FAQs

This largely depends on the part. Head bases are printed from PLA, a popular biodegradable plastic that is stiff and fairly sturdy. I am currently in the process of switching to PETG/PCTG as my material of choice - it resists higher temperatures better, and has more of a flex when bent, making it a better choice for masks.
My eye blanks, jawsets, claws and teeth will remain PLA as it's still great as far as smaller parts go - from being able to smooth it with acetone to the numerous color choices. I plan to switch to ABS and resin printing for these in the future - though this will take time.

The ears are printed from a flexible, resistant thermoplastic - more precisely, Noctuo GRIP, a locally sourced filament similar to TPU. You can freely bend it, but it will keep its fixed shape - perfect for both fursuits and animal ear headbands. They are thin enough they're incredibly lightweight, and can't be ripped or otherwise damaged unless you cut into them.
Keep in mind constant, repeated stress (like crushing the ears with a heavy object for hours on end) may still deform this material - be careful.

Not at all. Most of my bases, especially in the smallest form factor, weigh below 0.5 kg/1.1 lb, and jawsets below 0.1 kg/0.22 lb (with few larger exceptions, like the alligator). They print with 2 wide perimeter walls and very little infill - it has no effect on durability, yet makes them lighter; from my experience, the heavier 3D printed bases are usually just thicker and denser than necessary, which I try my best to avoid.

The airflow compares to that of resin masks, and I always leave the nostrils hollow to improve on it. Generally, I don't like to cut holes into my bases; I find they do interfere with the furring process (especially shaving) and lower the general quality of the print. I may consider holes for size large bases at request, as they tend to be much heavier than their smaller counterparts, but at the customer's own risk. While they reduce the weight a bit, I hadn't experienced much of a difference airflow-wise, especially if one opts to line the inside with fabric; even if not, faux fur isn't very breathable in general.

V-hinges are included with every base of mine and already pre-installed, so no need to buy an extra pair. I also include most of the hardware you'll need (bolts, washers and nuts). Springs are not included as I've been struggling to find something with appropriate tension locally, let alone in quantities that let me install them on every head base.

You need to look for extension springs - those with two loops of wire at both ends. Length wise, I'm told 2-2.5 cm (0.8-1") long are optimal, but this might vary - the tension isn't guaranteed to be what you're looking for, and is usually never mentioned anywhere. You might need to go through some trial and error to find a good match.
Otherwise, you can use elastic as a replacement - Crystumes has a good mini tutorial on how to achieve that, give it a go.

Coat the edges of the eyes/the flat areas of a jawset (front/sides) in your glue of choice (I use quick-set epoxy) and seat them in, making sure they stay in place as the glue dries. Scoring the contact points with sandpaper first helps the glue bond to the surfaces. I generally do not recommend hot glue for this as it is too thick and makes proper positioning tricky.
The eyes should click in with a little effort; as for jawsets, the top jaw - or more specifically, its flat top side - should align with the tabs inside the base, and bottom jaw, depending on the base, should either click in (slide in from the back, push down on the front) or will need to be aligned with the top jaw once the former is in place (close the base's mouth as the glue sets). Older bases may be a little more difficult to work with and require some trial and error to install either correctly.
 

You're going to find out a lot of cosplay specific techniques work with 3D printed parts. All prints can be sanded, but PLA resists sanding a bit, so it will take quite a lot of time to get it perfectly smooth this way. A much faster option is a combination of filling and sanding: use a filler primer and a putty for plastics to fill in the print lines, sand down (change the grit to higher as you go), repeat until smooth.
Alternatively, you may use a combination of sanding and acetone (rub it in with a cotton pad/cotton bud/brush vigorously, just don't let your tools stick to the soft plastic) to keep the plastic's original color. It is much more time consuming, but there's no risk of the filler/primer chipping and might save you the headache of painting some parts.

Technically, you can, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially not if you're working with a non-skull head base. Regular head bases are printed with fur and/or fabric in mind, and come "rougher", as the higher layer height ensures the layers bond better and makes for more durable prints. Any part will have faint layer lines, but those are a more extreme case, especially in the nose area. Either way: no matter what 3D printed part are you looking to paint, I suggest you take the time to smooth it down - you'll thank yourself later, as you can even make it appear as smooth as resin casts, eliminating the "3D printed look" altogether.
The only exception are the claws. I recommend ordering them in your desired color and not smoothing or painting them at all - this paint WILL come off as you use your paws. To make them smoother, you can use the sanding/acetone method (see question above) and top it off with some polishing paste.

For large areas, you might want to block out what you don't want to paint with masking tape and use automotive spray paint or an airbrush, if you own one; for painting by hand, I found model colors work the best - cheap, great coverage, huge color selection. Don't forget to seal the paint; varnish will often yellow with time, I've had better luck with clear coats. Recently, I also started using Triple Thick Gloss per StuffedPandaStudios' suggestion - great for sealing fursuit parts/

TPU works the best with flexible super glues, though regular CA glue or even two part epoxy will also be viable - the attachment point itself doesn't have to bend, as you're gluing a flexible part to hard plastic. Hot glue can work for attaching fur/fabric to the ears, but isn't reliable enough to bond them to the base most of the time. I did have some luck using hot glue myself, but I needed to use a high temp hot glue gun and put a lot of pressure on the contact point as it cooled to make it work. As always, you need to rough up the attachment point really well for a good bond - a combination of low grit sandpaper and (carefully) scoring the area with a knife works wonders.

I always line my bases in full. With a black base, you may only line the padding if you want; I wouldn't recommend doing it with a white base - in theory, the inside can be painted black, but personally, I wouldn't do it - the paint might chip off and wear in time, even if you seal it. I use neoprene to line the face part and fleece or minky for the muzzle/front of the jaw. I tape pattern half of each jaw from the inside, draw on a border between the front and back to know where to switch fabrics, take it off, cut darts, transfer it onto my fabrics, mirroring it for the other side, cut and sew. I always tape a little extra around the edges, and much more (about an inch) at the back. This free edge is later blanket stitched to the back of the neck fur.

No, and I don't plan on taking them in the future as customs and edits are anything but fun and fulfilling. I used to regularly take custom orders, and they burnt me out so bad I decided never to do so again. From customers having expectations that couldn't be met because of physical/3D modelling/3D printing limitations to requesting 10+ tiny alterations over the course of many days, it was exhausting and not worth the stress. Any messages about custom orders will be ignored/referred to this FAQ. However, there are a couple small exceptions - see below.

Anything you may pick as an option on my website. This includes realistic head base edits and custom eye mesh designs.
I will also make very simple custom prints that can be modeled in one go - like a smooth half-mask tailored to a base of mine. You may also request me to model/print horns, spikes, fursuit piercings etc. as I already sculpted many of these, I just haven't listed them on my website as I'm unsure how to scale them to keep the pricing simple, but the prints versatile and available in many sizes. Snaggle teeth, tusks, and making a jawset fit a different base than it's intended for are not considered simple - they tend to take hours of messing with high poly geometry, then fixing issues with fitment and model thickness.
Keep in mind none of those alterations warrant progress updates. Sending detailed updates to every single customer would take an insane amount of time.

No. I have no way of knowing what happens to my work once someone else gets ahold of my files - I have already had others try to copy it or request people find my models for free because they "would like to save some money". I could only feel safe in these situations because I never redistributed my models and they have never been uploaded online.
There are plenty of free and paid models from some awesome makers to find online - give them a go instead if you'd much prefer printing your bases yourself.
* The only exceptions from this rule are customers from countries I cannot ship to. In such cases, I will gladly offer them .gcode files adjusted for their settings/printer of choice - feel free to contact me if this is the case for you.
These countries do not include the United States - in fact, most of my orders are sent out to US customers.

I don't have a stock at all in the first place! Everything is custom printed for you and made to order once your turn in the queue arrives.
The "out of stock" alerts are my way of managing my workload - I can only print, prep, and ship out orders so fast as one person with a tiny at-home workshop and since I started getting more orders than I could handle, I had to figure out a way to keep things under control.
I use an addon that automatically sets every item in the store to out of stock until midnight GMT+2 once the daily order limit is set to prevent any more orders from being placed that day. Currently, this limit is 1 - a monthly limit of 28-31 orders is just enough for me not to feel overwhelmed.
If you're looking to place an order but can't, please check in after the reset! Small  orders (1-2 small parts and/or addons to existing large orders) do not count towards the limit; I manually reset the limit for the day in these cases to allow one more order.

If you can't order because the "add to cart" buttons don't show up, I'm most likely taking a break. I take these buttons down when I'm visiting my family, at a con, or otherwise taking a break from fulfilling orders.
In these cases, the reason is usually listed on my site - look around for an announcement bar at the top of the page; I usually also add a pop-up message that shows up as soon as you visit.

All prints are made to order with no actual stock in place. For a general idea of my fulfillment times: eye blanks take up to a week, jawsets up to two, and head bases - up to six weeks, and any exceptions are listed on my front page. Currently, the fulfillment times are closer to two months, though I'm working on shortening my queue.
This doesn't account for the time the postal services take to deliver your order; shipping times vary by country, too.

You should be able to rush your order as you're placing it - there's a little checkbox you can tick when selecting options in a head base listing. If this doesn't work and you're unable to add the base to cart, my rush order limit has been met for the month.
I only accept four rush requests per month, as too many would be unfair to the other customers in the queue. If you need your order fast, please try to order early that month for a bigger chance at scoring a rush slot/email me early in the month to rush a past order (I can upgrade earlier orders as long as I have a rush slot left). Keep in mind rush orders cost an additional 25% of your order value, and no work is sped up until the rush fee is paid.
Otherwise, please try to order way in advance if you need your supplies for a commission/to meet a certain deadline! I try my very best to fulfill orders as fast as possible, but there is only so much I can do and I try to treat every customer equally.

I keep all of my progress on my Trello, with each order assigned a separate checklist. The link is conveniently tied to a large button on the homepage. Orders are organized by the date they were ordered -  use that to find yours. Please do not email or contact me to ask a question easily answered by browsing my Trello ("what is the status of my order?" "has my base been shipped yet?" etc.).

I ship worldwide, though I am limited by the current status of Polish Post and the other carriers - I constantly update the country list in line with their on-site updates. To check if your country can be shipped to, add an item to the cart and checkout - if not, don't hesitate to contact me to try and arrange a different shipping method. If you're determined, I can ship through trusted friends in different countries to reach you even if I can't ship to you directly.

Domestic shipping takes 3 days at the absolute most. As far as Priority Post (Polish Post) goes - for neighboring countries, like Germany and the Czech Republic - usually up to a week. Rest of EU - often up to a week, may take up to two. Rest of world - up to a month, but often less. Keep in mind holidays may affect these estimates.
FedEx and UPS tend to take less - a couple of days to a week in many cases, up to 10-14 days in some.

All shipments, including letters, are tracked; my store should automatically email you a notification as soon as I mark your order as fulfilled. If you don't think you've received it, check your email, including spam, thoroughly as soon as your order is marked as shipped on my Trello - if it's still nowhere to be found, contact me and I'll send you the link myself.

Contrary to what the tracking page might usually tell you, "origin post is preparing shipment", "left the origin country" or similar statuses mean the package is in transit between Poland and its country of destination. This is usually the status that takes the longest to update - it changes once the shipment is registered in your country. Don't worry about it - all you need to do is give it some time.