Painting a Vinyl Dollfie

Has anyone ever tried painting their Dollfie Dream? I'm going to give my doll a face-up when I get the parts together (I'm building her from scratch), so I'd like to know what paints and painting techniques would be appropriate. Since Dollfie Dream is made of soft vinyl, I'm guessing acrylics with brushes, masking and airbrushing would work, any other suggestions?

Also, I would like to paint my whole doll over. I would buy a white body and white head, then airbrush a new skintone on her (I'm thinking a deep caramel right now, but may be swayed to a periwinkle). How do you think that would turn out, like with things like paint smudging or staining? Has anyone ever seen someone give their doll a new skintone by painting?

I suggest checking out Kai-suteki's thread about her adventure in modding her first DD girl (face-up/wig/coloring body) Here's the link:

 

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1767

 

I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions you might have

Also, I would like to paint my whole doll over. I would buy a white body and white head, then airbrush a new skintone on her (I'm thinking a deep caramel right now, but may be swayed to a periwinkle). How do you think that would turn out, like with things like paint smudging or staining? Has anyone ever seen someone give their doll a new skintone by painting?

Due to the way the DD bodies are constructed doing a full body skintone change might be 'impossible'. Due to the way the joints are designed you'd get paint flaking every time you tried to move them/etc.

I have seen it done before with either oil paints or RIT dye. Both will not flake or rub off after curing... they are absorbed deep into the vinyl material and cannot be removed.

 

Oil paints are probably the easiest. It is absorbed into the vinyl much like a stain... then spreads itself through material as it dries. Make sure to give it a very long time to dry, and if you're using an oil-based thinner use a very small amount or it might never dry. The oil paint will take months to settle after the initial drying period so it shouldn't be sealed until then... otherwise it may never settle and you could get mould... likewise, don't prime the surface with MSC as this will prevent the paint absorbing into the vinyl.

 

There are also genesis oil paints which work similarly... but the vinyl parts must be cured by heating. This has the advantage of not having to wait months to see the result.

 

Or you can use RIT dye which is recommended for vinyl. Mix up the formula and dip each piece into the heated solution for a very short time, then rinse under warm water to cool water until it runs clear. Repeat the process until the desired intensity of tone is achieved. Again, no MSC pre-coat. Dries much faster than the oil paints.

 

These are mostly tints as the colour is absorbed into the material itself. If you paint instead of tint then the surface quality and skin-like appearance of the vinyl will be lost... so I wouldn't recommend using acrylics...

 

There are also extreme colour changes that can be done on a DD using V-Colour (I saw this on DoA), a paint that 'fuses' with the vinyl permanently. RIT dye and oil paints are also permanent but aren't able to completely replace the tone as solidly as v-colour does.

 

DD body painted completely white using V-colour. Taken from http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?10844-Painting-a-Dollfie-Dream-body-tutorial-%28UPDATED%29

 

Maybe V-colour is the solution for you. But it is very toxic so you will need appropriate breathing filters for your safety

@InnocentSake Thanks, I will drop her a reply.

 

@waha Yes, my main concern with painting Dollfie is whether or not the skin would still feel the same and retain its skin-like properties after painting. Also, painting the joints is my second highest concern, whether the constant rubbing on the joints would cause rubbing, flaking, staining of clothes, etc.

 

@marisa_doll I'm liking those options, especially the RIT dye and v-colour. I'm probably going to end up doing a human-like deep caramel tone, so there shouldn't be a problem as far as tinting the white goes, but I would like as clean a slate as possible with the v-colour. Also, if you don't mind, could you summarize what the person on DoA talks about the process of using the v-colour? I'm not a member, and apparently I have to get an invitation to join, so I can't see the thread. Sorry ^-^;

And seeing as how that person dyed their DD white, I thought that white DDs were already completely white for the purposes of painting?

Actually DD "White Skin" is just pale with a pink undertone.

WS DDs are intended for pale characters, not for painting.

You can almost count on the fingers of one hand the people who actually painted a whole DD

That's also the reason, why there's not much info about this.

Oh, WS DDs are meant for immediate use? Oops, I thought they were meant for painting/extreme face-ups, and that some people just used them for pale characters. I've never noticed a pink undertone in WS, so that's why I thought WS wasn't mainly for use. But I've never seen a WS DD in real life, so I'm sure that's why.

I'm not surprised that very few people have painted DDs, I was expecting that, actually. As a plan B I'd been thinking about getting a normal skin DD now, then saving up again for a resin BJD that I can get already tan or brown skin (non-DD, maybe an MSD, probably a DoC, they're sooo beautiful ). Or I'll get a normal skin DD now and a WS DD later to paint the skin on once I have a little more experience with caring for Dollfie in general (especially for face-ups, I'd like to practice and get good at face-ups with the pale skin color pallette, before delving into making my own shades for brown).

Thank you everyone for your help.

Yes, WS are made for use as-is, and several character DDs come in WS. Here's my Rei (WS), Asuka (NS), and Mari (NS):

 

P1000869 by PrettyCranium, on Flickr

PrettyCranium, your daughters are beautiful~

Looking at Rei compared to the white doll from DoA shows the differences in WS and ocmpletely white skin, I see now. Thanks for that.