Well done, I see lots of good work, a little more balance in one or two spots and you shall have it nailed.  Also might want to think about a little gloss for the dripping sauces, most good chocolate makers when they do it have that nice shine to their chocolate when it hardens.  That would really make them pop even more!  Great jobs and you are very spot on with your color combos.

Thank you kindly for the critique!  I definitely will go higher gloss on the chocolate, the paint didn't behave 100% as expected though I do know how to fix it next time around.  I think I'm getting the hang of things, and only aim to improve further!

Goodness you've been busy! Lots of yummy ponies. I love the way you did the tails. I think your symbol painting looks good and I'd love to see your take on painting eyes as well.

Thank you!  I've got a couple ideas that will involve some very different eye painting, but it might be a while before I get to them.  I'll be coordinating colors though, on future cake/desert ponies!  (I love the Hasbro style of eyes, it's part of the draw for me, so the cake ones will keep that though).

Wait, did I read this right? These are your first customs? They're positively fabulous! I consider myself a creative person, but I never would have thought up this concept! I'm sure you'll have no trouble selling these girls to new homes. They're so delicious I could practically eat them up!

First indeed!  And a ton of fun at that!  Thank you!

To everyone else, thank you thank you thank you!  Your positive responses to this have made my week/month/year!  I'm definitely looking forward to making more, and I love hearing what everyone's favorites are (mine are Chocolate Orange and Crisp Mint... but those are also my favorite desert flavors too!).

The first definitely looks like some kind of stain, possibly a color bleed from something else touching it?

Hm, what have these ponies been cleaned with so far?  I had a couple G3s I thought were suffering from stains but acetone managed to clean them up quite nicely when soap and water and elbow grease (magic eraser) wouldn't do.

I agree with Pokeyonekenobie, open up that seapony if you can and get her cleaned out, the weights in them rust badly over time, and it could be something internal rather than pony cancer (which I don't think it looks like, personally, but I could be wrong).

Oh man I'm so excited to present these ponies!  I thought up this project a couple months ago, and it's gotten me back into MLP in a big way.

First, a little background:

I've seen Deco/Decora/Decoden with ponies in it (not generally something I care for), but never with the Pony as the focus.  I thought some ponies decorated up like little cakes would be wonderful (especially since my partner has just started his career as a baker), and I've been having a lot of fun on this project!  These girls are all sweet and cake themed, each done up like an elegant desert with 'whipped' manes and tails as well as other dollops of creme all decorated thematically.

Eyes are Hasbro original, symbols and other details are painted with acrylic paint, details are hand sculpted in polymer clay or made of glass or plastic beads, the 'whipped topping' is piped silicone caulking and has a little bit of 'squish' to the touch.

I hope folks like these!  This is my first shot into customizing, and now that I've finished, these girls need new homes.  Because they are my first try, there are a few things about them that are less than perfect, with their bait bodies some have a nibble here or there, or a mark that was just too stubborn to come off.  I'm still getting the hang of really neat symbols, and the technique of how I'm making these.  Generally their photos will indicate any flaws but I can provide further detail shots if desired.

I'm thinking of asking $25 for each of these ponies (not including shipping), or I'd be happy to trade for something from my wishlist http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,366833.0.html.  I'm open to any reasonable offer though, if something strikes someone's fancy.  If folks like these, I do intend to do more with different themes too!

Without further ado.

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Chocolate Orange is very fancy with a little twist of zest on her hoof.  She is decorated with chocolate sprinkles and dragees, as well as orange slices and and orange twist.  Her symbol is painted in a sparkling orange and she is finished with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

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Crisp Mint is quite sublime with her little chocolate accents.  She is decorated with chocolate sprinkles and twists, as well as mint leaves.  She is finished with a drizzle of mint sauce.

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Chocolate Cherry Bombe is very flashy with her chocolate and cherry accents.  She is decorated with chocolate chunks, cherries, and a chocolate sauce.  She is finished with a drizzle of red cherry sauce.  Her symbol is a chocolate covered cherry on her DS and a pair of cherries on her NDS.

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Mango Medley is very bold with her many tropical fruit accents.  She is decorated with orange, pineapple, and pomegranate.  She is finished with a drizzle of mango sauce.  Her symbol is a mango with mango slices.

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Bright Berry Medley is a sweet little pony just covered in berries.  She is decorated with strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry.  She is finished with a drizzle raspberry and blueberry sauce.  Her symbol is a triad of berries.

She is also an articulated pony.  Her back legs fold such that she can sit.

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Strawberry Sugar is very elegant with her delicate symbol and cookies.  She is decorated with strawberries and pirouline cookies.  She is finished with a drizzle of strawberry sauce.  Her symbol is cut strawberries with delicately curling vines.

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Dark Chocolate Rosewater and White Chocolate Rosewater are both delicate girls with sweet accents. They are decorated with white and dark chocolate sheets and sprinkles, and both drizzled in chocolate sauce.  Each sister has a white or dark chocolate rose for her symbol.

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Beloved birthday is a delicate little cake themed pony.  She is decorated with crisp biscuits and pastel rainbow sprinkles.  Her symbol is a strawberries and creme birthday cake.

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Sundae Sprinkles lives up to her name with a Neapolitan coloration and tons of rainbow sprinkles.  She is decorated chocolate curls and squares, and many many rainbow sprinkles.  She is finished with drizzles of vanilla and chocolate icing.

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Pomegranate Punch is a bold pony with her dark chocolate and bright red pomegranate accents.  She is decorated shiny pomegranate seeds and dark chocolate drizzles.  Her symbol is a cut pomegranate on her DS and a whole pomegranate on her NDS.  Her hooves are chocolate dipped.

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Whipple White Chocolate Blueberry is named after the brand of faux whipped cream used in many decoden projects.  She is blueberries and white chocolate chunks.  She is finished with a drizzle of blueberry sauce.  Her symbols are shimmery blueberries.

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Strawberry Lemon-aid Chiffon is an elegant pony.  She is decorated lemon and strawberry slices and an extra twist of lemon zest.  Her symbol is a glass of fizzy pink lemon-aid finished with a slice of lemon.

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Mother Blueberry Bright and Daughter Blueberry Creme are both merrily decorated with bright blue blueberries.  Both have Blueberry and sugar pearl decorations, and are finished with a drizzle of blueberry sauce.  Both have symbols of many blueberries.

This is all just personal from my own experiences and uses.  While I have used the airbrush for professional projects, my experiences aren't all-encompassing and others will give different advice.  Admittedly, anymore I primarily use a detail gun which is a little bit different tool.

But from what I've done (which isn't pony related - it's various art projects, usually theater related), I recommend water based acrylic for the airbrush, particularly ones that are already thinned for airbrush use if you're just starting.  Once you've gained confidence in that, working with water thinned acrylic is what I've found I like best, in that it keeps the gun easy to clean.  Generally the consistency of milk (2% milk to be spesific) is about right for spraying.  I've used acrylic for painting plastic, wood, cloth, paper, and some other odds and ends all to good effect.  It does, of course, need to be sealed if it's on something where it may crack, chip, or peel.

If you do need to use oil-based paints (such as for model building), I... have no particular advice as I've not used things in that capacity.  I highly recommend looking up information from someone who does though.

The biggest thing I find is keeping the gun clean, and also not getting to close when painting.  Adjust your paint stream accordingly rather than trying to get too close for details is the way to go, or you run the risk of gumming up or breaking the needle.

Don't over-apply paint in one go, use layered coats if necessary for good, clean, coverage.  Too much paint and it will run, speckle, bubble, or craze (unless you're looking for those effects).

Again, clean clean CLEAN is the big thing, take everything apart when you're done with that round of spraying for the moment (don't wait until you're done with the project, even if you're taking a long break get things clean before heading off, those caps don't keep things moist very well) and wash everything very thoroughly.  Run water through the gun until it's clean, then run it till it's dry.  It will often take more than one pass of water to get it clean.  You can change paint colors without the fuss, just remember to spray until the new color comes out clean. 

Almost all the problems I've ever had have come from a dirty needle or even just a little paint dried in the works.  Because the paint is so thin it dries very easily, and the gun isn't a perfectly enclosed system, it's impossible to cover in a way that will keep the paint wet for a long stretch when not working.

Oh man there is a ton of information out there on how to do this!  It's certainly very possible and so far as I know before dollyhair.com and other vendors were so common donor ponies were the preferred method for re-hairing a pony, as doll hair quality varies, and at one point it was much harder to find nylon hair of the same quality used by Hasbro.

The metal clamp on an MLP tail can be removed with pliers, there's information on it here: http://www.aikarin.com/mlp/customs/rerooting.html Ideally you need to be working with a non-rusty tail, or a tail where the rust is very minor and can be washed out.  Just be careful, it can be fiddly to remove.  I know some customizes even when restoring prefer to remove them anyway and replace them with plastic zip-ties to prevent future tail rust.  Others might have more spesific advice.

Hot water will absolutely not harm the nylon that real MLP hair is made out of (assuming we're talking the normal kinds of hair, this does exclude perfume puff hair and sun-changing hair which has a different quality).  Bring water to a boil, remove it from the heat, then pour it over the hair, combing it, allowing it to dty straight, and repeating as necessary until it reaches the desired straightness.  There's GREAT information here on pony hair restoration, including hair straightening: http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/hair.html  (The whole site is worth a browse if you're into restoration, and has a lot of answers to your questions).  Hot water does not affect styling the hair as all it is essentially doing is softening the fibers and causing them to relax.  I am assuming the donor ponies have good quality tails to donate, as sometimes when the fibers have become repeatedly tangled, snarled, stretched, and frizzy, getting them back straight can be a real chore.

Once you have the old tail prepped, all it will take is re-hairing as normal.

Edited to add:  You probably won't need to worry about getting that 'crimp' in the tail perfectly straight either, as that should be where you'll be tying the knot for your hair weft for the mane.  The tail length you're working with will be far longer than the mane you need.  In fact, it should give you a good guide to tie your weft!

Quote from: LadyPinwheel on March 03, 2015, 04:54:23 PM

Quote from: UrocyonFox on March 03, 2015, 06:10:18 AM

Quote from: Watercolors on March 01, 2015, 08:58:17 AM

anybody know anything about these cute flocked fakies? http://lotsoftinythings.tumblr.com/post/109416781186/i-found-these-ponies-online-and-im-genuinely-kind
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I really want these. D: If anyone finds out any info on them let us know!

They can be purchased here:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/8pcs-lot-Germany-genuine-5-7cm-flocking-Filly-Princess-little-ponies-Rainbow-Horses-Classic-Collection/1500272_32273489016.html

Well if someone finds a place to order more of these please let me know I really wan them!

The ordering has been going down and up every few days.  I'd give it a little and try again, when I ordered mine it was after about a week of 'this item is no longer available' (they just shipped too).

I really like her, but she's low on the wishlist right now.