Saturday, November 29, 2008

This Weekend's Project: A New Wig

The goal is to progressively evolve Hotaru's structure to greater levels, beyond her humble origins of a Magic: the Gathering construct. I've been fond of her current hairstyle due to the subtle green tint used in the chemical fabrication of her black paper hair. I've yet to find a similar substance so far, thus making me hesitant in outright replacing/redoing it. However, her strands are fragile and tend to suffer from bends that lead to strands breaking. Not to mention, her hair isn't really dynamic.

So far, my first subject, Lia, had mixed results from the transition from construction paper hair to synthetics. A bit too much applied and lots of unsecured strands. Unfortunately, I didn't really keep that in mind the second time around, especially the too much hair part. Anyways, onward with the experiment!

I bought a cheap Halloween wig from Target for $10 for the purpose of making wigs out of the strands. Much more cost efficient than cannibalizing a Barbie in terms of dollars per volume. Most Halloween wigs cost $20, so I wasn't expecting anything great from this one. We'll see what fits in that "One size fits most" disclaimer on the box.

I won't digress into the details (especially since I didn't take progress pics), but I used the tried and true method of hot glue gun and fingerfulls of strands. I'll need to remember to cut back on the volume used. Too much material results in a poofy hairdo. I've actually resorted to using a twist tie to hold back the excess volume of hair. I was expecting half the strands to come loose over time, but that plan failed. I'll have to do some pruning/pulling later to get it under control.

This is the painted Pancor Jackhammer, with my new favorite color: Gunmetal Grey. The shotgun shells Hotaru is holding came from the European Shotgun set by Dragon.

I'll get some more colorful twist ties to make things look better til I control her hair.

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