Custom Pops

It was fun! I wasn’t as rusty as I feared I might be. However, I did have to repaint his face as well as his hair. Fortunately I have to do that with my next project so it was good practice for that, but it’s still a pain in the butt!

I think when I do my inevitable rewatch of the series I’m going to pay more attention to his suits. He has a lot of good ones! (Enjoying some luxury while putting his history in textiles to good use and knowing the better ones? You bet!)

Nothing more to add, really! I had more fun making him than I thought I would. I’d planned on making him for awhile, even had the head, but I could never really find the right suit. And I’m more fond of Mr. Gold than I am Rumplestiltskin. 

I doubt I’ll make a spinner Rumple mostly because the Baelfire I made took more imagination than I’ve been feeling lately.

I’ll be honest, Blackbeard isn’t one of my favorite characters on Once so I was half afraid I would lowkey hate how he turned out. Boy was I wrong. I think this is actually one of the better paint jobs I’ve done, and while not perfectly symmetrical, that beard okay?!  That’s like. My best freehanding ever. And those eyebrows?? You’d never guess his head was once Elizabeth Swann’s. (I mean, if you know parts, you would, probably, but. I LIKE HOW HE TURNED OUT, OKAY?!)

I mean look there’s like three different shades of black here. At least three different browns.

On the one hand I am super proud of the hat, on the other I wish I’d spent a little bit more in preplanning. I went for a hat instead of more curly hair because it’s so amazing on the show and I love the details.  (I’d considered the hat off approach, similar to this one here that @freifraufischer did. As you can tell the body choices are the same. As you can tell, though, the color pallets are different, which is just always so neat.)

I WAS a goober so the eyes got a bit messed up. You can see that in some of the pictures. But I fixed it up and it’s near impossible to tell without a close up of a camera (unless I’m just more visually challenged than I’m prepared to believe!)

When I made my last Milah, I was also testing out colors for this jacket... What? Don’t tell me when you look at OUAT’s Blackbeard you aren’t like ‘Gosh, he looks kind of like Disney’s Captain Hook. And since she was Captain Hook, obviously I would test out that color scheme.

Anyhoo. I actually love him more than I thought I would. So now I’m keeping an eye out for cheap parts to make myself one.

It actually started with the Killian one, the third from the left. I had made her one and sent him along because I knew that it was an important verse to her. The one here is a recreation for myself! Not as good (though his neck is still as wobbly tw: my voice)

I hadn’t wanted to post these because I felt I’d be intrusive?

Anyhoo this trek verse is what I know as Ohana, but also goes by ‘ad augusta per angusta.’ However, looking that up on Tumblr is a bit...weird. What I DO know is that there are very specific muns for these guys.

We have @theoriginalliamjones as the ‘fancasted’ Commander Liam Jones (Because we’re not part of the actual verse yet, see? and we don’t wanna stub toes!)

We have @justmilah as LTC Milah Jones (...apparently I can’t link myself? Also like she wouldn’t have a mad complicated braid in an ST verse, fite me!)

@rumdaydreams as the gorgeous LT Jones.

AND OF COURSE @thecursedson as Ensign Baelfire Gold. Who, along with Rumday, is legit apart of this verse!

I had so much making them, even if Liam and Milah are dead in this verse!

And of course, I didn’t do these. But @rumdaydreams made a pop of her friend! (And I made a Milah pop of the leftovers here!) Anyhoo, she made a custom @empathicstars with some advice from yours truly!

Lookit my early 2000′s transitions!

The colors show up better with the flash, so here they are! A nice dark red asymmetrical coat, a spyglass, her...grappling hook type thing maybe, a...okay it looks like a lightsaber but whatever it is is awesome she is awesome and I love her! Now I had considered a hook for her. I do have an Exaliber Hook that’d be fine with being parted out like that.

And so does Killian so nyah.

But...I mean, her hair looks nice and awesome, and I am pleased the the gradient change. It’s the head from body I used yesterday for Young Alice, but that wasn’t the original. Oh no. The original head I wanted to is sitting here on my desk. Finished and complete. Painted. Judging me for my failure.

Just look at that! How beautiful! This is a head I have horded away for MONTHS! YEARS, even! DECADES! I had this head hiding away when I was three years old, buried at the bottom of my toybox, waiting for the perfect Milah custom! Yes, I stanned her before her actress even acted! I’m kidding, of course, but I’ve had this head for awhile. I have a few of them. The problem is, I don’t have the head disc for this one, the one I’m using is apparently expanded and warped and won’t even go back on its own Merida head, and the one with the disc still attached...has part of her bang missing. That I didn’t even know about until I started painting that head. Because I’m observant.

But all that aside, I’ll keep that head tucked aside and...hopefully use it for Milah #98237478234.

I finally went for less than subtle on the grey. I even tried to add it to the scruff!  Some months ago KMS suggested I try this and as I was working on him I thought he needed his daughter to keep him company! (After all, Tilly has Rogers!) Also, one thing that wouldn’t come up on the picture was his vest. I dry brushed a bit of black to similate brocade and its so adorable. (I also painted his buttons brass because really? and of course repainted his hair. And stubble.)

Young Alice’s body came with a candelabra. I’d had doubts but Mabs​ pointed out I could turn it into a paint brush! I did my best to match the design of the fabric and followed the color scheme.

While the neckline is different, I’m ridonkulously happen that both have puff sleeves. (And a few years before Anne Shirley got them!) I am not very good at drawing branches, so I tend to avoid trees like the plague, but I am pleased with how it turned out!

I didn’t use the head that came with the body. Edith’s hair is too wavy for Young Alice, but I have Rose Tyler heads laying around from when I made my Underworld Milah. The straighter hair works better plus the little flower seems a nice substitute for the ribbon.

Alice Body: Edith Cushing (Crimson Peak) Head: Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

I did end up repainting her dress. There...wasn’t a real reason to. I do think it looks better repainted, just not as a deal breaker.

And since she already has a green Pascal from the original Rapunzel pop she has, I went with an orangey salmony color for his skin.

Her neck post was way too small for the neck hole, so I’m hoping my genius idea to spackle the hole with a bit of clay then shoving the post in, letting it dry, then supergluing actually is a genius idea. Heck, I feel smart for it!

Look at this smug little frog.

I’m not sure how I feel about my new picture taking box thing. The lights came broken. I might have to return it if they’ll let me.

Head: Aubrey - Pitch Perfect Body: Rapunzel - Tangled

So this is what she looks like without flash. I don’t normally paint hair with more than a matte, but the hair is a mix of satin and high gloss while the skin is satin and matte. The dress is more satin.

Since her Dark One ‘Aesthetic’ is the ocean, I went with three different things. Her skin, as mentions above, is mother of pearl (really hard to achieve @_@), and her hair had a touch of green in it for seawead, and her dress is as dark yet swirling with blue as the ocean. So.

And then the skull is…well, let’s be real. I’d thought about replacing it with something, but KW reminded me that a Dark One Milah would likely be dark as hell. So that’s just the skull of someone she carries around with her because she can. (It’s also a good stand in for the spine belts she makes… They’re just decorative, though. They won’t hold up any trousers.)

Although part of me suspects that’s the skull of Killian or Baelfire, whoever’s death caused her to go over the edge and slaughter her ex with his own dagger, and she carries it around with her as a sort of security blanket and to keep whichever him close.

No pirate would be complete without that free cat hair.

This was one of  those times where I actually didn’t repaint everything. The hat is still the same as well as the shirt. But I am oddly proud of the metal bits and the waist cincher. And look at them dots on that belt!

(No matter what I do her sword is always bent. Oops.)

I also did the same sunkissed ombre I do with the other Pirate Milah. I’m still surprised something I learned while dabbling with nail art came in handy here!

(Though now I wonder how it would go if I tried the actual technique instead of an odd sort of dry brushing thing. Although acrylic does not stay wet as long as nail polish does, woe.)

I’d tried taking the hat off but it was stuck in a place. When it dried it sort of stuck in that position and it made gluing down a bit of a challenge. And, obviously, I had to improvise as I couldn’t find a rubber band or...anything else other than the plastic rings of a soda six pack. Oops.