I actually finished painting Asa at the end of May but I haven’t had an opportunity to take nice photographs of her until now.  She is my doll, and I started her over a year ago and then put her aside because I kept getting the dreaded “White Flush” in her Mister Super Clear sealant.  “White flush” is what I call those mysterious white patches that are prone to appear on colored resins.  I’ve seen it on factory faces and faces painted by experienced faceup artists.  The MSC is not bonded in those areas.  Some people think it is caused by residue, spraying too thickly, or too much humidity.  Sometimes there is absolutely no explanation.  I usually try to buff away the sealant in that area then re-spray but if the area is painted or shaded, that doesn’t work.  In that case, I re-spray a bit heavily and that will often take care of the White Flush — the under layers soften and re-bond.  Unfortunately, the sealants have a hint of white coloring to them so heavy spraying and many layers will noticeably lighten a pigmented resin–then the head will not match the body!  That’s why I often just start over…

I started over on her twice and then put her in a box — sounds like she was being punished!

I got her out and started again in May.  This time I tried Zoukeimura spray from Volks.  I had heard that it is less likely to make a White Flush and I found this to be true for Asa.  It behaves a bit differently than the Mister Super Clear so I have to use it more to get accustomed to it. The surface is toothier so I gently buffed it with a Magic Eraser sponge after each layer — I had difficulty painting on the rougher surface.  Initially the Zoukeimura spray didn’t seem like it was as durable as the MSC.  I allowed it to dry longer between sprays and that made a difference.  I’m so accustomed to the MSC but I’ll be using the Zoukeimura more — it worked great for Asa and no White Flush!

Here is a Before-and-After picture showing her blank and painted:

Here are some of my favorite pictures of her and there are many more on my Flickr site. {Click here to see more photos on Flickr}

02 Sep This entry was published on September 2, 2013 at 4:09 pm. It’s filed under BJD Faceups and tagged ABJD, Asa, Asian, Ball Jointed Doll, BJD, Doll, Faceup, Iplehouse, JID, Mister Super Clear, Monica Cooper, MSC, MSD, Resin, Robbin Atwell, Special Real, Volks, Zoukeimura. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.