How to Color a Phicen / TBLeague with Shoe Cream

Sky and GubernatorFan, thank you very much

GubernatorFan, please elaborate on what you mean by "a different function".

You're welcome, OneSixthPractical! I'm always so fascinated by your process and results. ^.^

GF - the tutorial states the rubber tube is indeed for thickening (widening) the neck. I'm guessing this was done in order to make the tbleague neck work with whatever Michonne headsculpt was being used.

Sky that's it. I widened the neck to fit the perceived neckline of Dani/Michonne. I'm sure neck-widening or thickening is far less of a necessity for the average female bod, but since I neglected to mention how I did it for the Classic Hulk (M35) or Terry Crews (M34) posting, I took the opportunity on the S23B. There is no functional element to it besides the visual. Of my two dozen Phicen, I've thickened the neck of virtually all of them at this point. Wrist and ankle gaps may be covered with shoes, fabric and trinkets, but the neck is more often than not neglected. Rubber tube is the easiest method I know to get rid of those unsightly gaps. Personally, if a sculpt doesn't fit upon neck adjustment, I shave away resin/PVC from the inner sculpt with my trusty Dremel or rounded-blade wood carving tool until it does. We needn't sacrifice our ideal body match or mod over a tiny bit of plastic. I say I say, shave that inner sculpt! We may make a mess of it, but it's an area no one can see

Excellent result, and another awesome tutorial. Thanks so much for doing this.

Thanks for confirming, Sky (I had missed that part of the post, apparently), and Practical. Yes, widening the neck is very much desirable in many instances, and rubber/silicon tubing is definitely a way to do it. I've also been using other materials, including leftover green stuff sculpted in a suitable shape. I've mostly done it to male bodies, but in fact, many female heads suffer from "pencil neck" syndrome when placed on a neck, and this (together with some shaving of the inside of the hole in the head, if needed), is helpful there too. I would have thought this is what you were doing, but missed the explanation.

It's interesting that certain situations where a head seems too large could potentially be mitigated (at least slightly) by widening the neck.

skywalkersaga wrote:It's interesting that certain situations where a head seems too large could potentially be mitigated (at least slightly) by widening the neck.

Absolutely!

This is only partially relevant to this thread but thought some may find it of interest. Posted to my Instagram/FB page also.

Wow, what a unique and detailed tutorial! I'm fascinated by all the various materials used. As always, I'm so very grateful that you are generous enough to share your ingenius solutions with us.

That’s brilliant! Thanks for sharing all the tips.

Skywalkersaga, I'm flattered. You are too kind It takes forever to edit but feels worth while to get such a lovely comment, sincerely

Stryker2012, my pleasure!

Excellent work, and thank you for sharing how you got there. A little different from what I'm used to, but certainly worthwhile, and also teaches us techniques of going beyond the original look of the materials.
I'd say it was worth making this a separate tutorial, hairing heads with rabbit hair.

Very nice, thank you! 

I'm actually in the middle of a shoe cream experiment, but so far no luck. I am going for a rather dark colour so probably need multiple processes with the shoe cream that I got. I will of course report once done.

GubernatorFan, thank you Rabbit fur is rather specific to Classic Hulk since there aren't too many pop-culture characters with a fuzzy wig style hair. But the plucking technique is relevant to all mammalian furs and really aught to catch on for period costume crafting in particular. I'm not fond of seeing Medieval outfits Conan the Barbarian etc with tufts of fur that is clearly rabbit in appearance, whereas simply plucked, any scrap of fur can appear as 1/6 scale bear or wolf pelt - in keeping with the scale illusions we strive for on every other aspect of clothing.  

Hi Diana, I'm terribly sorry for this late notice but I've been receiving multiple reports of weak shoe cream dye results over virtually all USA brands of cream, and those same contacts have reported deeper coloration using European brands. But nothing seems to compare to Japan brands like my favorite VIOLA, which is yet to be internationally exported by sellers on Amazon. It is a terrible shame since its an extremely effective product. I now have a theory as to this discrepancy: Japan is huge on synthetic leather clothing and shoes, so in order to cater to such markets, I suspect that Japanese leather/shoe cream products are designed to better penetrate synthetic materials which happens to include - silicone/latex/TPE. So until the day an international distributer adds VIOLA to their inventory, I only recommend European creams with the aim of light to mid shade tan, not to achieve dark ebony. But even with those creams it will be a hit or miss depending on the color. Someone did manage to achieve a dark shade with a US brand but with the sheer number of applications he tried, it doesn't seem practical. I may one day discover that my contacts were doing it wrong. Excessive cream use quite possible. But for now, my tip is to avoid US-made.

Good outcome or bad, any information is appreciated of your attempt Diana, thanks!

Very interesting, thank you!
I used FAMACO, which I believe to be French. I will now try something that is supposed to be suitable for synthetic materials, too. I will report my findings.