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DerynifanK

March 17, 2024, 03:48:44 PM
Happy St Patrick's Day. Enjoy the one day of the year when the whole world is Irish.

Re: Work In Progress--Deryni Action Figure Project (was Duncan Action Figure)

Started by Evie, March 11, 2012, 08:52:30 PM

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Evie

My phone (which is also my camera) is still recharging, but here is Richenda now that she has blue eyes:

20160516_120508 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I also repainted a few other figures' eyes or added clear sealer to some whose eyes were repainted at Christmas, when I was in Tennessee and forgot to bring the sealer with me.

Jehana's eye repaint by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Jehana started out with dark brown eyes, so they were harder to paint over.  Despite that, I managed to achieve a dark emerald green, although you might have to zoom in to see the color clearly.

Mihall's sea green eyes by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Mihall shares his sister Catriona of Llyr's clear, pale green eyes.  However, despite the fact that I mixed three different shades of green with white to achieve the right shade of color, they still tend to look blue under some light or at certain angles. 

Seisyll's amethyst eyes by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Again, I needed to paint over Seisyll's dark eyes, which were originally a grayish-brownish color, but I finally managed to get them a muted amethyst color.  He also had tiny little pinprick pupils that made him look rather unwelcoming, so I made his pupils larger to give him a friendlier look.

Little Grub by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I just needed to add clear sealer to Grub's eyes, but here she is again because it's Grub, and Grub = cute.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Evie

Alaric gets used to his wife's makeover by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Alaric sees Richenda for the first time after she gets her new head.  I think he approves of the changes.

Approval by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Yes, Alaric definitely seems to be responding well to his wife's makeover!

Two little cuties by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

These two cuties turned up on clearance at Tuesday Morning, and they have some basic articulation in elbows and knees.  Their range of movement is very limited, but since it is so hard to find articulated child dolls in anything resembling 1:6 scale, and the price was right, I went ahead and got two.  I would prefer if their heads were more in scale with their bodies, but I'll check my collection of spare parts to see if I might find any young looking heads that are smaller, perhaps from a Skipper or a Stacy.  (Not sure how head-swappable these dolls are, though.)  If the heads can't be replaced, I can live with these, since they're not too awfully bobble-headed. I figured I can turn them into little Schola students. The raven haired beauty might work for a little Haldane Princess, and perhaps the blonde could end up being Grania Morgan.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Evie



Araxie stands for the first time on her new flat feet that I got in yesterday's mail.  Now I'll be able to make her medieval shoes, which wouldn't have worked with her high heel feet.



Jehana gets a new outfit.  I may still add a bit of collar trim to the overdress.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Evie

Have added a few little Deryni to my collection, since if I'm going to have a Schola, it stands to reason I need a few scholars.

Haldane princesses by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I recently found some of the playline Madame Alexander dolls on clearance at Tuesday Morning.  Since it is so hard to find articulated dolls in 1:6 scale, I originally bought a blonde and a black-haired doll to use as Schola students, but after I got home, I realized I could use them as Grania Morgan and one of the Haldane princesses. However, it didn't seem quite fair to have one Haldane princess and not the other one, so a few days ago I went back to the store and found they had one black-haired doll left.  The Codex doesn't say if Araxandra and Rhuys are identical or fraternal twins, but since they started off as identical dolls, I am making them identical twins, but giving them different hairstyles to make it easier to tell them apart.  They already have gray eyes, but I may paint some amber flecks in them (very common with gray eyes) and vary the striations to make them look even more unique.  The one with her hair still in braids was the first one I bought, so she'll be Araxandra (presumably the firstborn, since she is listed first in the Codex).  After unbraiding her hair so I could pour some boiling water over it to tame it a bit, I dried Rhuys off and put a spare dress on her.  She had a serious case of bushy Hermione Hair when it first came out of the braids, so believe it or not, this is the "tame" version.

Miniature maidens of mayhem by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

"Your Excellency, when I said you could teach the children a few spells, I did NOT have dragon summoning in mind!"  Here are the little princesses with their friend Grania Marie Morgan.  Duncan and Araxie included to give some idea of scale, although a top-down photo isn't the best view to showcase this, I'm realizing in retrospect.

Little lady by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I've pulled Rhuys' hair back into a single braid.  She is still easy to tell apart from her sister, but it's less likely to get tangled this way.

With Grania's big sister by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Briony joins the younger girls.  She is on a Liv body, which is similar to Barbie size but a little more teen-proportioned.  As you can see, the smaller doll bodies and heads are a little larger compared to the tall and slender teen/adult bodies, but there's not really anything I can do about that.  I'm just happy to find somewhat poseable child dolls that are close to the right height to go with the larger dolls in this scale.

Grania and Grub by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Here is Grania next to Grub, who is on a small, child-sized Obitsu body, but still taller than Grania.  I wasn't sure if she would be, but since Grub is supposed to be a few years older than Grania and the princesses, I'm glad to see there's a noticeable difference in their heights.

Boy doll body by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

This was my original Grub doll which I put on an articulated 1:8 scale (?) male body I found at the thrift store before I found out about the Obitsu child bodies.  I dug it out of my spare parts bin to see if the figure could be used (with its original male head, not pictured here) to make Prince Javan, but it turned out to be more Grub's height than Grania's and the Haldane twins', which was unfortunate since he's supposed to be a year or more younger than his sisters.  Also, his original head was even tinier than Grub's head, which is small compared to the other children's heads, so that wouldn't have worked at all.  But with a haircut and an eye repaint, Grub's old head on that body would work for an older male child, so I decided to turn him into Prince Albin.

Haircut and g'dula by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I trimmed most of his hair and left a small section in back long so I could give him the g'dula braid of the Servants of Saint Camber, since he is described as having a short, stubby braid started by the time he was a toddler in King Kelson's Bride, so by the time he's 10, it ought to be fully grown out. He still needs his eyes repainted Haldane gray (unless he inherited his mother's dark eyes instead...I'll have to check first). I may also brush on some chalk pastels to make his face a little more tan, both to match his body better and also so he'll have a skintone slightly closer to his mother's (or at least one that is lighter than Rothana's but duskier than Kelson's, who I assume has very similar coloring to the late Prince Conall, Albin's father. Both changes will hopefully make him look a little less similar to Grub, even though they started off with the same kind of doll head. We wouldn't want anyone to wonder if Sextus Arilan has had a clandestine affair with Princess Rothana!

G'dula braid by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

It's just in a regular braid for now, but I'll see if I can get it into the canonical four-strand braid later.

Lots of children's clothing to make now, and I still need to figure out where I can find a Prince Javan the same size as his sisters or slightly smaller, but not too small, and preferably articulated.  Whee!
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jerusha

Was it a fearless barbering exercise?  I would have been holding my breath!   ;)

I suspect there will be lots of adventures ahead for our Schola students - and maybe a little tearing out of hair by their teachers and parents!
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Evie

It was my first attempt at cutting hair rather than simply trimming a few stray ends, so it was an exercise in quiet terror, especially since the first cut turned out very crooked, but I finally got it more or less presentable.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Laurna

 ;D to "Quiet Terror".  ;D It's a good thing the littles do not talk back to you.  I just trimmed my Shih tzu's winter coat and it was like - whimper..cut...bark.. cut.. e-gads... stop moving or I'll trim your ears off!" :o

Oh and I love the girls, perfect little princess's and lady of Corwyn. They should be fun dressing up.
May your horses have wings and fly!

Evie

Well, Albin has had somewhat of a setback.  Turns out the hot water melted some glue that Mattel has started putting into some of its doll heads, creating a goopy mess in his hair which I discovered the day after his haircut, so he has spent the last several days with cornstarch in his hair and inside his head to stabilize the goop, plus had to put up with me scraping out as much of the excess glue from inside his head as I safely could without unrooting his hair, then brushing this dry shampoo out once all of the sticky residue was absorbed.  After an hour or more of brushing with a doll brush and then a boar's head brush, he no longer looks like he's got the worst case of greasy hair ever, and the horrible "dandruff" is finally starting to disappear as well. But he still needs a bit of work.  I did get the hair degreased and de-starched enough to put the long hair in back into a proper four-strand g'dula, though.  No pictures yet, but I'll post one once he's in better shape.

In the meantime, Grania Morgan has also received a new gown, so here she is with the Haldane children:

IMG_20160607_124939 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Today, while shopping at the thrift store, I made an unexpected discovery to add to the baby boom:

Baby boom! by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Itty bitty babies, some even with jointed knees!  All of them have arms and legs that swivel at the shoulders and hips at the very least, so they can sit and/or raise their arms.

And yes, apparently one of them has conjured up a pink pony....   ;)

Tiniest two by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I'm still trying to decide who these two babies will be.  The one with pigtails is about the right age for Dhugal's youngest daughter Kelwynne (as of 1137), but she ought to have black hair, so I might end up dyeing her hair or removing it and giving her a wig of black fuzz.  The little bald haired baby would be the right age for the one I left Araxie pregnant with towards the end of Visionaries. Again, i haven't decided whether to leave him bald or not.  He has a small black stain on one side of his head that wouldn't wash off or come off with nail polish remover. I suspect it's ink, so I have some Clearasil on it at the moment hoping it will bleach out in a few days.  The results of that might determine whether I end up gluing a bit of mohair fluff on top of his noggin or not.

Mini-modern kid by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

She won't really fit in my Rhemuth Castle setting, but I think she's adorable, so I found an old swimsuit and accessories for her and she can go live with one of my modern-day littles.

IMG_20160608_145834 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Because she insisted on showing off Mommy's sunglasses.  ;D

Little blondes by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I already had the child on the left and put her beside the new one (with the jointed knees) for size comparison.  I think the light blonde child looks like she could be Celsie's daughter, so maybe that can be one of the Derry girls. As for the one with jointed knees, she could either be another Derry sister (I'm giving Derry several little "stair steps") or possibly Dhugal's daughter by Catriona.  Catriona's hair was darker (more like light honey), but young children often start out with blonde or at least lighter hair that turns a darker shade when they are older. Or I could dye it with a thin wash of reddish brown to get a shade that's closer to Catriona's hair color.

Duncan's granddaughter? by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Duncan holds the baby and wonders why the kid is wearing a Bratz t-shirt!

Derrys and daughter by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Here's Derry with Celsie and one of his angelic-looking little hellions.  I'll have to check my timeline to see which of his children would be the right age for this doll.

Quite coincidentally, I recently bought this baby on eBay, so once he arrives, he'll be joining one of my Deryni families as well: 

Depending on his size relative to Kelwynne, that might end up being baby Jared MacArdry McLain.  If the size won't work out, maybe he'll work for one of Seisyll and Sophie's children, or he could be Sextus' wee heir.  We shall see.  I'll probably be dragging out the chalk pastels to do a bit of body blushing anyhow, so while I'm at it I can brush a few strokes of hair color up top to suggest very fine hair.
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jerusha

So many little littles - I'm having a little trouble with who's who! :D

You are going to have a lot of fun with all these children.
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Evie

Quote from: Jerusha on June 08, 2016, 09:55:39 PM
So many little littles - I'm having a little trouble with who's who! :D

You are going to have a lot of fun with all these children.

I figure it makes a setting more realistic to have a few non-adults running, crawling, or rolling around the place.  If only I could find (and afford) more mid-sized articulated bodies for figures too old to use child bodies but too young to use fully grown adult bodies.  They're out there, but harder to find, except for the ultra-skinny ones with huge heads that pop up everywhere on the doll shelves in stores these days, but I want to make young teen dolls, not aliens!
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Evie

A couple of Mini-Deryni accompanied me to church this morning and had their photo taken after my Altar Guild meeting:

Visiting priests by evian_delacourt, on Flickr
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Evie

OK, so I wasn't planning on making a Sophia Haldane, at least not anytime soon (although there was a spare head I was practicing rerooting on that I thought might make a good Sophia someday if I ever got her finished), but I went to a store yesterday that was going out of business and had everything marked down, and I found a collector's edition doll (the Barbie version of Tris from the movie Insurgent) that was originally marked down to something like half price, and then had something like 40% knocked off the lowest marked price on the box, and she had the perfect hairstyle and features to match my mental image of Sophia, so she came home with me.

Here's the original inspiration picture for Sophia:



And here's what the figure looked like out of the box:

IMG_20160619_161358 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

As you can see, wrong color hair and eyes, and no articulated elbows, although there were properly jointed knees under those trousers.  I couldn't have a Queen without properly posing arms, though, so I looked through the body bin until I found a better body that had a decent color match.  It's a Liv doll body, which is just a smidge more petite than Barbie, but that's great since Sophia is meant to be petite.  Unfortunately, unzipping that blouse ended up being a major chore (Mattel "helpfully" hid several T-shaped plastic bits similar to the ones that hold clothing size tags on clothes in the store along the zipper's edges to prevent the tab from going up or down more than a centimeter in either direction, and I needed a magnifying glass to find them all and clip them off), but eventually I had her undressed and ready for surgery.  Here she is on her donor body:

IMG_20160619_172826 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

And here she is trying on Helena's evening gown, which fits her surprisingly well even though Helena is bigger in the bust and hips. (The gown is very adjustable since the opening is just pinned to fit in the back, and so is the belt.)

20160619_213814 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

She almost has a Princess Diana vibe in that gown.  But of course she had to try on other clothes too.

20160619_212118 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

20160619_211222 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Not sure about that skirt.  That one might give Morgan Haldane and Fr. Devlin heart failure!  ;D

So last night, I decided it was time for the makeover.  I decided to try coloring her hair first, since I wanted it to air dry, which would take all night, and I didn't want to risk smudging freshly painted eyes with plastic wrap while protecting her face from the hair color.  So here she is after last night's application of acrylic paint wash:

20160619_223318 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

So far, so good. But the thing about the hair coloring process is that the hair is always a shade or two lighter once it's dry, and I was trying to turn streaky blonde hair a very dark brown or brownish-black, which is difficult. If you just go with straight black pigment, it ends up looking gray if it goes on too watered down, or unnaturally black if it's the right consistency or thicker.  So I was going for mostly black with a bit of brown, but accidentally mixed it in the wrong proportions.  Once it dried, this was the result:

20160620_102216 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

20160620_102319 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Pretty, and definitely darker than before, but not quite there yet.  So today I decided to remix my paint, making sure to make it more black with just a hint of brown, and tried drying it again.  This time I also blow dried it with the drier set on warm instead of hot, to ensure I didn't accidentally melt or frizz her hair.  Here was the result:

20160620_124109 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I decided that was a good place to stop.  While it is still more dark brown than black, it's also a sheer enough color to allow some natural highlights and shadow streaks to shine through, which gives a more natural effect than the matte black that would be the likely result if I continued dyeing the hair. Not to mention each application of paint, even watered down to ink consistency, results in stiffer hair unless it's brushed through very thoroughly, so I didn't want to end up giving her a bad case of helmet head.  I made sure the hair was mostly dry before starting her eye color.  That also took some trial and error to determine what shade of blue to  mix that would be visibly blue over the original brown paint, but once I figured out that initial background blue, the highlight layers that give the eye more dimension were easier to mix.  It takes surprisingly light shades of blue to achieve a dark blue color over brown eyes, but I'm happy with the final result:

20160620_131027 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I want to let the eyes dry overnight before I add the clear gloss sealer to them, but aside from that, they're done.  She was relieved to be allowed to dress after all that.

IMG_20160620_132806 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

And in other (but distantly related) news, the Mini-Deryni received a package from KK this morning.  Here's Sophia checking it out:

IMG_20160620_141812 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

An online search reveals this to be a 12 Princesses Expandable Carriage for the Disney Princess dolls, and that center bit can fold up to make two rows of seats (one facing back and the other facing forward) to seat 12 Sophia-sized dolls (if they don't mind their knees bumping each other) or maybe about 8 action figures like Duncan and Alaric.  Or it can lie flat and just be a floorboard between the seats on both ends.  KK found it at her local thrift store, and it needs a fair bit of tender loving care, not to mention a metric crap-ton of paint to transform it into something a bit less Barbie-ish, but at least now Rhemuth has a royal carriage to add to the stables.    :)


"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jerusha

From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Laurna

Sophia is looking really nice. I like her new hair color. It works perfectly with that little smile of hers.  That is a great find from KK. That will be a great addition to the collection. Love to see how you will paint it.
May your horses have wings and fly!

Evie

I tried posting a reply earlier, but Flickr was having photo link issues, and then I accidentally refreshed this page rather than my Flickr page and lost everything I typed.  Arrrggghhh!!!!   >:(

So, apparently God decided that Sophia needs a better body.  Or Saint Camber did.  I've got no clue.  :D  But when I checked my email this morning, I discovered an email from Amazon.com telling me that I had some unused store credit in my account.  I had also learned last night that, as it happens, Amazon is currently running a sale on their Made-to-Move Barbies, which are the best articulated Barbie bodies ever made, almost up to action figure standards.  It turned out that the sale price on these dolls was just a few cents less than the unused store credit I had, meaning I could order a "free" doll and only have to pay the price of shipping. Given that these dolls aren't sold anywhere in my local area, so I would need to order one online anyway if I wanted one, that seemed enough of a bargain for me to take the hint that the universe wants Sophia to have better articulation.   ;D

One of the factors that played into this decision is that several years ago, I acquired a large package of doll clothing and accessories, including an entire wardrobe of off-brand Barbie-sized clothing, accessories, and shoes that hardly any of my other dolls are able to use, because either they are too big to wear them, or they are medieval ladies who aren't in need of a modern wardrobe.  So these clothes, purses, hats, shoes, etc. have been sitting in a box for the past several years going mostly unused.  And that was a darn shame, since in a trade with another collector in which I ended up making like a bandit, I had acquired over $100 worth of doll swag, much of which was in this particular clothing collection!  (The Barbie-sized clothes had belonged to the action figure collector's granddaughter, but she didn't want it anymore, and he had no use for the clothing, but wanted the collection to go to a good home. So after seeing a photo online of Duncan wearing his Servant of Saint Camber robes, he asked me to make a brown version for the robes for him and a fat suit to wear under it, so he could make a Friar Tuck action figure.  That Friar Tuck costume plus $20 was what he offered to accept in trade for that large package of Barbie-sized clothes, a spare action figure body, several heads, and a bunch of cast-off action figure stuff. I already had the fabric on hand to make the Friar Tuck costume, so he essentially gave me $100+ worth of stuff in exchange for $20 to help defray shipping costs, plus a few hours of sewing time.  As I said...made like a bandit!)

So here is most of the wardrobe collection that Sophia will be inheriting.  There was a bag of faux leather clothes and accessories that I didn't find until after this photo was taken, so add a few more "leather" coats, jackets, pants, skirts, and purses to this set:

IMG_20160621_134103 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I think you can see all the wonderful possibilities inherent with this wardrobe.  :)  Now, Sophia is currently on a Liv body, and Alexandra (pictured on the left) has one of the Made-to-Move bodies.  Sophia's body will be a paler skinned version that will hopefully be a perfect match for her face, or at least very close.  Sophia's current body has one distinct advantage that Alex's body lacks, and that's a waist joint that allows her to swivel at the waist.  IMO, the only flaw that the M2M body has (that I've discovered, anyway) is that it lacks that waist joint.

20160621_134715 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

However, Alex can twist like a pretzel pretty much everywhere else.

20160621_135034 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

There is a reason the M2M Barbies come dressed in a yoga outfit!  They even have ankle joints so they can wear either Barbie high heels or Barbie sized flat shoes.  And unlike Sophia's current body, Alex's body type can wear all of those tiny shoes and boots in the picture.  On the other hand, I only own three pairs of shoes that will fit Sophie's current Liv body--a pair of pink wedges, a pair of purple platform shoes, and some black combat boots that are so oversized on her that they look almost like clown shoes compared to the others.

So here's Alex modeling an outfit that Sophia might wear if she's at an outdoor event meeting and greeting the public:

20160621_140853 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Of course, once I discovered that extra bag of faux leather goods, guess what Sophia picked out to wear until her new body gets here:

20160621_142202 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

"Just going to run down to the pub with Dev and Michael for a burger, Morgan. No worries. Don't wait up."  ;D

Or maybe Morgan would feel better about this outfit instead?

20160621_145408 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Black riding leathers, just the thing for a brief outing on the back of Lord Arilan's Harley.  Morgan, stop overreacting....  ;)

While going through all the tiny accessories, I found this necklace.  Could these be the Haldana emeralds?

20160621_160030 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I also ended up applying the clear gloss sealer to Sophia's eyes today, once I managed to tear her away from all the new clothes.  The sealer will both help protect the paint and also give her that dewy-eyed look that real eyes have, since the gloss gives the illusion of the eyes' natural moisture.  Here she is peeking up through the magnifying glass at me with freshly gloss sealed eyes.

20160621_160412 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr


"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!