the type? @__@ there are loads!

 

Damn, so that means it definitely is a crack then.

Epoxy putty is not hard to use at all, it's just like clay, sculpy or something. You mix two different components together, and it hardens by curing after some time (there are different kinds... some harden after 5 minuters, others take hours).
If you want to get a good layer in at the back of the knee you might need to sand down the knee joint a bit though. Not hard either really, you just need sandpaper and patience.

I used this one:
http://www.hlj.com/product/TAM87052
Tamiya Epoxy Putty Smooth Surface. Which in hindsight wasn't the best choice perhaps, as it's light blue sort of like toothpaste, and with the transparent pureskin resin her knees has a blueish tint in some lights now.

I also have this one
http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZP-117
Mr. Light Weight Epoxy Putty. Looks like a better choice in color at least because the two component should form a beige skin-color like color.

You should probably ask in the customizing board as well... they might know more. I'm still a newbie at these things really.

 

Thank you sooo much Haibane! You've been a huge help!

I'll get the two part epoxy and get to fixing her right away! I just hope it doesn't get any worse...

 

I had the same thing happen to my Tae's leg. I noticed the crack about a month after I got her and wrote Volks right away. They had me send the broken thigh back and sent me a replacement. Originally, they were going to charge me $40 for it, but then didn't charge me after all, I think because I had bought her directly from the LA store. Luckily, none of my other SD10 or Suwarikko girls have had this problem.

 

SapphireMusings: I'm glad I was able to help some. Please write again and let me know how the repair works out.

Kellyhime: Does Tae have a Suwarikko or the regular SD10 body? I forget. And you're the first one I heard of that managed to get the thigh exchanged! It's good to hear volks aren't completely unreasonable about this issue.

 

Tae has a regular SD10 body. I was actually a bit peeved that they had me send the broken one back before they would send a new one, but I guess that they don't want someone slowly putting together another doll with replacement parts. And at first, they wanted to charge me for separate shipping, but then were willing to add the thigh to an order for other things and didn't charge me for it after all, so I was very happy with their service in the end.

 

It seems strange to me...they must be getting plenty of complaints about it...do we know if they are working on a new SD10 girl body to fix the problem?

I was considering emailing them myself. Not because I expect a replacement, but just to let them know that theres yet another doll with a broken leg. I guess the more people alert them to the problem, the more likely they are to work on a new design for the legs.

Haibane: Thanks, I definatly will! I might take pics like a guide or something too, if it will be usefull.

 

The Suwarikko body shouldn't have the knee breaking issues at all, the knees are completely different and look much sturdier. But that's not even available from FCS, only certain limiteds.

SapphireMusings: If you wanna see I have some pics of the modding and putty filling I did... but that was after sanding down the knee joints pretty substantially.
Big pics of the knees after sanding and putty:
http://haibane.netslums.com/pics/060515kneeputty/

Here's another pic of a sanded knee joint:
http://haibane.netslums.com/pics/060515solmodding/sandedsd10knee.jpg

 

Oooh thanks so much Haibane! Does it have an effect on posing at all?

Also, I noticed some epoxy in the groove for the teeth. Do I have to be carefull about that, or did you do it to make the groove smaller if the teeth ended up being a little smaller?

Thank you so much for this, its really helpfull! I've never done a mod like this before, so I wanna make sure I do it right!

 

You're welcome!

The only effect it's had on the posing is that the knees bend backwards easier, but with the knee joints sanded down it doesn't hurt them to bend backwards anyway.
She can stand and sit and everything just as well as before.

I didn't actually sand the teeth at all, just the sides of the ball of the knee joint. I wasn't able to figure out how exactly sanding the teeth would affect the standing, so I just left them be.
And yeah, the putty in the groove for the teeth is mostly by mistake, but the teeth don't go all the way out to the side of the groove, so if you get a little bit there it doesn't matter, but too much and too much towards the middle definitely hinders the teeth from locking in properly.

And yeah, this was the first mod I've ever done, I pretty much just winged it, but I think it turned out OK.

What I did was first sand the joint down with a rough sandpaper, and while doing it trying it in the thigh socket to see if I could get it in and out easily. Once the sides were sanded down enough that it was easy to slide the knee joint out of the socket, I smoothed it down with finer sandpaper.
Also, I did all the sanding under water with wet sandpaper to prevent resin dust from flying around.

With the putty I ended up mixing WAY too much because you only need a tiny little bit for the sides of the knees. I put in a little bit, then put the bottom joint in to see that it still fit... then put in a little bit more, shaved some off from where it was tight... until it seemed like a good fit. And then I carefully wiped off any epoxy from the bottom joint.
You can also sand the epoxy once it's hardened, but the epoxy is harder than the resin... and it's hard to reach to sand inside the knee socket, so it's better to get it right before it's hardened.

 

I believe PamSD had her SD13 girl's knee break in just the same place as the SD10s. It may have been a fluke, but there are a lot fewer SD13 pureskin girls out there than there are SD10, so that may be something to take into consideration.

I'm glad the mod worked out for your Haibane! I hope Volks is currently redesigning the pureskin knees yet again for those out there who don't have the skill to fix a factory problem in their expensive doll.

 

Damn, I was hoping the SD13 bodies were immune... guess not then.

Has anyone else noticed that all the SD10 girls are completely sold out at volks japanese site? I wonder if that might be a sign that they're discontinuing the current bodies or if it's just a coincidence...
http://www.volks.co.jp/en/goods/index_goods.aspx?sbct=1&parts=24

 

I don't think so, somehow. Many people have emailed Volks about the problem, and their only response seems to basically be that they haven't heard about it from anyone in Japan, so it must be a fluke. But as so many people from this one forum, which in reality represents a small percentage of global volks doll owners, have experianced this problem, surely that can't be true? I've never heard of this kind of damage from other doll companies either. Its very worrying.

If the knee joints on the suwarikko have been made in responce to the problem, then what do they plan to do about the thousands of people who could potentialy end up with a broken doll, and why do they continue to sell the current SD10 bodies? Maybe a recall is too much to expect, but surely they should stop selling them if they are aware of the problem?

It just doesn't make sense to me, and I'm not really that happy with Volks' customer service at the moment. I sent them an email yuesterday which stated the problem and asked what Volks plans to do about it in the future. I don't really know if I should expect an answer, but if I don't get one, I'm considering linking them to these threads or sending them pics of Nikitama's girl, with permission. Obviously something needs to be done!

In the meantime...its modding for me.

Does anyone know if SD10 girl parts are availble in sumikas in Japan or at Sato?

 

SapphireMusings, feel free to use my pics! If you need any other photos of the problem, just let me know! I'll help in any way possible!!

My heart goes out to everyone with this problem, I cringe everytime I see a new post in this thread

 

Thanks Nakitama! Did you manage to fix your doll in the end?

 

Only some oldskin parts are avialable... and they don't fit with the new pureskin bodies.

Yeah me too! I'm really hoping that proper handling does make them less prone to breaking. And that modding the knees doesn't make them vulnerable in some other way... there's so much really thin resin in the knee area.

 

I had a SD10 FCS boy with the long legs, which are the same more or less as the SD13 girl legs, I think? Anyway, I was terrified of his knees... Sometimes when I bent them I thought they would break and that the outside of the joint on the thigh was bending a little. Brr. >.< (A fear I don't have with the knees on my SD13 and SD16 boys) They never broke, but... I didn't bend those knees much if I could help it.

 

I've had to repair two legs already. It seems that there's a particualr stress point there, and the resin is particularly thin in one of the knee 'walls'. What I do is to glue the piece back, reinforce the thin part with resin (you can use epoxy) and then sand a bit the round part of the calve wich makes the articulation for it to fit again. that would make the thin part more resilient to tension and rub.