Head Sculpt Question - How Are They Made?

Here's an uneducated question for y'all, but I gotta start somewhere:

How do the figure companies make headsculpts?

Here are a couple of random pics I found online, as examples of nice sculpts:


A few factors prompt this question, but mostly it's based on seeing "close enough that you know how it is, but not so close as to infringe copyrights" celebrity head sculpts I see for sale online. As we all know, the quality of aftermarket head sculpts varies considerably. The quality of heads included with figures varies considerably, for that matter.

What I'm wondering is, how do companies make these heads? What are the steps involved, from sketches on paper to a Not Really Hugh Jackman showing up in our mailboxes?

I'm not talking about one-off, hand-sculpted polymer clay home crafted heads, although I suspect that's part of the process. I'm curious what would be involved in actually manufacturing action figure heads? The kind they make in China and sell on eBay.

But I'm honestly clueless on how to even begin to research a question like this. So I'm starting by asking here on the forum, as a lot of members seem to have considerable knowledge about various aspects of the action figure realm, including the manufacturing process and the companies involved.

This question was also inspired by a conversation about finding head sculpts of these two screen personalities from the 1960s:


If one wanted to set up a manufacturing company to make head sculpts of these two characters, what would be involved? What skills would need to be learned, which processes would need to be either set up or contracted out?

Hoping to encourage a discussion. Thanx!

Most of them are made in 3D programs, printed out and then molds made (mass production molds are generally made of metal — very expensive), and then cast in resin. The eyes, eyebrows, and lips are generally machine painted, and the rest is done by human hands. Very few sculpts today (though there are some) are sculpted by hand (KA Kim, one of the best sculptors in the business, used to sculpt by hand, not sure if she still does).

You’d need a high quality 3D printer, a quality 3D software program (both of which have a learning curve), a vacuum pot for resin, mold making materials, and a small handful of skilled painters. Honestly, if you just want one-offs, you’d be better off getting someone to do the work for you in the custom community. With someone like Yvonne Craig, you’d probably get several takers to help offset some of the costs.

Somehow I missed this thread earlier (probably cause posts from the Tutorial section don't always show up when checking for new posts). It's a good question to ask, I'm sure others are also curious how these are made.   I have to agree with Stryker, that if you want specific characters that haven't been made yet, it would make sense to approach an experienced 1/6 sculptor (most of whom are indeed 3D sculptors these days), since they already have the necessary skills and tools.  Often, you will be able to get a custom resin head from a sculptor, but then will have to find a different artist to do the paintjob. I suppose most are on Instagram these days, though I have mainly networked with 1/6 artists via FB.

Often today, most are 3d sculpted using a 3d program, zbrush and blender being very popular. Blender mostly cause it's free software. Artists use this cause it's easy to make modifications if needed. If you were to sculpt, you'd have to sculpt it and then make a silicone mold, then use resin with the mold. Sometimes, especially if you're just using clay, the original can be destroyed in the process. 3d is less messy and often you can get a lot more fine detail. Like Stryker mentioned, for the mass produced stuff, a metal mold is needed so that the heads come out consistent in a large run. Something like a silicone mold is only good for a number of casts before the casts start degrading on reproduction quality due to it's softer nature. 3d printing is ideal for smaller runs. It may take a while to make a print though and cleaning it up takes time (sanding etc). Many of those unpainted sculpts you see on ebay are printed. I believe the resin is a bit more brittle too so if you drop it, it's more likely to chip than the plastics they use for an injection mold. Also for silicone molds, it's easy to get bubbles in your cast if you don't do it properly whereas I think injection molding has a lot less of that happening. If you do get a 3d printer, People make accessories and stuff and throw it onto thingiverse. Most are free for personal use.

When you say a not so close to Logan sculpt showing up to your mailbox, I would suspect something like the following happened: A talented artist made a super realistic sculpt close to the actor/actress' likeness. A third party company buys the sculpt. Most likely makes a silicone/ mold from it. Being a second generation, there could be some squishing or squashing that occurs so it doesn't look as good depending on their skill. However it can be still be very good. Like in the one you show there, I believe was done by eleven, then recast by several different third party companies. Then it really comes down to how the paint applications are afterwards from the third party and if they can match those of the original, which usually is not as good. Like a recast hot toys head usually not look very good because the third party painters just do some simple paint apps to get the product out. Also a recast tends to be a smidge smaller due to them recasting from an original. I read ones from a ka kim post that usually when she hand sculpts, she does them slightly larger because by the time it gets to production and molds made, there is shrinkage so she has to compensate for that. Also I believe once you have a 3d file, it's very easy to do a 1/12 version by scaling, whereas it would be much more difficult with something that was hand sculpted.

Well summarised, csyeung!

Nice thread  

As mentioned, 3d printed head sculpts need quite some refinement/sanding etc until they are ready to be turned into a mold. And until now I have never seen any traces/scars/lines in final products.
On the other hand, I have a Hasbro Mando figure where you can clearly see the topographic printing lines on the gloves by a 3d resin printer.

I once started a collection of 1/6 figure documentaries to learn about the topic, but there isn't that much I did find.

Highly skilled Korean artists seem to be very important for high quality head sculpts. Hot Toys Korea recruits 1/6 sculpting talent they find on the internet like Instragram and facebook.
Here a Hot Toys Korea video, they sculpt them with that grey oven clay. It looks like they are slighlty larger too like csyeung mentioned.



These docus are not focused on heads, but maybe interesting. Maybe we can start a thread in the video section to collect assembly videos.

BlackopsToys visiting Easy & simple factory (extremly detailed guns)
No heads, but you can see the heroes at work who make those little guns, equipment and bodies. I like the sheets of tiny 1/6 camo fabric



General Hong Kong Action Figure Scen Docu. There is a scene where they 3d scan a real persons head for an expensive custom figure. Also interesting bit about the Mainland China market.
At 4:37 there is a quick overview how a figure is designed, again with hand sculpted heads.



A Jiaou Doll mold factory, very raw footage

Thanks for all of the great responses to this topic so far! There's obviously nothing "simple" about creating a head sculpt from scratch, particularly one of "professional quality."

I found an article about the manufacture of 1/3-scale vinyl dolls, from initial sketch to finished product, which goes in to great detail about the details... and some detail as to the expense... involved in designing and manufacturing a high-quality miniature figure, from 3D design to mold-making, casting, painting, and clothing:

https://dannychoo.com/archive/en/posts/the-making-of-smart-doll

It ain't easy and it ain't cheap!

I can't find it, but Poptoys had a video a long time ago that showed how they made their suits. They use a circuit maker to precision cut their fabric so every piece is exactly the same as their design. Dorgmal Snow has a video on his instagram as well. Then it's just a matter of sewing them together. Dorgmal's instagram also shows some of his behind the scenes process as well so you can see all the work that goes into creating pieces and accessories. He 3d prints and cleans up all the parts/add magnets etc. then hand paints each piece.

here's a link to the video from Dorgmal of how he makes a piece of clothing with his circuit machine: https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5BOGSgsLP/

Ahh, Dorgmal Snow. I miss when he used to post his fantastic creations over at the Old Site. Great stuff.