When Dye Jobs Go Wrong

Sometimes it happens. For the first time, it happened to me! I have a few theories about why this one went bad:

• My pan may not have been perfectly clean
• There may have been sealant residue or residue from the cleaning product used to remove the face up
• Mold release/odd sanding (as this has kinda happened on my other dragons)

Darker colors seems to be  more difficult to dye correctly. I want to test a few more pieces out with darker colors to see what happens. *goes on the hunt for recast spare parts*

I had little to no issue with the pinks and even the dark, dark purple on Grim's parts, so it has to be something more than just the dye itself. In any case, I'm not too worried. The only reason I dyed it as a base was because I didn't want to have to struggle to airbrush the super tiny parts on Penny. It'll be much easier now that they're dyed.

A Summary of the Issues:

1. This weird splotchy part on the face
2. This cool scale-like pattern on both legs (I'll be incorporating this because it looks cool)
3. Weird, brown stain, only on the belly. Wondering if it burnt slightly? Not a clue on this one.
4. Uneven coloring, common along seam lines, sanded areas, and areas with mold release. 

To fix this dye job, I'm going to be airbrush it!

If you don't have an airbrush, I'd suggest going the My Little Pony customizing route and begin layering thinned acrylic over the top. Use light layers and let them dry thoroughly in order to avoid streaking. Seal it well (one to coats of mod podge and Army Painter), and then blush and add details as normal. You could also attempt to remove the dye with a good soak in a cleaner or scrub it down and try it again.

I can see how someone who didn't know what to expect or encountered this on their first try would be pretty upset. I'm not upset at all, but then I have the tool to easily fix it. My suggestion is that if this happens to you, be in good spirits about it. How can you incorporate the weird parts into your overall design? What can you do to cover it? Take everything in stride, and just relax. It's all mostly fixable!

I'll update after I've finished the airbrushing. Stay tuned!