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Author Topic: G4 Alicorn customizing tips?  (Read 1084 times)

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Offline WaterDraw

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G4 Alicorn customizing tips?
« on: May 24, 2018, 04:52:05 PM »
Hey everyone! I just found an old Princess Cadence I had gotten with the castle playset that included flurry heart and of course, because she was one of the newer G4s before G4.5 rolled around, she has terrible quality hair. It doesn't help that she was stuck in a container for a while so her hair got all frizzed up, and poofed out. The best way I could describe her hair was a slightly more tame version of a perfume puff pony from G1!
I tried to fix it, but I realized going through the effort wouldn't be worth it, especially since I have two other Cadences in a much better condition, plus this Cadence's neck was cut for some weird reason (I remember it came like that out of the box and I was a bit upset).
Since this Cadence is of no use to me, I decided I wanted to customize her. I'll probably either customize her to make her a younger Celestia or an older Flurry Heart (which do you guys think I should do?)
This was also set in stone when I was pulling on her head to let my hands fiddle with something and her head popped off...oops  :lookround:
I know the basics of customizing, such as you have to cut the little head plug part out so you can pull the tail part, that you have to cut out all the hair on the head and pluck out the leftover plugs to re-root, use acetone to get the paint off, etc. But this will be my first custom, so I have a couple questions:
1st. What paint do I use? I think I heard people use acrylic?
2nd. How many coats of paint should I put on?
3rd. Do I glue the neckplug back into the body once I've finished everything?
4th. Do I just fold the plug of hair in half on the rerooting tool and pluck it in or? I'm very confused about how to put the hair on the rerooting tool.
5th. How exactly do I go about replacing the tail?
6th. Is there a reason why people who reroot their ponies almost never cut the hair of the pony afterwards? I always see ponies with incredibly long hair and I was wondering if there was a reason for that?
7th. Are zapcodes removable?
8th. On the little rim on the head (the part where mine was cut), do we have to cut that for the plug to be able to fit on or will it be okay?

These are the questions I have and if anyone has any tips, they'd be greatly appreciated  ^.^
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Re: G4 Alicorn customizing tips?
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2018, 04:53:16 PM »
Moving to Customs for you. :)
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Offline WaterDraw

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Re: G4 Alicorn customizing tips?
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2018, 06:38:27 PM »
Oh, thank you  :)
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Re: G4 Alicorn customizing tips?
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2018, 01:23:07 PM »
Quote
1st. What paint do I use? I think I heard people use acrylic?
2nd. How many coats of paint should I put on?
3rd. Do I glue the neckplug back into the body once I've finished everything?
4th. Do I just fold the plug of hair in half on the rerooting tool and pluck it in or? I'm very confused about how to put the hair on the rerooting tool.
5th. How exactly do I go about replacing the tail?
6th. Is there a reason why people who reroot their ponies almost never cut the hair of the pony afterwards? I always see ponies with incredibly long hair and I was wondering if there was a reason for that?
7th. Are zapcodes removable?
8th. On the little rim on the head (the part where mine was cut), do we have to cut that for the plug to be able to fit on or will it be okay?

1. Acrylic, yes.  NEVER use enamel, it won't dry.
2. As many as it takes.  Your paint should be fairly thin and applied in thin coats to build up the color. 
3. If you've removed it, then yes you can glue the neck plug in.
4. I fold the hair over a finger, making sure it's equally long on both sides, then slip the longer of the needle's prongs under the hair.  Pull the hair tight against the needle and insert the needle, longer prong first, into the plug hole until it won't go further.  Remove the needle and the hair will be left behind.  Dump glue in the head after you're done and mash it around with a q-tip or something. 
5.  Personally, I make the tail hole a bit wider with a dremel and then use a zip tie to hold the new tail hair together.  The tail hole will stretch a bit to accommodate the new tail being inserted, and then contract back around it.  This way I never have to remove the neck plug from the body.
7. Personal preference.  I prefer "factory-style" hair lengths because I think it makes the pony look more authentic, and also because if you keep the hair factory length you can rehair more ponies with it.  And also, space.  I don't have space to dedicate to a pony's 3-ft long hair.
8. I make slits in it to help the plug go back in easily but if you're strong enough you don't have to.

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Re: G4 Alicorn customizing tips?
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2018, 09:46:34 PM »
Looks like you got some good advice so far. Also check out the tutorials thread to help you get started with customizing.

http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,283445.0.html

For alicorns, don't cut out the neck plug. For them, the necks are actually solid and the cavity for the tail plug is actually under the wings. It's a bit of a hassle,  but don't make it more so by cutting out the neck to find it has no purpose. You would have to take off the wings. Sometimes I have just cut the tail off as short as possible and glued a new one in without doing the removal process. It's much easier, but not as durable.
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