Brown Petite!

In the second lot of Petite Blythe heads, one poor girl had issues.  Not sure what happened to her but she appeared to be a victim of a botched custom job.  Some of her issues were:  odd paint (did not want to come off even with sanding), no philtrum (it was sanded to a peak), and the left side of the nose was almost sanded flat.  The eye chips were scratched from where someone attempted to pry them out.  I sanded and buffed them to where they look tolerable.

I had sanded a little already to fix her.

I have never carved or sanded down a petite- a little goes a long way.  Her nose was tricky since it had been heavily sanded already.  I think I successfully shaped it to look normal though.

I thought I took a photo before the next step.  I guess I went to do so and got side tracked.

Before MSC.  The body was from a previous experiment. 

(See: From Busty to Flat Chesty)

Final:

MSC makes a huge difference!

Almost finished!

Last weekend I finished up the re-painting of my new custom doll, a brown Blythe.

Unfortunately, the face plates and eye mechanism were not a perfect fit.  I took the mech out and tried to alter it. This did not fix the problem but it relieved some of the pressure on the arch. I decided to take the tbar completely out and hand roll the eyes.  The lids open and close with the pull chords.

I order a lovely piece of Tibetan mohair that in auburn that I plan to make my own wig rather than purchase it.  I think I saved at least half the cost and I get the experience of making my own wigs.  I bought seconds to make smaller wigs for Petite Blythe and R's Little Pullip.

I've decided to keep her eye chips the stock colors to make her   look more stock Blythe-like.

No name yet.  I will think of something soon.

Progress-ish

The paper got caught by the wind.  Fortunately nothing was damaged.

Still pissed over how the paint is spraying.  In this next photo you can see how the paint is speckling. The back plate has been sprayed with MSC already (then I stuck my finger in it GAH), the face plate looks terrible!!

I am going to sand her down again and try respraying her.  Then try it again.  The MSC seemed to even out the back plate's paint and made it look prettier.

When I stuck my finger in the MSC (at right bottom screw hole), it caused a huge wrinkle.  I will be sand that area down again as well.

Every time when I start a painting project I think I've got if figured out.  Well, I don't.  The last time I bought this paint it sprayed nice and smooth.  This can seems to cough it out...

Ugh.  I will make this work.

The Licca is still tacky.  I may strip the paint and get plastic primer.  I should have did that first, but you know, I apparently like to do it the hard way.

I do hope to have this girl together by Monday.  She will be so lovely if everything else goes as planned!

Painting

I always say I'm going to take progress photos and then get into the moment.  I sprayed my head pieces and the Licca body yesterday.  I do not think the Licca is going to work.  The legs felt like they were drying but this morning they are sticky again.

I'm not overly thrilled how the paint is spraying from the bottle.  In fact, it pisses me off considering how much I paid for it.  I'm hoping another coat will even out the overall look.

I will spray the Neemo body today and give the Licca body probably a week dry time.  Since I have 3 body options, I don't feel as rushed to get things finished.

After I painted the face plate, I realized that I did not enlarge the eye sockets to compensate for the painted eye lids.  That will require repainting.  Since the paint is not as smooth as I wished for, I'm going to give her a light sanding before the next coat of paint.  If I'm correct, this is a proper way to paint anyways.

I will attempt to get a photo to insert into this post later.

All the pieces

Every thing is prepped for the Brown Blythe project.  All the pieces have been washed in Dawn (original without Olay- I've made that mistake before, see: Gah, Paint!) and ready for when the paint arrives.  I'm hoping it shows up before Friday, but it is being shipped Fedex so I have my doubts.  For how much I paid for shipping...grumble, grumble, grumble....

I'm starting to get excited!!

I hope to get progress photos.

Sally the Rag Doll

Sally is near completion! 

This photo is much better than the previous ones!

I am more used to photographing at noon than before 8 am.

I still need to finish drawing on her stitches.  

I also have to correct one set of eye chips.  I made a careless mistake and placed a side glance set in the other straight gaze.  It may be stuck in the sockets.  They chips were such a tight fit no glue was needed.

If I cannot get the chips out, I have a black set of Brain Worm chips coming that I will use instead. 

The hardest part will be finding good charms for Sally's pull cords.  This part I thought would be easy! 

I have checked a few stores that typically carry Nightmare before Christmas merchandise, but apparently I missed the boat.  I could have purchases tons of items about 2 years ago!  It is frustrating when this happens.

I plan to order Sally some additional hands.  

Fun!

Gah, Paint!

Once again, paint has been the issue with my custom Blythe. I am transforming Blythe (clone to be specific) into a Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  This time I thought I covered my bases.

I made sure to buy paint that said most plastics, tested it, sanded the Pure Neemo body, washed the body and still disaster.  I even waited between coats- days and even weeks.

I thought I was putting the last coat of paint on yesterday.  I put some pieces together and the paint slid right off.  Gah.

I looked on Flickr and Google for some answers.  I found a nice "How to Paint on Plastic" tutorial and on Flickr observed that someone used plain Krylon (not Fusion) on her Pure Neemo.

So, last night I started scrubbing- yes, scrubbing - off the paint.  It is pealing right off for most part.

I think I figured out the culprit of my disastrous experience.

My husband, daughter, and I went to pick up a few household goods from the store. One of the goods was dish soap.  I grabbed Gain or something.  My husband said he preferred our previous soap.  Guess what it was- Dawn Hand Renewal with Olay Beauty.  

Okay, so I am assuming the soap put a oily lotion film onto my doll body and that is the problem.

Well, that is at least what I am hoping.

I am sanding the rest of the paint off and washing the body with a different soap.

I am going to use Krylon Indoor/Outdoor.

Wish me luck.

Black Custom Experience



First paint job

I have been noticing a lot of search engine hits on my blog regarding to spray painting and removing spray paint.  So, this post will be condensing my experience into one area.

Angelina has been my trial and error doll. I first tried to match paint to a body with no success, second, I tried painting two different bodies (absolute no success), and third, I started over.

I bought a World of Love doll named Soul to place a Blybe (clone doll) head onto it.  The inspiration for this doll was Funny Bunny's Chocolate Pudding
(www.funnybunny.se/dolls).

I could not find Belton RAL spray paint in my area so I tried matching with an enamel spray paint from Hobby Lobby.  The head took the paint perfectly without any trouble.  The body was not even close to a match with the paint.  I tried painting the body with the enamel spray paint after sanding it. 

The paint never dried on the legs.  I removed it with some kind of glue remover, I don't know the name but it was mild.  I resigned to my doll wearing tights forever and then the upper body's paint started chipping.

I tried the same paint on a Ashton Drake body.  I read that the plastic is a bit harder and it holds the paint better.  Well, it was worse than the Soul body with the enamel paint.

I removed the paint from the ADG. I used, I am not going to mention, something that I heard is bad for the plastic in the dolls.

This version of Angelina I did the following:

I used Mineral Spirits to clean and remove left over paint.  Sanded her face and body down. The body received a good scrub with soap and water (make sure it is completely dry before painting). The paint was SEM Color Classic automotive paint.  It is made to repair color to vinyl, plastic, and leather car interior.  I checked with the Sherwin Williams clerk about if it will work on my doll and the answer was it should be perfect for that. 

I sprayed the Coolcat scalp, head plates, and ADG body all at once.  It took about half of a can.  The head and scalp dried nearly instantly.  The body was dry but not cured.  When I say cured I mean it could be touched without leaving prints or wrinkles but it was not ready for heavy work like putting the head on.  I used the scalp about 24 hours after the last spray with no damage or trouble.  The head was attached to the head about 26-27 hours after and this was too soon! 

You can see the scratch

Scratches getting worse

Since the head and body are not the same brands the fit is not perfect.  Unlike the Blythe, Neo and ADG, there was a lot of movement.  This caused the neck to be scratched.  I have touched up the scratches and it is now drying for 2-3 weeks.  If I am busy with other projects, maybe even longer.

Let me write out my disclamer.  I am not a professional.  Please do not try any of this without taking full responsibility of your own actions. If in doubt, don't do it. This was just my experience.

Angelina

The only scratch is around the neck.  The other spots are dust.

I know I said that I was giving Angelina's body 2 weeks to dry, BUT I just could not wait.  I see a little chipping around the neck that I hope to fix later.

She is looking like a complete girl with her hair and new paint job.  I am pretty happy with the outcome.  Once she dries more, I intend to work on styling her long locks some more.  Right now it is back in a clip to tame it.

Sorry for the weird angle shot.  She is still drying from her new spray tan!

The head for my second Black Beauty did not come in yesterday.  I just hope it comes soon since Angelina is practically finished.

Paint Day

I gave up the trial and error process of repainting Angelina. I am now using SEM automotive paint.  The jury is still out on my success.  I am painting in "freckles" and giving 30 minutes between each layer.  I don't know how I am going to wait for 2 weeks (on suggestion) for her to dry!  I am ready to put hair on her!

Something I found while at the Sherwin Williams Automotive Paint shop was gold spray paint! So cool, I think it works like the SEM.  I didn't really check, but it gives me an idea.  Goldfinger!!

As I have mentioned before, I am putting real human hair on my custom dolls I can style them with heat.  I bought a 1/2 inch Mini Cortex Straightening Iron for this purpose.  It works lovely!

Sigh...I am still waiting on my dolly bank head.  I am getting so anxious.  Everyday I think it is THE DAY.  Boo...

Revamping Angelina

I am revamping Angelina. After some consideration I am not happy with her body and head match.  It was very noticable. I tried paint the body with no great success. The paint is chipping and I can't stand how unprofessional it looks. By no means am I a professional doll customizer, but it just looks sloppy. I have inquired on the Flickr group Custom Black Blythes about bodies with no response. I am going to attempt to paint a Azone Neemo

Another change I am making to Angelina is removing the apple green eye chips and eye lashes. The apple green will be place in Penelope my ADG Pinafore Purple. The eye lashes did not stay. I am going to soak the eye lids to remove the glue and try again.

Now, I am creating a new doll. I should have, from the beginning, ordered the paint to match the Soul's body. The up side to it, I will be adding a 9th girl to my collection. Funny, I didn't count my boy! Really my 10th doll! I order another one of those weird Basaak doll banks for her head.

The hair saga still goes on. But, I discovered at Sally's Beauty Supplies that they sell real human hair wefting for a very reasonable price! Enough comes in one package to make about 10 wigs. I am super excited to try this! Since the hair is human, it can be styled with heat.

I am hoping that plans work out. I will keep the updates coming.

Meet Angelina

Meet Angelina! She is a customized Blybe (clone) doll. Funny Bunny, www.funnybunny.se, has a beautiful customized doll named Chocolate Pudding that inspired Angelina.

Angelina's customizations include:

Body transplant; World of Love Soul is the donor
Spray color
Sleepy eyes
Eye shadow
Apple green eye chips
Green and blue eye chips
New eyelashes
Light lip color
Wig

Unfortunately, the color of the body and paint did not match. Now she wears brown tights with every garment.  In the photos she is dressed in vintage World of Love clothing.

Before shot:

Photo by Ebay seller rich_amphai