Trent

Until recently, Ashton Drake's Trent® doll had a virtual monopoly on the 16 inch "Man Doll" market. His only competition was Effanbee's Basil St. John®, who didn't have nearly the wardrobe Trent has. With Tonner's Matt O'Neill® just released on the doll market, and the entire Gene Marshall® line of dolls with a questionable future, Trent's reign is about to end. Personally, while I love Trent's wardrobe, I've never liked his sculpt or facial screening. However, Trent has proven to be more than adequate as a model for some amazing repaints! Here are some of the best!

Jenny starts by removing all the original paint off the face of Trent. She sands down his major features so she can start with a "clean slate." Then, she starts the resculpt process. She uses putty to build up the features of the new face she is trying to accomplish. This takes her a few hours to do. The putty is allowed to dry overnight before the painting process starts.

Jenny uses extensive layers of shadowing and highlights to build up the texture and look she's trying to achieve. Once she's happy with the results (which can take several days!), she thoroughly seals the entire face with a UV Matte sealer.

"Before I taught myself to sculpt on a Trent.. I used the illusion of shading and highlighting on the Trent mold." Jenny states, "I manipulated the look of his face by creating dramatic highlighting and shading to get as far away from the original Trent look as I could. There are limits when you use this method. I taught myself to sculpt so it would be a lot easier for me to get the look I was trying to achieve with better results. The sculpting process takes more time but provides a more realistic result then just painting over the original face."

"I love creating different looks for Trent." Marie states: "When I first started repainting him, I needed to come up with a name for my work. Since my girls are Dreamgirls, I decided that the logical name would be Dreamboats! I strive to make each Dreamboat look totally different than the last one.

Marie removes all facial pant with non-acetone nail polish remover using a combination of Q-tips and tiny swabs that she makes by wrapping a little cotton around a toothpick. She usually removes everything but Trent's original hair. Then he gets his face washed with a mild soap and water. She uses top-quality artist acrylics, such as “Liquitex” and “Goldens,” and the tiniest brushes she can find! "They don’t last long," Marie laughs, "So, I go through a lot of brushes."

"I always begin with the eyes." Marie explains, "I feel that the eyes are the 'mirrors to the soul' and usually determine the look the Dreamboat will have. After his eyes are complete, I move on to the eyebrows and then the lips. At this point, I decide whether he will be younger or older and shade his face appropriately. Then on to the hair. The first coat of paint is usually a solid color and forms the base of his hair. On top of the first layer, I will use a very tiny brush and stroke different color individual hairs. If I am giving him a beard or facial hair, I use these colors and make tiny strokes to simulate a beard. When he is completed and I am happy with his look, I put him aside to dry. The paint must thoroughly dry before I move on to the next step – sealing the paint."

Marie lets the paint dry at least 24 to 48 hours, then seals the paint with a glossy sealer on the eyeballs and a matte sealer on the hair and lips. Her favorite matte sealer is "Liquitex Matte."

The sealer is left to dry another 24-48 hours. After that, her newest Dreamboat is ready for his photo shoot! He gets a pair of hand-made boxers to wear, a wrist tag, a Certificate of Authenticity with his photo on it and a rose for his new lady! He gets put back in his box (if Marie can tear him away from the Dreamgirls, that is) and is ready to travel to his new home.

Denise has a completely different approach to redoing Trent! She beheads him and makes a whole new mold! Denise, who is currently taking care of her elderly mother, was unable to participate in this article and, for the time being, is no longer doing Trent Makeovers, Denis Bastien of Affordable Designs graciously allowed High Maintenance to use his pictorial of the process Denise goes through to give Trent a new head. Denis commissioned Denise to make the Trent below, including giving her instructions on what facial and and hair features he wanted.

Tracy uses Golden's Hard Modeling Paste to resculpt Trent's features. She uses an exacto knife to trim down his nose, then a very fine sandpaper to smooth it down. She finishes the smoothing process with a nail buffer from beauty supply stores. Tracy considers Trent the perfect repaint candidate! As she states, "You can't really mess him up!" In allowing me to use her "Trent in progress" repaint pictures, Tracy also requested that I "put up a disclaimer that he is a very early repaint of mine, and therefore subjugated to the role of the village idiot on the Esme Show. Hehe!"

I can't wait to see what these and other repaint artists do with Matt O'Neill! With a completely different facial sculpt than Trent's, Matt's repaints should prove both interesting and captivating! Oh! Here's one already - courtesy of James Mitchell, caldoll63@earthlink.net!!