Converting Sebastian Stan HT Bucky Barnes Head (updated)

Having converted a Jason Momoa Aquaman head (HERE) and an Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan head (HERE), it seemed like a natural choice to do the same to the new Bucky Barnes head sculpt by HT. The face is excellent but the hair, while very impressively sculpted, is just soft molded plastic. I object to this on principle anyway, so here we go again. For more details on the process, please consult the other threads linked above.

More photos in Post 6 below

The original head:


I gently pried off the two-part hair sculpt and perched it on his shoulders for this photo:


You don't need a very ample scalp if you are going to give your head sculpt an ample hair, but I decided I should fill-in the various indents with Kneadatite Blue and Yellow. I painted it very lightly with a flesh color (not even trying to match the face, since it wouldn't be visible), then began to glue on the hair in rows, starting with a line parallel to the bottom of the head sculpt at the back.


No matter how disheveled, I left the hair in place for a while, giving the glue a chance to cure.


Then I gently removed any loose strands, rinsed the hair with water, and gave him a haircut.


Finally, to make the hair less puffy, I applied a solution of water and shampoo+conditioner. I may have overdone it, giving him a more compact, wet hair look, but I will worry about styling it later (or not -- I wasn't completely crazy about the original/movie look of the hair).


Hope this is helpful or informative. What do you think?

More photos in post 6 below

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Excellent work, as usual. I think if you start teasing some sections with a toothpick you could easily give it a more loose look if you wanted. Overall a vast improvement that will help the figure attain more realistic head movement.

You did a great job on it as always! I liked to see how you built up the skull in these pics as well. And lol, the sculpted hair is draped over him so artfully. ;D

As you noted, it could perhaps do with just the tiniest bit of styling... I can understand not wanting to make it exactly like the original, but even just bringing the hair just slightly forward on the right side -- not necessarily covering his eye, but just a little over that cheekbone -- would sort of match the part in the front and also make it visually a bit more like the HT version. But at the same time, if you don't want to mimic that too closely then maybe it's ok as it is.

Sculpted long hair triggers a natural reaction in you, it seems.
Great work as usual. But I can totally relate now, after having rooted two heads under your spiritual guidance. The sculpted hairline or a headband really helps, I wonder what we would do without those?

Stryker2011 wrote:Excellent work, as usual. I think if you start teasing some sections with a toothpick you could easily give it a more loose look if you wanted. Overall a vast improvement that will help the figure attain more realistic head movement.

Thank you very much. The problem with using product -- even diluted -- is that you end up with clumping -- at least when you're dealing with this type of very fine material. I did try teasing and relaxing the hair with a toothpick as you suggested, see the last photo in next post (I think it helped).

skywalkersaga wrote:You did a great job on it as always! I liked to see how you built up the skull in these pics as well. And lol, the sculpted hair is draped over him so artfully. ;D

As you noted, it could perhaps do with just the tiniest bit of styling... I can understand not wanting to make it exactly like the original, but even just bringing the hair just slightly forward on the right side -- not necessarily covering his eye, but just a little over that cheekbone -- would sort of match the part in the front and also make it visually a bit more like the HT version. But at the same time, if you don't want to mimic that too closely then maybe it's ok as it is.

Thank you very much. Oh yes, it definitely needed some styling, unless you wanted him to look like he just came out of the pool -- or, for you, emerged out of the foamy waves of the ocean Part of me of course wanted to match the hairstyle of the original, although I thought that it looked rather artificial, even if accurate to the film appearance; I am just not beating myself up if I cannot get there, especially as I wasn't really loving it. The special challenge here is to have enough hair, but not too much. Not enough would leave bald spots (especially when it clumps due to the use of product), but too much would look too puffy. Anyway, I did play with it a bit more. And the "artful" or "artsy" draping of the removed sculpted hair pieces on the torso does remind me of a type of Roman imperial bust (most notably of Commodus playing Hercules). In both cases, see the extra photos in the next post.

Ovy wrote:Sculpted long hair triggers a natural reaction in you, it seems.
Great work as usual. But I can totally relate now, after having rooted two heads under your spiritual guidance. The sculpted hairline or a headband really helps, I wonder what we would do without those?

Yep, it seems to. Didn't you once say it is a self-fulfilling prophecy? Thank you very much. Go forth and convert all sculpted long hairs, my son! I agree, the sculpted hairline helps a lot, as long as the result is reasonably integrateable with the "real" hair. For the most part, I have been lucky with that; an exception, where I needed to do a "real" hair hairline over the forehead, would be Fireman Chad (HERE).

Partly as a follow-up, partly in response to comments, here are three additional photos.

An even artsier classical-bust-inspired look at the detached hair pieces.


Another look at the work on the scalp.


"The morning after" ... some additional futzing with a toothpick to get a more relaxed look.


It occurs to me that they should use Sebastian Stan to play post-Endor Luke Skywalker in an in-between installment of Star Wars. But what am I saying? For that to be any good, Kathleeen Kennedy and Rian Johnston would have to be kept completely away from the project, and the whole silly sequel trilogy universe would have to be scrapped and written off as Chewbacca's bad dream.

The morning after pic is gorgeous! :')

That looks fantastic. THAT is what HT should have given folks. Beautiful — or should I say: Handsome.

skywalkersaga wrote:The morning after pic is gorgeous! :')

Stryker2011 wrote:That looks fantastic. THAT is what HT should have given folks. Beautiful — or should I say: Handsome.

Thank you both! Well... with comments like this, I couldn't resist another inroad into silliness...

NSFW (?)

Haha. Nice. He looks like all those stallions you see on the covers of bad romance novels — or an addition to your Fireman series.

Haha, and I got a Caucasian Jesus vibe from him.

What type of glue are you using for all these rehairing jobs?

Stryker2011 wrote:Haha. Nice. He looks like all those stallions you see on the covers of bad romance novels — or an addition to your Fireman series.

Thank you very much!

Ovy wrote:Haha, and I got a Caucasian Jesus vibe from him.

Glad it made you laugh. Well, according to the young blonde lady (who shall remain anonymous), he practices sexual healing.

Stryker2011 wrote:What type of glue are you using for all these rehairing jobs?

I use Gorilla superglue. If it needs correction, one would have to "shave" it down and start again. Avoid having a thick layer of acrylic under the glue -- ideally the glue should be bonding to something more substantial (I told myself a very light, almost dry-brushed fleshtone on the scalp would allow the glue to reach through it, don't know if that is actually correct). When it cures, superglue sometimes leaves a bit of white/grey fuzz-like residue near the hair "roots." Have some acrylic markers of the right color (hopefully) to color them so they are not apparent. In this instance I didn't have such dark brown and had to fix a couple of spots with actual acrylic paint, which is not as good an option.

Thanks for the tips.

Stryker2011 wrote:Thanks for the tips.

You're very welcome. I hope your re-hairing project works out great and that we get to see the results soon.

Here's my first attempt at re-hairing a sculpt based on the Guv's tips (hope it's okay to post it here). Not the greatest -- but it IS indicative of how my hair looked when I was in Junior High & High School.

Aw, bb Stryker! So cute! ;D

Btw, is that the same sculpt you used for your other mini-me? If so, the hair makes it look so different, lol.

skywalkersaga wrote:Aw, bb Stryker! So cute! ;D

Btw, is that the same sculpt you used for your other mini-me? If so, the hair makes it look so different, lol.

Thanks. It is the same sculpt.

I need to futz with it some more, looks more like a wig rather than natural hair.

Move over, Fabio! And I do think it worked out very well. The only thing I would have done differently is slice off the neck. But that has nothing to do with the hair, which looks just right for the look you were after (I imagine). You didn't even use help from a bit of a sculpted hair line over the forehead and it looks great anyway! Great job.

Haha! Somehow I knew someone would bring up Fabio.

Thanks for the reassurance it turned out alright; it was such a messy process, I had no idea if it would look okay when done.

Well you are more courageous than I am! I'm still getting up the guts to try this.... nearly there, but just waiting on a few more materials. 

If you are concerned about the hair being too 'poufy' at the top, I wonder if trying to press it down a bit with some plastic wrap could help? One of Lynkhart's tutorials on giving rooted manes to model horses used this method... it just left it on for day or something to press the mane down closer against the neck. 

Alternatively, I guess you could use some kind of product in the hair, but I cannot advise on that as from what I understand you have to be careful what you use so as not to make it all crusty and goopy. On the tibetan lamb wigs that I have, I have used a clear, non-flaky hair gel with some success, but this tends to do either one of two things: it smooths straight hair down, or if applied to wet hair and then 'scrunched', it makes it more curly. So might not be the right product in this case.  I've also heard of people using watered down liquid wax in tibetan lamb hair to get it to hold certain styles.

Thanks for the extra hair product tips, skywalkersaga. I did apply some of my wife’s hair stuff (no idea what it is); some really runny, oily stuff that did little more than make the hair feel greasy. Of course, I might not have used enough, and I did it after the hair was dry — so maybe I’ll have to wet it down again and try it again.

No prob! And yeah, wetting it can help -- if you don't want to dunk the whole thing, you can always use small spray bottle and mist it.

Futzed some more with water and hair product (the first image is the original image):

Well, there you go. I think it looks good even with the ample volume -- and as I noted, hair product tends to make tibetan lamb hair clumpy, so it is best to use it diluted, unless you are specifically going for a wet look.