DIM Tom Hiddleston Discussion Thread

Well, about my face up, I'm not sure it's the head, but it could be.....
I got my Hiddels this year May, second hand, normal skin. Read he is from the second order (if me remembers correctly...)

Loki has a, like I mentiond before, not so gread, home made, hard wigcap, wig. It was my first atempt and I didn't have the motivation to redo it for now. The ages are a bit sharp, so it's no wonder, the paint wears of were they connect.
But I noticed some little spects of missing color on one of his brows, that I don't know were it came from.
Loki just traveled with me on a long distance journey, and though he had a face maskes on, it could have happend somehow (moving of mask for example...)
The time I had to repaint him it was my face upping mistake, no biggy there.

And for informations sake, I use purity seal as a sealant.

Like I said, the missing paint on my head has A) a plausible reason ---Wig, and B) could have happend on the transport. So no reason to panic^^.
I will not be repainting him for now thou, as the damage is not big enought to be overly noticed. If more of his face up gets of, then I'll surely work on him again, perhaps with a diferent sealant.

 

I really think it is a sealant issue (or maybe not enough) with mine as I decided to wipe the edges with a wet sponge (I figured he has to be redone anyway) and the paint just wipes of easily. I pretty much cleaned his whole head with just water and sponge and the only paint left is in eye and mouth creases. I feel a bit sad like I miss him already which I know sounds crazy but I just do. I also found out the other head marks just a easily when I brushed a bit of hair out of his face with my finger. I have now done several coats of msc on it and going to see if it can just be touched up and not need a whole redo. As yours sounds like it could be the wig cap Lucius then the resin may not be a problem to worry about. We will have to keep eachother updated on how they all go with other sealant or extra msc etc.... I have no idea what batch mine is from. I bought his heads second hand earlier this year. Thanks for that info on resin and sealants Ikke777 and it sounds like your Loki's outfit will be there soon
Haha, I love your theory that the red will catch Thors attention Psychobarfly. Any excuse to slash those two and we are there

 

My advice, Kavarr , is to leave the sealant on and don't start work for a few days. Then it will have definitely dried enough and you can try soap and water on it without ruining any new work, and see if it comes off as easily as the last face did.
I've just tried washing of a MSC coated face-up (3 layers only) from another doll (a Dollshe I faced up recently that didn't work out) and the face stayed on 100%. MSC sealed face-ups don't wash off with soap and water alone. If it does on this new spraywork on you loki, something else is wrong.

 

Thanks for the advice ikke777. I don't know much about that stuff as I have never attempted any face-ups myself. I might just add another coat or two to be sure. I will then do a tiny test area somewhere not obvious. I have got water on my other dolls as well as brushed hair off their faces during photo shoots and never had any problems.
This is how much came of with just plain water and sponge! I think I will leave the remainder for the artist to clean off as i'm to chicken to try anything to remove it.

 

Well...humbug. I have no idea what era my head is from either, I bought him on eBay last December. >:/ So much for trying to keep track of them that way!

OMG Kavarr, your poor Loki looks like he's dying from something especially nasty and recovering from a hangover at the same time, poor baby. That's crazy to have so much color come off from just plain water and a sponge! Your faceup artist lives somewhere pretty tropical overseas, right? Maybe the humidity the day your Lokis were painted affected the sealant or something without her knowing... :/ If you want to experiment on a safe spot, maybe just use his headcap instead of his face?

Lucius, if that wig is scratching up his faceup, is there anything soft you can put on the inside of the wig to protect the sharp places from scraping off more paint? Loki's travels with the face mask on might be the cause of some small damages, but it's not right that you should have to repaint him because his own wig is attacking his face - the cycle of repair will never end!

 

Kavarr, that's just wrong; no way should that much come off with just soap and water!
Pass what I said on to your face-up artiast, about doing a test first and other sealant options; it would really be a waste if she redid the face and then the same thing happened. PM me for my email addy, if you want me to explain it to her directly.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about mine; there are small holes in the eyebrows, but I really don't want to get him a new face, I really like this one...

 

Yeah she lives in Java and it gets very humid there. Because of the wet she had my boys heads for around 3 months! Maybe that affected the sealant. With my other head I am going to spay it again and then just touch a little bit up above the hairline to test it out. Still not sure if I can touch up the bits that came off as I am no artist and will prob get the color matching wrong At least it's only small areas on his lips and under his nose but they are really obvious in photos. This was from just brushing some stray hair off his face with my finger tip and I have really short nails too so they never touched him!

I thought so too. It just came off so easily I was quite surprised. I will ask if she would do a test piece first as that makes a lot more sense than doing it again and having the same problems. Thanks for offering to explain it to her. I will see what she says and let you know how I go. I know exactly how you feel about redoing your boys face as I have got used to mine and loved it. It would be weird if he looked to different. Is it possible for you to just touch up his eyebrows?
Aaaargh it just had to be Loki that has these problems! I think he just likes being difficult

 

Oh wow, it looks like you've had a bit of bad luck with your Lokis D: I'm sorry to see that! I've done quite a few faceups and it has definitely got to be something wrong with the sealant! I've used both MSC and ZM and never had them do anything like that! I hope you can find a solution...

For what it's worth, there may be something to that idea about the resin being slightly too oily. I am the original owner of my heads, both from the 1st batch, and my ns head has a few dings in his faceup from general Loki-fits of falling down. If I run my nail over these spots, the sealant does flake off fairly easily, which is pretty unusual. The only other doll I've seen it in is one I was over-excited to body blush and sprayed him on a day that was too humid.

 

Kavarr - oh my, that's pretty obvious. Relatively small (for now), but obvious nonetheless. I'm so sorry honey! He will be fixed up soon enough! I know Java is pretty much rainforesty and humid ALL the time, but I think we need to possibly research if there's a time of year when it's the least humid over there and confirm the timeframe with your artist before sending these two back with fingers crossed. What three month time span did she have them for last time?

neonraver247 - thanks for the input, although I'm sorry you seem to be having similar trouble! :/ It looks like a few folks are confirming this now, which sucks, but at least we'll be prepared. Maybe we need to start a running list of whose heads came from what order period...something like a self-maintained reverse waiting room list, lol.

 

I really am wondering about the humidity too neonraver247. Having never done a face up myself I have no experience with this stuff. It is interesting that you are noticing flaking. Sounds like our Loki's may need some extra special care little princesses that they are!
They were there for March, April and May last time psychobarfly. I will have to check if that is the worst time for humidity. She said she did spray both heads at the same time so that could make sense also. It must be really difficult to find a good time that's not to wet in a tropical place like that. A list of what batch they all came from would be interesting. A bit more difficult for those who bought them second hand but it could probably be worked out.
BTW thanks for all the concern guys!

 

Kavarr- Oh heaven, I'm really sorry for both your heads. But try and find a positive aspect, the paint came of fairly well all over, and now he can be redone. If you ask the same artits, she should be able to do a very good aproximation of her prior work, and if not (becaues of humidity problems/sealant/whatever reason) then send pics of the old face up to the new artist. It may fall under a grey zone of copying, but it's your doll and your dolls face up you want to perserve, besides aproximations can only be that exact. (If the idea don't sit well with you, sorry, no intend to insult, only to preserve your Loki as he was)
The damage on the joutun head may be small, but oh! you are right, so noticable. Personally it would drive me crazy, since I would be the one seeing him "in person" every day with the damage, not looking at edited pics. Definitively, something to fix on the long run. (or short one....)
Again so sorry that happened to you.

psychobarfly- you are right about that material. At the moment I don't have any at hand, since I'm not home, but perhaps it really would be worth a try, even if I'm gathering materials for the next wig projects (his is included). But that has been a few months of scouting already, finding the best price and the best shipping and what not. It wasn't a priority. Maby I should put it up to that list.....

Ah, I forgot to mention it before, I bought my head as good as new, it had never had a face up by the previos owner, and she bought it original, aka I did his first face ups...

All others, thanks for the info. It is interesting to read about the sealants composition and its effects, Ikke777, something I never considered before, since I only can get one type where I am for a reasonable price, on everything else, the shipping kills it of. Now that I'm in Spain, perhaps I could get some Vallejo sealant (Spanish company....). I read that it was a feasable option too. I think it is worth experimenting with at least.

I will keep you informed about the results if I make any changes.

 

Kavarr - I snooped around a bit last night, and a couple sources said the relative "dry" season in Indonesia was June through October (thanks to your Aussie winds blowing up there or something, haha), so the window of opportunity might be closing fast. I would think about emailing her sooner rather than later to get this in the works, otherwise His Majesty might be naked until next summer which would be a crime!

Lucius - if you can get your hands on Vallejo while you're in Spain, you should definitely buy it! For what it's worth, a pretty well known faceup artist in the Pacific Northwest (another relatively humid climate in the US) switched from MSC to Vallejo products at some point and really liked it, but had to give it up when she found it too difficult to get a steady supply of Vallejo compared to other brands. Maybe your artist could investigate Vallejo for your boys, Kavarr!

 

Kavarr - Sorry to hear about your faceup problems. It does sound like the culprit was humidity messing with the sealant curing properly. Hopefully the artist will be able to replicate her work and will work with you to redo the faceups.

I've experienced no problems with my own head. Batch wise, I was part of the very first order with the original order runner, not the second larger group. He was painted by my fave artist in Singapore, and I live in a fairly humid area myself. Sometimes it's just a perfect storm of the wrong sealant at the wrong time weather wise.

I am slowly catching up because I've been offline pretty much all week thanks to NYCC, which was awesome and full of comics goodness for myself.

Hmm, the Chris head as it is right now doesn't really look like him at all to me, he's got a super distinctive nose, but as I assume it's very much a work in progress I'll hold off on judgement. Though it does look like my thoughts that his small eyes are going to look off in a doll face were correct. I just like bigger eyes in dolls, makes them more expressive to me.

 

Kim, I'm having similar trouble with my face-up too, and I'm on the other side of the world from Kavarr's artist. There's something more going on than just humidity problems here....
Mine is a WS and I suspect he was part of the later order. I bought mine secondhand.

 

ikke777 - It does sound like this could be a batch problem then. Mine has had no issues and he's actually undergone some heavy handling at cons as my resident booth babe. I've never noticed the resin feeling any different than my other dolls, but I'll take a look tonight and compare his headcap to some others I have.

 

Kim, you won't feel any difference. I've handled enough resin to know how wide a range of textures it has, and he feels perfectly normal. It could be 0.01% difference in resin mix, that could cause this effect; there would be no way us lowly humans could feel that.
But if your loki is from the first batch, he may be totally problem free. Fingers crossed.

 

Talked with my face up artist and she is happy to redo him for me I am such a big chicken though that I might send only one head at a time as I get so nervous when both are away. It will cost me more with shipping but I figure the blue head can wait for a while. It may make me improve my photoshop skills too!

 

Oh good! I think after the heartbreak of having Loki's royal makeup slide right off, one head at a time will give you more peace of mind. 3 (Just don't let Thor get too rough with the goods...unless he wants to learn how to use Photoshop as well lol.) Here's hoping the weather where Loki's going stays obedient!

 

Ugh, the face up trouble is horrible! I'm glad your heads will be redone Kavarr. And you should do it however you want. Extra shipping is a small expense in the grand scheme of things for peace of mind.

As a datapoint: Lox' head is fine. He is a 2nd batch natural skin and was painted in the UK, sealed with Mr Super Clear.

And to liven up this post, here is a pic of Lox in a new outfit (Volks h.Naoto Sixh, bought in Japan). He pretends to hate it, but it suits him perfectly:



I've gotten a shipping notice for the Loki outfit.

 

Oooh Lox is looking gorgeous in his designer gear lucky boy! Only the best for him huh? The black nails suit the whole look too. It won't be long then till his other outfit arrives as well so looking forwards to lots more spam