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Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW)

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gooboo


I saw on someone's instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/Bop2Jz2BT8P/?hl=en) that you can dye Phicen bodies using Rit Synthetic Dye, so I thought I would give it a try and document all my results here in this thread. The figures have all been powdered down in the following photos, so any white stuff you see lingering around it the cornstarch powder and not a result of the dye.

I used a tall 16 qt stainless steel pot and nearly filled it all the way up with water. I heated the water up to near boiling- I could see vapor coming off the top of the water, but it wasn't bubbling. At first I poured about 5 bottle cap-fulls of dye into the water. I would dunk the entire body into the pot and leave it there for about 30 seconds, then take it out for a bit, and then put the body back in.

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) Pot110

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) Dye110

You have to use Rit Synthetic Dye on the Phicen bodies, the regular dye won't work.


For the first attempt I used a S12 body. It already had some tears and scuffs on it prior to dyeing, so I decided to try this process out on that body first. I dunked it in and out of the pot a bunch of times and eventually got something that looked like this-

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) Bodies10

This is the darker S12 body next to a 23b. Both bodies are "wheat" skinned, so you can see how the dye darkened the body compared to what it looked like before dyeing.

You can even dye the plastic hands and feet too, although the dye doesn't color the plastic the same way it does the body so the hands won't match up. It's probably better just to paint the hands yourself than dye them.

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) Hands110

As you can see even though they're dyed they don't match the body, so I'll have to paint them regardless.

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S12_1110

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S12_2110

I've read about some of the other methods of dyeing the bodies, like with oil pastels, but never saw anything about it on here. I think this method, when it works, results in a very even coat throughout the body, like in this picture here-

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S12_3110

There's a little bit of speckling on the body, but I actually like it since I think it looks more realistic this way-

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S12_4110

I could have kept dyeing the body more, but I decided to stop here and begin dyeing my s28, which is what I really wanted to do. Unfortunately I got a bit impatient and I think I screwed it up...

For the s28 attempt I decided to add more dye to the pot to speed things up. I went from about 5 bottle caps of dye to around 15 or so, in the hopes that it would dye more quickly. In retrospect I wonder if this caused some of the problems we will see here.

Here's the s28 (a pale body, not a wheat one) next to another unmodified s28-

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) Bodies11

Things did not go well with this body, and I'm not totally sure why. I think to start with I didn't clean the body enough before hand. I should have scrubbed the body with soap and water more, and also cleaned off excess dye from my own hands/fingers before beginning. This figure ended up with splotchy and streaky parts, completely unlike the s12. Re-using the same water might have been a problem as well. I'm wondering however if the biggest issue is me going from 5 caps to 15 caps of dye. Perhaps the process works better when you darken the figure slowly with many layers, rather than fewer but more potent dips. If someone else has tried this before I'd like to know.

Here are some more pictures of the s28-

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_3110

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_510

You can see the dye did not go as evenly on this figure as it did with the s12. Here are some close ups of splotchy spots-

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_4110

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_610

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_7110

You can see there's a fair amount of unevenness above the breasts. There's also some dark spots on the buttocks and elbow, although these are probably my fault since I lost my grip on the doll and it fell onto its back at the bottom of the pot, with the silicone touching the hot metal. Normally I had the figure only touching the pot on its two metal foot pegs, and nowhere else. The inside of the thighs turned out splotchy as well, and I'm not sure why.

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_9110

Tan lines under the breasts as well, although there's probably nothing that I can do about this. I think if you're going to dye the body a dark brown color, it might be better off to start with a "wheat" body than a pale one, so these little cracks and lines don't appear as obvious.

I decided to stop dyeing the figure once it became clear to me these splotches weren't going away with additional dips in the pot. I really wanted the s28 to work, since dyeing that body was the ultimate goal here. I'm going to order a new s29 instead and see if the wheat-color responds better, and make sure it's very clean before beginning and go more slowly building up many layers instead of adding lots of dye in the beginning. I'll keep and eye on the s28 and see if the splotches even out over time, as I've had stains magically disappear on their own with these bodies.

As far as I can tell the dyeing here is permanent. Neither body lost any color when I scrubbed it down with soap and water, and it didn't seem to bleed or smear onto any fabrics that I used. Rit Dye also says it's permanent on fabrics, so maybe it will be here as well. Obviously I won't be able to tell how things last over a long period of time just yet, but this technique looks very promising. If I can get more figures to dye like the first one rather than the second, there won't be any need to wait for Phicen to come out with a dark skinned figure. I just need to learn how to paint head sculpts to match the body...

Diana

Diana
This is great, thank you very much! I actually have the Rit dye already and purchased the same color as well as red and yellow so that I’d be able to match it to specific head sculpts.
Speaking of: could you show us how it matches with head sculpts you were intending to use with this body? I’m especially wondering about the Black Widow, which is always too dark for phicen bodies, but I’m guessing these are already too dark and you’re going for something else.

I’m especially interested in estimating whether this chocolate brown, with fewer applications maybe, would need some yellow or red to match the BW tan.

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
Thank you for literally taking the plunge and trying this out and sharing your results here! Smile I think it worked really well on the s12d as you said. It probably does indeed help to start with a suntan for darker skintones. The areas where the dye did not reach are not necessarily an issue for people who want to make a clothed figure, so it doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker for the process overall. It's great also that there isn't any colour transfer. Sorry that your s28a didn't work, but 'losing' a few tbleague bodies is unfortunately often part of the experimenting process. 

Speaking of which, you mentioned that you hadn't seen anything about oil pastels on this forum. Well, here is a thread entirely about that method from the tutorials section: 

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t260-painting-seamless-bodies

Obviously, it may not be useful to you now if you prefer to go with the dyeing process. But I have personally found it very helpful since I don't have the facilities for dyeing my figures, nor am I willing to risk the messiness of it in my rental property. Not to mention I actually rather enjoy colouring them by hand with the pastel method, as it gives me a bit more control over the colour [not much, but a bit, lol]. I think both methods could even potentially be used together, if one wanted to darken the body first with dye, and then tint it further with a pastel colour. I'm wondering if you could even potentially salvage your s28a by doing that? ETA: Thinking about it further, I'm curious if the areas on the body where it darkened into 'streaks' are actually following the swirls in the silicone material as it settled into the mold? And somehow the dye sort of highlighted that? 

ETA: As far as I'm aware, several users have now utilized the oil pastel method successfully -- Ephiane is the one who brought it to our attention and has been perfecting the process for years. She tends to use it for her fantasy characters. GubernatorFan has done several experiements with it, usually going for more realistic human skintone colours. AlkelAstra has also used it on some of his bodies ... see his tall blue guy for a great example. There's an amazing example of the artistic potential oil pastels on Ovy's 'Fyyit and Hyufiht' thread. I myself have likewise been trying it out on some of my WIPs in recent months, and since I'm mainly trying to create SW aliens, it has been working fairly well for that. 

That being said, while the oil pastel method works brilliantly for certain types of 'looks', it does still give a sort of  more organic 'painted' or 'stained' appearance. If one is hoping for as even coverage as possible, and in fairly realistic skintones, it does seem like the dyeing method would be the way to go.


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
Oh man! This is going to be the new brilliant option — assuming it holds up. Thanks for all the process photos. To what extent did you pose the first body when you dunked it in the pot?

This should be in the Tutorials section, but I’ll let it sit here for the views, and move it after the traffic has died down a bit.

Thanks for taking the chance — now I’m not so concerned about having the HT Endor Leia head on a smaller body for the custom/kitbash Slave version I plan to make. And now I wish someone (YMToys, GAC, Super Duck, etc.) would start making head sculpts of women of color — there are plenty of “pretty” (since that’s all these companies seem to make) women out there. The difficulty with painting pre-existing heads darker is they’ll look like white girls with serious tans — and since the Shuri head has that chin piece sculpted to it, that sculpt is unusable without serious modification. Dammit! Why’d you show this! Now I’m going to want to get commissions made! This is all your fault, gooboo! Wink


_________________
Mark

He who dies with the most toys wins!

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) C8485110

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
I'm super excited for your future Slave Leia, Stryker! I don't see myself doing one at this point, so I'm living vicariously through yours, lol.  

Also agree with you on the Shuri head -- I love it and think it's really cute, and even wanted to use it for a custom myself, but the fact that it has so many specific elements and features makes that a bit prohibitive. 

With a bit of searching you may be able to find suitable heads that could be used with just a bit of a repaint. Or, as you say, just get some commissions made. Razz


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Thank you for the detailed write up and illustration of the process of dyeing the silicone body with the synthetic dye, which is better than what I have encountered before. Judging from the photos, even the less satisfactory result with the S28 is not too bad, but I suppose there are lessons to be learned -- fresh water, 5 capfulls of dye, better-cleaned body, more spread out position -- although I am not sure which of these were really critical, and which coincidental. One thing I recall from earlier discussions is that the dye smells horribly during the dyeing process -- was that the case in your experience?
I still feel more comfortable sticking to oil pastel myself, but experimenting with this is now a more proximate possibility thanks to you.


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I'll be back!
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com

gooboo


The dye has a peculiar scent, but I wouldn't describe it as being horrible or overwhelming. It certainly didn't stink up my little kitchen.

As for the future headsculpts, I don't have any headsculpts that match with the body at all, currently. My plan is to repaint one in a darker tone to match whatever the color of a successful s28/s29 is.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Thanks for the info on the smell.
The only "darker"-colored head sculpts I know of (from sets) are Michonne, Shuri, and two of Halle Berry (one not that dark at all, the other somewhat dark, as Storm). I did remove the chin piece of Shuri (as best I could), and repainted the head (partly, to obscure the damage and the light spots), but it remains far from perfect. Even if (when) more such sculpts become available, color-matching would be a major hurdle. There are a couple of custom ones we've seen on eBay, though the quality is not quite as high as one might want.


_________________
I'll be back!
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
Yeah, imo, the only way to get an exact a match as possible between headsculpts and tbleague bodies that have been coloured in some way -- either by oil pastels or via this dyeing method -- is to repaint the headsculpt to match the body. I've tried doing it the other way around, and it is simply too difficult to try to match a body via colouring to an existing sculpt. Perhaps other people can accomplish this, but success in that area has remained out of my reach. Razz It's frustrating since I have an existing sculpt I'd like to use for a SW alien character, but in the end I feel it will simply be less hassle to either repaint the entire thing, or to create a new one from scratch and paint it to match the body from the start. It's just too hard to fully control how the colour you are using will dye or stain the body, and there's only so much one can do to influence that...regardless of the method.


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

Ovy

Ovy
Great pioneer work, as always the sacrifices made in the name of science won't be forgotten.

And the light spots can be covered/shaded with the pastel trick.

gooboo


Some updates after 24 hours. It looks like some of the splotchy areas have faded away or evened out with the rest of the figure. There's still some spots on the figure that don't look quite right, but I wonder if most of the uneven areas on the figure will fade away in a week or so.

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_1010
Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) S28_1110

Maybe this figure won't be a total loss after all.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
I don't think it was a total loss to begin with. I'm glad it's improving.


_________________
I'll be back!
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
It certainly doesn't seem too bad at all to my eyes! To me it looks perfectly salvageable! Smile 

Curious to know if the overall dye fades at all over a period of time?


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

Diana

Diana
Even better! Didn't think it was that bad to begin with. I also like bodies with imperfections. Adds character.

Aside from the differences fading out, do you find that the final skintone you're seeing now is a match to the skin tone you saw when taking her out of the bath?

I can't wait to try this at home. Thank you for taking the plunge! Very Happy

gooboo


I forgot to take a picture of the figure under consistent environmental lighting after taking it out of the pot. It's hard for me to tell just from the pictures I've posted whether it's gotten lighter or darker overall because the lighting isn't exactly the same- I don't have a professional studio set up for photography. That said I did take one this morning under a very simple lighting set up, and I'll probably do that every morning for a week or so and see what happens with the skin tone.

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
Thanks, gooboo, appreciate you keeping us updated on the results. : )


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

blackpool

blackpool
AAAaaaaaaaaaah thanks a lot for sharing that technique, I had seen it once on instagram, that's how Jacob Rahmier actually dyes phicen bodies to replace the hot toys Hell Boy on his custom figures, but he didn't share any tutorial that I know about and didn't answer any question about the dying temperature or the rit dye reference...

Awesome input!

Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
blackpool wrote:AAAaaaaaaaaaah thanks a lot for sharing that technique, I had seen it once on instagram, that's how Jacob Rahmier actually dyes phicen bodies to replace the hot toys Hell Boy on his custom figures, but he didn't share any tutorial that I know about and didn't answer any question about the dying temperature or the rit dye reference...

Awesome input!

You can sell more customs for more $$$ if you don’t reveal simple secrets.


_________________
Mark

He who dies with the most toys wins!

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) C8485110

skywalkersaga

skywalkersaga
Stryker2011 wrote:
blackpool wrote:AAAaaaaaaaaaah thanks a lot for sharing that technique, I had seen it once on instagram, that's how Jacob Rahmier actually dyes phicen bodies to replace the hot toys Hell Boy on his custom figures, but he didn't share any tutorial that I know about and didn't answer any question about the dying temperature or the rit dye reference...

Awesome input!

You can sell more customs for more $$$ if you don’t reveal simple secrets.

This is so true. And this is why I love this forum. There are people out there trying to pull the wool [literally] over your eyes and charge you hundreds of $$$ for rooting a headsculpt with lamb hair, for instance. While I am ok with charging a fee for that service as it is indeed time-consuming and takes skill to make it look nice, some of the customizers out there take advantage of people's relative ignorance and ask what are, imo, ridiculous amounts for it. 

In this instance, being able to effectively colour tbleague bodies is such a helpful option for many in the hobby, so I greatly appreciate the fact that people here want to learn DIY methods and are willing to share the results of their experiments.


_________________
"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read,
not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man."

Ignoring current 'official' Star Wars content for my own sanity.

Stryker2011

Stryker2011
Founding Father
Moved it here so it doesn’t get lost in the General Section.


_________________
Mark

He who dies with the most toys wins!

Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW) C8485110

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