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Author Topic: Customizers' chit-chat thread  (Read 46539 times)

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Offline Griffin

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Customizers' chit-chat thread
« on: August 03, 2020, 03:33:01 AM »
It's been a while since we had one of these!

What are you currently working on? How's it going? Feel free to discuss your current WIPs, plans for future customs, vent, share your success stories and tips & tricks, whatever comes to mind.

I have three ponies in progress at the moment. One is the Monochrome swap pony, one is for a private trade (just finished the sculpting on that one, I'm excited to move on to painting!), and one is probably the most dragged-out art project I've ever had, a custom I started in 2010. :rofl: I've shared some WIP pics of that one along the way, don't have one at hand to post here but I recently shared pics in some Facebook groups. As soon as I finish the sculpting on the swap pony I can streamline my process and prime all of them for painting. :)

I should also start designing a pony for a friend - I gave her a "gift card" as a birthday or Christmas present years ago, promising to make her a custom pony. She recently reminded me about this so I guess I must finally come through  :P
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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2020, 03:43:00 AM »
Let's see... I'm looking into prospective dolls to do a custom Danny that matches Megan and Molly.
My custom  Simon Belmon outfit and gear for Megan have stalled because I can't find the LEGO skeleton battle pack that has the mace ball I need to copy to finish the Vampire Killer
If scratchbuilt sets count, I've slacked off on the arcade.. And I'm currently looking at making the Sunstone Pyramid
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Offline Moonbreeze

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2020, 05:05:04 AM »
Griffin: Ooh neat! I still want to join a custom swap one day :) And lol, I had a deflock since 2016 (or so) and fi-nal-ly finished it this year. Hope you can finish yours!
ZeldaTheSwordsman: Cool! I'd love to see a Danny! :D

I'm working on a Butterscotch and an Applejack remix (both as G2s). I broke my bait's neckplug though >.<
Also interested in doing a Sweet Berry mash up! G2 and G3 mixed. But I need to figure out G3 Sweetberry's dollyhair match. So if anyone has any clue, I'd greatly appreciate it :)

Offline BlackCurtains

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2020, 05:37:26 AM »
Neat thread!

Griffin, I also have customs from 2010 but in my case I haven't worked on them besides the initial sculpting. I do plan to finish them someday...

I have a guy I started last December. His wings are done and the base coat painted. I need to airbrush the rest and never got around to it. I got an idea for another creepy pony last night! It'll be a bit before I can do anything though.

Last Black Friday/Cyber Monday I bought myself a little professional photo booth, it has mini spotlights and a small tripod and everything! :lol: I haven't used it yet but I want to rephotograph all my customs (and ponies). I also got a "small" spray shelter from Blick Art Materials with customs in mind. Except it's way too big for ponies. I can drape something over it to make the opening smaller. Anyway, haven't used that yet either :lookround:

Ooh, and I have to share a brush cleaner I found - The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver. It comes in a plastic jar and it's amazing! I had a white synthetic brush that was dyed green for years and this stuff made it like new again. Highly recommended!
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Offline Griffin

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2020, 06:36:48 AM »
^  Ooh the photobooth sounds super nice, BC! I should take some new photos of my ponies, too. Customs included.

I wish I could share more about the swap ponies but I don't want to spoil the surprise for my partners. My friend asked for some kind of a forest mage or druid, that's a neat idea! I haven't decided on the bait yet but I have some G1s I could use, people rarely ask for G1s in swaps. I was thinking Gingerbread, that's a challenging pose (one of my least fave G1 poses actually) but I think I could do something fun with those twinkle eyes. And because I'm a sucker for horns and antlers, I'm picturing large reindeer or wapiti style antlers... But that's about as far as I've got. Sketching the design is always a crucial step for me, as that's the first time the idea truly takes shape, and I haven't got round to doing that yet. If you have any ideas, feel free to throw them my way! Some sources of inspiration include customs by other artists - Lovelauraland's beautiful forest ponies come to mind, such as Celestial Sanctuary or Shishi-gami, and the stunning Moriko which PoD made for me in the Horns & Skulls swap in 2014.

Gosh now I miss all our retired customisers and other old members!  :cry:
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Offline BlackCurtains

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2020, 07:40:51 AM »
Gosh now I miss all our retired customisers and other old members!  :cry:

Same :( It seems those that didn't get out of the hobby are instead posting on social media sites. I know Instagram has a lot of "new" custom makers, either new new or ones I've never seen before.
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Offline mlp4me

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2020, 07:47:26 AM »
I'm dragging my feet finishing up a restore of Mexican Baby North Star. I just restored Mom Honeycomb and two Peru's. Cleaned & stripped my last dozen G4 bait bases and am hoping I can get back into the mood to work on them in the near future... I've thrown the towel in on G1 customs for this year, just restores.

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Offline Griffin

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2020, 08:15:39 AM »
Gosh now I miss all our retired customisers and other old members!  :cry:

Same :( It seems those that didn't get out of the hobby are instead posting on social media sites. I know Instagram has a lot of "new" custom makers, either new new or ones I've never seen before.

I've been thinking about making an Instagram account for my customs but not sure about that... I'm not really looking for any "exposure" for my own work, especially now that I'm not taking commissions anymore, but it would be nice to be able to view some of the content. I'm not interested in posting photos of my personal life, and the self-promotion culture of IG feels alienating to me. But I know there are some pony customisers on IG and I'd love to follow some doll repaint artists, too. *shrug*

Mlp4me, sounds good! And kudos for prepping so many G4s at once. :O I've done two recently and even getting their heads off is such a hassle. I accidentally broke the plug on an Applejack I baited, it just snapped in half when I tried to twist the head off.

Then again, most of the G1 baits I currently have are already painted by someone and while it's great to have ponies which are clearly baity, I'm not looking forward to stripping the paint. :P
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Offline bright rabbit 1

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2020, 08:24:33 AM »
Got ponies to customise, and re root both customs and non customs

Working on custom Lego Mini Doll Figures (from the Lego Disney Princess, and Lego Friends Lines) for characters from Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. Got the characters for Karen and Popuri (got to paint the hair). I hope to get the Lego Disney Princess Storybooks of The Little Mermaid, Mulan, and Beauty and the Beast to make Yu who’s the younger brother of Ellie and grandson of Ellen (don’t know how to do her), Mei who’s Mugi (don’t know how I’m going to do him), and the Seven Nature Sprits (Cherry, Pumpkin, Sunny, Mint, Blueberry, Plum and Aqua). Working on making all of the places from the game (the houses, and Mother’s Hill).

Also doing Defenders of the Earth Lego Mini Doll Figures (got the base character for Jenna).

Making loom band bracelets.
« Last Edit: August 04, 2020, 08:52:08 AM by bright rabbit 1 »
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Offline SunPony

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2020, 09:06:18 AM »
Oh this is a fun thread, thanks for starting it Griffin!  You all have fun projects, I love hearing about them.  And having a photobooth sounds nice...we have a huge one at work but I haven't thought about getting a small one for my own uses...hmm.

I've been working on several projects that I've meant to do for years - Baby Leapfrog that I posted awhile ago, G3 Munchy, and a Moondancer -> elephant heavily-sculpted custom.  Munchy just needs hair.  Ele-dancer is all sculpted and just needs painting, well she also needs some counter-weights put in her back legs, her trunk makes her ridiculously front-heavy.

I'm also working on my monochrome swap pony of course but I can't really talk about that too much.   ;)
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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2020, 10:57:22 AM »
I've got two G1 baits who need finishing up;

One will be a strongly G1 influenced unicorn (symbols, hair, body, eyes all done to more or less match the Hasbro designs) with a theme of 'winter frost'.  It's taken achingly long to sunfade some marker stains off of her body, but she's almost done.

The other is a badly marked up G1 Parasol who will be getting a sculpted carousel saddle treatment.  I haven't decided if I'm going to try to match the Merry-Go-Round ponies or do something more unique (probably the latter).

I tend to let my custom jobs be influenced by what's wrong with the pony.  No hair but good body and symbols?  Alternate re-hair.  No symbols but good body?  Custom influenced by the generation of pony.  Nice hair but badly marred body?  Keep the hair, make a custom that utilizes the original pony's design somehow.  Totally janky?  How about a full body dye and a whole new look.

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2020, 11:29:32 AM »
@Griffin
Regarding stripping the paint, is it safe to use the Pine Sol bath method on ponies?

Hearing about the G4 customs people are doing is making me want to get back to the custom I was making from a redundant Rarity at some point.
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Offline BlackCurtains

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2020, 11:41:05 AM »
Griffin, I feel the same way about IG. I was on Tumblr for a while in the Sims community, posting my own custom content and stories and following some others. After a while it seemed all anyone cared about was reblogs and comments. So everyone was trying to out do each other and all the posts got very photoshoppy. I wasn't interested in how lifelike-swimsuit-model everything became. Then the blogs that kept doing what they always were stopped posting because they couldn't "compete" and no one gave them likes or comments. It was all very sad. I'm sure IG is the same way.

In other news, I have a TON of baits :lol: Mostly G3 and G1. I also have a bunch of ponies I dyed when I first got into the hobby... 10 years ago! Some of them are in good condition but others did not take the dye well. When I get settled in my new place I can't wait to get working again. There's an old project in my brain using McDonald's G3 ponies. I've never had the room to try it, but I will soon. Plus, if my winged guy turns out nice enough, I have some more G1 Big Brothers and could make a seasonal set. Hmm.
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Offline tailrustedtealeaf

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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2020, 12:45:38 PM »
Fun idea for a thread!
I've been wanting to try to make some glass eyed G4s for foreverr, and I came up with a concept for something. I've come across so many baity G4 recently that it would behoove me to make some eyes to get started, but I don't like mixing up such a small amount of resin at once. I should really get the UV resin I keep seeing instead of the one that just sits to cure. 
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Re: Customizers' chit-chat thread
« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2020, 05:26:20 PM »
Let's see, a blind box that is going to be a kind of multi generational Minty.  A simple Lady Baby fireworks girl that needs hair.  Still working on a set of 10 gitd ponies with glow hair.  Several need hair, still need 2 baits but need to settle on a pose. A bit of a challenge as they are all g1 earth ponies and 2 in each pose.  Not a clue as to how that part came about.
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