08/11/05- Wheeee! This time around, I was able to conjure up some design mojo, so I didn't need to steal the head design of any existing ultra females; instead, I think I stole from Tetsuwan Atom. This one's not exactly finished... in fact, the back of her head just got sealed up, and I brushed a quickie coating of silver on her face because I wanted to see what she looked like with her eyes lit. Yep, the second time around you get to plan a little better. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any other non-red LEDs, so I didn't wire the Color Timer on her chest. Of course, you don't want to use red, for that's the color that announces to the Ultra foes that Ultrawoman is almost out of power (great idea, huh?).

The head required prep for the lighting: First, the eyeball areas were thinned to act as a diffuser. Next, the other areas were masked with aluminum tape to block the extraneous glow. A white LED was positioned in the head, and powered by a 3-volt lithium battery (a watch battery) in a thin battery case, adapted from a keychain flashlight. The only brain-scratching part was coming up with a solution to the switch problem-- I used a miniature plug/socket, a really tiny one with a super-thin profile, left over from my Hexpander guitar synthesizer installation. The great thing about this is that the LED isn't hard-wired to the battery, so the head can be removed (which was helpful while working on stuff). The battery pack is zipped in the suit and is removeable. It's a little bulky, but isn't really noticible either in the small of her back or a little higher up: The suit's tailored with a bit of an "air pocket" in the arch between her buns and shoulders (which makes her look a little chubby).

This time I used BBI's "Perfect Body" doll. (gasp!) Elsewhere in this site I've trash-talked this one, but surprise!-- there's a time and place for everything. For rubber-suited dolls, you can throw finesse out the window: Ratcheting clickety-click hinges may be the only way to get such a doll to hold a pose.

Another shocker: I'd trash-talked BBI's Joanna Dark's rubber squishy boobs before, but this was clearly the project they'd been waiting for. Without the hard plastic support frame underneath, they made it much easier to dress her in the skin-tight outfit. Not only that, but she can even bring her extended arms inward at her chest, because the hollow rubber boobage compresses! Clearly, you wouldn't want to try this on a doll with exposed skin, for the breastpiece is a thing of great ugliness. However, there is a time and place for everything... sometimes.

The Medicom RAH dolls reinforced a doll-making truism: It doesn't matter how ugly the underlying armature is if the suit is all that's meant to be seen. It doesn't matter that the PB doll has some unsightly articulation gaps and strange balls at her shoulders if they're hidden under the suit. To take that concept further, it doesn't matter if you stuff those gaps with polyfiber to help the line of the suit. We only need to consider our own construction to realize that underneath our skin suit, we're an ugly mess of gooey stuff.

The painted outfit should have worked out easier & better-- silver is a lot closer to white than gold is. However, I had to be experimental and tried Testor's spray chrome. Hey, it looked great! Unfortunately, it's a real nasty paint that takes forever to dry. I'm not a real patient person, and soon realized that it was a mistake. My advice? Stick with acrylic.

The neck thing is a problem. I didn't make this like a real Ultra suit, which has a neck/hood and mask. Consequently, the neck covering hits the bottom edge of the one-piece head and doesn't have anywhere to got. The problem is aggravated by the thickness of the fabric, but I didn't want to muck with the suit. Maybe later...