Dollmore and Lovingly Yours, EMS

Third week of March, I went to EMS to pick up my Dollmore package. More or less the same process, only that the old rundown warehouse-type structure where you used to go get packages for customs examination has been moved to the freshly renovated main building (which is the first thing you see when you enter EMS).

Only that so help me god, I cannot for the life of me fathom how they compute for your god damn taxes. I hadn't know by how much Dollmore had marked down my package, but I was hoping my tax wasn't over 1k. Turned out, Dollmore had marked down my package from 44.90 USD to 20 USD. Not bad right? Except my tax was still stupidly unreasonable.

I mean, what is that. Why is that. I kept comparing it to what I had computed last time and I just ???Long story short, if I hadn't had my package marked down, I would've probably paid more than 1k, which is bullshit. And if my package had indeed been 20 USD and I paid 919 Php for tax, that's taxing me almost 100% of what I paid for.

Best. Postal service. Ever.

I'm just glad my runs with EMS will be few and far between. Now, onto Dollmore.

A bunch of hooks for myself and kuya, plus five pairs of My Self Eyes, or the Dollmore DIY eyes.

They're plastic. Nice, low dome eyes that have deep sclera you can color in. Some pairs have really big nubs and noticeable seams, even the clear irises, which posed a bit of a challenge for me, as I didn't want them to scratch in any way. Lovely gunpla folks over at Facebook suggested I polish them. The idea didn't push through, although I'll keep it in mind for future endeavors.

Matte sprayed the sclera so the color would stick. Used copious layers of blue soft pastels and watercolor pencils. Glossed it afterwards before popping untreated irises in.

Didn't turn out as ...bad as I'd imagined. Although I do wish I didn't neglect to at least nip off the nub mark on the clear iris. Because I couldn't fully push it in to fit the sclera well seamlessly. Oh well, lesson learned.

They look good on Honey.

But you can see how the iris is raised from an angle because I couldn't push it in well. I'm proud of them! I really am :) But somewhere along the line, I'll probably get glass eyes. I want just the right color eyes for my crew and until I find nice ones, I'll be making my own.