the G4 snow globe pony tutorial is here!

[Karma]

You asked for it (twice, actually) and I finally got around to doing the first half so here we go~

Spoiler

For this, I use:
a hot knife
a dremel
cardboard or something to put my bits against when they get covered in plastic
ponies
boiling water
resin or apoxie
a watertight glue
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First we start the way we do with all g4's, boiling them and taking their heads off. In my case I'm rehairing Celestia so she gets a haircut too.

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 the winged snow globe ponies need a little additional boiling to get the glue on their wings to loosen so you can take them out. The tail will come with them.

After that, I took a hot knife to get the wing attachments out. There's a hard plastic rod holding them in along with glue, so you have to cut along both sides to the top of the attachment.

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 Celestia's wings are similar. they have two shelves that keep them in. Cutting along the opening where that shelf is will free them.

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 We now have headless, wingless glitter ponies!

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 Celestia gets to have two holes drilled into her. one is in her neck and is where I put in and take out the water. You have to be careful if you plan on having a head that moves. The entire plug will melt and often come off. you can combat this by taking breaks every few seconds or if you have an attachment that allows it, drill it in water, like you would a precious stone. On that note, be careful when playing with these ponies in general and molten plastic is hot and often what you get when making holes.

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 the second hole is in her front hooves. This is to get the glitter out and in. For the snow globe wings I make one hole in each wing that looks a lot like this one.

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 after you get the glitter and not really water out, this is what we're left with. From here, personalizing is a lot like other ponies, except that Celestia's body will react badly to acetone. If you can put it only on the cutie mark, and only sparingly. Or, just paint over it.

I haven't taken photos of the finishing process but I'll try to explain it to the best I can. Celestia will get new wings out of a mold of my own which will be sealed in with resin. On Tinkerbelle I got the tail out by cutting away the barrier between the wings and the rump, I don't suggest that. Everything I was trying to seal in ran down her tail until I noticed and plugged it with some silicone. This time I made the tail hole bigger.
Next plug the neck hole with your finger, put the glitter in along with a table spoon and a half of glycerin (more or less, it doesn't so much matter) a long with some water. Make sure all of this ends up in her back hooves or as close as you can get it.
The next part is sealing her hooves, you can use apoxie if you don't need the translucency. If you do, you can make a mold for resin out of pretty much anything. I have monster clay, but you could use duct tape or another clay so long as you put  wax paper at the bottom.
Once everything is sealed, fill up the rest of the pony using the neck hole and a lot of patience. the neck hole is small so it takes a while for water to get in. You can try to add more glycerin here, but I don't suggest it, since it has a higher viscosity.
last, use something to plug the hole. If it's apoxie just stick it in, or if you can find something clear (I use clear silicone) to plug the hole and then put e6000 on top of it. I suppose you could also use a low temp hot glue gun.


For the wings, it's a little easier. Put glycerin, water, and a plug in. glue it shut, then reglue it to it's holders. In my case, I'm actually putting lights and feathers in instead of water so I just need to make a channel for the cords in the holder and glue them back together.

[aintnobuffalo]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I'm sure I would have wrecked a few ponies trying to figure this out. I'm excited for the second half!

Is Celestia's body the only one that reacts badly to acetone? Did you find you just had to remove her mark a little at a time?

[Karma]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I'm sure I would have wrecked a few ponies trying to figure this out. I'm excited for the second half!

Is Celestia's body the only one that reacts badly to acetone? Did you find you just had to remove her mark a little at a time?

So any of the snowglobe ponies that have the water in their body and the wings of the ones with the glitter in the wings react poorly to acetone. they're made out of a different plastic, like Monster High dolls bodies. It sort of melts them. But if you take it of slowly, you hopefully won't get to the melting point.

[Wardah]

Thanks for posting this I have a bunch of questions!

With the snowglobe body ponies could you put the bottom hole on the back feet?

For sealing the wings would any kind of waterproof sealer work and how visible would it be?

Would anything like this be possible (but with just the liquid and not the butterflies)
http://www.officeplayground.com/mobile/GetImage.ashx?Path=~%2fAssets%2fProductImages%2fpi4200-4399%2f4317_LiquidButterflyPaperweightMini_1.jpg

I wonder if the snowglobe wings could be used on a snowglobe Princess for an ultimate snowglobe pony

[pyrodarknessanny]

Thanks for posting this I have a bunch of questions!

With the snowglobe body ponies could you put the bottom hole on the back feet?

For sealing the wings would any kind of waterproof sealer work and how visible would it be?

Would anything like this be possible (but with just the liquid and not the butterflies)
http://www.officeplayground.com/mobile/GetImage.ashx?Path=~%2fAssets%2fProductImages%2fpi4200-4399%2f4317_LiquidButterflyPaperweightMini_1.jpg

I wonder if the snowglobe wings could be used on a snowglobe Princess for an ultimate snowglobe pony

the blue stuff i THINK is kerosene ,  it should be possible  to do  but   be carefull i guess

[Wardah]

Thanks for posting this I have a bunch of questions!

With the snowglobe body ponies could you put the bottom hole on the back feet?

For sealing the wings would any kind of waterproof sealer work and how visible would it be?

Would anything like this be possible (but with just the liquid and not the butterflies)
http://www.officeplayground.com/mobile/GetImage.ashx?Path=~%2fAssets%2fProductImages%2fpi4200-4399%2f4317_LiquidButterflyPaperweightMini_1.jpg

I wonder if the snowglobe wings could be used on a snowglobe Princess for an ultimate snowglobe pony

the blue stuff i THINK is kerosene ,  it should be possible  to do  but   be carefull i guess

I remember making bottles that did the same thing at school so I looked those up and the blue is water and the clear is baby oil or mineral oil. Still wondering about the other 3 questions tho.

[Karma]

Thanks for posting this I have a bunch of questions!

With the snowglobe body ponies could you put the bottom hole on the back feet?

For sealing the wings would any kind of waterproof sealer work and how visible would it be?

Would anything like this be possible (but with just the liquid and not the butterflies)
http://www.officeplayground.com/mobile/GetImage.ashx?Path=~%2fAssets%2fProductImages%2fpi4200-4399%2f4317_LiquidButterflyPaperweightMini_1.jpg

I wonder if the snowglobe wings could be used on a snowglobe Princess for an ultimate snowglobe pony

I believe you  could, so long as when your sealing it you can rock the glitter to the other feet.
So, I use E6000 a lot and it's pretty much clear. the sealer will also be right next to the wing holder thingys which are sort of visible, so it shouldn't show up too much.
I've wanted to do that a lot to so long as you find the right consistency of oil and put it in prior to sealing it, it should work. It wont be as dramatic as either of us would want it to be though. The caveat is that if you don't want your pony to have a moving head, you could make the neck hole bigger which theoretically could then accept oil.
hmm let me check.... okay, so the princess snowglobes have a bar in between the two shelve holders. Take that out and the snowglobe wing holder looks like it can fit.

[Chrissytree]

Thank you Excellent tutorial. I made one for pony con (a commission for a friend who saw the Elsa custom) and had to work it all out for myself - although I actually managed to do it pretty much the same as you!
I broke the head plug off (first G4 I've done so didn't know what I was doing) and I drilled with a pin vice through the neck and a regular drill through the back foot. I kept the liquid from inside but added some glycerine to fill it right up.
I had a little syringe to refill her; I sealed the neck with a glue gun and used a needle to attach the head plug back on. Then refilled through the foot. I used glue gun to make a plug below the surface and milliput to create a water tight seal and level out her foot - once the pattern on the hoof is painted you can't see it.
I tried using a glue gun for sealing the foot hole - and it filled the hole fine but it leaked around the edges just a touch, hence the milliput.
I also found it useful to drill into the tail hole to get the metal crimp out and sewed the tail instead of using cable ties and secured it with clear glue.
I resorted to scraping the symbol off with the back of a scalpel when the plastic started to go cloudy.

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[Diamond]

Very pretty, if this plastic is similar to monster high, I suggest using non-acetone nail polish remover to remove symbols, it is what most folks who work on MH use to avoid melting. 

[Saja]

Great work, I cant wait to try this