Today I'm showing you guys a hopefully brief tutorial on a custom OOAK Sylvanian fox. This idea was inspired by ladylollipop who actually has a great tutorial on a custom cheetah, and I highly recommend checking out her blog post as it goes into more detail than mine probably will in regards to painting your critter. So let's begin.
I have accumulated quite a few Renard foxes. They are easily my favorite fox from Sylvanian Families. What a shame they are discontinued! But I am hopeful epoch will come out with another fox design! Anyway, I often buy used sylvanians in lots, so I ended up with a fox that had some relatively bad wear. I decided this fox deserved a makeover. First I thought about how I could change the tail. Fox tails in real life are so cute! I really wanted to capture that. I also wanted my fox to be able to wear more of the dresses that newer sylvanians can wear without them being too short (Renards tend to be taller than most sylvanians). Long story short I watched some tutorials on how to paint fur... then I thought, "Hey! I'll use one of the red pandas!" Nope, it was a major fail! My next idea was using a cat body, but I had to choose a cat whose coat was close in color to the fox head so that paint would match up easier. That was a Sandy cat body. But I'm getting ahead of myself so let's slow down... The first thing I did was remove my fox's eyes. Why? Because I wanted her to be that much more cuter! I swapped her eyes with this old rabbit. Let me tell you it was not an easy process and I had to be very careful now to damage them. I used a knife to carefully cut around the interior of the eyes so I could push them out then apply the new eyes with super glue. I felt bad the rabbit had to give up her big eyes so I gave her some lovely liner.
I'll add that removing and replacing heads it quite hard as well. You have to be very careful not to damage flocking. The best way to remove and replace heads it placing them in a ziplock baggy and letting them sit a few seconds in hot water until the head is easy to squeeze. I had initially planned to give the old renard fox body to the sandy cat but unfortunately the older bodies don't always cooperate with newer heads. Luckily the renard fox head slipped on the sandy cat body with ease! So I will have to find a new body for the Sandy cat. Moving on... I recommend painting your heads before rebodying them. It makes it easier to hold a doll head in your hand when customizing them. After she was rebodied I painted the body to match her head color. I went for a more realistic red fox color. The paint I used was just acrylic and I mixed different colors until I got what I wanted. I used a stippling motion with painting and I was careful to use a dry brush technique by wiping excess paint on a napkin. This keeps you from damaging the flocking. And if you find the paint looks patchy and uneven you can press into the flocking with a dry sponge. Keep in mind you'll likely have to do several layers before achieving the desired color.
Once I was satisfied I moved on to the tail. The cat tails are perfect as a base to add wool. The white wool I used was literally brushed out of my husky's coat during shedding season (which is every season with a husky lol!) and then I found this beautiful wool on amazon! I have to say this color matched my fox perfectly!
I worked on the tip of the tail first, and I just used original tacky glue to apply the wool fibers. The tip of the tail is my husky's white fur he was so kind to donate! If you have a wooly dog do save the wool after you brush their coats! Oh! And NEVER shave or cut a husky! Anyway, this is what the tail looked like after applying the tip fur. It looks pretty crazy, like a pokemon! But don't worry, it will all look better once it's trimmed.
I had to wait a few days to get to the rest of the tail as my cinnamon colored wool fibers had to be ordered. But once they came I went ahead and trimmed the white tip to get a better idea of where I needed to start applying my cinnamon colored wool. I started near the white tip and worked my way down to the base of her tale. Once again it will look crazy before you start trimming.
Once the glue is fully dry you can brush the fibers out to separate them evenly. Then you can start trimming. Spin your critter around as you cut so you can make sure it is even all the way around. Trim down shorter as you move towards the base of the tail. You will want to take your time and be careful not to butcher the tail. Brush it out once more and trim any hairs you might have missed.
Once done you should achieve something close to this.
And that's it! Keep in mind you may have to start dressing your fox in clothes that have big gaps in the back for her bushy tail to slip through! Although the squirrels and skunks have huge bushy tails too, actually bushier than this. So it shouldn't be too bad finding clothes for them! Let me know what you guys think! I found the dress on ebay and it worked quite well to display her tail in! Now if I must say so myself, THAT is a fox tail :D
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