things learned while moding g4 blindbag ponies

[Xenotropos]

I'm still plugging away here with customizing g4 blindbag ponies.  I'm learning a lot as I go.


Baking Fimo on Ponies
I read on a blog somewhere that you could bake fimo and other polymer clays right onto blind bag ponies.  For the most part it's true, however they can sag in the heat if you're not very careful.  I find that the minis that come with the sets (such as the Apple family sets) stand up better to heat than the standard rubber blindbag ponies.  That said, I've yet to turn one into a puddle.  However my attempt at a Cheerilee revamp has a bit of a droopy head right now.  I guess her heavy mane weighed down her head and her neck bent a bit.  She still looks okay though and I'll post her when she's painted up.

So, as a rule of thumb, don't keep your ponies in the oven longer than 5-8 minutes.  Baking them on a sheet of parchment paper (the kind you bake cookies on) helps too.

Also, if you plan on making polymer clay attachments for the ponies - hats and capes and whatever - don't leave them in the raw state on the pony overnight.  This causes the paint underneath to get... weird.  Eventually this weird, soggy paint can peel off.  An Applejack pony paid the price for my mistake.  Curse you, Applejack's Hat!!!


Removing Paint from BlindBag Ponies
I find pure acetone is the best thing for this.  You can paint with acrylics right overtop of the old paint, but it builds up and you can obliterate finer details doing this.  However don't do what I did and immerse them in the stuff for more than a minute.  It can eat away at the plastic itself.  I find you can get most of the paint off with an old toothbrush and/or paper towels moistened in acetone.  I wear an eye protector when using acetone as it could spray upwards when using a toothbrush and I'd like to keep my vision.  You can get these goggles at any hardware store.

Acetone also bleaches the ponies a bit.  If you're going to repaint the entire pony this isn't a problem.  If you're trying to keep the original colour of the rubber for the body, then you might want to be extra careful with paint removal.

Always wash your ponies with a non-oily detergent (dish soap works well) and water, then dry thoroughly, before painting.  After an acetone treatment the ponies may feel a little gummy.  This goes away after a bath, a good toweling off, and about an hour or two to fully dry out.


I'll post actual images when I get the last batch painted up.

[Griffin]

Thank you for sharing your experience, I'm sure this info will be very helpful to any BB customizers! I've yet to try that, I've only worked with full size ponies before. Although I admit the challenge of working on such a tiny canvas intrigues me, it would be fun to try.

Can't wait to see your finished customs!

[lostpony]

I cant even see blind bag G4s let alone customize them.

Hats off to your elf/gnome skills for even attempting such an endeavor.

[Xenotropos]

I cant even see blind bag G4s let alone customize them.

Hats off to your elf/gnome skills for even attempting such an endeavor.

I will henceforth refer to myself as the Pony Gnome! 

I used to paint tabletop gaming miniatures ages ago.  A standard human figure was about an inch high.  Once you get used to the scale, you could even add eyes and pupils on the things.

Mind you, I'm a lot older now so eyes on a 2 inch high rubber horse is much more challenging than it used to be.  I'll post some of my Nerd Herd when I get 'em finished.