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

[Jerusha]

So will Alexandra become Jen or Eilonwy?

Lovely wardrobe collection for Her Majesty - now all you need is a little Eye of Rom.

As for Morgan overreacting to her motorcycle ride with Lord Arilan, I suspect he is following right behind them!   

[Evie]

So will Alexandra become Jen or Eilonwy?

Neither. Alex is very much her own person.  I bought her with some Christmas money intending to use her as a body donor, but she developed her own personality almost before I had her out of the box, and started telling me all about herself soon thereafter, so she gets to remain who she is.  I had a Jen in progress, but she turned out to be one of those dolls with the awful goopy glue inside her head, so I'm in the process of rehabbing her in hopes I can at least stop the oily residue from leaking any more than it's already done and keep it from ruining the hair completely. If the corn starch treatment I'm trying ends up being ineffective, then the only other remedy would be to remove all of her original hair, scrape all the glue out of her head, and reroot her head with all new hair.  (And that's such a chore, there's no telling when I'd get around to doing it!)  Unlike some other characters, it's not a simple matter of just picking out a different head to use for her, because I'm using a Katniss figure due to its resemblance to Jennifer Lawrence (because that's who Jen's inspiration picture was based on), and I think all of the Katniss head sculpts have the same problem. 

Lovely wardrobe collection for Her Majesty - now all you need is a little Eye of Rom.

I knew I was forgetting something!  I think I've got some tiny stick-on rhinestones around here somewhere.  They're faceted, but if I put a tiny drop of crystal clear glue on top of the jewel, hopefully that will give it more of a domed cabochon jewel look.  I'll do a test one first to see if that will work.  Or I've also got some tiny stick-on pearls that are the right shape, and maybe I can paint one with ruby red nail polish and clear gloss sealer. I'll see which option looks better.

As for Morgan overreacting to her motorcycle ride with Lord Arilan, I suspect he is following right behind them!   

LOL, yes, and grumbling that he doesn't have proper riding clothes too!    I went through my male clothing options today to see what might work for Morgan, and aside from a small collection of shirts, shorts, and jeans that all look far too casual for public appearances, all he's got is a tuxedo with a glittery pink bow tie and no shoes to match!  He's got one dress shoe, but it's missing its mate, and the only other shoes that would go with it are white sneakers, which are hardly the height of sartorial elegance befitting a peer of the realm!  Granted, if the Duke of Corwyn is wearing them with a tux, he might start a new fashion trend, but I doubt Sophia would be quite so amused!

Here's a shot of Sophia and friends:

20160622_163806 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Proto-Morgan and Proto-Jen need to switch eye colors, and I need more trousers that will fit his body without a Velcro closure in back that splits open every time the poor guy sits! I may also need to learn how to use a Dremel tool so I can modify his hip joints, because while he is one of the better articulated Kens on the market, he can't sit up entirely straight, though there's a fix for that if I can get up the nerve to sand off some plastic from the groin area.  (Sorry, excuse the Morganesque language that just ensued when I mentioned taking a Dremel tool to his groin!) I'm in hopes that there will eventually be a Made to Move Ken body to join the new Made to Move Barbies that hit the market just at the end of last year.  If so, then I might just upgrade him to that body instead rather than risking a power tool threat to the Morgan/Haldane family  jewels.   

[Jerusha]

I love that little Bengal cat!

Dremel tool - groin - I see Morgan waking up in a cold sweat from an awful nightmare ....

.... and looking for something more fortifying than wine....

[Elkhound]

I will preface this by saying that I appreciate the time, attention, and detaled work that goes into these, but am I the only one who finds some of these dolls just a little creepy?

[Evie]

No, you're not alone.  For some reason, dolls (or at least some types of dolls) come across as creepy to some people, including my own daughter, who thinks the Barbie and Ken ones are cute but doesn't like the ultra-realistic looking ones. However, I'm the exact opposite, not that I think any of my own dolls are creepy, although some of the vintage baby dolls with the staring eyes give me--well, not quite the shivers, but they just really don't appeal to me at all, and I can easily see why someone would start thinking of the Chucky movies when they see them!  And some of the playline dolls found on toy shelves nowadays don't appeal to me at all, with their scrawny bodies and huge bobble-heads, but apparently that's the fashionable doll look these days.  To me, they just look really weird.  The super realistic head sculpts and bodies with more true human proportions strongly appeal to me in the same sort of way that fine sculpture does, or photo-realistic art. But my daughter's visceral reaction to those same figures is "Ew, he's watching me; make him stop!" To each, his or her own, and vive la difference.

[Laurna]

Over the years, I have collected several 18in to 32in porcelain fashion young ladies dolls. I like pretty faces with long locks of hair. I have changed the dress's on several of them, as I really enjoy sewing cloths. My sister and I own and sell a fashion half size dress form that stands 30in tall (No head) with several patterns for gowns and underclothing for the Victorian era. In my retirement, I hope to sell these as a side line. Since joining this site, I have included a medieval gown into that pattern collection. I like the dress forms because I don't have to worry about a face watching me and they are much easier to dress. When I chose a doll, I prefer fine adult features, no baby dolls for me, thank you.

After joining Rhemuth Castle and seeing Evies Littles, I caught this bug and purchased a few barbie and ken dolls. I have an Alaric and Richenda (Alaric still needs a black tunic), Rhys and Evaine ( My Rhys is not a red head, not yet. I will need to learn how to dye doll hair.) I also have the main characters from my own fanfiction story line. On my book shelves in the main room, I made space for seven couples to be displayed next to my collection of KK novels. I love the clothing, but I lack in the diorama. 1/6 scale furniture is very expensive and takes up a lot more space than you would think it should.

So thank you Evie for starting me with this disease hobby.
I enjoy watching your collection grow.
Love Sophia's new wardrobe.

OK, but I have to say that I was a little dismayed seeing Morgan Haldane in that white tuxedo. I have to do something about that. I just found a black leather jacket on ebay. I will forward it to you when I get it. Now, if I can just figure out how to embroider a Green Gryphon on the back of it.   

[Evie]

Over the years, I have collected several 18in to 32in porcelain fashion young ladies dolls. I like pretty faces with long locks of hair. I have changed the dress's on several of them, as I really enjoy sewing cloths. My sister and I own and sell a fashion half size dress form that stands 30in tall (No head) with several patterns for gowns and underclothing for the Victorian era. In my retirement, I hope to sell these as a side line. Sense joining this site, I have included a medieval gown into that pattern collection. I like the dress forms because I don't have to worry about a face watching me and they are much easier to dress. When I chose a doll, I prefer fine adult features, no baby dolls for me, thank you.

The only baby dolls I'm drawn to are the ones called "reborn" dolls, which look so realistically human that it's next to impossible to tell a photo of one from a live infant. Again, it's the photo-realistic artistry that appeals to me with those dolls. (Even with fine arts paintings and sculpture, I'm drawn much more to the super realistic depictions such as Vermeer's mastery of light effects, rather than more modern abstract or stylized works of art, even though there are a few works in the latter styles that I am able to appreciate.)

After joining Rhemuth Castle and seeing Evies Littles, I caught this bug and purchased a few barbie and ken dolls. I have an Alaric and Richenda (Alaric still needs a black tunic), Rhys and Evaine ( My Rhys is not a red head, not yet. I will need to learn how to dye doll hair.) I also have the main characters from my own fanfiction story line. On my book shelves in the main room, I made space for seven couples to be displayed next to my collection of KK novels. I love the clothing, but I lack in the diorama. 1/6 scale furniture is very expensive and takes up a lot more space than you would think it should.

So thank you Evie for starting me with this disease hobby.
I enjoy watching your collection grow.
Love Sophia's new wardrobe.

LOL, I'm glad to know it's contagious!    Doll hair dyeing is actually super easy, although you'll need a few supplies for it.  I usually use a lice comb (LOL, I know...eww!), but any very fine-toothed comb should be fine.  In a pinch, if I couldn't find the lice comb, I've used a mustache comb before, and also this brush I picked up someplace that looks almost exactly like a mascara wand, but a little bit longer and fatter. The most important thing is that it have teeth that are as close set together as possible, since you want it to be able to separate strands of doll hair and get between them all, not just leave large clumps of hair stuck together. You will also need a small paintbrush (not ridiculously small like I use to paint doll eyes, but maybe about 1/4 wide), some wooden toothpicks, and plastic wrap.  Some people smear a dab of Vaseline around the hairline like an actual person might before dyeing her hair, but I don't bother, since the acrylic paint comes off just fine without that if you don't leave any splashes to dry on the face overnight, and I worry more about the possible long-term damage the petroleum jelly might do to the vinyl head.

For a red hair color, you should remember that whatever (teeny) dabs of orange or orangish-red paint you might use for your base color, actual human "red" hair is not a true red, so be sure to mix at least a tiny bit of brown in as well.  Then water the color down until it's about the consistency of ink. It should be very thin, though not so thin that it's only colored water, since you want enough pigment in it to stick to the hair, yet not so thick that it winds up looking like you just slapped full strength paint on the hair and called it a day. Also remember that your underlying hair color will have some influence on the final hair color.  If you are starting with blonde hair, you will end up with a lighter shade of red unless you mix a fair bit of brown in.  If you are starting with light brown hair, the final shade of red will likely be deeper.  And if your doll has dark brown hair to begin with, keep in mind that you can't dye doll hair lighter, you can at best just give it some lighter appearing highlights.  I ended up subjecting poor Dhugal to something like five or six coats of paint wash before his hair ended up noticeably dark auburn (not to mention pretty stiff from that much paint!), because he had dark brown hair to start off with.  In retrospect, I probably should have just rerooted him or plucked him bald and made him a mohair wig like I did for KK's Rhys, but at the time I was too scared of ruining him to go that far out of my comfort zone.  Also keep in mind that the final color on the dried doll hair will be about one or two shades lighter than the color of the dye itself, so mix your color a little darker than you think you'll want the final result to be. (Unless you're attempting to highlight dark hair, in which case you may need to mix the color brighter than you want the end result to be.)

The actual dye process goes like this.  First, use your comb or a doll brush to thoroughly brush your doll's hair and make sure there aren't any tangles left in it that the comb's teeth will catch on when you start to dye the hair.  Wrap your (preferably naked) doll completely in plastic wrap aside from the hair, to protect as much of it as you can from drips and splashes.  This includes the face, although the edge of the plastic wrap might not be able to cover the face completely and still leave the hairline exposed, and that's fine. You mainly want to protect the face paint.  Then, using the small paintbrush, I usually start picking up the thin paint wash in the bristles and brushing them onto the hair's surface.  Then I use my fine-toothed comb to brush the color through the hair thoroughly.  You may need to sometimes brush the hair up away from the scalp to make sure the underside layers are coated with the paint wash.   Once you've dyed all of the hair, then inspect the hairline, ears, and nape of the neck to see if you accidentally got paint spatters on the skin.  While the paint is still wet, you can use a swab or a damp finger to wipe off major splotches, or use the damp end of a wooden toothpick as an eraser to gently scratch off tiny spots of paint. (Don't use a plastic toothpick. Tried that once and they don't work, but wooden ones work wonders as paint erasers when the paint is still fresh.  I use them when repainting eyes too.) If the hair is super soaked with the paint, you can dab off some of the excess gently with paper towels, but be sure to leave enough in the hair for the pigment to permanently stain the hair once it's dry. You just want to make sure the hair ends up colored but not clumpy.

With Sophia, I left her to dry overnight, but if you're impatient, or if you think you might end up needing to do a second coat of the color wash for full coverage (like I ended up doing with Sophia because her hair didn't go quite dark enough the first time), you can also use a blow drier to speed up the drying process, although I'd recommend not going any higher than the warm setting, especially if your drier runs super hot.  (I used an unfamiliar blow drier set on high when I did Alaric's head swap, and that's how I ended up frizzing and melting bits of his hair.  Do Not Do That!  My drier doesn't run that hot even on the high setting, so I learned that lesson the hard way.) If you're worried about that happening, the Cool setting will work too, it will just take longer.  As it dries, occasionally use the comb to separate out the strands, which will both help the hair dry faster and make sure it doesn't dry into clumps.  Even if you are air drying the hair overnight, it's a good idea to comb through it ever so often during that time.

Once the hair's all dry, then you can safely remove the plastic wrap (if you've not done so already) and dress your doll again, unless you've decided to give the hair another coat of color.  I don't recommend more than two colorings, or maybe three at most, since with each layer of additional color the hair is more likely to come out stiffer. But again, frequent comb-throughs as it dries will help to prevent the hair becoming too stiff. Once it is fully dry, it should be fairly colorfast.  I wouldn't recommend a full head soak, since there's no good way I know of to seal the color without turning your doll into a helmet-head, but I've not experienced any color fade on my dyed heads, or paint running down faces if one accidentally gets a bit of water splashed on, and none of it has ever rubbed off on their skin or clothes, unlike that disastrous experiment early on when I tried to dye Duncan's hair with a brown Sharpie and the ink ended up rubbing off on everything, including the poor little guy's forehead.

OK, but I have to say that I was a little dismayed seeing Morgan Haldane in that white tuxedo. I have to do something about that. I just found a black leather jacket on ebay. I will forward it to you when I get it. Now, if I can just figure out how to embroider a Green Gryphon on the back of it.   

LOL!  I wonder if there's a green gryphon applique patch out there somewhere that can be tacked on with a bit of fabric glue?  For that matter, there are fabric paints that might work on pleather, or acrylic might also work.  Even a regular embroidery on regular fabric could be clipped very closer to the outer stitching and then glued onto the back of a jacket with a bit of Fabri-Tac.  Though he'll need some formalwear anyway for those charity balls and other dress occasions.  I can't see him appearing in Court in a biker jacket either. And you should be relieved to know I finally found his missing dress shoe, so at least he's not reduced to wearing white sneakers with his tuxedo!

Oh wait, hang on....I've got some small green gryphons already printed up on iron-on fabric, I think!  Granted, it's probably not safe to iron them onto the pleather (since it's a doll jacket, I assume it's plastic leather and not the genuine stuff), but fabric glue and a line of black fabric paint around the outside edge to help secure it should work a treat. 

[Jerusha]

Personally, I found the pink bow tie more jolting than the white tuxedo.  Not that real men don't wear pink (I bought DS3 a nice pink shirt with coordinating patterned tie one Christmas) but somehow it just wasn't...MORGAN.

Now an emerald green cravat and gryphon stick pin, on the other hand.... 

[Evie]

LOL! I had the same reaction to the pink bow tie.  I'll see if there's some way to paint it black.

[Evie]

So, if you look at the earlier picture that shows Morgan and Jen, you'll notice their original face paint.  I've since given them both makeovers. Morgan Haldane has had an eye color shift to light green rather than light blue, to match his description in Balance of Power.

20160624_183222 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

It's just a light layer of green on top of the original paint, and in extremely close magnification, a lot of the blue still shows up around the periphery, but it's a noticeable shift away from the bright blue he had earlier. I can add more green if they keep looking more blue than green in photos, but at regular magnification they look fine to me.

And Jen also got a makeover.  While I liked her original and unusual grey-green eyes, the story character had already been established as blue-eyed, and the original eye color tended to blend in just a bit too much with her tanned complexion.  The same was true of her lip color.  Granted, this used to be a Katniss doll, and Katniss wouldn't have been worried about her lipstick while fighting for survival, but her lip paint almost looked like a beige-toned lipstick, which really didn't stand out very well against her tan skin.  Jen isn't one for fussing about with a ton of makeup, so I didn't want to change it to too bright a color, but I wanted something a bit less neutral.  Here she is after her eye and lip color makeover.

20160624_185342 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Someone had asked about whether there was an Eilonwy in the works.  I went through my parts bin to see if I might have any surplus dolls (or heads with bodies that might be suitable for them) that would work for Eilonwy and Patrick, since I really can't afford to do much in the way of doll shopping at the moment.  I happened to have one older Ken who already has brown hair and eyes, as well as a nice smile, who I thought would work well for Patrick if I can modify his head to fit onto a newer, articulated Ken body. His face is rather tan, and the spare Ken body I have is rather lighter, but I suppose if he's dressed in uniform for much of the work day, his face would be more tan than his body, so that's fine.  The problem will be in adapting the head to fit on it, but that's a problem for another day.  There was one small problem with the head in that the paint on the molded hair had rubbed off in a spot, and I couldn't get an exact color match with my paints, so what I did to fix it was dab the closest shade of brown I had onto the bald spot at full thickness to get good coverage, then brushed the entire head with a thinner wash of the same color to blend that patch in to the rest of the background color, then once that was dry I went over the head again and dry brushed a bit of a lighter shade over it to try to add some semblance of shadows and highlights.  Not sure how successful that was, but at least he doesn't have too obvious a patch job now that his paint is all dry and sealed.

20160625_160020 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I figured if there were slight differences of color all over the hair, then at least the one original patch wouldn't stand out as "Hey, look at me, I'm the former bald spot!"  And if I end up not liking it, I can eventually try making a wig to go over it once I figure out how to get his head on his new body. 

Eilonwy's head started off as an action figure head that came off the body I am now using for Helena.  I have never attempted to put an action figure head on a Barbie body, and I wasn't even sure it could be done.  I also wasn't sure if I could paint her eyes, since I have read that the original eyes are decals rather than painted on, although they appeared to be sealed with clear sealer.  And Eilonwy was meant to be a brown-eyed brunette, but this head was a gray-greenish eyed redhead.

IMG_20160624_193536 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

There's an almost anime, cartoony look to her eyes, and for some reason (maybe the pinprick tiny pupils), they have a rather dead expression. Her irises were a bit too small, showing too much white space beneath them and giving her the impression of always looking up towards the ceiling.  But the upside was that I couldn't possibly ruin her with a makeover!  So I figured I'd try changing her eye color first, and then if that met with success, I'd work on her hair color the next day.  Here she is after the eye color makeover.

20160624_202210 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

That left the problem of the red hair.  I didn't have a problem with it having a warm, red undertone, since that helps to give her a Cassani look, but I wanted her to have at least a passing resemblance to the girl in her inspiration photo, not to mention the character's description in the story.  So I mixed the paint wash to include several shades of brown resulting in a reddish brown hue.  The first wash didn't darken her hair quite enough, so for the second attempt I went with the darkest brown I have.  Once both paint layers dried, she still came out with a fair bit more red in her hair than I originally planned on, though there's a noticeable difference in her before and after hair colors.  I decided rather than risk making her hair too stiff, I could live with her having dark red hair with brown undertones rather than having brunette hair with warm highlights, at least unless a more Eilonwy-looking doll head comes along later.

And here's Eilonwy post-makeover hanging out in the kitchen with her friends.

IMG_20160625_164201 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

In photos it seems to look browner than it does in person, which is great, since browner is what I was aiming for.

And this little child doll got a makeover too.  This is Catriona's little girl (the one she died while giving birth to), so I gave her Catriona's light green eyes and also attempted her tawny hair color.  Not entirely successful at getting the exact shade I pictured, but little Trina's hair color is at least closer to her mum's than it originally was.

20160625_201359 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Trina is wearing one of the spare Barbie blouses as a dress along with a plaid in McLain colors.

[Laurna]

Evie, you are getting really good at  eye painting. Nice job on everyone. I really like Jen and Morgan's eyes. I have Morgan's black leather jacket. I am looking for pants for him and maybe a surprise. Let us see if I get it. Then I will forward all to you.

[Jerusha]

You have been busy, with excellent results!  The pre-makeover Eilonwy head (sans body) made me think of some kind of medieval spectre hovering above the ruins of Rhemuth Castle.  Nice to see her more down-top-earth after her makeover.

[Evie]

Thanks, both of you! Yes, I like Eilonwy's head a lot better now that she's had a makeover and is actually on a body.    Laurna, Morgan thanks you for the clothing. I attempted a repaint of that awful pink bow tie last night....

20160625_223755 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

...but I forgot that the pink plastic tie also had glitter all over it!  So it's mostly covered now, but...um...would the Duke of Corwyn wear a black tie with subdued, Corwyn-green glitter flashing from it, do you think?  LOL!

If you haven't learned this trick for your figures yet, I've discovered that action figure jeans and trousers usually fit Ken better than Ken trousers do, because they can actually sit in them.  Ken shorts and trousers tend to have Velcro up the back, which comes apart if you try to get them to sit.  So unless Morgan is wearing action figure jeans, don't expect to see a lot of rear views of him in photos.    (However, keep those Ken jeans, because they usually fit action figure ladies perfectly fine! Whenever you've seen Helena in modern day shorts or jeans, she's wearing my Ken cast offs. The T-shirts usually work fine for action figure ladies too.)

OK, so on to today's shots.  Instead of one expected package arriving today, I ended up finding two.  (One might have arrived yesterday, but I forgot to check my mailbox, but Sophia's new body donor was left on my doorstep first thing this morning.)

I had to open the smaller package first.  Here's what was inside:

IMG_20160626_122434 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Itteh bitteh baby, purchased before I found the others at the thrift, although in more realistic scale.  This is roughly 4" long, if his little legs were straight, so that would make him a 24" long infant in our world.  And it's a baby boy!  Little Haldane, perhaps, or someone else's baby?

Here's Gigi inspecting the new baby.

IMG_20160626_122341 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I've been using torn bits from a paper towel to figure out diaper sizing for him. I will probably use some stretchy fabric to make something that can slip on and off easily.  But first I need to get out my chalk pastels and see if I can brush on a bit of extra color in spots to create more realistic body brushing. The maker of these has little girl babies also, but when I checked the listings, there was a choice of one with a really ugly grimace or another who appeared to be caught in mid-scream, so I'll keep checking back.  I loved this little one's features! I think this is one of my favorite doll purchases from eBay ever, especially given that he was less than $2!

Sophia's body donor was in the larger package.  Here she is in the box:

IMG_20160626_123037 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I rather liked her head and wished I could have kept it intact, just switched over to a different body so Sophia could have this one.  Unfortunately, her head was one of those stuffed with a lot of goopy glue. To show what a huge problem this is, here are the gluey roots of her hair which I pulled out thinking I might salvage her bald head and add clean, ungluey hair to it someday.

IMG_20160626_134402 by
evian_delacourt, on Flickr

This was with out half the hair roots left to pull out from the inside with tweezers.  My tweezers were horribly sticky and needed de-gooping too once this messy job was all done.  Imagine what that glue is like when it gets hot and melts, and then seeps out of the root holes and down into the doll's hair.  That's what I had to clean up from Jen's hair, and I'm still worried about whether I've managed to save it or have just delayed the damage. 

However, once I de-gooped the internal neck joint to avoid transferring any glue to inside Sophia's head, here's what she looked like on the new body.

20160626_175743 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

You might not be able to tell from this photo as easily as I can (being more familiar with how most jointed Barbie bodies work), but she is able to bend in subtly different ways from other Barbies or even the Liv body she was on yesterday.  Her legs can angle to the side as well as bend at the knee (and it's a double joint, so she can sit on her heels, not simply bend her knees at a right angle), she can touch her face with her hand, run her fingers through her hair, flex her ankles so her feet can wear flat or high heeled shoes, etc. 

You might notice that I've also used a bit of pastel chalk to add a hint of blushing and shading to the baby so there's an appearance of peach fuzz on his head, more realistic shadowing around his facial features, and a bit more pink overall to his skin tone.  My pastels are unfortunately not the best, so I may work on enhancing him more tomorrow when I have better light to work with and can scrape off more pastel dust off the hard chalk sticks to work with.

I would have posted more photos, but Flickr is having major uploading problems today, including some photos not uploading at all and others mysteriously disappearing and reappearing at random, so I'm going to make an attempt to post this, hope all the links I've currently included still work, and hopefully I'll be able to add more photos later this week. 

[Evie]

So, if Flickr will deign to cooperate with me this afternoon, here is this week's update.

This photo was taken shortly before Sophia's new body arrived, but it shows a casual little gathering in someone's kitchen.  Maybe it's Patrick and Eilonwy's; that would make the most sense.

20160625_225610 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

This was before I managed to find an articulated body for Patrick in my stash, but I found him some clothing that could work as the basis to build his work uniform upon.  He'll need some little insignia and rank patches at some point, and a uniform hat, but I think this will work.  And as you see, I finally managed to find my shirt with the clerical collar for Devlin. (It's actually just a dickey, not a full shirt, so that's why he's got a T-shirt pulled over it. It would work better under his black polar fleece jacket, but this is definitely not the right time of year for fleece, even in Gwynedd!)

Warning, doll nudity ahead:

IMG_20160627_153939 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I had this leftover figure in my stash. I had bought her to become Ailidh, but she just didn't work for that role, and in the meantime her plastic has been turning yellow for some odd reason (probably has to do with this brand of action figure, but I don't have any others of this brand to compare her with).  I tried re-blushing her body to match her head a bit better, with mixed results as it turns out her torso is made from a different vinyl or plastic from her arms and legs!  After lightly sanding her extremities, I got the pastel chalk dust to stick a little better, so once she's fully clothed, hopefully the yellowing won't show too much.  I'm hoping maybe she'll work a little better for either Lady Maureen or Lady Alicia than she did for Ailidh,since she has a more mature look to her. 

20160627_162221 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

OTOH, the same doll that plays my current Ailidh would also work marvelously well for Heather O'Flynn.

20160627_164406 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I recently acquired some metallic green lace, so Eilonwy got a new "crocheted" jacket to wear with some new green velvet trousers I made from an old headband:

20160628_140342 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

20160628_140255 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Jen also got a new sundress.  You may have to zoom in to see the bodice detail, but there is a tiny diamond rhinestone attached to the gathers at the top of the bodice.

IMG_20160629_135527 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Here's a better view:

IMG_20160701_164706 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

That dress also started off as an old headband.

Lest you think my little people are restricted to the kitchen, you might be relieved to know I've got another room in progress as well now:

IMG_20160701_165910 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Unfortunately it still lacks a toilet and sink, so hopefully they'll watch their intake of all that food and beer!

I recently rediscovered this customized action figure. I originally bought him to be Jass, but there's no good way to attach a border braid to him, so he got relegated to Extra Background Character.  But he's got some really nice clothing and accessories.  I finally managed to figure out how to take the belt off so I could take a close look under his jerkin, where I could see some tantalizing glimpses of actual chain maille.

IMG_20160702_143703 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

It turns out his hauberk is just a strip of chain maille held together on each side with wire twist ties!

IMG_20160702_144027 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I had contacted the seller when I first bought this figure to find out if he made the maille by hand.  Turns out he buys the maille "fabric" pre-linked by the sheet from an online supplier that sells it by the foot for making things like shark-resistant diving suits, butcher's gloves, etc.  I think at the time it worked out to something like $20 a foot for a strip that's 1' by about 3'.  That seems a bit steep at first glance, but considering that this hauberk is nothing more than a 4" wide rectangle cut from that strip, with a neck opening made in the middle, you could probably get 9 or 10 figures outfitted from a single strip. That makes the price per hauberk more like $4, which is far less than you'd pay if you had to buy the individual jump rings and make one from scratch.  (Not to mention it's a whole lot less work and time required to make one, which suddenly makes $20 look like a bargain!)  Not in the market for any chain maille strips yet since I'm broke, but at least I know this is one option to consider (at least if the price hasn't gone up too much since I last looked) if I ever want to outfit Kelson's army in real maille links rather than just silver mesh maille.  I would definitely want to replace the plastic coated twist-ties, though!  Granted, having closed sides would make the hauberk difficult if not impossible to remove, but leather straps with buckles would be a more period looking approach.  Or even just leather lace ties.  Something not so obviously modern.

Jass was on a body that really wasn't doing it for me, because his neck was too long and his head tended to wobble on it despite my modifications to the neck joint attempting to make his head fit on it better.  And Patrick was in dire need of a decently articulated body to replace his old early 1990s unbending body.  I dug around in my body bin to find an articulated Ken body with a modern-style neck joint for Jass and another one with an older style neck joint that would work with Patrick's head.  Patrick's head ended up being a major pain to remove from his original body because it was so old, the vinyl part of the joint that was attached to his head had started to permanently fuse to the plastic joint inside it, requiring not just heat to loosen the head from the body, but an Exacto knife blade to separate the head from the internal plastic joint.  Nevertheless, since I wasn't planning on using his body again, I finally managed to force the entire joint out without damage to his head, and fortunately it fit perfectly onto the donor body.  It's not an exact color match since Mattel doesn't make modern articulated bodies in that orangey "Coppertone Sunless Tanner" color of tan that his original head and body were made in, but I suppose it's OK that his body is paler than his head.  He must just work out of doors a lot. 

IMG_20160702_204206 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

So here are my modern Mini-Deryni up to this point:

20160703_020818 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

20160703_020834 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

20160703_020857 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

And Jass on his new body and fully dressed with new accessories:

20160703_020944 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

And oh yeah, this is what happens if you let your husband get into your doll stuff late at night:

Drinking alone by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Men!   

[Evie]

In case you're worried that all that beer and sangria might eventually need a place to go....

20160703_235648 by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I've been working with various found objects to see if I can put together a shape that will be a convincing toilet once it's all spray painted a single color (probably glossy black) and glued together.  Although an online friend from a doll forum has offered to send me a Sindy toilet from the UK (Sindy is a UK doll that is roughly Barbie sized--I think a little shorter--but her accessories supposedly tend to be closer to a true 1:6 scale), so I may end up using that instead if it turns out to be a good size for my action figures.  Barbie toilets tend to be too small; a male action figure on or standing next to a Barbie toilet would look like he's visiting the local daycare center!  Not that I plan on having lots of photos of dolls using the john, but I've always thought that doll bathrooms without all the proper furnishings just look completely silly (where do the dolls go when nature calls? Out the window?), and dollhouses without a bathroom at all seem just as odd.  (Maybe they use the back garden, or keep a chamber pot under the bed!)  I have a cute little black and gold marbled tray that I thought about converting into a sink for this room, but it's a bit large for the tiny space, so I'm also keeping an eye out for one of those paper clip holders that looks like a miniature sink, complete with fixtures.  I think I could easily come up with a pedestal for one that would take up less floor space than a large sink that would need to be mounted on a cabinet.