Okay, this is Tara from "Once More With Feeling" in her second, un-bustiered outfit. I like this outfit better, and I've seen a lot of customs with the other outfit, so I got lucky when I was assigned this one (for the OMWF non-contest). She sorta ended up more of a sculpture than a custom, so I don't recommend attempting this recipe.
Yes, she started out as the over-used Deena (or something) from the Planet of the Apes movie figure series. I basically undid every joint on the figure, and just used the hands, head, feet, and upper body.
I started with the body. The original was a horrible shape for Tara, so I sliced away at it and sculpted a body on top of it. For the skirt I made a base with cardboard, blue tape, and wires (don't ask, and definately never use that way), and sculpted it onto the body, making it one peice. For the arms, I basically used the same method as the upper body, and took the arms from a Lady Death figure (unlucky freebie), cut off the hands, and sculpted around them, attaching the original Deena hands to the base of the arms. Luckily the actually fit into the body, but loosely. I boiled the body and arms seperately, and the body got miscombobulated, although it looked fine and the arms fit in better (yay!). Next, I cut all the hair from the Deena head, made a wire base, and sculpted some hair on, complete with the Tara-style zig-zag part (see pic). I boiled that, and then started the painting step (My least favorite part). It took a few months and many coats, but I finally finished without the rose on the skirt. To paint that, I made a stencil with a square of masking tape I made, stuck it on the skirt, and painted it on sliver and gold. It turned out okay, but the tape took some of the skirt paint with it, making me paint yet another coat. After that I took the original feet and painted them. I finally finished painting, and sprayed a few coats of matte finish on each part. I put her together, and viola! My tara.
BTW, she's a present to may dad who just turned 50. Happy B-Day, Dad! |
