Love it when a pony's hair ends up perfectly smooth and silky. Baby Moony came out beautiful, though her neck glue crumbled. Took her apart to check for filth, but she was clean. Lofty was decent enough, a couple smudges on her flocking, and some missing on her wings and tips of hooves. Party Time's tail ended up frizzy, not too concerned about that.
There she is, cleaned up and good to go. Zip ties on her tail, yanked it through with some fishing line. Had to soften up her plastic with a hair dryer so I could put her back together. Overall I'm content with how she turned out.
Previous projects: G1 Moondancer, TE Fizzy and G2 Morning Glory Before:
Fizzy definitely failed the white cloth test, the others weren't too bad. Hair wasn't terrible, though I don't have the tools to make it perfectly smooth and straight. Just conditioner and a comb. Moondancer's either an italian variant or a factory defect, her symbols aren't symmetrical.
That mess is everywhere inside her body/head. Can't easily get a pipe cleaner in the harder to reach spots to clean her out, every reasonably mild cleaning method I tried (Vinegar and baking soda, Oxiclean), that rusty stuff won't budge. The worst is her tail.
Wasn't much left to her tail washer and clamp. Turned the water a thick shade of brown when soaked in oxiclean, still having to scrape bits of clamp off. I can smooth out her tail eventually, and have some spare zip ties in place of metal components.
After:
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: Shaiyeh on December 22, 2018, 04:19:21 AM
I don't think your Moondancer is Italian due to her having glittery symbols (at least they look to be from the pictures) and not the typical bright blue eyes :) Great work on the restorations though! The after pic looks great! Looking forward to your after pic of the current cleaning projects :)
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: lovesbabysquirmy on December 22, 2018, 07:04:24 AM
Rust - try toothpaste (especially the gritty kind, not the soft gel) or try a product called CLR - Calcium Lime Rust. It's a plumbing chemical, so get gloves to work with it! And try not to breathe the fumes!
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: lordalexander74 on December 22, 2018, 01:08:28 PM
Well I managed to get a lot more of the scum inside Scootaloo off, with the use of oxiclean, q-tips, wads of paper towel and tweezers. Good enough I think, none of that's visible from the outside. Reckon I'd have to dig around inside Scootaloo with the CLR/qtips if I used that. With the plastic zip ties, that inside mess shouldn't be much of a concern. I appreciate the suggestions though.
RE Moondancer: Her eyes are blueish, not sky blue, but a bit darker. Definitely has a glittery symbol, though faded with age/use. I avoid cleaning around glittery symbols for fear of damaging them further. Italian Moondancer doesn't have glitter symbols? Kinda hard to tell from the pics on My Little Wiki.
I should get around to conditioning Lofty/Party Time/Baby Moony/Scootaloo's hair tomorrow, pics coming tomorrow evening
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: Shaiyeh on December 23, 2018, 12:18:44 AM
Italian ponies tend to not have glittery symbols, indeed, instead they're painted on. :) They also have the (often stamped slightly off center - or airbrushed in some cases) typical blue eyes and slightly different hair texture/quality than HK/China ponies. They're also usually marked 'Italy' under one hoof. :)
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: lovesbabysquirmy on December 23, 2018, 07:27:22 AM
Don't use oxiclean on the Twinkle Eyes :)
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: lordalexander74 on December 23, 2018, 12:07:14 PM
Only time I use oxiclean is to deal with rust.
So when you replace rusty washers with zip ties, should you put the zip ties on before conditioning/combing the tail hair? I'd like to smooth out as much as I can, but doesn't seem possible considering what a tangled mess Scoot's tail is.
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: Safflower on December 23, 2018, 03:35:17 PM
Yeesh, Scootaloo was one rusty pony, poor thing. I agree that Moondancer probably isn't Italian :)
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: lordalexander74 on December 24, 2018, 09:30:05 AM
Got em all cleaned up and put back together. Updated the top of my first post with new pics. Give it a week, I'll probably buy some more to clean up.
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: Shaiyeh on December 25, 2018, 01:57:16 AM
Good jub cleaning them up! Scootaloo looks so much happier now ^^
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: Ringlets on December 25, 2018, 03:22:18 AM
:frolic: I love to see before and after pony cleaning projects!!! you did a great job!! :bigups: :lovey: :accomplished:
Title: Re: Cleaning up: before and after. Current: G3 Scootaloo
Post by: lordalexander74 on December 25, 2018, 07:22:21 AM
Bowtie and Parasol cleaned up well, I'm keeping that Bowtie (I found another a year or two ago, that one came with a haircut, and I'll probably sell it later).
Windy, Sundance and the Ursa aren't too bad looking.
Found one G1 with evidence of rust and some unpleasant looking black scum around every one of her hair plugs. I didn't buy her this time, was afraid of what she would look like inside.