This wasn't my first kitbash, my first was a Luftwffe officer (which I'll share in a later post). This was, however, my first attempt at making facial hair on a clean-shaven doll--oops--I mean action figure. >__>
Anyway, not the greatest pictures. I need more, and I need bigger ones. And ones where the dang flang doll stand isn't showing. *doh*.
I'm not sure what made me name him Ambrose. I guess because he has some massive sideburns and the word "sideburn" was coined from an admiral Burnsides who fought for the Union in the Civil War. Anyhow...
The Dragon figure I used was actually a German figure called "Helmut". Up there on the top left (above) you can see what he looked like before I added the Sculpey sideburns and mustache. I had no clue about how to attach the Sculpey to the face, and I am sure there is a way better way to do this, but here was what I did and it seemed to work (his facial hair is intact to this day, at least):
1. I applied a bit of superglue to the face where the facial hair would go (i.e. down the sides of the face, on the upper lip). Then I had to act quick, because the glue dries fast.
2. I applied the first Sculpey layer, texturing it with a toothpick as I stuck it on. That provided sort of a "foundation" on which I could build up on the' burns and 'stache.
3. I built up the facial hair till I was happy with it. I used a needle tool from some ceramics tools I have (I use it a lot with Sculpey) to make the texture. A toothpick would also work well.
4. Sculpey has to be baked, but I obviously couldn't stick this guy's head in the oven. So I used a blowdryer to harden it. Seemed to work just fine.
5. I mixed some acrylic paint up umtil I had a color that matched the figure's hair. First, though, I painted the entire "beard" with dark brown paint. I drybrushed the blond color on top of it. Since acrylics are water-based, if I happened to accidentally get paint anywhere on the face I didn't want it, it wiped right off with a wet paper towel.
6. I sprayed over the facial hair with Testor's Dullcote (clear, non-glossy sealer). Testor's is the only brand of clear overspray stuff that I have ever found that will dry on a painted Sculpey object. For some reason, any other glosses or clearcoats of any kind I have used tended to stay tacky, therefore, every time the object was touched, it got screwed up, usually a big ugly fingerprint being left embedded in it.
Here are a couple of closeups:
I'm sure the more of these I do I'll improve. But, being my first ever, I'm pretty proud of it. It's amazing how different that facial hair made this figure look.
More pics, including a full body shot:
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| Yes, next time the doll stand will be hidden... |
Name: Ambrose
Title: Private, 1st Texas Infantry, Confederate States
Uniform made by Sideshow Toy
Figure by Dragon
I had a ton of fun doing this. My next project was a 1870s Cavalry Officer, which you'll see in the near future.
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