Ume, 3rd faceup

I’ve had major problems with Ume’s head lately. “Major problems” being an understatement. I thought I knew all the basics of faceups and faceup removal but I learned a very important lesson yesterday:

DO NOT SOAK A DOLL HEAD IN ALCOHOL FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME!

I’d been experimenting a bit with faceups (and this isn’t really Ume’s 3rd faceup, but since the others were no good they don’t count). To make it easier for myself to remove her faceups, I soaked her in a cup of alcohol for long periods of time, again and again. The faceup just comes right off but there’s a price to be paid for that…

Turns out it makes her face all spotted and essentially damages her skin color. Thank God it didn’t dissolve the resin itself. It seems only the color suffered from this, however the spots streaks could only be removed by sanding her.

I got some 1000 grit wet sanding paper and spent all day filing away at her face. She lost some detail around her mouth and some places were near impossible to sand but I think I saved her. ;_; That’s a lesson learned the hard way. Anyway, here is another picture of her that slightly more true to her real-life coloring:

Ume, 3rd faceup

The picture doesn’t show her mouth very well, though. It looks very stripey here but in real life it’s quite beautiful. I guess all these closeups are a bit unkind since she’s a mini and my paint job looks so clumsy up close. They’re not, though. In real life she’s looking her best ever. ^_^

I’m so happy I was able to correct my horrible mistake and I won’t be redoing her faceup any time soon.