Maintenance How to remove a face-up: materials and techniques (part 2)

I second soft tooth brushes. I have a few and they’ve helped me a lot when it comes to working old paint from between the lips of a doll, for example. Otherwise you may be able to find some qtips or cotton swabs with pointed tips in your drug store’s cosmetics section.

 

Cotton buds (q-tips), small paintbrushes, soft toothbrushes, (clean) disposable mascara brushes,m and if all else failed, a toothpick (wooden not plastic as it will be softer). Soaking first in something like 70% isopropyl alcohol or Winston & Newton Brush Cleaner will obviously help dissolve some of the paint before you have to try to move to physically.

 

If this is in the wrong place I'm sorry, just let me know and i'll relocate and delete.

I'm trying to remove body blushing from a Soom Petit Gem Ondinn. it seems to have factory paint under acrylic paint. and its a massive pain on my hands with such tiny pieces.

How do you guys like to remove body blushing from tiny pieces like this?

 

I use the same technique I use on cleaning larger parts. Solvents, and lots of paper towels, magic erasers, cotton swabs, cotton pads, and toothpicks.

It's just a case of using tools that are small enough to fit in all of the crevasses and stuff.

If you aren't sure of the basics, you can also check out the tutorial here!
/threads/bas...inging-cleaning-sueding.652113/#post-11200546

 

I was able to clean her really well, I was just wondering if their was a special technique for the smaller one.

 

Not as far as I have seen! Sometimes you need to use more materials for a bigger doll, but it's all about just finding smaller tools, and using smaller pieces of paper towel/cotton pads on the smaller kinds of dolls.

 

that makes sense. what would you do for any staining though? I havent been able to really look well and i cant work on it till monday but i think theres some dark staining where the acrylic wasnt sitting on the factory paint.

 

Scrubbing with a magic eraser (melamine sponge) might get it up, but if something's really set in, the only good way is to sand it out with fine sandpaper.

 

Thank you, I'll give them a try once I can

 

Thanks for letting us know that worked for you! I'm also new here and will give that a try!

 

Hoping someone can help- I used a nail polish remover to remove an old faceup and totally forgot to only use clear liquid- it tinted my doll a blue is there a way to reverse it or should I just get the head color matched -I planned to get it color matched anyway with faceup- but if there is a way to reverse it I will try .

EDIT: I found some Volks paint thinner and a magic eraser. It seems to have removed the blue tint.

 

Hello! I have a question about Windsor & Newton brush cleaner. I've been trying to scrub a faceup off with it and... nothing happens? I've seen it described as wiping things off similarly as with acetone so I'm now wondering if I got the wrong kind, if it's just from a bad batch or if it is somehow a different product in Europe. I cracked and got it off with nail polish remover in the end but I'm still curious what's wrong with my bush cleaner.

 

It should be the "brush cleaner and restorer" type of brush cleaner. I don't know if W&N have variances of the cleaner, but the one that is normally used for face up removal is the one that also says "restorer." It practically melts any type of dried paint off, almost instantaneously, so it shouldn't be used on any painted surfaces you want to keep the paint on. Except for things that are varnished with non-water-based coats, it is pretty hard for it to melt things that are not water-based. It won't melt enamel bases, and resin for example, nor glass but it can crack acrylic, and will melt ABS plastic from my personal experience. Depending on which type of fixative was used for the face up, that might be your problem, the fixative itself -- if you have the correct type of W&N brush cleaner. Hope that helps. (:

Edit: I was looking at Dick Blick because they ship internationally, and Winsor & Newton do make a brush cleaner that isn't also a restorer. I've never personally used that to remove face ups, so I can't say if it works. I've never even heard of its existence. However, you can see the "brush cleaner & restorer" type on Amazon, and Micheals, if they ship to your country. The latter probably doesn't, but who knows. At least you'll have a visual image of the label. Dick Blick doesn't seem to carry the one you definitely want to use anymore, I recall a million years ago, that's where my bff would get hers from. Once again, I hope that helps you some!

 

Thank you, this is very helpful! It appears that I have the one that is "just" the brush cleaner, I believe. I don't remember the restorer kind being available but it won't hurt to look again so I'll go ahead and do that

 

Good luck! I hope you are able to get the "restoring" one, if you don't have it already! (: