WIP G4 Firefly : some issues

[biologistkid]

Recently I scored a Diamond Rose at my workplace and brought her home along with a bucket and some RIT dye (fuchsia), hoping to make a Firefly custom G4. I scrubbed her eyes and cutie mark with acetone, gave the body a quick acetone rubdown to get anything I'd missed, scrubbed her with dishsoap and water to clean her off - dried her off, and let her sit for a few hours to finish drying completely...

And began the dye process.
And here is where everything went terribly, terribly wrong.

Even with the dye water at boiling (I used approx 2 cups of water; she wouldn't submerge under just one cup) the plastic simply wasn't taking the dye (I had used about half of a tablespoon to begin with).

So I poured a little more dye into the water and stirred like crazy to make sure everything dissolved evenly... Still no results, after about 15 minutes, so I took her out and rinsed her off to see if I even had a twinge of pink.

Nope.

I brought the dyewater back to boiling, mixed in the remainder of the dye packet, dried off Diamond Rose and put her back in.

40 minutes later... not much. I'd lift her out every ten minutes or so to check on her, and she was splotchy and streaky, which made me pretty concerned. So I poured the dye-water out into the bath, rinsed everything out, and then rinsed Diamond Rose.

In the thirty seconds or so my bathtub was exposed to the dye, it took better than poor DR!

After rinsing her off, DR was quite nearly the same colour of white she had been when I first took her out of the package, except for a strange yellow cast over her rear legs.

I got lucky and it turned out I have pink acrylic paint the exact shade of Firefly, and after she was dried off, I watered that down and started giving her a repaint. But of course, it's always a trial...

Her face came out very smooth and probably only needs another coat to cover up things like her cheeks (where I held on to turn her head), but her body is another story. The paint went onto her wings very smoothly and neatly, but on her legs and body there are visible streaks from the brush texture. When she's dry I'll try using a different kind of brush to cover that up but it is a little frustrating since my paint amount is very limited.

Has anybody else had such horrid luck with G4s? I heard that G4 Rarity could be a nightmare at times to get to take to the RIT dye; I wonder if there is some sort of sealant on the white G4 brushables that simply doesn't take to dye?

If she doesn't turn out too well I am not terribly concerned; she is my first custom, afterall, and you have to start somewhere. I guess I just hadn't expected so many problems with the setup.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

from what I've been reading around the arena, G4s either can't be dyed or are extremely hard to dye... I've also heard that the head and body don't dye the same. one part takes dye and the other part doesn't. I've never tried dying a pony at all though since I prefer FBRs, it's cheaper for me and way less work

[jupiternwndrlnd]

i found out the hard way that G4s don't take dye well. I finally got the pony to take dye, but the head gets much darker (different plastics)
I have also been told that the dye fades very fast, so in a few months the color will have changed.

with G4s your best bet is a repaint :/

[biologistkid]

I'm just surprised that she didn't take at all. I've seen lots of pictures of ponies that people had tried to dye colours such as black or blue that ended up only turning a few shades darker, but I haven't seen ponies that didn't take to the dye at all.

Even the head didn't take to the dye, which I would have expected if the heads turn out darker than the bodies.

So far the repaint is going okay, except for the weird texture issues, although that is likely more my brushset than my pony.

[NoDivision]

i found out the hard way that G4s don't take dye well. I finally got the pony to take dye, but the head gets much darker (different plastics)
I have also been told that the dye fades very fast, so in a few months the color will have changed.

with G4s your best bet is a repaint :/

Yup. A lot of the dyed G4s, if you can get them to dye at all, turn greyish and gross after a while.

Sorry you spent so much effort and a whole pack of dye on her D: Next time you're undertaking a new project feel free to ask around here or look at other threads for tips and suggestions - that way we might have been able to spare you the frustration

[biologistkid]

I did look a lot before I started, though; of the threads I had seen, either people weren't sure of how successful it would be or they had gotten it to go a few shades darker without a total redye.

I wasn't looking for the 100% saturated fuchsia, so if I had gotten the 'incomplete dye take' as most people had experienced, that was the exact result I was looking for.

But ah, well. The dye was about $2 for the box, and the food I buy during work costs more than that; so I'm really not worried about any financial loss. I guess now I know for the future!

[NoDivision]

that's the spirit ^_^ Customizing is all about the learning processs!

[Sarahlacewing]

Yea all my attempts to dye G4 have been pretty bad.  I will say the blind bags took the dye better than the rest but uneven (seams didn't take any).  Sorry you had so much trouble but I'm sure your repaint will be great! I sometimes use makeup sponges if I need a nice thin layer to avoid the brush stroke situation.  Or I will thin out the paint a bit to get several really fine coats.  It's the curves that get me every time so I understand your pain.  Those G4 are small, delicate, and hard to work with.  But bless them they look so nice when they are done.