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Messages - Tabbyclaw
1
« on: December 19, 2016, 04:07:39 PM »
Thanks so much for all the comments, guys! Still digging this set, even if I've slowed down on it thanks to about a million other projects. Melting the hair was tedious, but quite easy and low-risk. I have a woodburning tool, so I just did up a braid, held the end with pliers, then trimmed it down and pressed the tool to the cut ends. That sealed it enough that I could dab the tool around the sides of the resulting fan of hair and mold the end into the proper shape, and the nylon was cool enough to handle again pretty much the second I took the tool away. And in all those hours of work, I only leaned my arm on the hot metal once.  -Tabby the princess with claws
2
« on: December 17, 2016, 03:48:37 AM »
Look who's not dead!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
3
« on: July 16, 2016, 04:54:16 PM »
Well, you guys have confirmed what my other research seems to be telling me. My ChewsBrains tool has been ordered and should be on its way to me soon. Thanks for the input!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
4
« on: July 14, 2016, 03:38:42 PM »
After years of happily doing all of my hair work using the wire method, I am staring down the barrel (or, rather, the tiny neck hole) of my first G4 rehair and thinkin' I maybe want to not do that this time. So! Talk to me about tools. Who's still making/selling them? What are your experiences with specific ones? What else should I know?
-Tabby
the princess with claws
5
« on: July 07, 2016, 01:36:27 AM »
One new pic and a bit of info!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
6
« on: May 18, 2016, 04:09:33 AM »
Yep, I'm back, and I've actually completed a thing for once! visitors can't see pics , please register or loginIzumi Curtis. Housewife, martial artist, alchemist, and all in all the most formidable woman you're ever likely to meet. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginAnd wearer of the height of stylish footwear. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginWith her flamel "hiding" on her 'personal' side, because everyone knows she's just an ordinary housewife. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginA picture I had to share to show just how much hair is hiding behind her wings. I mean a lot of hair. A lot of hair in a lot of tiny braids, plaited and melted over the course of about seven episodes of Leverage and two of Critical Role. The 4+ hour ones. This was a lot of work and a lot of nylon fumes, is what I'm saying. Totally worth it. -Tabby the princess with claws Previous updates: Spoiler Just a little 'I'm not dead and neither is this project' post. I have lain down the base coat for Ed's automail and am now trying to convince myself that painting all the plates and wires isn't going to be as terrifying as I think. I'm spending a lot of time looking at reference pictures from the show and drawings of pony skeletons and working out how to combine the two. Which is not to say that I haven't made visible progress on something else! I took something complicated and impressive that I'd done and I destroyed it!  visitors can't see pics , please register or loginPinkish paint (a combination of the color I used for her skin and the one I used for her tattoo, actually), applied deliberately thick and inelegant while still trying to stay true to where her scars are in the show. I think I did a pretty good job of it, decent enough that I'm not heartbroken to see my previous work covered up. Spoiler So apparently my previous thread was locked, which makes sense because good lord, it's been almost a year since I gave an update on this thing. And I... have honestly not accomplished as much as one might imagine I could in that span of time. Too many hobbies, not enough hours in the day. (And also too little self-motivation, but that's another story entirely, right?) But! I have still accomplished quite a lot, if I do say so myself (and I do). Wanna see? First off, Al is entirely finished! visitors can't see pics , please register or loginvisitors can't see pics , please register or loginHow cute is that? Unfortunately his head doesn't turn thanks to a lot of trouble with his neck plug, but he's still precious. He will get a proper photoshoot when everyone else is done too, especially his brother. Who is the only pony I haven't gotten anything done on, because my first attempt at airbrushing his automail was a small disaster. Someday my time and drive to do it right will actually align with appropriate weather and it will get done, but that day may be a long way off. Okay, I lied; I have gotten a little done on Ed. And everyone else; all four of the others have had their eyes completed. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginI took this photo a dozen times, and they still insisted on coming out blurry. Still, here are my boys, Roy looking stern and Ed looking brash. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginAnd the girls! Izumi's new eyes are probably the most drastically altered from the bait's original shape. Riza's face came out gentler than I had intended but her character is not entirely without softness so it still works. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginRoy was being a brat in general during this photoshoot, mostly thanks to the metallic paint on his pocketwatch that refuses to photograph without glare. Still, you can see the flames that have been added around it to complete the symbol, and indeed all of his painting. All he needs now is his hair. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginIzumi is also pretty close to being done. Keen observers and followers of the other thread will note that she doesn't seem to keep with the pattern of the other ponies in this series. The generic flamel should be her 'public side' symbol, with something more personal on the left, right? Perhaps, were it not for the fact that, as she will be the first to tell you... visitors can't see pics , please register or login...she's just an ordinary housewife. Another case of metallic paint not wanting to photograph properly unless you put way more effort into the lighting than I plan to until I'm doing their big glamour shoots, but you can still make out her meat cleaver and wedding rings. The rings still need a little bit of shading, which is the last detail before all her painting will be done and she'll be ready for rehairing, a whooooole lotta styling, and reassembly. Heaven help me. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginAnd of course I wasn't going to leave her barefoot! The sandals go all the way around on all four hooves, but I only did the lettering on the front two. I'm not that nuts. And then there's Riza. I accepted from the very beginning that she was the part that scared me the most, and God have I ever been procrastinating on her tattoo. But I was feeling tranquil this weekend, so I put on some calming music, lit a scented candle, and told myself that I was just going to sketch out the transmutation circle. Just the circle, and an outline of the serpents around it, to make sure I had everything placed properly, and I could leave the details for Future Tabby to sort out. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginAnd then about 45 minutes later that happened. Yeah. Sometimes I get into a groove. It needs a little touching up, especially around the top, but for all intents and purposes it's done. And then the next step will be mixing up some thick, sickly-looking scar tissue paint and obliterating a good chunk of that work. I have accepted my fate on this matter.
7
« on: September 11, 2015, 09:42:48 PM »
Another vote for probably Old Bubblegum!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
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« on: August 30, 2015, 03:43:17 PM »
Acrylic yarn cannot be dyed in a controlled/effective manner by anything that you'd be able to find for home use.
-Tabby
the princess with claws
9
« on: June 01, 2015, 06:12:30 PM »
Depending on how much painting you've done, the common suggestion I've seen is to pop the head onto the neck plug first and then glue the plug into the neck, to prevent the pressure of forcing the head onto the plug from putting extra stress on the more rigid plastic of the body and possibly cracking your paint.
-Tabby
the princess with claws
10
« on: June 01, 2015, 01:11:56 AM »
Another update!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
11
« on: April 30, 2015, 12:43:58 AM »
Updated!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
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« on: April 05, 2015, 02:47:58 PM »
New updates!
-Tabby
the princess with claws
13
« on: March 21, 2015, 02:34:01 AM »
I got bold this week and did some serious symbol painting. Some seriously tiny symbol painting. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginTechnically, for show accuracy Al's flamel should be on his left side. But I opted to stick with my 'public vs. personal affiliation' orientation over that. (I also probably should have done the joints on his armor first, but I can work around that.) visitors can't see pics , please register or loginA little shading on Roy's pocketwatch to give the impression of the embossed chimera without going overboard. It still needs his fiery touch (like I was going to leave the Flame Alchemist's cutie mark without it!), but then his entire body will be done. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginIn all her artistic aspects, Riza is the one who's going to kill me. But I'm feeling a lot more confident about tackling her tattoo after getting that chimera so clean. She'll probably get an extra coat or two of gold to really make the border of her banner stand out. Next planned step: Break out the airbrush again and lay down the base coat for Ed's automail. Previous updates:4/30 Spoiler Back for more? 'Cause I am! visitors can't see pics , please register or loginRiza is finally getting some of her symbol paint, and I think it's actually working this time. Her "affiliation" cutie mark is obviously going to be the Amestris flag as displayed in hanging banner form, eventually trimmed in gold. Which means I get to try painting the chimera crest. Yay. (Her other cutie mark, of course, will be her tattoo and scars, which is going to be an even wilder ride. Even when I first had this idea I knew it was a terrible one, and yet here we are.) I've got plans for some subtle modification to the flag to make it uniquely hers, but we'll see if it works before I say anything. The final three ponies are all set with their base coats and eye sketches! visitors can't see pics , please register or loginEd and his little brother, giving a perfect illustration of why I went with the Shining Armor body. Ed's beige base coat isn't meant to imitate the human character's skin tone (if it was I'd have gotten a lot closer); it's because his distinctive color scheme is hard to work with. Gold hair and eyes, silver/grey automail, red coat, black clothing. I've seen some very good fanart of Ed as a red pony, but actual red customs never seem to look right unless the detail paint on them is in really aggressive colors, and ultimately I opted for a neutral to tie everything together and keep him from standing out too much among the other ponies. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginHis eye shape was also surprisingly difficult to find references for. Sure, it's plenty visible when he's in motion, but in all the screencaps and official art his bangs are obscuring the outer edges of his eyes. Eventually I put Roy on one side of him and Riza on the other and just tried to sketch out a happy medium between their eye shapes. It seems to be working out. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginEd, on the other hand, has the easiest eye shape to sketch. Next to his picture, you can also see how much the visor band contributes to the likeness. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginI'm still preening over how cleanly I managed to sculpt the tail guard. The paint color isn't totally clear in these pictures; it's much bluer than it looks here. It's also a slightly lower quality of paint than I usually use because the color was just perfect, so he's more textured than the rest of the set. I think it works for him. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginAnd then there's that demure, dove grey princess body. I did promise to say more as we got there, and here we are. It's not really that big a mystery; I already said that she's the most intimidating alchemist in the series and that alicorns are those who have seen the Truth. Which leaves only one option. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginOh yes. Princess Izumi Curtis. Not that she'd ever call herself a princess, of course; she's just an ordinary housewife. But we know better. She's even got the footwear for it. 4/5: Spoiler Hello again; here I am with an update! This one is all sculpting, all the time. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginFirst up, the really simple bit that ended up being the hardest thing. I've already said before that I'm not good at sculpting geometric shapes, and there's no sculpting room between Al's ears anyway, so the ferrule that holds the plume on the top of his helmet involved a lot of trial and error. The ultimate solution? Pack a vaseline-coated drinking straw with Apoxie Sculpt and run a skewer down the middle, then cut it down to size and sand the end at an angle. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginA mockup of how he'll look when the plume is inserted at the very end. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginAl's armor is also getting a tail guard, and there will be a pseudo-tail made of the same plastic lacing as his helmet plume, though I'm still working on the best way to design that. I waffled for a while about a tail, asking myself if a pony suit of armor would really have one already installed and whether or not it was aesthetically necessary to add one, but ultimately I thought about how upset Al is in the series when his plume gets mangled and decided that he'd want one for appearance's sake if nothing else. The scultping on that guard, by the way, really is as seamless as it looks here. Not to the eye -- the apoxie is still more ivory than his body -- but there is no tangible transition between apoxie and plastic when you run your fingers over him. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginEd is getting in on the sculpting game, too, with a pair of wings, which I promised to explain more about when we got here. My logic is that if alchemists are being represented by unicorns, then those who have accessed even higher alchemical knowledge by opening the Portal and seeing the Truth would be alicorns. (Why isn't Al one? Because his shape is determined by the armor, and since he couldn't do circle-less alchemy until he conscously remembered everything he'd seen, he wouldn't have been able to operate a pair of wings, either, because his soul wouldn't register them as part of his "body." Also no way was I sculpting armored wings.) As for why they're folded, there are a couple reasons for that. For one thing, it keeps him looking relatively small, which is an important design element. I'm sorry, Ed, but it's true. More than that, though, it's to do with the taboo surrounding human transmutation. Ed hides his automail because it's a red flag to other alchemists revealing what he's done. (Well. He hides it until there's an opportunity to rip his shirt dramatically during a fight.) Wings would be even harder to explain away, so whenever he can he keeps them folded and tucked under his coat (yes, I have spare red fabric from another project) to avoid attracting notice. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginOne of his wings, stuck on with a piece of tape just to show what he's eventually going to look like. I'm keeping them detached for now so it's one less thing I have to maneuver around while painting him. And as far as sculpting is concerned, this is it. (At least for the boys. I'm not going to leave Riza without her hair clip.) Everything else that makes the Elric brothers physically distinct is going to be accomplished with hair and paint. This is going to be interesting. Next step: Airbrushing for everybody, so much sketching. 3/21 Spoiler As long as I'm taking the in-progress photos anyway, might as well post 'em here, right? My current project is a set of five ponies based on my favorite Fullmetal Alchemist characters. They're something of a departure for me, a "getting back to basics(ish)" set where I'm trading my usual complex sculpting for cutie marks and non-skintone paint jobs. Turning the characters into ponies, instead of turning ponies into the characters. Which is not to say that they're going to be simple; we're still talking about intricate symbol painting and trying to imitate anime hair and eye styles. And automail. And also they're my first G4s. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginHeaven help me. Note: These ponies are all based on the original manga and the Brotherhood anime, and I like to ramble about why I made certain artistic decisions. And also I like to ramble about the series itself. Some of my talk, and possibly even the design choices I've made, is likely to contain spoilers. I figure if you clicked on this thread you've probably already read/seen it all, but might as well warn. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginThe obvious place to start is with Al and Ed, though that's not actually where I started when I began this series. (I was originally just going to do Roy and Riza. You know how these things snowball.) Both unicorns, obviously; as the magic-users of the pony world they're the closest analogue to alchemists. And the title of this thread isn't just a pun; Ed is going to be an alicorn, and his wings will be sculpted. I'll explain both those choices when we get there. Al is getting made out of a Shining Armor base to keep him larger and bulkier than the rest of the ponies, and also a little bit because turning Shining Armor into a literal suit of armor amuses me. I am a smple woman. He's one of the ones where I could really go nuts on the sculpting were I so inclined, but I'm limiting myself to what you see here. A housing for his plume (still in progress), and his visor band, which I consider a vital component of his facial expressions. There may also be a tail guard; I'm still working out what I want to do about that. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginThe other three heads, on a stand my dad made for me. The finished posts are fixed for holding the heads between eye coats or while styling the hair, and the unfinished ones pop out for use while airbrushing. The two in front are Roy and Riza. The one in the back is the only alchemist intimidating enough to merit a princess body. Again, more on that as we come to it. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginRemember what I was saying about imitating the eye styles? visitors can't see pics , please register or loginI think I did a decent job. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginI'm also pretty confident about Riza's eye accuracy, not that it's obvious from the photograph. My photography skills aren't great under the best circumstances, and trying to show off a partially-painted white eye outlined in faint grey on an ivory pony is not the best circumstance. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginRoy is the only one who's gotten any symbol work done on him so far. Another aspect of the "ish" part of the "back to basics(ish)" label is that each pony is going to have two cutie marks, with the right flank being their public affiliation and the left being more personal and individual to the character. Roy's affiliation mark is his State Alchemist's pocketwatch, and once I'm done it will be wreathed in fire for the Flame Alchemist. visitors can't see pics , please register or loginHis left flank is his transmutation circle. It's the first part of any of the ponies to be complete, unless I get a wild hair and decide to try fine-tuning it a bit more. I took a couple liberties in making the flame and the outer circle solid rather than outlines, but other than that it's as accurate as I can get it. Next steps: Sculpt Al's plume housing and Ed's wings, airbrush both. -Tabby the princess with claws
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« on: February 16, 2015, 09:16:06 PM »
The accurate gala dresses on Rarity and Rainbow Dash are pushing my 'want' button pretty hard.
To all those complaining at the lack of non-Mane Six brushables, I will quote the Hasbro rep in the first video linked in the thread: "So that's our core ponies, and we'll be adding more."
-Tabby
the princess with claws
15
« on: January 23, 2015, 12:37:56 AM »
Shining Armor really has a strange set-up inside.
So I've discovered over the last few days of taking him apart. Not too thrilled about having gotten completely inaccurate information.  Fortunately I was never planning a traditional re-tailing for him, so I should be able to work with him as he is without having to break out the power tools. -Tabby the princess with claws
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