The MLP Arena
Creativity => Customs => Topic started by: BlackCurtains on April 18, 2021, 12:58:58 PM
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As far as prepping one, I mean. I had quite the adventure with a G3 bait today. First off, she has a turning head and those are tough to take out. For some reason these ponies seem to have harder plastic than other G3s. I try not the cut the neck ring, so I grabbed her head and started pulling. And pulling, and pulling, and pulling... and it just wouldn't pop out! My hands were red and hurting from where her ears were digging in. I had to set her down a few times but finally her head popped off.
Good news, yes? No. I took a look inside her head and all I saw was glue. There was so much glue I could barely see any hair!
I tossed her into a pot and boiled her for a bit (I probably should have done the same to get the head off) thinking it would soften the glue. It didn't work very well. For one, my needle nose pliers were too thick to turn inside the head (the turning head G3s also have a smaller neck hole) and I just couldn't get a hold of much. I do have curved forceps but they're cheap and hard to use. I wasn't getting anywhere. So I decided to pour pure acetone inside the head and melt the glue that way. It worked! But I still had trouble using my pliers.
I dug around in my clay tools and grabbed a hook needle. FINALLY! With the glue softened up by the acetone I was able to pull it out using the hook. It came out in one long piece which was very satisfying :P
It took probably 4 hours total to get her prepped and cleaned. There were times I thought about giving up but she has a perfect pose for what I want.
Does anyone have stories about a pony that fought back? Have you ever given up on a bait?
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I had a G4 recently that was extremely tough to get all the mane out of! I hear you on the difficulties of tiny neck holes and large amounts of glue. I also ended up using acetone after giving up on boiling water, and when the chunks loosened they were so big it took forever to get them out the tiny neck hole. I was fed up, that's for sure! But eventually I got her all prepped :cool:
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I had a boy bait that had brown spots. I prepped, dried and painted him but later realised that the paint peels off the brown spots and I couldn't get it to adhere. It was a blue pony so it looks pretty bad. Because he's a boy and I consider him a bit special, I considered re-hairing him and making him some ponywear, but I haven't got a around to it.
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Yep. I have a G3 Wondermint that has a chopped off tail and mohawk...I was hoping to rehair her but no matter what I do I cannot get her head off. I even tried boiling her, but it won't budge, not even a little bit. I don't really know what to do with her now.
These probably don't count, but I also have a couple of experimental sacrificial lambs that I have specifically for trying dye experiments.
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Oh yeah, I've had experimental ponies too. SunnyDaze was my main one for a long time. Poor girl had everything done to her.
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I'm just about to give up on a baity Mexican Baby North Star. Sunfading didn't really help her. Her dye job is starting to fade (had her soaking in fuschia, it did help her overall body discolorations to even out initially). I don't want to fbr her, so I'll continue to wait to see how the fade turns out for another few months.
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Yep. I have a G3 Wondermint that has a chopped off tail and mohawk...I was hoping to rehair her but no matter what I do I cannot get her head off. I even tried boiling her, but it won't budge, not even a little bit. I don't really know what to do with her now.
Maybe a sculpted-hair custom? I haven't done one of those but in your situation I would certainly be tempted....
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Yep. I have a G3 Wondermint that has a chopped off tail and mohawk...I was hoping to rehair her but no matter what I do I cannot get her head off. I even tried boiling her, but it won't budge, not even a little bit. I don't really know what to do with her now.
Maybe a sculpted-hair custom? I haven't done one of those but in your situation I would certainly be tempted....
Perhaps...by all reasonable logic my sculpting skills should not be too abysmal; I used to make human teeth for a living...I've not tried pony hair yet though! With her pose, I think she would make a cute carousel horse, and the sculpted look could work on her. Maybe you've given me hope for her, yet!
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G3 heads are tough but I've not found one I can't best. You can't just boil and yank, you need to use an exacto knife to slice along the seam.
I've certainly given up on some ponies I feel I can't fix. Not fun. I keep them, though.
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I was born to destroy, there is no bait that can resist me. I use large electrician's tweezers to remove the hair and always boil my ponies to make the process easier. Some ponies are complicated like moving g2s and first tooth g1 babies. In them I make an incision that helps me remove the hair from there, and once I finish I glue it
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Ambar, I love that. "I was born to destroy." :lmao: You're killing me! And the baits, I guess. XD
I don't always give up, but sometimes I'll give up on a bait for the project I originally had in mind. Like, oh, this pony is WAY more stained and damaged than I expected; she'll hop into a black dye bath to cover those flaws, and I'll use a different pony for this project, and I'll find another custom idea to use for her! My motto for customs is Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
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Ambar, I love that. "I was born to destroy." :lmao: You're killing me! And the baits, I guess. XD
I don't always give up, but sometimes I'll give up on a bait for the project I originally had in mind. Like, oh, this pony is WAY more stained and damaged than I expected; she'll hop into a black dye bath to cover those flaws, and I'll use a different pony for this project, and I'll find another custom idea to use for her! My motto for customs is Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
Have you ever tried Rit dye on ponies with plastic breakdown? How does it go? I've found painting over brown spots looks OK for a few months but then the spots appear through the paint.
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Ambar, I love that. "I was born to destroy." :lmao: You're killing me! And the baits, I guess. XD
I don't always give up, but sometimes I'll give up on a bait for the project I originally had in mind. Like, oh, this pony is WAY more stained and damaged than I expected; she'll hop into a black dye bath to cover those flaws, and I'll use a different pony for this project, and I'll find another custom idea to use for her! My motto for customs is Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
Have you ever tried Rit dye on ponies with plastic breakdown? How does it go? I've found painting over brown spots looks OK for a few months but then the spots appear through the paint.
Yikes, that doesn't sound good! I've used some spotted ponies in my customs before and my current WIP is a Gingerbread with a lot of age spots. I do hope my older customs are fine...! I never even thought this could be an issue. :wow: Do you have any pics of your pony, Artemesia's Garden? I'm intrigued. How did you prep the bait and did you use a primer and/or sealant or just acrylic paint?
And please, if anyone has a custom made by me that develops any sort of issues over time I'd love to hear about it!
I don't think I've ever given up on a bait. Some are stubborn for sure, but I've always managed to remove the heads and the hair, even if the process sometimes involves blood, sweat and tears. :lol: Those core pose G3 ponies with turning heads are pretty awful. Luckily the ones I've customised have come to me already prepped. But today I struggled putting the head back on after rehairing one. :D I usually carve the plug to make this easier yet this one was really, really tough. But I did it! :cheer:
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I wonder in situations where the spots appear, if sealing the pony first and then painting and sealing again would help?
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Ambar, I love that. "I was born to destroy." :lmao: You're killing me! And the baits, I guess. XD
I don't always give up, but sometimes I'll give up on a bait for the project I originally had in mind. Like, oh, this pony is WAY more stained and damaged than I expected; she'll hop into a black dye bath to cover those flaws, and I'll use a different pony for this project, and I'll find another custom idea to use for her! My motto for customs is Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
Have you ever tried Rit dye on ponies with plastic breakdown? How does it go? I've found painting over brown spots looks OK for a few months but then the spots appear through the paint.
Now, I'm curious what you mean by plastic breakdown - you mean like the brown dots, right? Or are we talking about regrind, the hot pink spots? I think both are plastic breakdown, but generally when I say plastic breakdown I mean the brown ones... but I realize they are both a kind of breakdown! :lmao: (I haven't dyed any ponies yet with hot pink breakdown spots, for the record!)
I have dyed a couple of ponies with the brown dots, and during/immediately after the boiling, those spots turn light (or even white), and seem to fade... but they always return after a couple of days. Dying, at least if it's a very dark color, won't cover them, but it helps to disguise them a little bit. Brown spots on a light blue pony really pop, but brown spots on a dark blue or black are harder to see. :) I'm curious to hear about your experiences with painting over them! I painted over a series of brown dots on a pony, and as of now they haven't leeched through ... however, she was a very colorful pony, and I haven't examined her closely since she was finished. I will check her soon and update here!
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I've never given up on a bait entirely, but I have sweated, cursed, cramped, and cut myself trying to get those necks and hair loose.
What has helped a bit is to always, just always, boil the pony before starting to do anything to it. Don't wait to find out if you need to. Just do it.
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I had a g3 that was refusing beheading. She had already been given a buzz cut and boiling takes supervision. Into the dishwasher!! And still needed the x acto knife to separate things. I'm a bit leery of rehairing her as I expect to bend a lot of needles. Bratty girl!