The MLP Arena
Creativity => Customs => Topic started by: Nienor on June 20, 2022, 04:52:01 PM
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I really like Mimic and always wanted her in my collection, but the prices on eBay are beyond what I can afford, so here is my custom Mimic :biggrin:.
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As promised on a previous post, I am going to share my experience (especially regarding picking the correct colour) in the hope to help others to make their own custom Mimic!
I used Rit all purpose Dye (they are suitable for plastic), in neon yellow and neon green. I had to experiment a bit with the colour. At first, I mixed some green and yellow in boiling water and tested it on a blank pony, but I think I boiled it for too long and it came out in a very saturated green (almost khaki). I then adjusted the colour so it has more yellow and just a hint of green (I suggest you start with yellow and then add a tad of green and keep adding green until you feel it is the right colour) and tested the colour on kitchen roll to see if I need to add a bit more green (I was very careful though to not add too much this time). Once I was happy with the colour, I threw a new blank pony in the boiling water and was checking its colour every few minutes to make sure it won't turn khaki again. When I thought it had the colour I wanted, I washed it and let it dry.
The next step was to paint the parrot (you probably want to do that before adding the hair, as otherwise it can be messy). That was the trickiest part. I printed the negative layout of each colour of the cutie mark on a paper, transferred each negative on a stencil (so the layout of each colour was on two separate stencils) and cut it with an exacto knife. I drew a reference mark on the pony with a pencil, and matched it to a similar reference mark I drew on the stencils (something like a cross should be ok), taped each stencil separately on the pony (as best as I could as it wasn't very flexible), and painted each colour with a fine brush. The result could have been better, but considering the limited resources I had (and the fact that I am not a pro ^^;, I am quite satisfied with it.
After that, I just added the hair and then the eyes (you may want to do the eyes first, so the hair does not get in your way, but I personally did not find that an issue). I bought some rhinestones online (you can send me a message if you want details) and putty for the eyes. I had to cut the eye carefully with an exacto knife, then placed the rhinestone in the whole and added the putty from the inside of the head (as someone else has suggested before in the forum). I let it dry and that was it, I had my Mimic! :yippee:
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Moving over to the customs forum for you, thanks!! - Tailrustedtealeaf
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Wow! This custom looks great!! Great job on the cutie mark, especially. Does that website you got the eyes from do other colors? I'd love a PM! Working on a custom myself that needs twinkle eyes.
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Wow, she's gorgeous!! Great job on the dye work, I love working with dye too, and getting that perfect Mimic shade seems so hard! :yikes: She's fabulous!! Wonderful job!
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You did so well!!!
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Thanks guys :)
Post Merge: June 21, 2022, 05:56:54 AM
Marshie, I will have a look later today and send you a PM with the details :)
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You did a really good job
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She looks great! Awesome job on the symbol :D
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She looks amazing! Great job on the symbol!
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Thanks! :biggrin:
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Great job on her! Especially awesome work on the symbol! I've been trying to figure out how best to do that on the Mimic I've been working on...I was figuring on trying to free-hand it, but I'm sure that will take 8 million attempts before I get it right!
I couldn't get the neon RIT dye to take on my HQG1C blank. I boiled her for about an hour total, and I think I used half the bottle of the neon yellow and a little bit of the neon green. She eventually came out about the color of G1 Minty. I've been sunfading her to get the blue tints out of her for months. I think I need to do a quick dip in some standard yellow dye to get her shade right.
Thanks for sharing her and your process to make her! Maybe it will motivate me to finish mine. :lol:
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She eventually came out about the color of G1 Minty.
Yeah, I had the same experience and it was very frustrating, as I almost wasted a blank pony (I ended up dying her dark blue and creating another custom :) ). I think the key is to check the colour regularly while you dye, but adding some standard yellow sounds a good approach!
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Way to go, just make your own! The symbol looks PERFECT, wow :dropjaw: Your stencil strategy really paid off.
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Wonderful job! The green colour is spot on and the symbol looks great!
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Very nice, well done :)
Love pkw xxx
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Thanks :heart:
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Wow, she's spot on! Great job!