#toyrepaint

Even more repetitive photos of my Leon S. Kennedy (DIM MNM, OG-RE4) head sculpt, with his newly restyled wig. I also stained it a bit, to be a closer match to his hair color in the game. Which, I always believed to be (or aiming to be) a dirty blond (dyed, probably, since Leon is supposed to have auburn or dark brown hair, from what I read and based on OG-RE2 game). I want it to be closer to the Hi-res promo or key art from the OG-RE4 game, rather than the in-game-model, because I feel that's what Capcom wanted his hair color to be, and not the actual in game model(s) hair color. I might be wrong, but that's what I want for my own customized Leon doll (and action figures) regardless.

I trimmed and styled the bangs a little, but I feel they are still a bit too full/bulky, to fully sit/fall as they are supposed to. They might still be a bit too long as well, but I rather err on the side of caution. Because I suck at wig-making and even more at styling doll hair/wigs! DX

I am happy with the way the wig is turning out. I wasn't able to darken the air as much as I would have wanted, nor the roots. I wanted those to be a touch darker. I used heavily watered-down acrylic paint for the staining. When I made his stretchy-cap-wig, I stained the hair with acrylic paint and isopropyl alcohol, but I am scared of using alcohol on a glued-together wig. Not only is the cap all glue, the hair is also glued together. I don't want to end up with a mess. Sadly, it seems the heat resisting hair I got to add wefts to this, and to make his new wig (eventually!), doesn't take color well. It's probably not obvious, because most of the front hair/bangs is made from wefts left from the hair my bff gifted me to make my 1:6 Leon's partial wig.

More WIP photos of my DIM MNM OG-RE4 Leon (Scott Kennedy), head sculpt. I was able to bevel his eyes a little bit further, not as close of a shave, as I would have liked, but good enough for now.

I also fixed his brows oncea again, as I always get those so wrong. I fixed his upper lip shape a bit as well. I also got that so off, but I feel that's the beauty of being able to paint your own dolls. You get to decide when to stop, and when to continue working on them. (:

I need to darken the wig as well and shorten the bangs. I also always leave those too long. Most of the time on purpose, because I feel it's easier to shorten them if they are too long, than the other way around. More so with a wig/doll-hair, that won't grow longer over time. That's pretty much it, once you've cut it. Unless of course, you redo the whole thing.

I am done with my Decora Fashion Girlz Luna doll repaint. I haven't sealed the work yet, but I feel I am done. I went with all acrylics once again, and a 3-4 hours worth of work each day for the past three days. I am super happy with her; there are always issues due to my shaky-old-person hands, not as clean of a paint job as I would have liked. The last day was the worst, but I was super excited to finally finish her, so I painted her even with the extra jitters. I thought because her head is massive, it was going to be easier. Not thinking about how much of a pain it was going to be holding her head in one hand and trying to steady the other on top. Lol! Oh boy, was that a whole new learning curb! Doesn't help that I'm a scrawny, short old-fart, with tiny scrawny hands!

I was thinking of giving her more details in her irises, but I was too shaky, so I stopped myself. I might try later on, but for now, I feel she's done. I'm happy with how she looks even with all the flaws, she reminds me a bit of Secret Doll Persona head sculpts, the way she looks now. Which, I kind of really love, because I was never able to justify getting one of those dolls myself (I did regret it, for a while).

I will probably add upper applied lashes to her eyes after I seal the paint work, and perhaps a few piercings. I kind of like it with the idea that she's a vampire, might try sculpting actual fangs and teeth next time.

I'm done repainting and modifying (once again!) my custom pre-Rising Raiden. I feel like I have improved a tiny bit, repainting 1:6 action figures since the first time I painted him, back in 2014-ish. I am still learning, and I could have cleaned up a lot of the scratches and tiny air-bubbles that were left behind, due to me carving the features that weren't sculpted (the ones that were covered by the eye-patch and hair). They didn't bother me back then, but now I kind of regret not taking the time to look for those and only focus on fixing the terrible job I did on the eye I carved, this time.

There's always next time though! I want to fix a lot of things already. I didn't really do a great job on the ear/cyborg/mechanical-sound pieces either. So next time, I'll work on a lot of tiny and giant flaws. None of those were sculpted, they were all covered with either sculpted hair or the eye-patch, so it's all me sucking at life! DX

I am happy with how he looks taking all the flaws and putting them off for now. I still need to seal the work and dome the irises, but I had a bit of time yesterday and wanted to hurry up and finish repainting him... I didn't have time to seal the work, but I wanted to share him as he looks before I f-up the irises with the terrible doming job I do every time.

A progress of my Leon S. Kennedy DIM Minimee head sculp so far. I completed his additive mods a few days ago. I started repainting him on Friday, and yesterday I thought "I am done." However, I take photos throughout the process to see if I am indeed done, or if I need to fix, redo, wipe ect. any areas I can't see with the "naked eye." I am not good at portraiture, as I have mentioned in the past. I am a traditional artist, but portraiture never interested me in my youth. I did go to college and have a B.S. in game art (and one in graphic design), so I know how to create models in 3D, as well as a traditional art background from the age I could barely form a sentence. Having said that, I don't feel sculpting and 3D modeling are remotely the same. There are a lot of things that I'll never be able to fully understand in sculpting, that by no means I learned by 3D modeling a thousand years ago. Or anything close. I don't feel they go hand in hand for me. Probably because I suck, at traditional sculpture.

That's why I take progress photos, so I can see the mistakes I've made and try to fix them (in the form of mockups in Photoshop). It's also a pain in the gut finding OG RE4 Leon references, that are HD, and not the RE4 Remake Leon, which I have zero interest in (creating a custom doll/figure based on). I can now see that I made the left brow too angular, so I'll have to attempt to fix that before sealing it for good. I am happy with him otherwise. I'll have to look for smaller iris eyes for him, and also bevel the new sculpted eyes a bit, as the eyeballs don't sit flush and these don't have that big of a dome. They are beautiful, but the iris are a bit too big for my taste, and to be accurate as well. Although OG RE4 Leon does have giant irises, these are a smidge too huge now. His wig is also wrong, the hair has always been the wrong color, but I haven't looked for dirty blonde doll hair fibers, recently. I don't know how common of a doll hair color that is now, but back in the dark ages, this was as good as I was able to find (it's an overly saturated strawberry blonde, leaning towards blinding orange).

I'm including a few older photos of my DIM MNM Leon, throughout the years, as well as how he looked blank, straight from DIM, compared to the mods I did on him now. I modified his eyes, the nose and the lips. I feel I could have gotten the upper lip to be a bit fuller, and have a wider M shape, but there's always next time. I'm done modding him for now. I'm super excited to work on my tiny, customized Leon as well, after I'm done working on some of older giant resin head sculpts. It was a freaking long process working on Leon, but I feel I learned so much after working on Lulu for an eternity as well, that I am now kind of addicted (once again!) to modifying things! (: