Show us your Repaints or restorations

Since it's repaints and not starting with a blank head this is a Dragon Models Limited Jude Law from the movie Enemy At The Gate. Done with the same acrylic paint and pastels I use on my ball joints.

 

Awesome work, everyone has shared so far.

I probably shouldn't be tempted to share here, because I love repainting things and modifying things. More so OT "tinier' dolls, that I'll just spam this thread with tons of my craftest of an attempt to do toy customizing. ^____^;;;
But who am I kidding, I love photo-boming my hobby related work anywhere I probably shouldn't! Lol! DX

This is my Raven, he is a (now defunct) Triad Toys (one-sixth female action figure) Raven head sculpt (I know, very original name, on my part!) hybrid on a Volks Neo EB Goh body. I partially repainted him initially, but then I removed his factory paint completely, and his har. I modified his lips and browbone and gave him a few different wigs. This is the one he's keeping for a while (I need more dark blue synthetic doll hair!). The repaint is from 2017, but I got the HS around 2013.


This is a comparison of him with the partial repaint (brows and lips were repainted with partial lip mod), vs repainted and 1st wig I made for him. His head is tiny, as he is originally a female head sculpt intended for 1:6 action figure female bodies. I suck at making larger wigs, so making anything for him was a struggle. Still, I managed to make four wigs for him so far.


A Cool Toys Catch Me female HS, I intend to hybridize on a male Xinyiwawa body, sometime in the not so long future.


One of my three Super Duck Cyborg Cosplay set head sculpts. I got one originally just because I find the HS beautiful. Then I got a full set (everything but the body), to make the 2B cosplayer Super Duck intended (minus the giant bust), but all of them had so many flaws and weren't actually pale, that I had to get three... This one was pale luckily, and I repainted the messy lashes, and gave her even crapier ones, just to feel better about them not coming out of her eyeballs. This is my partially repainted version.


One of my three Xinyiwawa bodies, next to an unmodified, un-painted version, I got to hybridize one of my Super Duck head sculpts on. This one is one of my two NieR Automata cosplaying twins, he cosplays as 9s, but I'll probably have him cosplay others, when I am not being a lazy bum.

Here are the original, unmodified Super Duck Cyborg Cosplaying head sculpt, and the one I partially repainted for 2B.


My Game Toys 1:6 scale Sephiroth action figure. I repainted him a few times already, but this is the latest version. I love this figure to bits, it makes me wish I didn't suck so bad at repainting tiny things!



My DamToys RE2R Leon S. Kennedy head sculpt, this is from the classic RPD version release from 2023. I got the 1st version with the in-game colored RPD uniform as a full-set, that I haven't unbox (due to lack of display space). I wanted to try repainting one of these heads, so I got this one parted out. The first image is the default factory paint, which is hit-or-miss, I got one of the not so nice looking paint apps ones. I have seen nicer. The second and third images are my repainted versions, under different lighting.



I got this OG-RE4 Leon S. Kennedy head sculpt from a 3D artist that 3D modeled the head and had it printed then cast in some kind of resin. I modified the eyes, the cheeks and jaw to be more accurate to the Leon I want to own in figure form. The head has a removable bangs piece, so I made a partial wig, out of a stretchy cap wig I made another Leon I was working on. His head is massive however, so he looks a bit giant headed to my misfortune (I am not a fan of giant melon heads, when it comes to more realistic-ish male head sculpts). This is my latest repaint and eye mod on him, I have repainted him a few times already.


A Ken Looks #5 doll I repainted twice now. I might leave him as is, or try reducing the shininess on his lower eyelids. Not sure why it turnout like this. I use MSC gloss all the time, never had this crazy glow for any of my past repaints.


GDToys Son Of The Demon Dog 1:6 action figure repaint. I love this head sculpt; we rarely see pretty-male-anime heads in the (actually to scale) 1:6 genre. I got a second one recently parted out, to customize as (Castlevania) Ayami Kojima's version of Alucard. I can't wait! Not looking forward to making his wig, nor outfit (somehow!), but I can't wait nonetheless! Edit: The 1st image is the promo/prototype paint app version of the figure; I knew we weren't going to be getting. The 2nd is the out of the box version of the factory paint apps, we actually got. The last ones are my repainted version.


One of my three inset eyed Xinyiwawa male heads (number 5 or 4, can't recall anymore), I got to customize as a few different game/anime characters. This one is going to be my Eren Yeager. I got the KamiSoul body for it, but it's going to be a pain to get him on that, if it will even work. I find the Xinyiwawa too tiny for this head, which is kind of large, but then fashion dolls tend to have giant heads (for my personal preference). I already made three wigs for him, but I only have this terrible photo of one of them. I repurposed his original eyes, just removed the iris part to give him emerald green eyes, like int he anime (I'm not a manga reader, sadly, so his eyes are green to me!).

 

@Enzyme

I love your Sessh— I mean, “Demon Dog” repaint! He looks super realistic, more like a live-action actor than a doll!

 

@JoutasDolls, thank you so much for your sweet comments! GDToys did an amazing job with that head sculpt, making it look so much like their previous head sculpt work (all female until Sessho!), but still make him give semi-realistic Sesshomaru vibes (even has his demon pointy ears!). I was previously using a Noir De Rome elf-eared head sculpt, which looks a lot closer to Volks Dollfie/Obitsu fashion dolls' aesthetics, a lot more anime-like but I am super happy with this version in a more realistic vein (more so because I don't have to attempt to sew anything!). (:

 

I've got that 'Lance Bass' Ken, just haven't opened him yet. This gives me ideas that don't involve rerooting.

 

I love this thread, so many talented artists! Looking into buying repainted vinyl dolls is what actually led me to bjd so I still love to look at them. Did anyone in this thread go through a period of learning where you would repaint any doll you could get your hands on? Im also curious about what you do with repaints that you don’t keep for your own collection.

 

DollyKim, I have been tempted to try different hair styling on my Ken as well. I just loathe re-rooting, but I enjoy factory rooted dolls enough that I rather keep mine like that -- despite the pompadour not being my cup of tea, I do like the under shave. (:


Blodeuwedd, whoa! I am both honored and surprised I would inspire anyone to create a whole thread! lol! Your repaints are so beautiful and clean looking, I have a hard time believing you also share the misfortune of having old-lady-shaky-hands! (: I just get inexpensive synthetic bristle brushes at Michaels (a chain craft store here in the USA) for all my painting, whether on dolls/toys or canvas. I chose the thinnest ones for line work, which do help a tiny bit, depending on the day -- my hands shake so much on some days, it's just plain frustrating regardless of the brush. I wish brush sizing was standardized across all brands, but I feel like I'll kick the bucket before that becomes a thing. I have to go purchase the brushes in person, because of that-- I have to see just how big a 10/0 is, for any particular brand of synthetic brushes I discover. Not very helpful, is it? n__n;;


NineOneThree, I don't sell my repainted works. I always paint and repaint my toys for my own personal enjoyment. I have surprisingly received commissions requests throughout my lifetime in the customizing hobby, from varying people. I am always shocked that anyone would be interested in my work, given how many flaws there are. One person even got seemly angry at me, when I told them I don't take commissions, and they insisted even through private messages (when I posted my repainted Sephiroth on Instagram). I thought I as polite as you can be, when telling someone you don't take any commissions, but I guess I must have been an 6ss somewhere along, for some strange reason. DX

 

@Enzyme I only do reroots for personal reasons now and I'd do that Ken because photographer Mike Ruiz did some amazing shots with Lance Bass having black hair Little Walken's Mind Dump and I already have official NSYNC puppets. If the doll didn't have an Instagram Face or he was hard instead of squishy I'd work the undercut in to Martin Gore.

For practicing thrift store barbies and craft store paint in a little bottle work just fine. And half my tiny work is done with the tip of a pin.

 

DollyKim, I have zero clue who those people you mentioned are (I'm a weirdo, I don't keep up with Western media, except for horror films). However, I know that Mattel head sculpts have a lot of versatility, despite Ken not being a popular doll, he can probably pull off any customization, anyone would probably want. I would own more if it weren't for the giant headedness -- I placed mine on a 1:6 DamToys action figure body for that reason, the tiny hands and overall cartoony proportions are just not my thing. Not for a realistic-ish facial sculpt.

I forgot to mention that I never practiced repainting. I just got blank Volks Dollfie when I discovered BJD, because I loved their Neo EB Goh dudes, and I never really thought as a long-time traditional artist, that I would need practice. Boy, was I seriously wrong! I had old-lady-shaky-hands since then unfortunately, but I can definitely tell my shakiness has gotten a lot worse. As an example, my Raven on the 1st image up there, has cleaner, sharper lower lashes than any of my other "newer" attempts. It really doesn't matter the brush, it's the artist using the tool that sucks, at the end of the day! Aging sucks! T__T;; *iamhalfjokinghalftellingthetruthidon'ttakemyselforlifetooseriouslybutagingdoesSUCK!!*

Here are a few more mods and repaints I did on a traditionally sculpted 1:6 scale head sculpted by an artist who sells/sold his work on eBay, based on Metal Gear Solid/Rising Raiden. Just so I am not just flapping my gums, all day. DX

These are from around 2014-ish:

 

Lance Bass is a member of the boy band NSYNC who looks a lot like the Ken doll with the undercut, for one of the photo shoots he was given black hair and distinct make-up, it's a look I'm thinking of giving the doll.

I need to take some new pictures of my guys but I have a couple of solid sculpt heads I'm proud for how I repainted them.

10th Doctor by Wanted Action Figure blank f1f4dc7b93abb5e72431b2ffbe30e86b625c56b2.jpg as The Doctor (before I got an official one) cf62fbd54f50d520c0c1bee3382aad6a9e98d85f.jpg and now as Crowley 3b061a9d2f4b63066ab9d95717a3be206b73ee5d.jpg

And I really need to take new pictures of all my dolls, but then again these are nearly 20 years old, but so far I feel my 1/6 painting triumph is House, also by Wanted Action Figure