I must admit, I know nothing of the Monster High franchise, only that the mods of BJD Questions mentioned they were great practice for those who want do to customizations they don't want to carry out on BJDs (ever or just yet).
Although honestly, MH modding isn't a precursor to BJD modding. Customized MH dolls in themselves are amazing works of art, as evidenced of the Monster High Custom tag on Tumblr.
But since I do want to be comfortable with modding for when I get a BJD, here's the first step of a long-ish process!
Some 'before' shots.
You can see the designs on her limbs, dirt on her cheek, very obvious seam lines, and the bad paint job on the back of her thigh. What I want to have is a clean, white body, which I later found out is a bit difficult to obtain with this particular doll. You'll find out why.
I took off the head with a hairdryer before de-hairing.
Waited for the head to heat and up, then carefully popped the initial bit of the anchor from the neck hole. Reheated the head again before getting the rest of the anchor out.
Here's how the anchor is attached to the body. It's not a kind of joint like the rest of the movable parts. It's a freely moving bit of plastic hooked to the white bit there. I'm sure there's a technical term for what it's called, but I don't know it.
Next I dunked the entire body in a tub of Simple Green.
There's a good explanation for this. I knew how acetone was a big no-no with plastic, so I thought that placing it in the same solution that stripped paint off plastic models would remove the factory paint. Or at least make it easy to remove with sanding.
After over 24 hours of soaking, however, it didn't change. Nor was it easy to sand the design off.
Anyway, while the body was having a soak, I de-haired and cleaned the head.
I didn't keep the hair since it was too short to use for rehairing and I was pretty positive I wouldn't be using it for anything else.
I loosened the glue inside the head by pouring nail polish remover in the neck hole. For some reason, I couldn't find my needle-nose pliers, so I removed the hair inside using nail pliers and tweezers. It was a bitch.
Next, I tried removing the factory paint with nail polish remover. This was the result.
The next day, I purchased Pure Acetone from Mercury Drug. You order it over the counter like prescription drugs. They make you write down your name and address in case you have plans to use it illegally. The sizes range from 30mL to 120mL. I bought the 60mL for just under 50 Php.
And with just 3 cotton balls, the head is squeaky clean.
Or at least as clean as I could get it. There are obvious traces of the pink from when I smudged it with the nail polish remover.
Now, here's a curious thing about CA Cupid's body. Her limbs are actually black plastic, not white. Ignoring better reason, I quickly wiped down the designs with pure acetone.
Also, these things.
There was an embossed Mattel copyright on her lower back and numbers impressed between her shoulders. You can still see traces of it because impressed things are harder to sand off than embossed things.
As for the underwear, I decided to leave it be. If I had a dremel, it would've been a different story.
I sanded her down again with 600 grit sandpaper. At this point, I believe I already removed the mold release (I have no idea what it is, but I've read it makes topcoats flake off).
I make it a point to wash the pieces I'm working on with dish washing detergent and water to make sure whatever chemicals I used don't stay, especially the acetone.
That, my friends, is melted plastic. Nasty business.
I'm planning to prime the body with white before sealing it with Tamiya Flat Clear (TS 80), but that is for another day!
ヽ(；▽；)ノ
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