Painting seamless bodies (NSFW?)

I think it looks a lot like skin pigmentation/freckles, great discovery.

Maybe for your next novel.

Lmao, Ovy !

skywalkersaga wrote:Interesting effect -- looks almost like he's got a five o'clock shadow where his body hair used to be. ;D Curious to see what you do with it next...

Yes, I thought so too -- faint body hair and color variation, just like real skin. Not as fine as what ADD Toys managed on their muscle war wolf, but still...

Stryker2011 wrote:That’s actually not a bad effect. It gives the impression of hairiness without being over-the-top.

Agreed. Shall we call it light fuzz?

Ovy wrote:I think it looks a lot like skin pigmentation/freckles, great discovery.

Maybe for your next novel.

I thought so too, although the process might be a bit laborious. As for the photo, the poor guy... is this sun damage?

I agree with everything that's been said and will add:
This could serve as a nice henna tattoo effect!

Hey guys, new collector here, I bought a figure that came with everything except the body, the recommended ones were pale skin Phicen/TBLeague, but I don't live in the US so these type of things are a little expensive, I found a Jiaou at a decent price on Ebay, it arrived yesterday but as you can see I f up, their pale skin is soooo white compared to the headsculpt.



I wanna fix this by painting the body because I can't spend money on a proper Phicen/TBLeague right now, besides you know how things are going in China atm, I can't return it either and ask for a different skin color. So if I mess this one up then I guess I'd have to buy a proper one later but obviously that's not the idea...

So my question is would you guys recommend that Staedtler paint method for this one?? Again it's a Jiaou, I really wanna be extra careful, I've never painted figures before. Any help would be appreciated!

Hello, and welcome, TheFlyingRaccoon!

First of all, so sorry for your disappointment —skintone matching can be a gamble in this hobby , so I can understand your frustration. And Jiaou skintones are often marked in a confusing way, depending where you purchase from, so don’t feel too bad about it.

Now, regarding the oil pastel colouring method... I feel I must caution you against using this on your Jiaou body. While GubernatorFan has used it with some success on a couple Jiaou’s before, I personally had a bad experience with my attempt, and the Jiaou body ended up getting scratched up by the pastel stick. The problem is that the TPE material that they are made of is basically the same consistency as styrofoam, and is fairly delicate , and doesn’t hold up well being washed with soap, either. In comparison, the silicone that the tbleague bodies are made of is much more robust and holds up much better with this method. Of course, by all means, feel free to try it out, but I just wanted to mention that I’d had a negative experience when I attempted to colour a Jiaou body with the oil pastel method.

Where are you located, out of curiosity? Just wondering if you could maybe try to sell the too-pale Jiaou body on ebay and recoup some of your funds that way. I’d recommend doing that if you can, and then saving up for either a tbleague or a different Jiaou body that matches the head you want to use better. : )

If you are worried about sellers to use , GianToy are very good and ship quickly to the U.K. (that’s where I’m located). They are back open now, and I have already received my most recent order from them, if that helps at all. : )

Welcome aboard Flying Raccoon! (rocket is that you???)

Sorry my knowledge is very limited on this topic, I suggest you wait for an answer of one of the pro league body painters here as phicen and jiaou dolls bodies are not made of the exact same material...

In the meantime, since your goal is to darken the whole body skintone, you might find this other topic interesting as well

dyeing phicen bodies

Once again it applies to phicen bodies, so may be wait before going adventurous on your jiaoudoll body(btw if you plan on changing the body, I think the "wheat" color from jiaou or the "suntan" from phicen would match better seeing the headsculpt)

Again, welcome aboard!

skywalkersaga wrote:Hello, and welcome, TheFlyingRaccoon!

First of all, so sorry for your disappointment —skintone matching can be a gamble in this hobby , so I can understand your frustration. And Jiaou skintones are often marked in a confusing way, depending where you purchase from, so don’t feel too bad about it.

Now, regarding the oil pastel colouring method... I feel I must caution you against using this on your Jisou body. While GubernatorFan has used it with some success on a couple Jiaou’s before, I personally had a bad experience with my attempt, and the Jiaou body ended up getting scratched up by the pastel stick. The problem is that the TPE that they are made of is basically the same consistency as styrofoam, and is fairly delicate material , and doesn’t hold up well being washed with soap, either. In comparison, the food grade silicone that the tbleague bodies are made of is much more robust and holds up much better with this method. Of course, by all means, feel free to try it out, but I just wanted to mention that I’d had a negative experience when I attempted to colour a Jiaou body with the oil pastel method.

Where are you located, out of curiosity? Just wondering if you could maybe try to sell the too-pale Jiaou body on ebay and recoup some of your funds that way. I’d recommend doing that if you can, and then saving up for either a tbleague or a different Jiaou body that matches the head you want to use better. : )

If you are worried about sellers to use , GianToy are very good and ship quickly to the U.K. (that’s where I’m located). They are back open now, and I have already received my most recent order from them, if that helps at all. : )

Ha, here come the professionals!

Ah, looks like we cross-posted — Blackpool also gives good advice.

Hey, thanks for the warm welcome you two!  

skywalkersaga wrote:
Now, regarding the oil pastel colouring method... I feel I must caution you against using this on your Jiaou body. While GubernatorFan has used it with some success on a couple Jiaou’s before, I personally had a bad experience with my attempt, and the Jiaou body ended up getting scratched up by the pastel stick. The problem is that the TPE material that they are made of is basically the same consistency as styrofoam, and is fairly delicate , and doesn’t hold up well being washed with soap, either. In comparison, the food grade silicone that the tbleague bodies are made of is much more robust and holds up much better with this method. Of course, by all means, feel free to try it out, but I just wanted to mention that I’d had a negative experience when I attempted to colour a Jiaou body with the oil pastel method.

I see... personally I am willing to try, perhaps by next week I'll scout around for the oil pastel. I'm thinking I could start testing it on the body around an area covered by clothes, see how it turns out and go from there if it works

skywalkersaga wrote:Where are you located, out of curiosity? Just wondering if you could maybe try to sell the too-pale Jiaou body on ebay and recoup some of your funds that way. I’d recommend doing that if you can, and then saving up for either a tbleague or a different Jiaou body that matches the head you want to use better. : )

I'm in South America, packages usually take a while to get here (I ordered the body early January but it probably took longer because of all the virus stuff), I'm sure there's more collectors around here but if I had to buy another body, I was planning to leave the Jiaou for reference and posing. I like to draw and work with 3D programs so these seamless bodies are very useful for stuff like that. But I may consider reselling it too if I get the chance.

blackpool wrote:
In the meantime, since your goal is to darken the whole body skintone, you might find this other topic interesting as well

dyeing phicen bodies

Once again it applies to phicen bodies, so may be wait before going adventurous on your jiaoudoll body(btw if you plan on changing the body, I think the "wheat" color from jiaou or the "suntan" from phicen would match better seeing the headsculpt)

I did check that thread out too, that's an interesting method but I find that one a little scarier, not gonna lie hahaha.
If I order another body I'll make sure it's Phicen/TBLeague, the Jiaou hand pegs are a little big for the sculpted gloved hands the original figure came with and I find the legs too long. I definitely feel dumb for buying this body but I guess it's just a rookie mistake : P

I'll post results if I start working on it, again thank you guys! Nice to be here

Welcome aboard, FlyingRaccoon. Unfortunately, you just discovered the reality of this hobby much faster, but probably for the better, than many. Look around the forum, there are many experienced collectors/kitbashers here, and we are always willing to answer any questions. We all had to start somewhere, and often we learned from mistakes more than anything. This hobby gets expensive fast when going by trial and error, but that’s often the best way to truly learn. That being said, don’t be afraid to ask questions, someone may have the answer before you consider trying/purchasing something.

Oh goodness, don't feel dumb, FlyingRaccoon! Seamless bodies can be a bit confusing thing to get into at first. And you don't even want to know how many crappy plastic jointed bodies I purchased prior to actually taking the plunge and getting a tbleague, lol. So you are already ahead of the game.

Totally understandable that you'd want to keep the body in this instance. And as Stryker says, it's certainly always good to experiment, please don't let me put you off. Just would have felt bad if I hadn't at least mentioned the potential for damage to the Jiaou bodies. If you are careful with it, you might have more success than I did. Perhaps if you just make sure to not wash it with harsh dish soap, and instead just gently rinse and/or mist it with water, this might help, as I believe the soap dries out the TPE and makes it more fragile and easily scratched.

Good luck with whatever method you end up trying! : )

Thank you, I gave it a fair amount of thought and decided I'm just gonna buy a Phicen/TBLeague figure later, I'll list the Jiaou on a local website along with a bunch of stuff and hopefully get some money back

Once again I appreciate the responses! If I have questions I'll be sure to ask, this is a lovely community and I look forward to seeing more stuff here!

I think the others covered what I would have said (besides, it is already in various posts above), but I'd only add that on the basis of the photo TBLeague's "suntan" (which is not very tan in the female version) might be closer to your head sculpt. Unless of course I'm thrown off by the extra pale color of the Jiaou body.

Based on the color of the head sculpt, you might want to consider a Jiaou Doll “Wheaten” body — it’s closer to the Old Suntan that TBL used to make. I know this is probably not what you want to hear...

Update on painting (e.g.) body hair on TBLeague seamless bodies

Since the oil-based ink solution that initially looked so promising can now be classed as a reversible one (see Post 174), I continued looking for an alternative. I experimented with other options, such as Pigma Micron archival ink pens by Sakura and the Art-n-Fly Fine Line drawing pens, which were available with an even finer tip than the oil-based ink ones, "003" = "0.03" (which actually corresponds to 0.15 mm). Sakura went on most smoothly and made the cleanest lines but these, too, would smudge and come off.

The most permanent result was achieved using Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pens with water and fade proof pigment ink. This, too, is available in 003 (0.03), and that results in lines palpably finer than the 005 I used in my earlier oil-based ink experiment (see Post 162). The Uni Pin pigment ink pen was much harder to use on the silicone surface, leaving less clear or consistent marks than the others, resulting in a more muted appearance (which might be a good thing if trying to draw body hair in this scale); but then again after these dried, they did not smudge or come off like the others (you can smudge them before they dry, but it still doesn't come off -- so be careful if you give it a try). The Uni Pin pens also come in different tip sizes -- if you get them as a commercially-sold pack, they typically include one each of 0.03, 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.8; I ordered a couple of 3-packs of 0.03 from eBay. While working with it, I had to clean the tip (from the oil, silicone, dust?) by running it over clean paper from time to time, and helped myself by swapping back and forth between three pens.

The permanency of the solution, the finer lines, and their more muted appearance make it a better option for drawing body hair on TBLeague silicone surfaces. The same would be true if you were drawing tattoos (although there you would often be able to use some of the wider tips, and working with those is easier). Here are a few photos -- using the same M30 body as before (the painted hairs on the harder plastic hands and feet are from the earlier experiment with 005 tip oil-based ink which proved permanent on that surface, hence the mismatch).

Very cool experiment, Ian. The body hair turned out really good on this one.

Stryker2011 wrote:Very cool experiment, Ian. The body hair turned out really good on this one.

Thank you very much! Glad you liked it. I also think it is more successful than before, both in permanence and in appearance.

A great improvement! Thanks so much for taking the time to experiment and document your results for us. Will be interested to see how you utilize this technique in future.

skywalkersaga wrote:A great improvement! Thanks so much for taking the time to experiment and document your results for us. Will be interested to see how you utilize this technique in future.

Thank you very much! I've learned a lot from others in this hobby, it's only natural I'd pass on whatever I stumble across. I suppose I will make a few more body types with hair, but not really in a hurry, as the process is quite time consuming.

Question for those who have been using the oil pastels.... I recently coloured a tbleague body blue for an upcoming Aayla Secura figure, but was somewhat frustrated by the results. I first tried one colour, but it turned out too bright blue. Then I added some 'shading' in a darker blue colour, and now it's a bit better colourwise, but I'm worried it's too dark? Or just looks weird? I don't normally share WIP photos, but to illustrate, here's some pics....please excuse the background mess.


[photos removed for privacy reasons]


Does it look recognizable for the character? It was the best skintone I could achieve with the materials I had at hand. Wwondering if I should have used a pale body, since maybe the original lighter blue colour would have turned out better on the first try that way? I'm not bothered about 100% screen accuracy, since I'm going for an amalgamation of various versions of this character (film, animated, comic book, etc), but I still wanted the shade/tone to be recognizable.

ETA: This is more the sort of skin colour I'd originally wanted:



I'm at one of those points where I've looked at the thing too long and can no longer really be objective, so just looking for some feedback...

I don't know this character, and with differences in the ways colors are processed, saved, and displayed electronically, it is hard to say. The image of the character might be just a tad lighter and ever so slightly greener, but it would be very difficult to achieve that with what you've got (or from scratch). I think the body you painted with the oil pastels works very well both in itself and for the character. Especially in the first photo, which is better lit, it actually comes very very close to target.

Seems like she gets depicted in various shades. The blue of your figure is brighter/more saturated than in the photo you posted, mostly the because of the darker areas, which seem more saturated. But considering how many shades I've seen this character in there doesn't seem to be a right or wrong. So just do whatever you like most?

I certainly agree it works the way it is right now. Lighting will also play a role. Maybe place her where you intend to display her and see whether you like the look of the shades there?

Thank you both for the feedback -- it is indeed too 'green' for my tastes, but that was the limitation of the available oil pastels. Glad it looks passable, at least. I'm too much of a perfectionist, so I do sometimes get rather hung up on these things.

That's a good idea about seeing how it looks in my display area, Diana. I'll check that out first before deciding whether I'll re-do it or not. I'm inclined to leave it as-is, simply because I am swiftly running out of energy for this particular project -- it was supposed to be a 'quick' kitbash and then ended up turning into a full-on custom figure. Perhaps with the right paintjob on the headsculpt it will look alright. : )

I'm sure it will look great, cause she already does.

I like those pants! Did you make them? That's the kind of material I need for my team of ladies...

AerynDiana wrote:I'm sure it will look great, cause she already does.

I like those pants! Did you make them? That's the kind of material I need for my team of ladies...

Kind of you to say.

And the pants/trousers are from the Tbleague Steampunk Red Sonja -- I cut the waist area down to make them more like Aayla's and painted them with fabric medium/acrylic mixture.

I think it looks awesome. I picked up the Sideshow head loose, and I think your coloring looks great. The shaded areas work the way shaded areas are supposed to work.

Thanks, Stryker! I'm glad the shaded bits look alright. I think I'm probably just second guessing myself too much, as always... ;p

Update on painting silicone seamless bodies (Phicen/TBLeague) with oil-based ink

As explained above (see Post 174), oil-based ink like that in the Pilot Drawing Pens (see Post 162 above) did not prove a permanent solution when applied directly onto the silicone seamless body. That solution appears to be provided by Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pens with water and fade proof pigment ink (see Post 192 above). However, when I experimented with this last option (Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pen) on a silicone seamless body that was painted with oil pastel, it failed. So I decided to give the oil-based ink another try for this specific condition, figuring that oil ought to work on oil. Preliminary testing was very promising so I proceeded with it for my custom Darth Maul (see Parts I and II HERE). Also see The Further Adventures of Darth Maul, HERE.

Having first painted the body the base color (I looked it up, Maul's is supposed to be red), I applied the patterns of the "tattoos" (I think rather "war paint") with different tip-size (005 to 08) Pilot Drawing Pens with black oil-based ink (and, for some larger areas, black oil pastel, although that came out exceedingly dull and I partly went over it with oil-based ink). So far so good.



You want to give the ink a chance to dry, after which touching it is no problem. I knew that protecting powder ought to help (building up a thin layer between the surface and anything else), but I held off on using it, lest it dull the colors for the initial photo shoot. It was not the smartest decision (as expected), because repeated handling to pose and move the figure, however careful, led to some dulling and very slight smudging in some places. The worst problem was where areas of the surface come together (like the inside fold at the biceps or at the knee, or at the armpit and down the inside of the biceps), which allow the oil-based ink (even at a couple of days old) to transfer (stain) the clean surface. Take this into account and either coat the figure in protective powder before handling or test for staining in such places and incorporate the "problem area" into the pattern ("if you can't beat them, join them"). Now that I have coated the figure in protective powder, it seems to be doing its job, but I'm going to be handling it very rarely and very carefully.

The moral of the story is that you can draw designs on silicone seamless bodies that are painted over with oil pastel, using Pilot Drawing Pens with oil-based ink, but you need to apply protective powder after this and probably exercise great care in handling. For drawing designs on silicone seamless bodies that are not painted with oil pastels, I would stick to Uni Pin Fine Line fineliner drawing pens with water and fade proof pigment ink. Still, proceed at your own risk and apply extra protective powder (although, if you get some of the oil-based ink onto a silicone surface where you don't want it, you can wash it off with soap and water).

Update: A few weeks later, and the oil-based ink transfer issue is still a problem. While I'm experimenting to find a better solution for the painting onto oil-pastel-colored silicone bodies, one thing that has contained the problem is a vigorous but careful rubdown (or massage) of the surface with paper towels. Make sure to not move the paper towel (once used) over another area to avoid retransfer or smudging during the process. Keep going over the problem areas with fresh paper towels until you see no transfer. Theoretically, this might be the solution to the issue. But it does mean your design would look a little duller or slightly faded.