Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized right
Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized right
But given that its Halloween season, it occurred to me that I might be able to use some fake plastic teeth from a party shop which could easily be cut to a desired size. I went to Party City and settled on some 99 cent vampire teeth. I asked if they had "movie star" teeth, but all they had were vampire, which were white and straight like desired, albeit with fangs, and various types of crooked, yellow monster teeth.
After two nights of work this is what I came up with. A leftover piece of the original vampire teeth is next two the teeth I assembled for comparison. I've made two rows of teeth by cutting out portions of the vampire teeth from the upper and lower "jaw" between the fangs. One row has four teeth and is 1 and 1/8 inch long by 5/16 inch high, the other has three teeth, is about 1 inch long and about 9/32 inch tall. I fit the teeth into her mouth over and over, trimming off a little bit at a time until I had them sized down well enough. If you want to repeat my process, please do the same. You may wish for wider, thinner, taller, or shorter teeth than I did. Plus the vampire teeth originals are dirt cheap right now so if you do mess it up you're not out much. I'm even planning to go get another set or two so I can play around with making angled rows, so she can be smiling on one side the mouth.
For head #74, only one row can really fit in her mouth at one time and I'll use the two interchangeably. The four tooth version is definitely better for frontal photos where balance is required, but the three teeth one could be better for angled shots. Some heads that already have a partially open mouth may be able to fit two rows. If you go this way, you should superglue the top and bottom rows together. They are held in place by the force of the mouth's TPE - they won't just stick there on their own.
Once I had them sized right, I applied some white DAP Alex Ultra 230 elastomeric latex caulk into the gap between the front edge of the teeth and the back edge and allowed it to harden overnight Thursday and while I was at work during the day Friday. These vampire teeth are designed to fit over children's teeth, so they are quite thin and hollow between front and back. Adding caulk gives it a little more volume and rigidity - I think it will make the teeth less prone to bending or getting twisted out of shape while in her mouth and may also prevent the teeth from cutting into the roof of the mouth or tongue since the plastic did seem thin enough to do it if left in there long enough. In the comparison photo above you can get an idea of how thin the plastic is alone and how it might dig into the TPE.
After the caulk hardened enough I used a small hobby brush and applied a watered down coating of some old yellowish-tan water-based hobby paint. I then wiped off the paint using a paper towel so it would build up a little thicker in the crevasses between teeth but be relatively absent on the faces. I then lightly drybrushed the same paint over the faces to dinge them down from the bright white plastic color to a more human like tone. I let this sit for about 15-20 minutes to fully dry.
For the final step I applied some Minwax Clear Satin fast-drying polyurethane spray sealant to give them a pearly sheen like real teeth. Plus it'll keep my always dirty fingers from rubbing off the paint. I applied four coats, each about 20-30 minutes apart then allowed to dry overnight. Depending how much is sprayed on with each coat, it could take more coats until the desired sheen is acquired. (They really don't shine that much, but with 4 coats I got reflectivity back to about where the original white vampire teeth were.)
I only had to purchase the fake plastic teeth (I already had the caulk, paint, brush, and polyurethane) so it only cost me a little over a dollar and the requisite investment of time. With none of these items already in hand, someone else could do the same for only about $15 (the polyurethane spray alone comprising half that price.) I think they turned out quite well for the price.
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Re: Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized r
Thanks for posting the How To as well!
RK
Re: Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized r
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Re: Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized r
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Re: Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized r
Also, if it Is safe, is Super Glue safe to attach such teeth to TPE? I had a couple of plastic vampire teeth things for halloween (I think maybe the exact same), and am thinking about adding them to a doll.
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It's fun to see what members come up with.
Re: Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized r
As long as it isn't 2 part you can use it no problem.manobon wrote:Are the DAP Alex Plus acrylic latex plus silicone caulks safe to interact with TPE for prolonged periods of time? (Or would it be like a potential TPE and Platinum Silicone reaction?)
Also, if it Is safe, is Super Glue safe to attach such teeth to TPE? I had a couple of plastic vampire teeth things for halloween (I think maybe the exact same), and am thinking about adding them to a doll.
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Re: Making your doll smile - fake teeth on a budget, sized r
Thanks for the response, but did you mean, as long as the acrylic/silicone caulk is Not 2 Parts (the ones you have to mix from separate tubes), for the teeth interacting with the TPE? Or the Super Glue interacting with the TPE? Or both?samara78 wrote:As long as it isn't 2 part you can use it no problem.manobon wrote:Are the DAP Alex Plus acrylic latex plus silicone caulks safe to interact with TPE for prolonged periods of time? (Or would it be like a potential TPE and Platinum Silicone reaction?)
Also, if it Is safe, is Super Glue safe to attach such teeth to TPE? I had a couple of plastic vampire teeth things for halloween (I think maybe the exact same), and am thinking about adding them to a doll.
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