A while ago sets of 10 cloned Midori heads were offered on eBay, these sculpts are quite good copies of the original Midori sculpt (no code on the back of the head though) but the way the mouth and eyes are painted are quite different. The skin color is slightly more olive than the original sculpt which adds an asian touch to it but also makes it hard to find a matching body.
These heads sell for low prices, so these are great for practicing painting.
On the head I picked for Yumiko I repainted the mouth, the factory painted mouth does not follow the shape of the sculpted mouth, now it does.
I wanted to try out magnetized bootfeet and I was looking for a fearless looking test subject, so I created Yumiko.
I used an 'enhanced pale' version of the CG v2 type A body because the joints of these bodies are the most firm ones I could find.
I put her in a tough looking BBI 'Joanna Dark' body suit, gave her some biker gloves and fitted flat v1 bootfeet fitted with Geomag magnets.
For the test I used a metal locker. I tied a safety line (a shoe string actually) around her waist and to a hinge of the locker, then I placed her on the side of the locker.
The soles of the bootfeet easily slipped on the smooth paint of the locker and her feet needed to be placed wide apart to keep the magnet in the uppermost foot from letting go, but I did manage to put her in a stable pose.
This demonstrates that magnets are strong enough to hold a figure against a vertical metal surface, so these are certainly strong enough for regular use (i.e. keeping the foot planted in awkward poses).
Please note: When I first fitted these magnets, small strong magnets were hard to find.
Nowadays it is much easier and cheaper to find some strong Neodymium magnets of 6mm diameter (pick a high grade, e.g. N50, a higher number indicates a stronger magnet) so there is no more need to cut up some Geomag set.
For now I've left the description below unchanged.
Fitting Geomag magnets to bootfeet
Recently I ran into a Geomag set at a thrift shop. These sets contain magnetic rods, each of these rods contains a pair of small but very strong magnets.
Each of these magnets fits into the recess of a CG or Triad bootfoot.
The small Geomag sets contain 7 rods, resulting in 7 pair of magnets.
If you can't find an affordable Geomag set, any strong magnets of 6mm diameter and between 3 and 4mm thick should fit the bootfeet, do make sure the magnets are strong enough.
Geomag set and a separate magnetic rod at the bottom of the pic
The plastic cover of a magnetic rod contains three metallic parts: a central metal core with a magnet at each end.
If you cut at the exact spot where the rod narrows you should end up cutting between the magnet and the rod.
After cutting the cover you need to peel the remains of the cover from the magnets.
Cutting the plastic cover of a rod.
Geomag rod with separate magnets.
The separate magnets can be inserted into the recess of a Triad or CG bootfoot.
With a Triad bootfoot you need to fix the magnet into the recess with some strong glue to make sure the magnet won't get pulled out of the recess, with a CG bootfoot the fit is perfectly tight, although it helps to put a 1mm thick piece of cardboard or similar material between the top of the recess and the magnet so the surface of the magnet is almost flush with the surface of the sole.
A Triad and a CG bootfoot each fitted with a magnet into the recess.
A while ago sets of 10 cloned Midori heads were offered on eBay, these sculpts are quite good copies of the original Midori sculpt (no code on the back of the head though) but the way the mouth and eyes are painted are quite different. The skin color is slightly more olive than the original sculpt which adds an asian touch to it but also makes it hard to find a matching body.
I wanted to try out magnetized bootfeet and I was looking for a fearless looking test subject, so I created Yumiko.
For the test I used a metal locker. I tied a safety line (a shoe string actually) around her waist and to a hinge of the locker, then I placed her on the side of the locker.
