CLEOPATRA ©erregiro2011 Monster High Custom Doll Cleo de Nile
Sergei Andreev Belgian-Russian Artist
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A brief overview and instructions for doll repainting, with many tips and photo examples.
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MH Gilda OOAK
Hello and welcome! Today I'm finally posting my experience of customizing a Playmobil Grand Mansion dollhouse. This post has about 70 pictures (sorry in advance for any excessive load times). Let me start off with a picture of the box, which shows how the completed dollhouse looks sans my repaint: The house features yellow walls, white trim, orange shutters, orangy-brown doors, chrome/silver railings, bright yellow flower baskets, and a deep red roof. Although I got a great deal on this dollhouse, I wasn't sure about keeping it upon its arrival. Not that there's anything wrong with the color scheme but it just wasn't for me. I toyed with the idea of a repaint, with reluctance, because I have absolutely zero experience customizing or repainting toys. Here's a view of the back of the house: The extremely unique feature that prompted me to make this purchase is absolutely the multi-level first story. How cool is that?! Unfortunately other elements of the home's design perplexed me, such as the cluttered kitchen being the front room of the house, while the living room is small and off in the corner. What's the first thing you see when you enter the grand mansion you wonder? A broom, that's what: Also, I wondered what was with the absence of walls. True, there are some tiny walls but they don't really separate the bathroom, for example, from anything else upstairs. After I did some online research looking for other successful redesigns of this house, I saw the possibility of moving the interior/exterior walls around and knew that I wanted to keep the house and proceed with the project. The other topic of my research was focused on how to paint plastic dollhouses. I didn't find many tips in regard to Playmobil items but I found some useful discussions about repainting Barbie furniture and outdoor patio sets. I used the available information to head out and buy some paint: I chose Krylon Fusion burgundy red and white with a gloss finish, black with a satin finish, and Krylon Colormaster in Gumdrop with a gloss finish. The Krylon Colormaster was not one of the recommendations I found online, but it says right on the can it works on plastic... and it's pretty! ♥ Some other supplies I picked up while out: Plastic sheeting and sand paper. Learning how to spray paint was the first challenge! I've never used spray paint so I basically just read the instructions on the can, followed them as closely as I could, and hoped for the best... which worked pretty well actually: The first and second coats were a breeze. It was the third where things took a bit of a turn. I sprayed the walls a little too close and in about 10 minutes the top layer of paint was starting to take on a rough, cracked appearance. It actually looked quite interesting, but there was way too much of it going on and it looked as though the once perfect paint job was ruined. Luckily, as quickly as the third coat ruined it, the fourth fixed the problem, leaving only trace amounts that I didn't mind at all. I purposely left some of the cracked effect swirling around the stained glass attic window opening because it looked really weathered, and antique. As the everlasting process of drying the walls began (about two weeks until chip proof), I repeated the painting process with the floors, doors, windows, shutters, flower baskets, and railings. A few days after painting, when it was safe to remove the plastic sheeting and handle gently. I even painted the one and only piece of furniture that comes with the house! Several days after the floors had been drying, it became apparent that they were going to need some sort of protective coating. The satin finish was leaving residue all over the place~ So off to buy more supplies! Following another web search for recommended products, I brought home Minwax Polycrylic in clear satin and a Purdy paint brush. I only encountered one problem with this part of the process and that was that I foolishly set my floor on newspaper... and of course the paper became one with the floor: Eventually, with careful sanding, it was possible to correct my mistake and move on to the next coat. The floors were then set aside to begin drying as well, on the path of becoming chip resistant. Since the walls were days ahead in the process, I had the opportunity to preassemble them and try out various arrangements! One reminder for when spray painting the walls: make sure to tape around the windows on the other side securely or you'll be in for a lot of sanding. I thought that since the windows have trim that snap on both sides, any slight seepage would be covered, but the paint went far beyond the bounds of where it could be hidden with the interior window trim! When the floors dried and everything was chippity chip resistant, the walls starting coming together: Finally becoming a completed home! It only took about five minutes to complete since everything was ready to quickly snap together. Here's the stock photo for comparison: I admit that the original version isn't all that bad really. Maybe it's just that my old Playmobil Mansion had the yellow/tan walls and I needed more variation in my dollhouses. All I really can say is that the final result turned out far better than I had anticipated, given my inexperience with this type of project... and it was definitely worth the inconvenience of not having a dining table for a month :b This side of the house is supposed to be the kitchen side and it originally was meant to have only solid walls with the attic dormer being the only window on this elevation. On this side you can see that I switched my first floor wall from the previous photo with the first floor wall here. This was to accommodate switching the kitchen and living area. The doors went from orangy-brown with white hardware, to white with black hardware. The railings went from chrome to black (I was going for a wrought iron look). The flower baskets from bright yellow to black. The windows from gold to white and the shutters from orange to burgundy red. I wanted the front doors to stand out so I changed them from the orangy-brown to burgundy red and left the color of the hardware the same. I love the way the gold looks with the deep red. The inserts were pretty hard to snap into place after so many coats of paint on the doors. On the door to the left you can see where the struggle ended in a small chip in the paint -.- It's hardly noticeable unless you're very close though. Inside what is to be the new living room! The walls are in their original color, the floors are now a slightly reflective black satin. Here's the kitchen (left) and sunken dining area. The upper cabinet is installed to show why the wall relocation is necessary. The kitchen set made for this dollhouse has a cabinet that snaps into the wall (Yay!) and it's too wide to fit between the windows. You may also notice that the tiny wall next to the front door (that extends to the column) is missing. It's been moved to the second floor~ On the second floor, above the kitchen, is the bedroom. The dollhouse building instructions obviously intend this area to be a bathroom. The reason for this switch is that, after dividing the rooms into proportions that I found reasonable, this is the largest room and the room with access to the stairs. Here you can see where the I combined the small wall from downstairs with the wall upstairs to make a decently private bathroom. It also makes an awesome place to center your medicine cabinet as shown above! The stair railings went from gold to black. Here's where the railing accidentally scraped my wall when I was positioning the house on a shelf. I touched the area up with a sharpie and it honestly looks like it never happened. Hooray for quick fixes! Third floor - attic. The floors up here went from gray to white. The wall with the doors is the only one I didn't sand the excess paint off of... What? It's an attic! :3 This is going to be a second bedroom. The full third floor in classic black and white! On moving day... the living room furniture arrived first. Where you can sit in a rocking chair and enjoy the day. More furniture arrives! Also, here's a view of the sleek walkway that removing the downstairs partition creates. It actually makes the area appear functional! What was the point of it when it was walled off and not a walk through? It's too skinny to actually place furniture. With the dining set in place. The living and dining sets pictured are not the sets designed to go with the house, they are from castle furniture sets. The only sets I bought that go with this particular dollhouse are the kitchen and bathroom. A view from the stairs. I'm sure you recognize the chandelier from the fantasy castle post! Looking into the kitchen from the living room (actually I might have taken this from outside a living room window). I had to have this kitchen just to take advantage of the opportunity to have wall mounted cabinets! It was tricky but I found a way for the lower cabinets to fit together and only look slightly weird, in a truly custom kitchen type of way. The oven door has ample clearance to open, as do the other appliances and cabinets. I wanted to paint the cabinets white and the counter tops black but didn't get around to it yet. I really love blue so it's not essential to repaint. Here, on the second floor balcony, are the chairs that come with the kitchen set. The kitchen comes with an island that didn't fit in the space I had to work with. I think the chairs look better as patio furniture anyway, they color coordinate with the flower beds! Upstairs in the new bedroom location. I wish this was my bed in real life. ~ A view from the opposite side. Maybe this chair is a better fit at the dressing table. The bathroom. I had planned to paint the bathroom furniture when I ordered it but definitely will not be doing so. I love how it looks with the black floors. Sink/medicine cabinet. Tub/shower and toilet. Into the attic. Looking through memorabilia of days past. The kids... their arms don't fit under their covers so they have to sleep in an interesting position... Their miniature castle dollhouse. It's in the style of the Playmobil castle that was available before the one I recently reviewed. And finally, the full view of the rooms. Click the image to get a better view. Original for comparison again. ^ Click image for larger view. I would like to briefly show the amount of stuff included in the furniture sets. Above you see the dishes and canned goods in the cabinet. Stocked refrigerator. Pans and more in lower cabinets. Dishwasher that can hold dishes and silverware. Wine rack and more kitchen utensils. Medicine cabinet with toothpaste, cups, toothbrushes and grooming accessories under the sink and on the blue shelf. And stuff in this chest. and more here. and over here. and over there. Those are hair ties for tiny ponytails :) And there's so much more! Pictured above is only about one third of the stuff that came with my furniture sets. You get the idea though, there's plenty of accessories. Here's the broom, that lives in a corner in the attic, not by the front doors. The platform next to it is for the toilet... it's not sleek or modern like the rest of the bathroom so I didn't include it. It also hides in the attic corner. The great thing about all of these extra items is that you really can be imaginative in your play. You never know when you'll want to reenact old movie scenes that require unique props... ~ ~ ~ *no figures were harmed in the above reenactment* Till next time! ♥ P.S. sorry this post took ages! I had technical issues with the formatting the first time around and ended up deleting and starting over -.-
Ooak custom Monster high !
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Layne Staley OOAK doll. Repaint, reroot, resculpt, styling and bejeweling by me. The canvas is a Beauty Lukas by Integrity Toys.
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Model horse tack, model horse blog, model horse show, braymere blog, model horse performance, jennifer buxton, breyer horses, breyerfest, must
A brief overview and instructions for doll repainting, with many tips and photo examples.
I might actually keep this girl, I like her a lot :) I did her as a test, I put crystals in her eyes instead of painting reflections, I think it looks nice!
www.ebay.com/itm/232408339330?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&a...
After "little" Toadstool's big win last year, the expectations for Kylee Parks' 2018 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest entry were sky high. Could she do it again? Could she do it better? Were the rumors true? Could her fantasy entry actually stand a towering thirty eight inches tall? The big reveal happened yesterday, and the answer to all these questions was a resounding YES! As Heather Malone put it: Kylee threw it down so hard *it* is in China. If ever a model was worthy of a Friday Favorites post, Takeshi is the one. Here he is in all glory. Thank you so much, Kylee, for allowing me to share your words, photos and talent here. “TAKESHI” ⚡️ This rare and miraculous creature known as the Equikoi appears to be a unique blend of wild mustang and the domestic Koi fish. How the Equikoi came to be is still a mystery and due to their elusive nature and tendency to be bottom dwellers few have actually seen one and behavioral information is limited. Scientific observers have recently located and been observing the behavior of a small band of Equikoi in now protected waters. Remarkably, early studies have found much of their behavior to be more horse-like than fish-like, possibly due to the fact that they appear to have the brain and heart of a horse. This exquisite specimen here is called a” Butterfly” or “Longfin” Equikoi, so called for the large, colorful wing like tail. He has been named “Takeshi”, meaning ‘military’ or ‘martial’ in Japanese. “Takeshi” is an Equikoi stallion and is the leader of his small herd of mares. The males display a more colorful pattern, most likely to draw the attention of the females. Being swimmers rather than land mammals, their hooves are larger and grow longer than normal horses which not only helps them paddling through the waters, but also helps when foraging for food and in battle. Due to continual threat from predators, the occasional challenge from young rival stallions and fight for territory, “Takeshi” finds himself in perpetual battle mode defending his herd... teeth barred, tail held high, not only for balance but for demonstrative visual intimidation. While the estimated lifespan of the Equikoi has not yet been determined, by the look of the grooves in “Takeshi’s” teeth he most likely has some age on him and his tattered tail tells us he is and has been a fierce warrior, provider and defender of his herd. Completed June 2018; drastic custom breyer “Desatado” sculpted with magic sculpt and painted in acrylics, oils, pigments, pastels and pencils by Kylee Parks.
Ok, I had to get this horse, or at least, parts of this horse past the really ‘ewwwww’ stage so I could even come close to describing the technique I use for roaning, rabicanos, sabinos…whatever has a roaned out look to it. This first photo shows the horse after the first layer of ‘ticking’. The brush I’m using for this is a Kolinsky Reservoir Liner, series 1310, size 2. This brush works very well for me for this technique. Of course, you don’t have to use exactly what I use. Any good, super fine point liner brush will work. Ok, so back to this first layer. The color used for this was a mix of Medium Gray (Folkart is what I had on hand) and Titan Buff by Golden Fluid Acrylics. I just dip my brush in water first, then in the gray, then just the tip in the buff and mix them until I get a shade just a hair lighter than the medium gray. I want my acrylics thinned but not too thin or they will ‘bleed’ instead of holding a sharp line. I always wipe them across a paper towel before I go to the horse with them. That will help soak up extra moisture that will cause them to bleed. I apply my acrylics in teensy eensy brushstrokes (most often spots or specks and not actual strokes). This takes FOREVER for me to do because I have to constantly refer to hair charts and super duper large photos of my own horses so I can be very aware of every little swirl, whirl and hair direction shift. But the first layer takes the longest in my experience. After roughly about 19 hours spaced out over 4 days of working on this horse I had the first layer at a point where I could stop. Here ya go, a pic of the side and a pic of the belly Though this looked ok up close (color wise), when I sat the horse on the shelf I realized I could barely see this whole first layer. Perhaps I should have gone lighter with my mix. At any rate, it was a little sickening but I could still make it work just fine. If you look closely you will see a variety of different types of marks. The strokes would get longer as I rapidly lost my patience and focus. When this starts to happen I put the horse down and work on something else. So, for my next layer I used Quaker Gray by Ceramcoat along with the Medium Gray and Titan Buff. The Quaker Gray is used to lighten the mix but still keep it ‘gray’ in color. I won’t even bust out any white until probably the very last layer. And heck, the horse might not even need it at the end and I can use by Titan Buff as my ‘lightener’. For this layer I don’t mind doing a bit longer stroke in the areas that I know will need multiple layers. When I say a longer stroke, I’m still talking tiny, tiny stroke, not some big streak. Like, about 1/32” or thereabouts. Nothing will funky up a nice roan-y look like a bunch of long strokes. So here is a photo with side by side difference of the look of one layer vs. two layers. The center of the belly is obviously the division. And then here is a photo of a section that has, oh I don’t know, maybe 7-8 layers on it (the flank). And basically I’ve just hovered in this same area applying more acrylics. Each layer being just a teensy bit lighter than the last. For probably the 5th layer on I stuck with strictly Quaker Gray mixed with a small amount of Titan Buff. I left the Medium Gray out of those later layers. And finally, I am getting out of the ‘ewwww’ stage. At least in that flank. The acrylics have not been sealed in at this point since I use a carbide scraper to remove areas or shape brushstrokes that are too big. I want to make sure I'm thoroughly happy with the acrylics before I seal. I'm not saying be finished with them, I just need to be at a happy spot. Remember sealer makes you commit to your mistakes. You can still fix things after sealer has been applied but it's going to be a lot more difficult. NOTE: No white has been used AT ALL on this horse yet. Not in the mixes or anything. If you notice choppy areas that look like they are lighter or darker those are stop marks or edges where I stopped my brushstrokes. It will take more layers to smooth and even that out. Don’t worry, it’s coming. And of course she is not going to have such defined stripes down the sides. She is still in 'rough draft' mode. And just for example, here are the 3 colors I’ve been using and here are the little dried piles on my plates so you can get a better idea of the actual color going onto the plate. I’m not even close to being done yet so stay tuned, it will get better. I promise!
Huntseat Tack Huntseat Set owned and photographed by Erin Corbett, 2009 Huntseat saddle with number pocket pad, 2009 Snaffle bridle, 2009 All purpose pony saddle made for Mindy Berg, 2010 Iva Kimmelman's Stubben Siegfried, 2010 Hunter type snaffle bridle with raised browband and noseband and laced reins, 2010 Jumper bridle made for Heather Puleo, 2011 Four saddles, 2012 Two saddles, 2013 Snaffle bridle owned by Tracy Eilers, 2013 Dressage Tack Dressage saddle made for Breyer's WEG Diorama Project, 2010 Detail of the WEG saddle and girth, 2010 WEG Bridle, 2010 Saddleseat Tack Double bridle, 2009? Saddleseat saddles owned by Erin Corbett and Marci Driscoll, 2011 Harnesses Pony pleasure harness owned and photographed by Karen Gerhardt, 2008? Racing Tack Pink and brown racing set owned and photographed by Erin Corbett, 2010 Endurance Tack NAN Auction donation saddle, 2009 NAN Auction donation set, doll by Jane Schneider, 2009 Complete auction package, tack by BCS/dolls by Jane Schneider, 2009 Western Tack Pink gaming bridle and breastcollar owned by Tiffany Purdy, 2008 Gaming saddle made to fit the Breyer junior rider doll, 2009-2010 Western Bridle made for the MEPSA tackmaking contest, 2010 Western show bridle made for the MEPSA Tackmaking Contest, 2011 Packing Tack Pack set photographed and formerly owned by Emily McFadden, 2009 Specialty/Costumes/International Tack Portuguese set, 2007 Showring style Arabian costume made for the Blab Arab Costume Contest, 2008 Each contestant was challenged to make a costume using the same miniature Turkish rug as a starting point. My costume included a saddleseat type saddle and girth as well as the bridle breastplate and saddle drapes. Charro set owned and photographed by Kellye Bussye, 2010 Modern English Sidesaddle made for the MEPSA Tackmaking Contest, 2011 Halters and In-hand Bridles Western show halter, 2007 Light breed show halter, 2007 Arabian show halter, 2009 Leather stable halter, 2010 Western show halter, 2010 Western show halter, 2011 Stable halter made with K. Smith fabric sheets, 2013 Boots Pink leather splint boots, 2010 Ultrasuede Sports Medicine boots, 2010 Leather splint boots, 2010 Breastplates Jumper style breastplate with real lambskin cover, 2010 Hunter style breastplate with raised standing martingale attachment. 2013 Miscellaneous Items Doll boots, 2011
