The Playscale Theater's Mad Scientist's OOAKing Projects

[WhiteDove01s]

I have so many of these it would probably be uncomfortably spammy to start threads for all of them, and I don't work on my projects one at a time... it's more like factory line method. One day I'll do some beheadings, another day (if I have time) I'll do some painting, and so on. So it seems best to have one thread to share all the pics of all the dolls in progress. Tho, not all at once. It took a chunk of my free time one day to get pics, and most of today's to edit em so they were all right side up and not ginormous (I am not good at taking pictures, and just now noticed Imgur has an auto-resize... tho since I had to crop and turn most of em anyway it wasn't much extra to do that then.), and then trying to get them onto Imgur. If I take it slow I might be able to keep up (and maybe get more useful feedback that way.) And since there's been a lot of interest in the Ghost Dancer, I'll start with her.



Here are the current parts for this project. The Spectra Vondergeist doll was one of the leftovers from the boxes the EO gets for her collection. I basically get anything broken, missing parts, doubles, stained, whatever she doesn't want. In this instance, the doll had a duct-tape bathing suit and that not-so-charming buzz cut (it's shorter in the back, trust me... this is her best angle). I temporarily slapped an old Barbie ballerina dress on her (fits like a sack, I know) as a reminder of plans and to mentally get used to the character. I'm probably going to mostly use the white hair (one other character needs a couple short streaks of it), with a little of the silver and maybe nickel mixed in. Still not completely decided (there are two other characters sharing the grey and silver, too, but they don't need all of it). I'm planning to redo her in mostly ghostly light monochrome. White, greys, and silver, with the pupils and maybe just the eyeliner left black. Still deciding. I have some patterns for ballerina outfits for other sized dolls, but will be looking for a MH bathing suit or bodice pattern (I have some leads there, just not the time to go hunting now) to rework to make the new pattern for her clothes.

The Ghost Dancer is one of the Nightmare Court from D&D Ravenloft. She is said to haunt the dreams of people feeling large amounts of guilt, possibly seeking clues to the cause of her own death. This being D&D and Ravenloft, encounters with her are potentially fatal. But this girl is being relocated to the Mosaic project, so she'll be learning to work within the rules of that reality's dreamscape as one of the Nightmaren there.

Nightmares have their place too, after all.

[DollyKim]

Can't wait to see.

[maywong]

Which color are you going to use?

[WhiteDove01s]

Which color are you going to use?

Probably the white hair mostly, with a sprinkling of the silver and maybe a little of the nickel, kind of like a reverse of sun streaks. I'm thinking that would give it a little depth instead of being too much one shade. I'm still considering length and whether to put it up in a bun, leave it loose, or do a messy bun like it's falling down. I know a trick for doing buns (I put my own hair up that way if it'll be in the way) but I'll probably have to go practice with some bread ties on some of the other dolls to see which would be the best length if I do that.

Update:

Here's another pile of parts in progress.



Jeannie is already on a Liv body, and is probably getting wigs instead of rooting so they can be changed around. (She likes to play with hair dye, that one, and the hair lying there isn't all the colors and variants I want to cover. In fact, it'd go together on just one wig!). The superstar head is because I wanted to try to make an 'alternate' head for her with a more excited and grinning expression (I used to call the Superstar head the "Stepford Smiler" before I knew the usual name), but I'm still not sure it'll work out or not. There are some mold differences besides the smile, but I'm still somewhat hoping they'll look like the same character with different expressions once all the paint is on. Especially since the Superstar head will be getting a LOT of paint. Let's just say the skin tone ain't gonna matter. The main head (on the Liv body) is just in for an eye color change. While she goes by a different name these days in the Mosaic Continuity, I'm curious as to whether anyone can guess a name she used to go by...

[WhiteDove01s]

Ok, the pace at which I'm actually getting things done (there have been multiple beheadings and eyeball repaints over the last couple days) is outpacing my getting pictures up, so I hope no one gets upset by the doublepost and pic spam as I try to catch back up to at least some of the pics I have off the camera and on imgur already.


These all go to one project, as my Duela doll is going to have two swappable heads to deal with the makeup changes. I also plan on doing wigs with this one instead of rooting for the same reason as with Jeannie. Neither will pick a hair color and stick with it (tho both have their preferred shades and variations).


I already had this head's eyes repainted green. I don't do that the way I've seen most OOAKers do where they wipe all the paint with acetone. For one thing, my room doesn't have much ventilation so I try to avoid anything with nasty fumes. For another, it's a lot easier for me to paint over the factory paint for things like eye color changes as that way I don't have to depend on my own (rusty and never good with proportions) artistic skills.


With the mess above I'm taking a bit of artistic liberty with the character. The source media they're from, the character didn't have a nose. But I think using EA High will get them close enough to look like themselves, and given that they're a dream creature just about anything goes anyway (like using the female EAH body because the face is a good starting point, despite that the character themselves is technically genderless). I'm still pondering the hair as a style was never canonically shown (and for all we know the hats didn't come off), but the Mosaic plans for these characters have a few things in their future that... really aren't relevant to the OOAKing other than I know what hair colors might happen. With the dolls above a head swap was pending as I wanted the body without molded on leggings, but had already started OOAKing the other head long before I got that one. (the newer body had no hands, which I already swapped over before taking the picture).


Here's the little bit I'd done to the face so far, mostly to give them a more androgynous look. I'm still debating whether I'll be doing a repaint on the eyes to give them cat/slit pupils


NiGHTs is kind of in a set with Reala just above, and again I wanted no molded on tights, but I wanted the smiling face. There's also a reroot planned here, but you see no hair sitting nearby... this is because I plan to save the hair I take off and reroot them with just the aqua color in a shorter style. I'm pretty sure there will be enough for that. Again, I am undecided as to whether to make the eyes slit-pupiled. And if anyone can suggest where to get possible non-glove hands that match the skin tone? Just in case? (because there are gloves with the outfit for this anyway, but I might want to dress them in something besides their canon appearance someday)


Jack here could be considered part of a set with Jeannie and Duela. Again I'll be doing two swappable heads for makeup reasons, and probably wigs for hair changes.


This one is easy. Evie is just getting stuck onto the body to her right, and her eyes will be repainted light blue to match her sister's (Jeannie up there). In fact, she's done now, so as soon as I get pics done she can go on the other thread instead.


And now that Mikoto has lost the body she's on here, she's waiting to go on the Obitsu one instead (I just need to find where I put the tiny screwdriver for changing the neck peg...)


Does it even really count as an OOAK if the doll is a close enough match that all Eddie here needs is a shave and character-appropriate clothing? BTW, has anyone seen a tutorial anywhere on how to make a 1/6 scale bowler hat?


This plan still has some problems. I want to give Gilda, on the left, the hair I'll be taking off Natalia, to the right, just in a shorter bob. Then Natalia's going to get the black hair on the cheapo head next to her. There are also eye recolors and such. The problem is that I have yet to find a poseable body that matches Gilda's skin tone. She's one of those older beach barbies, apparently (and arrived with that hack-job haircut). I'd prefer her average or petite to taller, but am still hunting for parts there.


While I had a picture and am going to go ahead and share it, this one has mostly gone back to the Hunting For Parts stage. I'm just not satisfied with that head mold for the character, and I'm also still considering one more color of hair ordered to try to get just the right "almost black dark red" thing going on. What can I say, Jason has always been difficult...


Here's my little old lady Denia. The wrinkles were done with a dremel and the chinline built up with 100% latex all-purpose caulk. Tho I doubt they considered doll modification one of those purposes. She's finally getting hair, a finish to her faceup, and a change to a different body that should suit her better.

And last picture for now, until I get more up...

I have to repair this guy's ankle because his foot broke off when he fell off a shelf. In addition, Kuja needs eye color and hair color changes and appropriate clothing. And possibly a tail...

[maywong]

I love the old lady. Do you have a tut on how you did her?

[WhiteDove01s]

I love the old lady. Do you have a tut on how you did her?

Sadly, no I don't. I did have a (very poor quality) video on youtube of a little of the dremel work, but I took it down when the whole Coppa thing gave me panic attacks. None of my older vids there are going back up until I find a way to edit disclaimers onto them. I do have some old pictures tho, and I remember mostly what I did... (and covering this also covers me on not having any more pics to share just yet because of a really late day.)

I don't know what the doll was I started with, just some blond barbie. Tho she did have jointed arms and green/blue eyes. This is the only pic I have of before I got started.


I marked with regular graphite pencil where wrinkles would go, or anywhere else I wanted to thin things up a bit, while looking at references.


And then I got out my dremel. I used a sharp diamond sanding bit and a light touch to slowly carve the wrinkles into her.

After that I got out my go-to modelling stuff for dolls - all purpose latex caulk. If you get the paintable acrylic latex (not silicone) then it's more or less the same vinyl as the doll head, or at least it used to be. (my tube is several years old.) It starts off too soft and really tricky to work with, and starts getting firmer and drying fairly quickly, so requires a bit of quick work. Also to keep it from sticking to fingers it's good to have some soapy water nearby. If you dip your fingers in that the caulk usually won't stick to them. Sculpting tools could probably be used as well, but I just used my fingers for this one. I've also used little dabs of caulk to fill in smiley mouths and make fuller lips, and I've considered it as a possible fix for a part split but still haven't tested that yet. Here's when the work was first done:


I painted just the white bits with Accent Country Colors Acrylic #2448 Apricot Stone, which isn't a perfect match for the rest of the head but it IS a passable match to the body I'm going to put her on, so luckily I think I have enough left to paint the whole face when I do the rest of her faceup. (The color is discontinued, sadly)

More on the caulk, once that stuff is on there it fuses to the doll vinyl to the point where I can pinch the doll head and it deforms with it. I've put her on and off bodies and the chinline alteration isn't coming off. It feels like it was always part of the mold. If it wasn't for the difficulty of matching skin tones with paint I'd do it more often (and given that I recently found that RestoreDoll has barbie-matched paints for at least some older dolls, I might...)

[WhiteDove01s]

A whole round of eye color (mostly) painting. I have a 48 color Liquitex Basics acrylic set. I use a special brush (called the "Psycho" brush) that's actually meant for D&D and wargamer minis, and I wear 6x over-the-counter reading/magnifying glasses when painting doll eyes. I can't work on them too long at a time, and usually have a bit of a headache from the eyestrain when I'm done. The tiny eyes are NOT easy and there were a lot of WWE girls in this - They have some the tiniest eyes I've EVER painted, tho the head I'm using for Kuja and the various "ken" heads come close. Based on just eyes, I can understand why so many people like to do the MH and EAH dolls instead. XD

Evelyn/Evie now has blue eyes:

Which makes her done.

And her sometimes-sister (it's complicated) Jeannie has eyes the same color:


But I don't know if the swap-head for Jeannie is going to work out.


I may just try to track down another 'close-mouth skipper' head in any skin tone and give up on having a grin on the swap head. I'll finish it and see, though, it may yet surprise me despite the wonky start. After all, I'm nowhere near done on the makeup for it.

Both of Jack's heads have green eyes:


As do both of Duela's:


New project in the lineup, I picked up this Kid Kore doll because I thought she'd make a good adult Luna Lovegood.


I'll be looking for a possible poseable body match, and of course that ruined nest of hair has to go even if I'll be replacing it with pretty much the same color.

Mikoto gets the old Obitsu body and is pretty much done after I get to styling her hair and making appropriate clothing. And a tail, because she doesn't hide hers.


It's great when they make a doll that already looks like a different character to me and I don't have to do much extra work. Except the tail. I've heard of using chenille/pipe cleaner stems? I guess I need one in kind of a honey-blond. XD Do they come in extra floofy these days? That would look even better...

Anyhow, Pammy now has green eyes (and these are SO tiny! I had a migrane after all this).


And while this project is starting from the same base doll, my little 1/6 "fire elemental" has eyes that are a mix of yellow and blue that just look green-ish:


I have some major plans for that one's hair that could take a good long while to gather all the wanted bits for. But some other projects I'm considering could share some of the colors, which helps.

Natalia now has very dark blue eyes, the flash here made them look lighter:

This is closer to the tone, but the picture came out fuzzy:


My Diana (with a different head) got blue eyes to match the comics better. This pic came out fuzzy too. I don't know if I did something wrong or if the batteries were going.


I used the official wonder woman mold for Donna instead, now also with blue eyes (last fuzzy pic for a while, I hope)


Two more projects in the queue: Virginia (making use of the head of the other WWE twin) on the left will be getting the body her head is sitting on, while the Stacie there is in line for just a repair/upgrade to the gymnast body I got for her. (After which she will be going back to my Barbie Characters section with Whitney, to wait for Janet and Todd to arrive in the mail.) Plans are for them to share the beautiful darker blond salvage hair in the baggie between them, tho if it comes down to it Virginia gets priority (and if I just run a little short, I'll sun-streak Stacie's with another color XD)


Virginia's eyes have already been repainted with an aqua green and sky blue mix, tho I think I may someday go back and put a little more of the green in them


Kuja's eyes are now blue and silver

And after a moment's thought I went ahead and silvered his eyebrows to match his pending hair.

(No, the head didn't change color, I think the flash did that)

And I've started monochroming the Ghost Dancer. Her eyes and lips are now grey, and I went over them with silver:

Some of the makeup will be coming off later and I noticed after getting the rest of the hair off that there's a purplish spot on her forehead. I don't know if it was a factory thing or if somehow her hair managed to stain her. Either way, it'll need dealt with, probably when I go to alter the makeup and remove parts of it.