Custom painting/dyeing an Obitsu 11

Hiya! I've got a project in mind that I'm not quite sure how to tackle, so I figured I'd check and see if anyone else with more experience with Obitsu 11 modifying (or doll modifying in general) would have any expertise that might help.

I'm currently in the process of commissioning a custom head for an Obitsu 11, but the body I'm getting doesn't match the skin tone of the head. I figure there's got to be some way to paint or dye the body so that it matches, but my experience in customizing dolls and figures is limited. Anyone had any luck?

Also, this is probably going to sound so dumb, but what is MSC? I saw it mentioned a lot in the research I've done so far but can't find anything on it aside from that it's used as a sealer, I think.

Thanks so much!

MSC stands for Mr. Super Clear; it's a brand of sealant sold by Volks that works well with vinyl dolls. From what I've heard, some other sealant brands such as Testors (what I use for my resin dolls) don't cure properly on vinyl. It may be hard to get ahold of if you're outside Japan or the US, because aerosols can't be shipped by plane.

You can dye the body, but it might be difficult to get it to match the head perfectly. How different a color are they?

If the head is one of the official Obitsu colours (natural, whitey and super whitey), I would just buy another body in that colour. They’re cheap enough that it’s not worth driving yourself nuts trying to get the colour to match.

If the head is being painted a custom colour or the hue is off because of the faceup, there are a few people on this forum that have dyed vinyl before, but it sounds like a labour intensive undertaking. I think @MaleficentMrsofEvil had a vinyl dyeing project going at one point?

Oh, I don't know how I didn't pick up on that sooner considering I've used other Mr. Hobby products before. Thanks!

As for the color, the base body is white, but the color I'm going for is a light purple. Here's some of the images I gave for reference.

I dyed an Obitsu body fairly recently, though it was a larger vinyl body I would assume that the frame plastic and the plastic the Obi11 uses are the same. The frame pieces were a little tricky to dye, getting an even dye without disassembling the entire joint was pretty much impossible. I don't how much, or if you even can disassemble the Obi11 body, but I would definitely recommend it if you can.

As for what dye to use, I highly recommend Rit DyeMore. Royal Purple would be the colour that would fit best I think. I'd also recommend a bit of Midnight Navy to help neutralise the yellow tones in the plastic. In all likelyhood, since you're dyeing from white, you're not going to get a perfect match. If that's going to bother you, it might be best to dye the body and then paint the outer plastic pieces with acrylic. Doing it that way would give you a nice match for the most visible parts of the body, and while the joints wouldn't be perfect, you wouldn't have to deal with the paint scratching off from movement if you only used acrylic.

Alright, awesome! I'll plan on picking up some Rit dye, acrylics and MSC sometime soon then. Thanks so much for all your help! >w<

There’s this post about dyeing vinyl. I could’ve sworn I saw a more recent one but I can’t find it.

Edit: Found this thread where someone dyed their doll purple:

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by ragnamuffin

3 hours ago, ragnamuffin said:

There’s this post about dyeing vinyl. I could’ve sworn I saw a more recent one but I can’t find it.

Edit: Found this thread where someone dyed their doll purple:

 

That second one is especially helpful! I've only worked w/ Rit dye on fabrics, so I wasn't sure how long I'd want to leave pieces in to get the desired shade with vinyl. Thanks so much!!

Edited March 24, 2022 by fixer_
Formatting

I think it should be pointed out that the Obitsu 11 body is entirely made of ABS plastic, and doesn't have any vinyl. You can likely still dye it, but it will be like dyeing the joints on the bigger dolls.

10 hours ago, Jezrah said:

I think it should be pointed out that the Obitsu 11 body is entirely made of ABS plastic, and doesn't have any vinyl. You can likely still dye it, but it will be like dyeing the joints on the bigger dolls.

I'll keep that in mind when dyeing it. I'll just plan on painting the larger and/or more visible parts in case the dye doesn't take properly or doesn't come out evenly. Thanks!