[6/14/20]Bald/shaved female heads - Tank girl army

Thank you for sharing your experiments! They certainly show promise. I'm looking forward to seeing Lucius Malfoy/Jason Isaacs as a punk. ;D 

And your update on this post is very timely as I'm trying to gear myself to try this same type of thing on the [soon-to-be] Ventress head. It's already bald, but it has an unfortunate glaring seam on it, so I need to fill that in prior to painting, and I've been vacillating over how best to do it.

Looks like a good start. Good luck with the stubble hair look.

I'm bracing myself for a slew of new characters, and have no doubt you will do something very cool with them. Unless I missed it, I'm not sure why you didn't go with green stuff.

skywalkersaga wrote:Thank you for sharing your experiments! They certainly show promise. I'm looking forward to seeing Lucius Malfoy/Jason Isaacs as a punk. ;D 

And your update on this post is very timely as I'm trying to gear myself to try this same type of thing on the [soon-to-be] Ventress head. It's already bald, but it has an unfortunate glaring seam on it, so I need to fill that in prior to painting, and I've been vacillating over how best to do it.

Thanks! Yeah it seems bald female heads are our white whale.
Still haven't found a pleasing way, but it's getting better.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looks like a good start. Good luck with the stubble hair look.

Thanks a lot, see below.

GubernatorFan wrote:I'm bracing myself for a slew of new characters, and have no doubt you will do something very cool with them. Unless I missed it, I'm not sure why you didn't go with green stuff.

Thanks, I also wonder what my customer will do, he creates post apocalyptic tank girl/mad Max/fallout raider like characters with detailed costumes.
I used the clay because it was cheaper and required less Greenstuff and because the surface looks more organic when formed with water. 

For one head I combined Greenstuff hair stubble with lamb hair.



I liked that look but that was not my job


So I cut it short. Oi! One more layer of bangs and purple/red/green hair has to be added.


The Harley head with glued on hair on one of my Cargonite bodies for testing. I added guns and a leather jacket for New Wafoy so he looks nicer for the photos and clothed the blonde, who had long hair.


One opportunity to use guns, they died out in my world.


We don't know yet how to cover the border of the neck, cloth or hair.

I think they've turned out great so far. And I do like this Harley so much more than the "original"

I see now what you meant by the stubble. While I’m not really keen on that ‘shaved top with fringe’ hairstyle in 1:1, I’m certainly impressed you managed to pull it off in 1/6! ;D

Impressive. That Harley is my favorite of the bunch, but Malfoy also looks cool — can hardly recognize him.

This is great stuff!! Very inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
And what a wonderful use of that GC017 head sculpt.

That's pretty cool, I really like how they turned out. Also draco looks like that one guy that thinks his music taste is superior.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Also draco looks like that one guy that thinks his music taste is superior.

You just described most of the self-absorbed @$$-hats in the music industry — most of whom are also wrong.

That's very cool and original, well done!!!

GubernatorFan wrote:I think they've turned out great so far. And I do like this Harley so much more than the "original"

Thanks a lot! Yes, about the design of the Hollywood Harley, I think their designs are a bit 'tame/clean/polished crazy'. Don't know how to describe it. Designed by someone who is not crazy enough, maybe. Her and jokers face tattoos are a bit uninspired. Like they checked boxes, but it doesn't look organic. Imagine Joker going to his Tattoo artist: hey I want tons of edgy 'HaHa's on my chest.
I got a different Harley head for myself, as there are few smiling female sculpts. Will change the hair of course and get rid of the tattoo.

skywalkersaga wrote:I see now what you meant by the stubble. While I’m not really keen on that ‘shaved top with fringe’ hairstyle in 1:1, I’m certainly impressed you managed to pull it off in 1/6! ;D

Thank you, still don't know how the other three will turn out.

Stryker2011 wrote:Impressive. That Harley is my favorite of the bunch, but Malfoy also looks cool — can hardly recognize him.

Thanks a lot, I think he was a great choice by my 'client'.

AerynDiana wrote:This is great stuff!! Very inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
And what a wonderful use of that GC017 head sculpt.

Thanks! I had to google the GC017 - the one with the open mouth and the cigarette. I want to turn her into some kind of leaned back, badass-mom, vodka loving witch/priestess for my cargo people, that's the plan at least.

Stryker2011 wrote:

Theboo-bomb wrote:Also draco looks like that one guy that thinks his music taste is superior.

You just described most of the self-absorbed @$$-hats in the music industry — most of whom are also wrong.

Hah, I think 'edgy' is the word. But I think it's Brit Wave inspired.

blackpool wrote:That's very cool and original, well done!!!

Merci.

Just some updates.
Tank Girl Tattoo on two bodies. It's acrylics on plastic body, any good ideas how to seal it?


We call her Coo, as she is a Coomodel. She had long blonde hair.


Also tattooed.


Not so puffy with gel. We call him Falloutboy.


And this one purplepinked, we call her Skinny.

Holy crap, that is such a perfect choice of headsculpt for Tankgirl!!! Coming out perfect too. All of the shaved heads are looking great, and they really do blend well with the rest of the head. Loving it.

What a cool update! I love those hair colours -- I'm especially partial to purple.

And regarding how to seal acrylics.... as an alternative to a spray sealant, I have been trying out some liquitex matte varnish thinned with airbrush medium, as it's somewhat thick otherwise. I use a makeup sponge, like the one you'd use to smudge the oil pastels on the silicone bodies, and then cut it down to size, and use the smooth surface to dip into the thinned varnish. Then dab it onto the area you want to seal [or on the entire area, for uniform finish]. Just lightly dab it, rather than smear it on.

Of course, probably best to test this on an extra figure or an area that won't show, just in case.

Great update!! What a difference the gel makes...
And I now love that cute head on the coo body! Much less doll like! Makes me reconsider a few sculpts out there. I normally stay away from those pretty faces, but this hair obviously gives her a lot more depth.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Holy crap, that is such a perfect choice of headsculpt for Tankgirl!!!  Coming out perfect too.  All of the shaved heads are looking great, and they really do blend well with the rest of the head.  Loving it.

Yep I too think they are great choices, still have to find out which headsculpt the one with purple hair is. And thanks!

skywalkersaga wrote:What a cool update! I love those hair colours -- I'm especially partial to purple.

And regarding how to seal acrylics.... as an alternative to a spray sealant, I have been trying out some liquitex matte varnish thinned with airbrush medium, as it's somewhat thick otherwise. I use a makeup sponge, like the one you'd use to smudge the oil pastels on the silicone bodies, and then cut it down to size, and use the smooth surface to dip into the thinned varnish. Then dab it onto the area you want to seal [or on the entire area, for uniform finish]. Just lightly dab it, rather than smear it on.

Of course, probably best to test this on an extra figure or an area that won't show, just in case.

Thanks, I will try, sounds like a good technique if you want to avoid spray or airbrush!

AerynDiana wrote:Great update!! What a difference the gel makes...
And I now love that cute head on the coo body! Much less doll like! Makes me reconsider a few sculpts out there. I normally stay away from those pretty faces, but this hair obviously gives her a lot more depth.

Haha, yeah I thought she looked rather artificial and too nice, now we decided for some panda eyes and football stripes. Also colored Harley's hair.

Any ideas how to make short stubble hair? I don't have a static grass machine thingy.


Red lipstick was commissioned, I tried to overdo it a bit for a slightly more crazy look, maybe I'll have to change the eyebrows too.

Cool updates. For stubble, try Googling “flocking” — that’s what they called it on the original 12” GI Joe’s — maybe there are some techniques out there on how to do that.

Nice updates to these heads. The look is fresh and striking, the execution masterful. Looking forward to the next step.

They look cool, as for stubble maybe try to do some stippling?

I’ve been wondering about stubble. I’m thinking flocking would lead to mixed results since some hair would be flat on the scalp, no? It’s better for filling in gaps on an otherwise hairy head...

I was thinking: take a bundle of hair, the amount that fits flat between two fingers, cut it straight, then apply Very little glue to the ends. Let dry. Prepare as many of these bundles as you need (or maybe just half as many because you could reuse them). Once dry glue them on the scalp standing up and once fixed, cut them short. (This is where you could reuse the stands for another round.)

Disclaimer: I know nothing. These are just musings.

Stryker2011 wrote:Cool updates. For stubble, try Googling “flocking” — that’s what they called it on the original 12” GI Joe’s — maybe there are some techniques out there on how to do that.

Thanks a lot. Yes I did some research, thanks for the tip. While I didn't use the static grass model train equipment Delanie recommend, I just used my magic fleece and cut tiny ~1mm pieces of the hair strands that were already shortened for other hair rooting, then glued the little flakes on.

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice updates to these heads. The look is fresh and striking, the execution masterful. Looking forward to the next step.

Thanks a lot, and nice choice of words, really appreciated.

Theboo-bomb wrote:They look cool, as for stubble maybe try to do some stippling?

You mean paint it on, like they do on bald figures? Thought about it, but my head textures didn't look that realistic.

AerynDiana wrote:I’ve been wondering about stubble. I’m thinking flocking would lead to mixed results since some hair would be flat on the scalp, no? It’s better for filling in gaps on an otherwise hairy head...

I was thinking: take a bundle of hair, the amount that fits flat between two fingers, cut it straight, then apply Very little glue to the ends. Let dry. Prepare as many of these bundles as you need (or maybe just half as many because you could reuse them). Once dry glue them on the scalp standing up and once fixed, cut them short. (This is where you could reuse the stands for another round.)

Disclaimer: I know nothing. These are just musings.

Thanks a lot for the idea! And yes, flocking is not perfect, but it's good enough for my customer
Anyway,  tried your idea on my experimental head, but it would take a very long time and patience.  But will remember that.


So here are the uncleaned, unpainted and unrefined flocking results:



New Wave Jason Isaacs.





The friendly blonde Coo Barbie.

Looking pretty good. Obviously once they are cleaned up they will look much better. I think Jason’s head turned out the best — mainly because his hair was already dark. One thing that would have helped with the blonde sculpts would have been to use a light brown “flocking” to give the impression of skin color coming through.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looking pretty good. Obviously once they are cleaned up they will look much better. I think Jason’s head turned out the best — mainly because his hair was already dark. One thing that would have helped with the blonde sculpts would have been to use a light brown “flocking” to give the impression of skin color coming through.

Huh, some time has passed. But you were absolutely right. The Jason head was good, tweaked it a little, but for the other one I tried new methods. Covering the bald head with glue and attaching a small piece of fur, with the right hair growing direction, then cutting off the leather. 


Had to repaint Harley's head (cheap paintjob chipped off) added blonde fur.





Newcius Wavefoy


Added white fur to the back of the head and painted it green. She has gone a long way from standard  blonde longe haired Barbie looking type once, haha.. Had to drill holes in the ears, wires are placeholders.


Selfie with Yurg.


For 'phase 2' of Punk-Nena, I added tiny single strands of hair to blend with the sculpted hair, then used black paint for more blending.


Also got another shipment for customizing, I had to do a bit of weathering/hair colouring etc. This pic shows them after they arrived with 'Vanilla' hair.

Those turned out really, really well, Ovy. I'm especially impressed with how you ended up doing that darker shaved hair with the purpley-pink fringe... I may not be overly fond of that kind of hairstyle in RL but you made it look pretty awesome here. The contrasting colour really sells it. Not to mention the skill and patience to get it look like that.  Excellent work! 

While my tastes may run a little (or a lot) more conventional, this is truly impressive and inspiring work on your part. It really brings new life into the head sculpts and characters. The finished or advanced versions do look like an improvement on the earlier stages, which were themselves already quite something.

Nicely done on the hair, Ovy. Your solution for the stubble seems to have worked.

skywalkersaga wrote:Those turned out really, really well, Ovy. I'm especially impressed with how you ended up doing that darker shaved hair with the purpley-pink fringe... I may not be overly fond of that kind of hairstyle in RL but you made it look pretty awesome here. The contrasting colour really sells it. Not to mention the skill and patience to get it look like that.  Excellent work! 

Thanks you so much! Took me some brain wrangling, but it made me realize how much these tiny strands can achieve if you want to make everything more detailed after the main work is done. Definitely learned something from it.

GubernatorFan wrote:While my tastes may run a little (or a lot) more conventional, this is truly impressive and inspiring work on your part. It really brings new life into the head sculpts and characters. The finished or advanced versions do look like an improvement on the earlier stages, which were themselves already quite something.

Thanks! Yeah, unconventional is nothing one can buy factory produced I guess. I don't even know what that headsculpt is, anyone recognise it? Looks a bit Agnes Deryn like or how she is called.

Stryker2011 wrote:Nicely done on the hair, Ovy. Your solution for the stubble seems to have worked.

Thanks a lot! We should use that smiley more often, it emits positive waves.


So now the new batch, but a last Harley pic first.


This one was adult Ciri. The colors work great on white hair.


Had the job to make this piece colorful/paint splashed. Made a RAF roundel out of one of the buttons, another into a smiley flower, was well received, had to design all the other buttons too later.


Here I put fur on the back of the head and colored the hair, tried to blend blonde and blue a bit. This time I colored the fur before attaching. It's s bit messy, better paint it afterwards.


For this Milla of Arc I should make something 'like the whistling rainbow lady', I used oil pastels on synthetic hair and some wax 





Also 'make the clothing road warrior dirty'


Here with all the buttons.


The Wolverine kid got blue hair. It was brown, so I used darker blue marker, then lighter blue pastels.


Before coloring, I gave her some leather clothing and let her pose with our forest boy. I would have gotten her already, but the figure is rather pricey.



I also made a huge groups hot in the end with Yurg, but I have to sort the pics out a bit.

Very impressive dye jobs. The paint-covered overalls are my favorites. And -- oh no! -- I think I saw an exposed wrist joint! The horror!

Excellent hair jobs. The Milla of Arc is probably my favorite. Nice multi-color job on them.