warning: this tutorial is intended for use on stock Takara and Hasbro eyechips only. Please do not try on aftermarket eyechips without consulting the manufacturer. Not for use on Kenner Eyechips.
Don’t throw those damaged, experimental eyechips away! With a little elbow grease, they can be shiny and new again.
Well, unless they look like this (photo showing extreme damage caused by acetone-based nailpolish applied to the back of the chip.) Throw that one away, or submit it to a museum of oddities.
if your eyechips have been coated in paint, glue, or some other crusted on substance, soak them overnight in a sealed container of rubbing alcohol (isopropyl)
Remove them from the bath, and scrub the faceted side to loosen the paint. I like to use an electric toothbrush. a regular toothbrush works well, too. You may have to change the alcohol and soak them again. The pupil paint may come off as well.
These chips have been successfully cleaned. Notice that the faceted area looks nice and sharp again. The pupils have been damaged, though. If you want to remove any remaining pupil paint, or remove dents and scratches, file down the pupil with a medium nail file and buff it to a semi-shine with a multi-step nail buffer.
After you get all the dents and old paint off the pupil, repaint the pupil with black acrylic paint. if you are worried about getting paint in the faceted part, push the eyechip through a piece of paper punched with a regular round hole punch.
This chip has deep surface scratches and scuffs.
remove them by sanding the face of the chip with a medium-grit nail file. Nail files for acrylic nails work the best. Sand until you can’t feel the original scractches with your fingernail.
Move up to a finer nail file, and eventually a super-fine nail buffer. If you have Novus Polish, it works well at this stage, too. The more gradual steps you take with sanding grits, the shinier your chip will look. I like to buy nail blocks with 6 different grits on them. You can tell the chip is shiny enough when the reflected light looks sharp, like in the picture.
15 Responses to “Eye Chip Cleaning and Restoration”
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Thanks for the tutorial! I knew there had to be a reason why I kept those damaged stock eyechips!
All your tutorials are fantastic! I’m a Pullip girl myself but I’ve still learned a lot about customizing thanks to your tutorials.
An easy and quick way to repaint a damaged pupil is to pour a bit of acrylic paint on flat surface, then just dip the pupil into the pool of paint. I do this with all my damaged eyechips and I’ve never once got paint onto the faceted area of the eyechip.
Cauldy - I love your pupil painting tip! I’m going to have to try that myself!
J*me - I have bins of them, but you never know when you might need to replace a stock chip!
Thanks alot. I am just about to throw those scratched chips away. You are my chip-saver. Hug*
Hey! Update. I tried this method on the new Brainworm chips. It will work, but you need to add one last final step, since after using the super-fine nail buffer, the chips will look a little “cloudy.” But if you paint over the chips with acrylic gloss, they become shiny and gorgeous! Very quickly, paint on a thick layer of acrylic gloss, then set the chips pupil-down on a flat surface. The gloss will smooth itself out, eliminating brush strokes. When it dries, you get a lovely, shiny, scratch-free chip.
Cauldy - have you tried Novus polish in the finest grade? it should clear up that last lingering cloudiness too.
Have you ever had the gloss coating rub inside the eyelid from the thickness?
I do own the complete Novus kit and it wasn’t able to clear up the cloudiness, unfortunately.I noticed the plastic of the newer Brainworm chips seems softer than the plastic from the older chips — some of the blue chips I have from Brainworm I can easily scratch with my thumbnail!
I haven’t had that issue with the eyelid, but my eyechips go into Pullips, not Blythes. The do have blinking eyelids but there may be more space between eye and eyelid in a Pullip?
WOW O.O your tutorials are useful. Thanks for sharing. XD
the tutorials are great! but what is elbow grease?
It really works…great tutorials!!!
can I use these kind of nail files to do the sand matting on Blythe’s face?
maricota - hard nail files are a bit too stiff to work over the smooth curves of blythe’s face. Sanding sponges are definitely worth the effort to find!
Hello everybody!
I’ m a nood with Blythe and Pullip Dolls and recently, I tried to change the eyes of my Pullip for acrylic eyes..But after the sand, I saw little scratches on them, does somebody have any advices to help me make them shiny and new from now on?
Thank you!!
Have a nice day.
Mako - Try “novus” plastic polish or a similar polish for acrylic/plastic.
Melissa > Thanks..But I live in France..I don’t think I can easily find this product in my place…
:/