Custom DDS - VTuber Kaguya Luna

I don't speak Japanese so I could never understand Kaguya Luna, but her design caught my eye and her energy was contagious.
When DDS Kizuna Ai came out, I was excited thinking that Luna might get one too. Sadly, Luna "retired" and I think the chances of an official DDS are now zero.

Her official design:

Spoiler

 

With an official Luna extremely unlikely, I started planning a custom so my Kizuna Ai can finally have her Tsuki-chan.

Body: Volks DDS Base Body (DD-f3) / Flesh
Matches the size and color of Kizuna Ai.

Bust: Volks DDS-B-02F / L Bust (Flat Version) / Flesh
I was torn between M and L. Decided on L due to the chest window.

Outfit: Dollremi Cos Virtual YouTuber Kaguya Luna (DD0438) custom made for DDS - L bust
Already on order.

I have not yet figured out her head, wig, eyes, and shoes. I would appreciate some guidance on how to figure these out.

opportunity...

 

1 hour ago, 313C7 said:

Sadly, Luna "retired" and I think the chances of an official DDS are now zero.

Out of the Mika Pikazo designed vtubers the two freelancers (?) Luna and Pinky Pop Hepburn did retire, although Hakos Baelz that came later continues through Hololive.

A nearest "official" volks release out of Pikazo art might be Sei Shounagon out of FGO, that shares the distinctive primary color style, but is a fairly obscure character I think.

As for bits and bobs for a custom, Luna is most definately an L-bust compared to Ai as an M.  if you are feeling anarchistic, straigthening out the curls from a Ranko Kanzaki default wig might be a suitable shade of proper twintail wig in silver.

in terms of a head the biggest question would be that will you get a blank head face-upped, or are you looking for something to re-shell? for blanks I suppose the 07 / 09 range might be suitable, depending on which size suits better (the 07 was a bit bigger if I recall correct? or both compared to usual DD heads)

a quick recap on whats available from manda at the moment, maybe a xenosaga Momo has the eye details closest, on a old DD3 DDS body. though the basic expression might be a bit mild depending on what kind of Luna you are after.

Edited January 6, 2023 by finnleo

On 1/6/2023 at 5:40 PM, finnleo said:

if you are feeling anarchistic, straigthening out the curls from a Ranko Kanzaki default wig might be a suitable shade of proper twintail wig in silver.

That definitely looks about the right color and size. Not sure I want to alter another character's wig though. I'll browse around and see what I can find.

 

On 1/6/2023 at 5:40 PM, finnleo said:

in terms of a head the biggest question would be that will you get a blank head face-upped, or are you looking for something to re-shell? for blanks I suppose the 07 / 09 range might be suitable, depending on which size suits better (the 07 was a bit bigger if I recall correct? or both compared to usual DD heads)

I figured I was going to have to have a head modified slightly. I do want her to have a nice smile. I thought about her "snarling" face with the claw-like hands.

I'm probably biting off more than I can chew trying to get it right on the first try of my first custom. I should probably start with an unmodded/unpainted DDH-07 to put her together, then decide on the changes I want to make.

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

On 1/10/2023 at 8:10 PM, 313C7 said:

I'm probably biting off more than I can chew trying to get it right on the first try of my first custom.

Well, when doing customs, it helps to keep in mind that you dont have to make a home-run in your first outing.

One of my custom character projects has snowballed just in the planning stage into a full custom body that needs to be 3D printed if I want to do it proper, so yea.. ambitions can be interesting in this sense.

The expression is going to be the biggest thing, since even most Pikazo art of Luna has a big teethy grin, or open mouthed smile, but probably worth experimenting perhaps with photoshop (slide-in-joke: other brands of image manipulation also available) once you get the raw pieces together, or find a suitable picture of a blank head to play with

Edited January 11, 2023 by finnleo

Its been a year since I got the outfit and I finally ordered a DDS Karin body.

Luna's outfit turned out far better than I thought. The hairband isn't great. I will need to have actual hair clips made.

Unfortunately, her right knee seems to be warped (left as viewed in the photo). It causes her lower leg to bow outward. Not sure if something can be done about it.

 

Now comes the expensive part: Commissioning artists for a faceup, eyes, and wig. I'm still not sure what head to use for Luna.

This is incredible work! I'm impressed with all the detail in the outfit, did you make it or commission it?

Honestly, Kaguya Luna's hair and eyestyle are common enough that you could probably get a reasonable facsimile without having to get them custom-made. If you want it as accurate as possible, I've seen people print out eye designs on temporary tattoo or sticker paper, cut closely around the eye design with a bit of margin, and paste them to a blank white eye base.

5 minutes ago, PlasticJester said:

This is incredible work! I'm impressed with all the detail in the outfit, did you make it or commission it?

I found it on Dollremi. At the time they only had it for Smart Doll but I reached out to them and they were willing to make one for DDS. Looks like they offer it in DD3 and DDdy now.

A DDdy body would make sense for Luna, but I'm happy I used a DDS body with the shapely L bust. I wanted her to match Kizuna Ai's height.

I think I'm going to get the wig next. That will help me better decide what to do with the eyes and head.

4 hours ago, 313C7 said:

I found it on Dollremi. At the time they only had it for Smart Doll but I reached out to them and they were willing to make one for DDS. Looks like they offer it in DD3 and DDdy now.

A DDdy body would make sense for Luna, but I'm happy I used a DDS body with the shapely L bust. I wanted her to match Kizuna Ai's height.

I think I'm going to get the wig next. That will help me better decide what to do with the eyes and head.

@313C7 I saw this wig and thought it might be close to what you were looking for: https://nemurumori.booth.pm/items/2664258

Her outfit is super cute and Karin’s sculpt works great for her!

Edited March 19 by chantelle

On 3/19/2024 at 6:39 PM, chantelle said:

@313C7 I saw this wig and thought it might be close to what you were looking for: https://nemurumori.booth.pm/items/2664258

Thanks for the link! The silvery white color is spot-on and the style is just about correct. Probably would pull the ribbons out of it.
Now I just need to figure out how to order from Booth...

 

On 3/19/2024 at 6:39 PM, chantelle said:

Her outfit is super cute and Karin’s sculpt works great for her!

I'm still looking to change the head. I reached out to the faceup artist I want to commission and they recommended a DDH-06 with an open mouth mod. She was quite loud mouthed so I'm thinking that would be a great fit for her.

11 minutes ago, 313C7 said:

Thanks for the link! The silvery white color is spot-on and the style is just about correct. Probably would pull the ribbons out of it.
Now I just need to figure out how to order from Booth...

You can order directly if you make an account! I set my shipping address to my Tenso address (basically a service thats like a PO box so you have a Japanese address).

Alternatively you can ask a proxy service to purchase it for you like Buyee and Zenmarket.

14 minutes ago, 313C7 said:

I'm still looking to change the head. I reached out to the faceup artist I want to commission and they recommended a DDH-06 with an open mouth mod. She was quite loud mouthed so I'm thinking that would be a great fit for her.

That sounds super cute! 😃 

3 hours ago, 313C7 said:

Now I just need to figure out how to order from Booth...

As @chantelle mentioned above, it shouldn't be too difficult to order from booth via a proxy. They offer full buyee integration for most shops anyway.

If you already have a Pixiv account, you can also use that one for booth. - They're a subsidiary.

Edit:

On 3/20/2024 at 2:41 AM, 313C7 said:

Unfortunately, her right knee seems to be warped (left as viewed in the photo). It causes her lower leg to bow outward. Not sure if something can be done about it.

My Kyrie had that too when I got her. It's basically just the vinyl shell twisted around the shin peg in a weird way. You should be able to twist it around a bit to look more natural again.

Edited March 22 by Tierparkzone

On 3/21/2024 at 4:14 PM, chantelle said:

Alternatively you can ask a proxy service to purchase it for you like Buyee and Zenmarket.

I did manage to order the wig through Buyee. Unfortunately, they cancelled the sale. Looks like I'll have to find a similar wig elsewhere.

 

Been chatting a lot with the faceup artist getting all the details finalized. Hopefully not much longer before they can start working on it.

3 hours ago, 313C7 said:

I did manage to order the wig through Buyee. Unfortunately, they cancelled the sale. Looks like I'll have to find a similar wig elsewhere.

It looks like this particular seller is based in Taiwan. Possibly, Buyee only likes to proxy stuff that's directly from Japan? Did they give any reason for the cancellation?

Maybe you can contact the seller and find a way to buy directly from them?

It’s probably that note about import taxes at the bottom of the listing, even though I don’t think a ¥5800 wig would trigger any tax. If it did, Buyee would have to pay it and risk the buyer not reimbursing them (even though @313C7 is probably not the type to do that).

11 hours ago, Tierparkzone said:

Did they give any reason for the cancellation?

The cancellation email said "<<Please contact Buyee Customer Support for details.>>" which I did. A few days later they replied and explained it was because it was coming from overseas.

I might still reach out to the seller to see if they will be willing to sell it outside of Booth.

 

10 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

It’s probably that note about import taxes at the bottom of the listing, even though I don’t think a ¥5800 wig would trigger any tax. If it did, Buyee would have to pay it and risk the buyer not reimbursing them

I had created my account shortly before ordering so I can understand why Buyee would be more cautious.

They seem to have an international site here.

Edit: It was just reposted on their official Twitter so it’s not a scam site.

Edited Monday at 10:17 AM by ragnamuffin