Brown DDH-06 Project

(Heads up on doll nudity in here to show the paint work. So technically NSFW. Just thought I'd add that.)

 

So I'm trying out the method that orlien tried out on their blue MDD girl seen here; viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13721 But with the addition of RIT dyeing the joints. Since changing the colors of one's DD or vinyl dolls in general isn't done often, I'll do my best to dobleepent everything I'm doing here for those who would also like to try this method out for themselves. (So yeah, long post ahead...)

 

The head in this project is a modded DDH-06, and the body is a Parabox 45cm male.

 

Materials I'm using;

A flat brush(Size 5, I think...Not an expert there, the label chipped off. I tend to eyeball my brushes lol.)

Angelus Leather Paint - Vachetta, Light Brown, White

RIT Dye(Undecided on colors atm)

MSC Flat UV Cut

70% isopropyl alcohol

Paper towels and q-tips(for removal and cleanup where necessary)

 

(New Pictures at the bottom!)

 

For reference, I'm using their vachetta color only now.

 

A few notes that I already have about Angelus paint so far that are worth noting;

 

- It feels very plastic-y, but that makes covering brush strokes very easy, similar to enamel paints. The downside, dust LOVES this stuff, and it is sticky until it dries. Watching for specks of things is a must so they don't get in between layers.

 

-I didn't like the first color I tried to mix, so I wiped it off with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Doing so actually smoothed the paint out when it was done lightly with a paper towel. It blended brush strokes really well. Just make sure to do it lightly. Or you may have to repaint the area if you take too much paint off.

 

-The colors need to be adjusted quite a bit(If you're using browns, it seems.) The more layers that are done with this paint, the darker the shade gets. When the paint is being applied, it will look like a color I want, but then it will dry darker.

 

I'm finding that a thin layer that has the true color will sadly not work on the soft vinyl parts of the Parabox body. The first coat will come out splotchy and uneven. Meaning more layers are required to even out the color. By building layers, an even color can be achieved after about 4 or 5 coats. But the color will be a bit darker. The hands of the body, however, do take to the paint evenly with no issues.

 

The head also takes to the paint very well. Only needing more like 3-4 coats, but it will have to be matched to the shade of the body if many coats were used. No splotches when applying it onto the DDH-06 or the headcap. A very smooth experience!

 

But for the record, I will point out that the head is unsealed. It's heavily damaged already, so staining isn't a concern to me. I imagine though that the paint would still take to a sealed head just fine. If not better. Same for the body. So I'm not recommending that you skimp on sealant here if your head is still "good". Sealant is still going to be involved at the end. No one wants paint chipping!

 

The torso, hands, and feet of the body are also unsealed. I wanted to get to work right away, so I was willing to sacrifice those parts because they're not too hard on the wallet to replace if I ever needed to for some reason(Honestly can't think of a reason right now.) The arms and legs will be sealed before painting though.

 

BUT I will also be sealing an extra hand part later and painting it just to see if it comes off cleanly for you guys. Same with a DD headcap, so we can know how reversible this method is. That one will take time though, I plan on leaving the paint on for at least a week if not more. Leaving the paint on the unsealed head about about 2 hours did turn it a bit of an orange shade when it was removed. So be aware of that!

 

Finally some pictures of progress so far(Can't hide it anymore, Miles is the one getting a skin color change Surprise everyone?):

The color looked a little different in natural light and it surprised me! The paint is shiny now, but that will be taken care of with a topcoat of MSC Flat. The paint is also water-resistant, so if you sketch out your faceups with watercolor pencil like I do, you can still wipe it off with water and the paint underneath is fine after it's dry. Was just testing it out.

Comparison shot of the bottle of paint to the color. Mostly the same, just a little darker. Let that be a lesson, listen to the color sample Angelus has on their website and not the picture of the physical bottle! It did come out the color they had in the corner. I thought maybe it would come out a little lighter/more yellow and just like the paint inside, I was wrong! The next steps will have to wait for the weather to clear though. Which hopefully won't take too long.

 

I'll get to the dye portion of this at a later time after the main parts of the body are finished! I hope this post can be helpful to those wanting to jump into a mod like this, or just those who want more information about it. Thanks for reading so far!

Edited January 21, 2017 by Guest

Thank you for dobleepenting this!

I'm really interested in this, as Volks seems to be holding back on the tan skin - _ -

 

Can't wait to see the pictures!

And even then...I'm not sure Volks' tan even looked very dark? Could just be their stock photos though. Anyway, pictures have been added here, hopefully he doesn't look too orange.

OH WOW! This looks amazing! I really can't wait to see the full finished color. He looks a little glossy though, I suggest you spray him with MSC Matte(or flat not sure which one but I am sure it's matte) to get rid of the shiny look.

Yay Miles! I figured it was him since you mentioned Parabox 45cm.. and neither Kaito nor Noxx seem to need a skin color change. xD That's all Vachetta right? It looks like an AMAZING color for brown! I have no idea how it matches up to Volks tan, but it looks wonderful. It looks very neutral to my eyes--not too orange at all! I also want to say that I LOVE how Miles's sweet smile still shows through even though his faceup only has guidelines right now. Such a precious child. ; u ;

 

Thanks so much for dobleepenting this btw! I'll be looking forward to your progress~ I've already decided on dye for my own full body skin color change adventures, but your results make me want to try this on the legs of my heavily modded first girl. I'm not going for tan with her though, I just want a reasonable match to Volks normal/Obitsu whitey. Her project's been stalled because of various reasons. I wonder if the Angelus paints will look the same on epoxy as vinyl..

 

I hope you don't mind me saying that Miles kinda reminds me of a younger Arturo now! Especially if he keeps the same color wig.

Mario: Yup, MSC Flat UV Cut is already in the equation. That will fix the glossiness when it's time to topcoat. Glad he looks good so far though!

 

elianti: It's all vachetta indeed! I do really like it in natural light. It looks a bit strange under my room's light, but then again, so does everything. Yellow light isn't flattering to anything color-wise.

 

I'm glad Miles is still Miles through the change! It's sort of a change back. He originally had a color like this in his first draft design, but I had to change it because of availability of parts. I may keep his wig, I may not. It's a bit too red now, he originally had a darker color anyway. Though I had a hard time finding the right color.

 

I've never worked with epoxy personally, but I would think it would become an even color eventually with enough layering over it? Though I don't know how acrylic paint reacts to it to begin with. If you do try it, I hope you can make a good match! I would think they have enough color selection to be able to mix something similar to a Volks or an Obitsu color. I'll be watching out for your experience with the dye too though! I'm also excited to see how that comes out.

 

And I don't mind at all! I think Miles would find that similarity fascinating!

Haven't updated in a while. Miles has had his faceup redone and his arms painted. Now he just needs his joints dyed and a topcoat of MSC and he'll be good to go! Though I may re-do his blushing a bit though. May be a bit red. Not sure yet. We'll see!

 

Miles is looking so good! His blushing looks fine to me, but I am curious about how his tan skin paint fares after a faceup removal. Does everything come off cleanly? I've been doing dye tests on my days off and finding the right combination of dyes that won't just fade into a dull, slightly-browner-than-original color a week later is pretty challenging.

 

I did try dyeing some spare Obitsu ankle joints, and sure enough everything but the ball-shaped joint cover things took to the dye really(too?) well, at least with a disperse dye like iDye Poly. You may be able to undo some overdyeing if you wipe parts down with pure acetone soon after. It completely removes uneven dye on the joint covers, though it also left that temporary sticky feeling that makes me think that it may also be melting the plastic... welp;;

I would think his faceup can't come off without removal of the paint below it to a degree too...It's just acrylic on acrylic(I just use watercolor pencil to draft. I paint over it.) so I would think the alcohol I use to remove faceups would wipe his tan color too. His headcap is unpainted though, so I actually could test it out with that later to find out.

 

That's good to know about the dye though! Luckily I actually don't use the joint covers. I don't really even know if I have any for Miles...I think Kaito may have been the only one I got that came with some. I hope RIT works just as well...since it's also a disperse dye... I just have to get my color mixing right.

Do you have anywhere you're posting your dye progress too? I totally want to see for myself how the color is coming out!

 

And I hope the acetone isn't melting anything! Acetone is definitely something I don't mess around with for my DDs/Obitsus...I just keep it around when I wipe paint off MLPs and things like that.

Ahh, that really sucks if the paint below his faceup gets removed too, but I guess it wouldn't be surprising.. ><" I remember that one time while partially removing a faceup I was able to keep practically all of the first layers I wanted to leave intact, probably because they were covered in layers and layers of MSC by that point. xD;;

 

Oh, by 'joint covers' I mean stuff like the parts of the ankle and elbow joints on Obitsu 40-50cms that make up the ball. xD I'm not the most eloquent when describing things LOL;;; That reminds me I put in those screw cover things on my 60cm years ago and still cant get them out. It doesn't bother me much though. xD

 

About disperse dye, the only RIT disperse dye is RIT dyemore, not the regular liquid and powder versions(I think they're called union dyes???). It seems like most people who did use regular RIT before were able to get good results but apparently RIT changed their formula somewhat recently and now the better RIT to use is dyemore. iDye Poly works well so far, but I'd be careful with their brown(it's a dark, GREENish brown in my tests!) I posted one dye experiment picture on my instagram, but I'll be making a thread about my dye adventures once I dye Elia's actual body.

 

I actually use acetone for removing faceups and other stuff, so I'm not too scared of using it! I have a pretty big acetone-related thread coming up here once I get some pictures uploaded...

That's true about the sealant...Since I use 70% alcohol, maybe it WOULD come off fine if there were layers in between. It is pretty weak against MSC. I have more tests to run, it seems. Glad I keep junk parts from modding gone wrong around so they can be put to good use.

 

Oh, my bad for misunderstanding lol! That does make me a bit glad I didn't use them, though. I got scared that they would get stuck and I would need to tighten or loosen a screw or something!

 

Maybe I was reading wrong about disperse dye. I do tend to do a lot of my research on these things late at night lol. I didn't hear they changed the formula lately! >_< That throws a wrench in things. I was going with RIT powder because I saw others had good results from it. And it had more color variety. If iDye is going more on the side of green, I may just give the new RIT powder dye a go just to see what happens on my test parts. If that fails...then I think I'll go to the Dyemore. I'm just not 100% on what colors I'd need to mix in that one to get a similar color...Then lastly I think I'd go iDye poly. I think I just stay away from it because I know so much less about it lol. I'll be eagerly awaiting both the dye and acetone threads! I do really want to see how thing went with both of those things! It sounds really interesting!