A Schoenhut doll's popping paint.

 

This lovely Schoenhut girl is troubled by paint issues commonly termed 'paint popping'.

It is a complex problem that has no definate single cause. 

Aging wood covered by gesso and then painted with oil based paint is not 100% stable. All these layers do deteriorate with time. Temperature and humidity changes will also alter the wood and the overlying layers. All these factors lead to failures of adherence.

This paint is lifting and about to fall off.

Some paint has already fallen off.

Do you consolidate the troubled paint? That means applying adhesive compounds to slow down the failures. She would remain wrinkled but hopefully the paint loss would slow down.

Or, do you remove the failing paint and fill/repaint the defects?

This doll's owner has opted for the latter.

It doesn't take much poking for the loosened paint to fall off.

After sealing the bare wood areas, some filler can be applied.

Then some paint to disguise the repaired areas.