Head Conversion Tutorial (updated with Part III - June 2019)

ironman1188 wrote:Have you ever denecked a head where the head and hair was all one piece?

Yes, all the time. Look at the very first example. But I suspect you mean where there is long sculpted hair that covers the normal cut line at the back of the neck and an integral neck all parts of a single continuous sculpt. That I generally try to avoid, but it is doable -- especially if we are talking PVC rather than resin (that is just too messy and hazardous to one's health). I can't think of specific heads where I have done it, but the the front part works the same as above. The back part, on the outside, trace the hairline (where it meets the neck) with the cut, then whittle/dremel away the interior a bit (for any protruding hair you only really need the outside/easily visible surface), and paint over it as needed, just in case something shows.

GubernatorFan wrote:

ironman1188 wrote:Have you ever denecked a head where the head and hair was all one piece?

Yes, all the time. Look at the very first example. But I suspect you mean where there is long sculpted hair that covers the normal cut line at the back of the neck and an integral neck all parts of a single continuous sculpt. That I generally try to avoid, but it is doable -- especially if we are talking PVC rather than resin (that is just too messy and hazardous to one's health). I can't think of specific heads where I have done it, but the the front part works the same as above. The back part, on the outside, trace the hairline (where it meets the neck) with the cut, then whittle/dremel away the interior a bit (for any protruding hair you only really need the outside/easily visible surface), and paint over it as needed, just in case something shows.

Thanks!

I may be getting "adventurous" this weekend!

ironman1188 wrote:Thanks! I may be getting "adventurous" this weekend!

You are welcome. I wish I had an example I could find to show. But take your time, remember you can always cut more, but never less, and I think you'll be alright, even if it isn't the easiest mod. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good luck.

Superb tutorial , very confidently done , and well explained . I don`t think I would be brave enough to do it personally , but you never know and it`s great to have such a good guide to follow if I ever did .

Chip wrote:Superb tutorial , very confidently done , and well explained . I don`t think I would be brave enough to do it personally , but you never know and it`s great to have such a good guide to follow if I ever did .

Get ahold of a cheap head sculpt with a neck for practice. I think you’ll find once you do it, it’s easier than you might think, as long as you keep heating the head up. Do it once, and then suddenly modding head sculpts in general doesn’t seem so terrifying anymore. Same with adding real hair; it’s a messy, ad time consuming process, but it gets easier the more you do it.

Stryker2011 wrote:

Chip wrote:Superb tutorial , very confidently done , and well explained . I don`t think I would be brave enough to do it personally , but you never know and it`s great to have such a good guide to follow if I ever did .

Get ahold of a cheap head sculpt with a neck for practice. I think you’ll find once you do it, it’s easier than you might think, as long as you keep heating the head up. Do it once, and then suddenly modding head sculpts in general doesn’t seem so terrifying anymore. Same with adding real hair; it’s a messy, ad time consuming process, but it gets easier the more you do it.

Agree with this. I did about three practice runs before I attempted to add hair to a headculpt, and it helped a lot. I made some common mistakes with the first try, and then had a chance to improve on it a couple times before I finally felt confident to do it on the actual head in question. It's a good way to get over one's fear of modd'ing. : )

Chip wrote:Superb tutorial , very confidently done , and well explained . I don`t think I would be brave enough to do it personally , but you never know and it`s great to have such a good guide to follow if I ever did .

Thank you very much. I hope it was informative and gave you ideas. And, like Stryker said, don't be intimidated, just take it slowly and it will work; can't hurt to try it out with a practice run. Good luck.

I had ago .

  I am fairly happy how it turned out too . This was my first attempt , I just threw caution to the wind and went for it . This is a Dragon head onto a Coomodel body . I did have spares of this head so it wouldn`t of been a total loss . But it went o.k , and not as hard as I thought . It`s not perfect , but I can live with it .   At least you know your time and shared techniques are helping us out Ian . Thank You .

Chip wrote:I had ago .

  I am fairly happy how it turned out too . This was my first attempt , I just threw caution to the wind and went for it . This is a Dragon head onto a Coomodel body . I did have spares of this head so it wouldn`t of been a total loss . But it went o.k , and not as hard as I thought . It`s not perfect , but I can live with it .   At least you know your time and shared techniques are helping us out Ian . Thank You .

Thank you for the kind words, and I'm very happy it has been helpful. As mentioned elsewhere, I like what you've done, and I think you're well on your way to make it perfect -- while I recognize that there may be some limitations imposed on you by the size and nature of the head sculpt and the neck.

Why am I just now seeing this? I searched and found one Youtube vid to help guide me as I was denecking a head acuplt for my Eddie Van Halen build. He turned out great tho.he went from this to this:

Well done, MoonRaven.

Nice change.

I just  realised my photo diddnt show the neck modification. I did make a video at first, but after 2 afternoons of scraping and digging I lost interest in the filming part. I put a little  padding under the flesh around the neck post.  I have a pair of posable hands on the way and spent a month trying to make 1/6 levis, as the JD19 body DOES HAVE much longer legs. I remember seeing Eddie wear these jeans witg leather patches on them. I may try that approach to attempt to lengthen the pant legs and recreate that look.

Nice use of the head! And good job with the de-necking.

I still need to get up the courage to do this. :3

Yes, you achieved a nice smooth line, just at the right place. Depending on the clothing, you might want to find a way to fix the head a little lower on the body. If not, check out the nipple painting tutorial. LOL But, seriously, well done, and the difference the hair makes is phenomenal.