The Crazy One
::playing Eminem’s “Without Me” just to introduce my custom Suicide Squad Harley Quinn Barbie::
I’ve seen a ton of great Harley Quinn custom dolls, but I wanted to do my own take. She and the Joker were definitely the best part of Suicide Squad, IMO.
A lot of the work is thanks to Etsy seller LovelyWoods. She made the shirt, shorts, belt (but not the buckle), and the bat. Even with such a head start, this was a work-intensive custom with probably the most painting I’ve done on a doll to date.
One of my favorite parts to figure out and make was this earring. In the movie, Harley has a long ear cuff with gold safety pins hanging from it. So I took the absolute smallest safety pin I could find, painted it gold, and fashioned an earring. I like it even if it’s not screen-accurate but rather screen-representative. My friend said, “Could you imagine that earring in real-life scale?” I’d love it!
I trimmed the doll’s hair, made pigtails, and then dyed each one its respective color. I used the tutorial here for dyeing Barbie’s hair: Gonna Dye that Blonde Right Out of Bab’s Hair!
Using acrylic paint for models, I did her eye makeup, heart face tattoo, and select leg tattoos. (I only included the tattoos I liked.) Her hairbobs are made from gift ribbon. The choker is also a ribbon, fastened by a hook-and-eye closure. It was a deliberate choice to omit “PUDDIN” from the necklace as well as to leave off the “YES SIR” bracelets. The belt buckle is a gold sequin cut into a diamond shape with a black Sharpie inner diamond shape to suggest a cutout.
Harley’s blue period. The glove is also acrylic paint, as are the fingernails. I decided to do black nails with a gold accent nail (which sadly my camera isn’t picking up well) for her left hand versus the “E-V-I-L” from the film. Her spike bracelets are actually people-scale earrings.
It was fun to give her the blue and red manicure for her right hand. I also tried to represent her double-jester armor ring using 3D paint. The ring is a really crazy design. I couldn’t see replicating it accurately in 1/6 scale.
Painting her shoes was a nerve-racking prospect, but they were easier and quicker to do than I’d anticipated. These all-white Mattel boot-type shoes already had a raised heart on them. I thought it’d be cute to keep the hearts and paint them black to match her face tattoo. As for the rest, I tried to make them look like the ones in the movie but also to my own taste as well. Again, this is acrylic paint. The fishnets are straight from Mattel.
One of my favorite shots in Suicide Squad is when they’re in the plane and Harley’s hair blows across her face.
If you make/made your own Harley Quinn, I’d love to see her!
The Barbie Aisle 