Purpleglasses, i went down the same exact electroplating rabbit hole after reading this thread the other night! i watched the same youtube video and everything

i was wondering the same thing about the material used for the oil-slick sheen (as opposed to metallic coatings) and i'm delighted you came away from the search with such promising results!!

i am genuinely curious to know if it would be worth reaching out to someone who does this kind of work professionally (or as a hobby) to see if they could give us more definitive answers i'll admit i'm personally a little desperate for The Twinkle Eye Solution™, but i think it would be awesome if we could find & pay someone to produce electroformed samples on craft gems or something, if only to see if we're on the right track!

if you find out more about any of this, please keep me posted! :^)

in the meantime, i've done a little experimenting (and a lot of researching) to see if there's any kind of easy, at-home solution but (predictably) i've come up short every time. these are my not-so-scientific findings:

• i've used some iridescent mica powder for nail art and resins suspended in clear enamel paint to little success. using the powder on its own produces a thick, metallic layer, and thinning it out scatters the glitter particles. i'll continue experimenting with different applications, though!
• special effect paints like Folk Art's Color Shift and Dragonfly Glaze are very pretty, but don't appear capable of reproducing the proper effect; as far as i can tell from pictures, the former seems to have an opaque(?) base color with a duochrome shift, while the latter has a clear base with a kind of holofoil texture.
• most powders & pigments i've seen (short of industrial grade ones used for car paint) do not seem to "flip" through the correct amount & spectrum of colors to adequately replicate the TE coating. most only shift between two-three hues, and tend to have a texture to them, whereas the TE shine is closer to a full-spectrum, iridescent, oil-slick sheen.
• HOWEVER: i've repeatedly seen Chameleon Nano Flakes mentioned. it's a kind of mix-in light scattering pigment containing a titanium compound. i've only seen a single photo of this having actually been applied (not to a TE or anything similar) but honestly, it looks pretty promising. i don't think it will be a dead-on match, and they aren't easy to get in the US, but it'd be cheaper than investing in an electroplating kit i'm going to try ordering them soon! if anyone else is interested in trying these out, just know that they are pretty heavy duty and it is recommended that you wear some gloves, a mask and protective eyewear while working with them.
• i've seen others warned away from nail polishes and varnishes as using them risks damaging the plastic. nail polish in particular has been cited as getting gunky over time, in addition to attracting dust and being difficult to clean/remove. i'd love to know if there is a pony-plastic-safe gloss varnish out there, though!

i'm also very interested in what using an airbrush could bring to the table. i admittedly know next to nothing about them and would be delighted to see the results!

with all of that said, some of these methods produce really pretty results regardless of "accuracy", and i'd love to see what others have tried! feel free to chime in if my assessment/application of these materials is off in any way, haha. i am NOT an expert, and i'm eager to learn more!

good luck, everyone!

hi everyone! i haven't been collecting long, but i've been curious about this since i started and i thought some people here might have some insights.

essentially, i'm wondering what ponies with fresh "factory curls" look like, straight out of the box/card.

all of the ponies i've seen advertised as having factory curls have had loose, untamed, and incredibly frizzy manes & tails. i think the curls themselves are really beautiful, but i find it hard to imagine what they were actually intended to look like way back in the day!

i have a few ponies whose curls i would love to restore, but i've noticed that most curl tutorials are for achieving neat, tight ringlets. is this close to what curly ponies originally had, or is it just the preferred style? it's hard for me to tell what style they have going on in the MOC/MIB pictures i've seen, but to me the manes kind of look like one big poofy curl that loosens and separates over time?!

does anyone have photos or recollections of what brand new curly pony manes/tails look like? and is there a method of replicating the style?

i apologize if this has been answered somewhere, or if i've worded things unclearly. this has been bugging me for a while, and google hasn't been helpful, so thanks in advance! :^)

howdy, everyone! 

it's been a long, long time since i've used a forum like this, so please bear with me!

my name's Bent, i'm 24 and i love anything cowboy/horse related! (Tex is my favorite pony )
so far, i only have G1 ponies but i'd love to eventually get my hands on a few G2s!

even though i grew up playing with MLP toys, i'm a very new collector. i only just started buying ponies as recently as last month, but i've been observing the G1 pony collecting scene from a distance for a while before finally dipping my toes in. needless to say, i'm hooked!! :^)

although i haven't done anything too advanced yet, i have a real love of restoration and am excited to learn more about it from you folks!

thank you so much for letting me join!