Dyeing DD Fantasy Skin Tone Project (finished with pics!)

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Update 3/12

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My Aoko is finished, with paint, faceup, outfit and wig!

 

 

 

Unfortunately, one of her wrists broke and I need to reattach it with epoxy putty (coming in the mail. It looks like Coolcat unfortunately only sells DD wrist parts, not MDD wrist parts)

 

A couple notes:

 

1. Leather paint works like a charm on soft vinyl, but not so well on the hard vinyl joints. I think that if I undergo a similar project in the future, I will use dye on the hard joints and using leather paint on the soft vinyl.

 

2. I read in a spray painting tutorial that glossing the joints will make them more chip-resistant. This worked poorly for me - the joints did chip less, but the gloss was sticky and messed up their mobility (hence the broken wrist joint). Verdict: Don't do it.

 

3. Some joints will have the paint rub off no matter what. The most egregious case were the foot joints. No matter what, the sliding tabs on the joints would end up rubbing the paint off. Second worst were the elbow joints. I had no problems with paint rubbing off on the wrist joints.

 

I'm now thinking about my next project (maybe a cyborg MDD using chrome foil?)

 

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Update 1/20

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I decided to go with painting her skin blue, rather than dyeing using RIT dye. The main reason is that I'm not sure I want to chance dyeing an obitsu body, with all of the different types of plastic, on top of a DD head.

 

I read a useful tutorial (link here) on using leather spray paint for vinyl dolls, and I figured I would try it out. Plus, some people on the obitsu forums recommended it as a method that has consistently given good results.

 

I initially thought I would try to use spray paint for vinyl, but decided against it because it seems like the only colors available are grey, greyer, greyest, and midlife crisis sports car red.

 

There aren't a whole lot of good color options in the leather spray paint department, either, but there are some for regular leather paint. Plus, with regular leather paint I can mix colors in a way that I can't with spray paint. I just have to be extra careful with my brushwork to avoid leaving brush marks, and probably do 2 or more coats.

 

I'm using Angellus leather acrylic paint. It's originally designed for leather shoes, handbags, etc, and Amazon reviewers seem happy with it.

 

Here's an image of the test sample I did on the headcap:

 

 

The color is quite a bit brighter than I expected (it's brighter IRL than in the pic), so I ordered some white paint from the same company to help lighten it. I'm also not ready to paint the entire head quite yet (I'm still working on the eye/mouth mods - sanding vinyl really takes a lot out of you! I'll post pics of that when I'm done with them)

 

On the bright side, the paint does seem to work very well. No matter how much I squished and pulled at the headcap, it stayed put - no cracks or chips. I'm very pleased with how well it sticks to the head. I'll see how well it works on the harder DD joints when I paint the matching MDD body this summer.

 

More pics coming soon!

 

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Original Post

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Hi guys,

 

I've been browsing the threads on dyeing DD, and I am interested in dyeing a DDH-01 head a light blue color using RIT dye (I think that the color would look gorgeous with a white wig).

 

I've snagged a white skin DDH-01 from the Volks website. I would also probably do a head mod as well (a pretty basic one, just opening the eyes a bit and sanding down the lips, as I'm not a huge fan of the un-modded DDH-01)

 

I'll probably be putting her on a 40cm ws obitsu body, and dyeing that as well.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Guest

I have no idea what character you're creating, but I have a mighty need to see her when she's done!!!

Thanks - once I get the actual head and start the project I'll post some updates!

 

I'm thinking of a sort of cute/chibi version of a fantasy mage - blue skin, white wig, yellow eyes. I think that the DDH-01 default mouth is too high up on the face, so I'll probably sand it off before dyeing and paint one lower down afterwards.

 

Originally I was thinking about doing a tan dye, but I saw all of these really gorgeous resin BJDs with mint skin (I think they were from Fairyland - pukifee I think and also a really incredible rabbit anthro doll from Depths Dolls)

 

I'm going for more of a light blue than a mint color, just because I've heard that even ws DDs have some light pink tones to their skin. So it'll probably turn out a light periwinkle, which is super-cool, too.

 

I'm really worried about accidentally overdyeing (and making her dark blue instead of pastel), or having trouble dyeing the obitsu body or joints to match.

Ohh! Light blue will look fantastic!!! I can wait to see how it turns out.

I've seen a lavender DD before, made by dying SWS MDD body, but I'm not sure what dye was used. I'd recommend testing a hand or other small part with very short dye time to start. I'd be concerned that some dyes made with a mix of pigments could give an off color - for example blue darkened with black dye may result in a gray doll. I haven't seen a dyed obistu so I'm not sure it'd absorb dye at the same rate as DD vinyl, that could require some careful experimenting as well. Also I'd suggest looking for dyes which are specifically made for polyester or other synthetic fabrics, they seem to get better results for doll dying.

Good luck ^_^

You mentioned you were sanding your 01 head. I think it is possible that the sanded areas will absorb paint differently from the non-sanded areas, giving you a different color. But the leather paint sounds like it is chip and crack resistant for flexible vinyl! Best of luck, and can't wait to see the result.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

Posted project results!

Omg she came out awesome!

She came out great, I love her skin color! She reminds me a little of the blue alien race from the early Daft Punk music videos xD

The color looks great, and I love the eyes you chose for her! Did you end up blending the blue leather paint with the white to make a lighter color?

 

She looks stunning dressed and wigged in white.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

She looks fantastic! Is there any stickiness top having the paint on the vinyl?

Thanks! No stickiness after a topcoat of msc

I've recently been thinking of making light-blue skinned DD as well, it's awesome to see someone has already done it successfully!! She's absolutely beautiful, totally what I would have envisioned for making my own. Maybe I'll PM you for tips sometime in the near future! ;]

Sorry to necro a thread here, but if you're still around, I was wondering how Aoko is holding up with that color?

 

I'm getting increasingly tempted to do this too to get a darker skin tone after seeing how nice your girl came out. Does the paint chip on the body from use or anything? I took a look at the tutorial you posted, but that made it seem like the paint chips off all the time. I would really hope it's not like that! Especially on such a nice blue color like that.

Did you use an airbrush or brush on the face? Wondering cause I'm gonna try this on my doll and I can't get an airbrush lol. If you did use a brush, how did you get it so smooth looking?

Hi! sorry not to reply sooner

 

Aoko's color still looks great. No paint chipping or fading on the body, but there is paint chipping on the joints (esp the feet and elbow joints). Since my girl is usually wearing long sleeves and shoes, it's not really a problem for me. If I were really committed to making sure my doll's joints were the same (ish) color as the soft vinyl body, I would recommend dyeing the joints with RIT dye (perhaps using some extra hard vinyl parts to test the dye color).

 

I used a regular brush with multiple coats of color. I was surprised how smoothly it turned out - I was expecting more of an issue! MSC really is amazing at making any shininess disappear.

Hi! sorry not to reply sooner

 

Aoko's color still looks great. No paint chipping or fading on the body, but there is paint chipping on the joints (esp the feet and elbow joints). Since my girl is usually wearing long sleeves and shoes, it's not really a problem for me. If I were really committed to making sure my doll's joints were the same (ish) color as the soft vinyl body, I would recommend dyeing the joints with RIT dye (perhaps using some extra hard vinyl parts to test the dye color).

 

I used a regular brush with multiple coats of color. I was surprised how smoothly it turned out - I was expecting more of an issue! MSC really is amazing at making any shininess disappear.

 

That's great to hear! I'm glad it stays on well. And thanks for the tip about the joints. I'm still debating if I want to make the jump, but now it definitely seems more tempting to do.

this color looks so awsome very cute face up also by the way ^^