Dyeing Phicen figures with Rit Dye (NSFW)

Just a note on the hands, from my limited experience dyeing resin ball jointed dolls, (and also once I dyed a knockoff 1:6 adrien brody head dark brown for giggles)

if you sand or cut the surface of the hands they will take dye more closely in colour to what you expect from the bottle. I’m not sure why as the chemical process should be the same, but with the head I dyed, the areas where I cut off the hair to make a bald head (don’t ask) took the dye beautifully, where the face went a sort of greyish brown and then as I poured more dye in eventually went greyish black and I ruined the whole thing. I had cleaned the paint from the face with a solvent so it wasn’t residual varnish or sealer or whatever they put on these things, just something about sanding made it pick up the dye better. Just that hands and faces are very fine so there’s not much you can sand off them! could be useful info to you anyway.

GooBoo, you are my hero! This is my first post on OSF so thank you for bringing out from lurking. I tried your formula with great success on my TBLeague bodies. I am so grateful to you for revealing this to us.

Can I post pictures in your thread or do you prefer I start a new one?

Sure, you can post pictures here.

Thank you, GooBoo. I followed your instructions to the letter with a few modifications: To get a more realistic skin tone I mixed two Rit Synthetic dyes together.



I fully submerged the body for 20-30 minutes dipping the body every ten minutes:



First batch, I do not remember the Pale TBLeague body designation:




Second batch was on a TBLeague Keir body which has a blueish tint to it and bloody calves and forearms (covered in the photos):


Both together:


Second batch after I added more red dye:






This is a game changer for me. My welcome back to the hobby.

The skintone on yours looks like it came out a lot more even than mine did. How much dye did you put into the pot?

Very nicely done, Titan! They seem to have come out pretty flawless and have helped you make quite the entrance. By the way, what did you do to paint the nipples a darker color?

I did have to convert some of your images to links because of our hosting site's policies. You can check the Forum's policies HERE. You can apply digital censorship patches over the respective areas and repost the altered photos.

For example:


OR

Welcome Titan! Great job, this Rit Dye option really opens tons of possibilities.

That last guy looks epic, could totally see him in an old spice commercial. I guess you used M36 hands.

What headsculpts did you use for the girls?

The skintone on yours looks like it came out a lot more even than mine did. How much dye did you put into the pot? wrote:

Master, your Padawan used 1 whole brown bottle and half a red bottle. Can't thank you enough for this education.

Welcome Titan! Great job, this Rit Dye option really opens tons of possibilities. That last guy looks epic, could totally see him in an old spice commercial. I guess you used M36 hands. What headsculpts did you use for the girls? wrote:

First, thank you for the welcome, Ovy. I used the hands from a Storm Toys basketball figure. The female heads: 1 is a Triad Toys head customized by Corsetkitten years ago. 2 is an old Barbie head.

Very nicely done, Titan! They seem to have come out pretty flawless and have helped you make quite the entrance. By the way, what did you do to paint the nipples a darker color? wrote:

GubernatorFan, I used a Prismacolor pen.
Well, that was an embarrassing entrance. When I first saw the images in this thread they didn't have the censorship covers so I thought it was okay. My apologies. I will re-post with the corrections in place. Thank you for being so gracious about it.

Really gorgeous results, and great photos!

Did yours have any issues with the dye fading over time?

Yeah you should take pictures of your figures over time and see if they fade or not. Mine have all faded to some degree, and I wonder if using an entire bottle of dye will lessen the fading or not.

Did yours have any issues with the dye fading over time? wrote:

Thank you, skywalkersaga. These bodies were done 3 weeks ago. I experienced no fading but more of a evening of the tone. The problems I faced were dye trapped between the skeleton and body leaking out unexpectedly ruining whatever I was wearing. Rit Dye is real.

Master, there has been no fading over the the three weeks since I did these although the dye is still transferring to light materials (fabric, paper, desktops).

That's really interesting. I wonder if using a lot more dye prevents it from fading. I had just been using a few cap fulls of dye for my figures. I'll have to try out using an entire bottle and seeing what happens to the figure afterwards.

Fascinating results, Titan. And welcome aboard.

I’m wondering if using too much dye is what is causing it to still leach color onto other things...

Welcome, Titan! And thank you very much for sharing your process!

They turned out beautiful. And I love that Triad head!!

Titan wrote:I fully submerged the body for 20-30 minutes dipping the body every ten minutes:

What do you mean by that exactly? You left it in there for a full 20-30 minutes and... took it out briefly every 10?

And I'm guessing you used the same bath for all three? Only adding a little red (how much?) after the first two ladies?

Do maybe half a bottle would be best then? Achieve the same consistency (no fading) while avoiding the staining/dripping afterwards...

GooBoo, I wanted dark brown not light brown. I would at least start with half a bottle. I did but didn't like the results.

Stryker2011, thank you! The dye is setting more each week I did four figures and only 2 are still leaching. Very minimal now as I did then over 3 weeks ago. The big part was to letting them dry standing up in a cardboard box. Especially for allowing the draining dye between the SS skeleton and silicone to escape.

AerynDiana, thank you too!

What do you mean by that exactly? You left it in there for a full 20-30 minutes and... took it out briefly every 10? wrote:

Yes. Every ten minutes of soaking I would lift the body out, examine it briefly and re-submerge it.

And I'm guessing you used the same bath for all three? Only adding a little red (how much?) after the first two ladies? wrote:

Yes. I used a full synthetic brown bottle and 1/3 of the synthetic red. Please note that one of the female bodies was the TBLeague Kier which is a light blue with red brown calves and forearms so her color was different from the one that was a pale Caucasian and it shows in the duo photo. For the male I added what equals a half of the synthetic red. I am not good with fractions but that is including the third I had already put in.

Do maybe half a bottle would be best then? wrote:

Not for the dark hue I wanted. This was my second attempt. In my first attempt I tried using half a bottle but did not get a consistent coating which is why I went to the full bottle and longer soak time.

while avoiding the staining/dripping afterwards... wrote:

You cannot avoid the dripping afterwards. That just comes with submerging the figure in a heated liquid. Since the liquid is a dye you will get staining if you are not careful. Only one of the four figures I did trapped the dye. I now have the figures laying on white paper. Only two of them are leaving a slight color residue from their buttocks area. The other two are not leaving anything. I hope this helps.

I will be doing another four figures the first week of April and will let you know how it turns out.

Titan, if you are trying to let any trapped dye liquid escape, shouldn't you be keeping the figures standing vertically upside down?

GubernatorFan wrote:Titan, if you are trying to let any trapped dye liquid escape, shouldn't you be keeping the figures standing vertically upside down?

Gubernator, all four figures had the usual leakage that just comes with submerging the body in a heated liquid. Usually it all comes out within the first few hours. Only one had liquid trapped in it - Surprise! I never thought of flipping it over. Standing it up and letting gravity work down both legs has worked for me. It would seem harder to balance it upside down. Maybe I will try it with one in the next batch.

Titan wrote:Gubernator, all four figures had the usual leakage that just comes with submerging the body in a heated liquid. Usually it all comes out within the first few hours. Only one had liquid trapped in it - Surprise! I never thought of flipping it over. Standing it up and letting gravity work down both legs has worked for me. It would seem harder to balance it upside down. Maybe I will try it with one in the next batch.

No doubt, it would be pretty impossible to balance it upside down unsupported -- but if you did manage to hold it in that position, any liquid that might have made its way in ought to be able to escape through the neck hole.

You could tie some string around the ankle pegs, and use a hanger to suspend it over a bunch of paper towels...

Titan wrote:I will be doing another four figures the first week of April and will let you know how it turns out.

Thank you so much for all the info! I am already looking forward to the next batch!

Wow, this looks fantastic. I just recently made a custom Mystique with a generic and cheap Kumik body I had laying around, but would like to try dyeing a seamless body one day.  I’ll definitely be coming back here for tips and tricks!

Also, may I ask where that Gal Gadot head sculpt is from? The likeness looks better than the Hot Toys sculpt

If you're asking about one of the heads I used in my pictures, I got it from ebay. I think it was this one-

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-6-Gal-Gadot-Wonder-Woman-Head-Sculpt-For-Hot-Toys-PHICEN-TBLeague-Figure-USA/163680317720?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item261c1b7118:g:6uIAAOSwZ79c0bZO&enc=AQAEAAACUBPxNw%2BVj6nta7CKEs3N0qWT2S8CzwFE8Lj8dXvzOheqe3imU3Fm5Pvkz8CeBUNpuxWTPyOw2aqcYFwLOMoSqXbWL15zJveTjTKfOo5jTxC%2BgwLfPeZYqA1%2Bwm3OGCi5oAW0fjXw0V6IeTZn0S6G2pE3cBfp6FHQyggtTzRhioi%2BisvBlqKWHRtPFX6wL7h3JCBbdXChwkoEuvMVhwmIHuUyj333zFk8bnmOZmfk%2FHpu0DY3sDnW%2FQhKZ91E9JBlUc9CqQDdwUf%2Feji7kcwidYFkgNcs44TNG1vN36fG6%2F9oqawtgbZRm9J%2FUuvMThn9pzCVTsEpPGAsyUSTx5VaT4ktIhrEV69yWrGCkZkxjrXjDUaJNiH2UiSQ9Rcd45sFSGsDkv5FlnoKT0sSCe%2FdPmlIlGGhwUTd%2FLD32RyLMvWQZ3538%2BkC7X2nF0fRBFvqQGFATwSrkvbkLojyeqm2mx%2Fp8%2BZ%2F5huCLrmBoMHF%2BOU2fLumBMfpQdEkvmVbKhSe1EKBMXL3dO81Z%2BQVw7TrU8n9GPaEn9tkh6Ob2WpM4rw3nTPzxxWPt6EyyjrvYTHBvO9xZwjUlKa9ruDzdSembxSJKexJ%2FooZqYMrj9nD5lhgfGIUqlUEDd629cUqFM5A%2B8KCTRAkklx7hnOR4jczSv5FGpwG8Lla%2B7RQ4cZq%2FjP6R2ckjJ%2FMBzVYCv2f%2BoYqBKWzaf9wMaQebW5gXmDQJ%2BnrRAFgvknUm0n9B69jAg2rRaMNZl%2B2eokOX0dCnTzIrw%2Bctw%2Fdy9Jw3hc34M7Ccdg%3D&checksum=16368031772071696f88ca52434f98f05a77b877b1d4

How is the dye holding up on your figures, gooboo? Have they faded any more?

The dye on one of my most recent figures (the s28) faded a few days after dyeing, but seems to have stopped fading since then.







It looks like this figure has fully evened out in terms of the dye spreading throughout the figure. I think I'm going to try dyeing it again, but this time using about half a bottle or more of dye as shown earlier and see if that fades at all after dyeing.

Wow that is quite the contrast. That it ends up evening out is a great things. Looking forward to seeing what happens after you dye it a second time. Hope it ends up working exactly like you intend it to.

Tried dyeing my s28 and s29 again, this time with nearly half a bottle of brown dye and some red dye as well, and these were the results-



This one (s28) turned out very nice in terms of even coverage. The dye went onto the figure nearly evenly with no obvious splotches. It seems like using a lot of dye rather than dunking the figure over and over again into diluted dye works best.




I wanted the s29 to be dyed darker than the previous one so I left it in the pot longer. The dye didn't go on as evenly, but I assume this will probably disappear in a few days. What's interesting with this figure is that I had previously painted some nipples with a mixture of silicone caulk and oil paints, and I was curious to see what would happen with that in boiling water. Turns out it didn't ruin the paint at all.

Before-

https://i.servimg.com/u/f39/20/08/92/87/paint311.jpg

And after-

https://i.servimg.com/u/f39/20/08/92/87/paint810.jpg

HOWEVER, I did notice something troubling with both of these figures. This is the third time I've dyed both of these figures in boiling water, and it seems like repeated dyeing sessions does start to have some effects on the quality of the figures.

The s28 had a little tiny bubble appear on the thigh. I had noticed a little bubble or two on my s12 that I dyed earlier as well. On its own it's not a huge deal but I suppose if you try to dye your figure frequently eventually more of these will start to appear.



A bigger problem I noticed was the silicone tearing in the groin region. The s29 got it pretty bad, and the s28 has it somewhat as well. Now I didn't check back when I first started this whether these figures had tear before I began or not, but I definitely don't remember the one on the s29 looking as bad as this.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f39/20/08/92/87/defect11.jpg

Not a big deal if your character is wearing pants obviously, but something for people to keep in mind. It seems like the best way to dye the figures is to do it once in a pot with a lot of dye in it, like the way that Titan did earlier.

I still want to try dyeing another figure though. Next time I'll try dyeing a brand new one using a lot of dye, and see how evenly it goes onto the figure and whether or not it fades. That experiment might have to wait for next month though.

Some pretty interesting results. Fascinating that it didn’t seem to affect the painted nipples — in fact, they actually helped to create a more natural effect. Too bad about the tearing and bubbling — I wonder if having it exposed to too hot of water repeatedly is more the cause than the dye itself...?

Yeah I don't think it has anything to do with the dye. I'm sure these figures aren't designed to be dipped into near boiling water for long periods of time, so doing it repeatedly will eventually start to cause defects with the figure.

Sorry for your frustrations — I do think that groin area is quite delicate anyway, so it’s not a huge surprise that that happened. In fact I’ve had to be careful not to tear that area even when just colouring the bodies using oil pastels.

The nipples did turn out well though. I hope your next attempts with the larger amount of dye is even more successful. : )