A heads-up for those who are trying to get a better, screen-accurate Natasha head using the Civil War headsculpt:
So I've been working on putting together the pieces for a custom civilian WS Natasha to go with my WS civvie Steve in highway battle outfit. I originally also wanted her highway battle outfit (the Agent N Casual and Smart Wear outfit) but that appears to be unavailable for love or money, so I am electing to do the leather blazer ending outfit until I can find the other available for less than an arm and a leg. I'm still waiting on the body and clothes to arrive, but I have been trying to get the head worked out, given that I like the CW headsculpt WAY better than the WS one but want the straighter hair.
My first attempt was with that Aliexpress seller mentioned earlier in the thread; instead of receiving that head, I received a standard knockoff WS/AOU head, which is not what I wanted...but it did have the appropriate hair. (And just for future reference, Aliexpress was good at giving me a partial refund when I uploaded obviously differing pictures of what was advertised and what I received.)
I had also previously purchased a knockoff CW headsculpt that I had been debating trying to straighten the hair of and cut to get the proper WS look. Strangely, I actually think that though the knockoff's paint job is not as adept as the Hot Toys version, it looks slightly more like ScarJo, and the darker lip is actually pretty accurate for that ending scene.
So attempt 2 was detaching each of those two heads from its corresponding scalp/hair, and then trying to combine the CW headsculpt with the WS hair. Unfortunately, the two heads are slightly different sizes (which I had been aware of, at least), so they don't quite fit perfectly; the forehead sticks up further in front of the hairline than it should. That said, just by gently placing the hair on the head, I think the result came out pretty well as a representation of Natasha in that ending scene. (I'm gonna get some kind of Blu-tac or something to let me firmly reposition the hair so that it can get some height and looks right and stays right.) You can see my crappy iPhone photo of Frankenwidow here, resting atop the Civil War body (while I styled the official head's hair):
I was, however, still eyeing that Aliexpress head that I hadn't been able to get, and I did hear/see that others had received a head closer to what was advertised. Since I saw it on eBay, I figured I would try to see if I could get the head via that route. It arrived today, and it's actually pretty good...except that the skintone seems noticeably darker to me even than the standard Hot Toys "suntan" skintone. She does have the paler lip - which is more accurate to WS - so I am not sure whether that is what is making the skintone look darker in comparison or whether it actually is. All of my official HT figures are on display at my office at work, so I don't have them to compare with today. Does it seem darker, or am I on crack? (Warning for another crappy phone pic.)
That said, the hair is definitely more accurate for Natasha's hair through most of WS (which isn't quite 100% stick-straight but doesn't have the full inward curl at the bottom that Hot Toys gave her). So I figure when I am eventually able to do my Highway Battle Natasha, I will see whether the darker skintone bugs me too much (or if it is in fact even darker); if it does, I'll do a repaint, and hopefully my repaint skills are a little stronger by then.
Hope this helps anybody who is looking at either of these head options!
