Custom 9S Head Project!

So I finally decided to pick up a DD project again...I saw this boy on Yahoo Auctions and I just was overwhelmed with the desire to fix him back up... 😅

I really love doing that sort of thing, but it seems to rarely be needed on a DD, so I never have before. The seller said something along the lines of they started on a new faceup and then decided to quit because it wasn't going well. Hey, it happens! I admire their guts for trying on a limited head because I'm STILL not comfortable doing a faceup on one...lol.

He just got to me today and yeah, it looks about the same as the sales picture.

SO I do have a concept for him as an alternate expression head for my current 9S. Unfortunately I can't post my mock ups for a concept until I get the head clean(I did my mock-ups on someone else's picture of the blank head, so I don't want to be rude.)

BUT that brings me to problem #1:

Can anyone help me with some tips to remove stubborn paint? I've never come across this. (please excuse my messy workstation)

Whatever paint they used wants to SMEAR and not actually come off nicely. I tried alcohol, wasn't strong enough, so I thought I'd give it an acetone swipe. It took off what was left of the Volks faceup no problem. But the rest...it just wants to slide around and even if I scrub, it doesn't want to lift off. So any tips would be appreciated. It's very stubborn. I always wonder what paints do this...when I started faceups, I used such cheap paint that it never did this lol.

Update 1:

Because I'm an impatient person... I decided to just go at it wet sanding with 5000 grit. And that worked! Sadly there's still stain treatment to do, but that's easy enough. Figured people could always use more pictures of blank heads too.

But anyway, that's it for now. The base concept that I want to try out on this head is actually an additive mod! I'm currently stuck between wanting to make a completely closed eye sleeping head, or a more...sad, brooding, kind of expression with partially closed eyes? When I'm able to make another mockup sketch, I'll definitely want opinions!

Edited January 12, 2022 by Noxxbunny

I use Maybelline NY acetone-free nail polish remover (the light green one). 
It works miracles on a stubborn face up!

Congrats on your new boy, I'm sure he'll be very cute!
And, if the worse comes to worst and you decide to give up on the project, I'd very much love to give this precious boy a third life!

12 minutes ago, Bellatrix said:

I use Maybelline NY acetone-free nail polish remover (the light green one). 
It works miracles on a stubborn face up!

Congrats on your new boy, I'm sure he'll be very cute!
And, if the worse comes to worst and you decide to give up on the project, I'd very much love to give this precious boy a third life!

Oh, I'll give it a try! Hopefully that'll do the trick. Poor boy looks like a little raccoon with a bandit mask right now from all the smears lol.

Thank you, if he comes out like I'm picturing, I'm hoping he'll be super cute!

I still have additive mod practice to do on other heads before attempting it on 9S here, so if it turns out that I'm absolutely terrible at it(very possible lmao), I'll keep you in mind. 😉

Welp, I sorta got version 1.0 of my mockup going...just to illustrate what sort of vibe I'm going for, I guess. I feel really bleh about it because I really can't do digital art at all LOL. So bear with my example lol. Of course my nitpicky self already says I need to thicken the eyeline, I somehow let that slip past me. Whoops.

I'm hoping it will at least be helpful to show a faceup artist what I'm going for since all I'll be doing is the actual mod of the eyes themselves. I'm not good at softer blushing details. I was looking at BJDs with partially closed eyes today and sort of came up with this based on results I liked:

(My current 9S being the one on the left, I tried my best to get the colors similar at least...)

I'm thinking I'm leaning more towards something like this than a fully closed sleeping head after all. I think an expression similar to this will have more versatility for me than eyes closed. I think I want something where he can look kinda sad, kind of tired, generally moody. It just leaves me with more options for pictures. 🥺

It's just hard to describe that I go for an anime style eyeline with softer more bjd style faceup blushing.

Just posting for documentation because I'm sure like with most of my projects, I'll tweak it so much between now and when it's done that it will look nothing like this. 😆

The head is undergoing stain treatment this week while I search for a wood burning tool with good temperature control so I can start practicing melting vinyl into shapes I need. Luckily I have an old DDH-01 whose eyes are WAY too large that I have been trying to fix for four years!!! She'll be my first test subject and then if I'm feeling confident, the actual work on 9S will begin!

Not much to update other than I finally ordered a wood burning tool, so practice begins this weekend. Unfortunately, despite me treating the pastel stains above his eyes for 3 weeks now with Oxy10, I have gotten no results. I assume because it's just too cold and the sun is never out. I'll be ordering some Remove-Zit and hope that takes care of it because I heard it's not temperature sensitive or dependent on UV. I can't believe how stubborn this pink pigment is being to get out. Just needed to vent about that lol.

I'm very interested in how this turns out, love the mockup already! I've been considering buying a heavily discounted head myself to practice faceups and mods.

I don't have any first hand experience with vinyl stains but have you tried a terrarium UV lightbulb to simulate sunlight? I don't think they're overly expensive and should be available in most pet stores.

8 hours ago, Matango said:

I'm very interested in how this turns out, love the mockup already! I've been considering buying a heavily discounted head myself to practice faceups and mods.

I don't have any first hand experience with vinyl stains but have you tried a terrarium UV lightbulb to simulate sunlight? I don't think they're overly expensive and should be available in most pet stores.

Thank you! I have a terrarium light I've been using, and yeah, it just doesn't seem to do anything to it. I keep it about 64 degrees in my apartment though, so I also think my lack of heat isn't helping lol!