Custom Train Wrecks

[Bergamot]

When I first discovered the Friendship is Magic series (and, subsequently, Ditzy Doo Hooves), I decided that I needed a Ditzy Doo of my very own.

To make this happen, I went to Walmart and purchased a G4 Fluttershy. I figured I'd find some blond doll hair at the craft store. I really wanted to try this project out, and didn't have the patience to wait for hair purchased online. That's where my troubles began.

The craft store did not have blond doll hair, nope. They had red doll hair and white doll hair. I bought some white doll hair, thinking that maybe I could color and de-curl it. I also figured, "Hey, maybe this spray paint won't cause weird chemical reactions with this plastic."

From a sea of wrongness emerged this creature. This beautiful, pitiful creature:

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Does anybody else have any custom wreck stories to share? Hopefully it's not too painful a chord to strike! This terrible little thing has actually kind of grown on me. I call her "Apocalypse Ditzy Doo."

EDIT:
The Grey Pegasus word filter broke the image link, d'oh! Fixed!

[deeleelambbaa]

oh my god, how sad!! It's poor face but hey, other than that, I've seen plenty of hair that's styled that way, and it looks cool 
but it's growing on me too as I see it...
I don't have pictures of it (I was afraid it would break my camera OOOH burn! lol jk), but it's quite saddening, and I hide it when people are looking at my customs...
I tried to make a teddy bear, which would have sculpted ears, lil lump o' a tail, and no hair so I had to sculpt over the plugs so they didn't show...
well, this is when I discovered that my sculpting material is HORRIBLE... all of the sculpting shrunk a lot when it dried to the ears had a big gap between the head and the ears, the tail wobbled (teddies don't wag their tails!! ) and worst of all, the sculpting over the plugs pealed up on the edges so the teddy looked sickly... horrible...and since I still haven't gotten new sculpting material, it hasn't been fixed yet

[Bergamot]

Oh noo! Poor Teddy! Sculpting materials are tricky business. What did you use? I've had a little experience with epoxy putty, and it seems to work alright.

The inside of Apocalypse Pony's head is kind of funny-- I forced waayy too much hair through, so it's got a whole mess of tangled hair up inside, and some seriously reamed out plugs.

[Kitkumi]

I have a story like this. Meet the pony I dubbed as "The Infected", lol.

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She would be the first custom I did. I thought much the same thing about spray paint at the time, "Oh this is the perfect color and would go soooooo much faster than using a paintbrush!". I sealed the body a few times before I painted her, sealed her with a spray-type sealer, and then haired her. Then filled her head with a random brand of glue and put the neck plug back in right after I put the glue in. And that is where everything caught up to me.

The glue actually ate away the neck plug, shown on the right:
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The eaten plastic let off a chemical reaction inside the head that started to push up through the head plastic, causing a reaction with all the sealer and the the spray paint, which caused the bubbles.

And they didn't stop 

The picture was on day one. I wish I had taken a picture a week later because at that point the entire head was just a mass of bubbles and actually looked "swollen". It was a complete train wreck, lol.

[Sanadaookami]

Wow that is quite the reaction! I don't have a picture of my little embarrassment, she was only my second  try at customizing and I made a beauty and the  beast themed black collectors pose pony with cherry pie and gold streaked hair. the paint never cured right and she is still sticky! she has all this hair and fuzz stuck to her and the gold I used for her symbols is fading off. Always seal your ponys

[hlbmlp]

wish i had pics of my "dustbunnies" .... when i started customizing in like 4th grade, i thought it was a good idea to cover them in clear nailpolish... welll...... after 10 years... i pulled them out of a box....and they were dust bunnies... completly sticky and covered in dust... I had to wipe them clean and start over. :<

[KiwiSquirtBottle]

I found a few G3 McDonald's toys and my partner started sculpting one while I worked on a fakie -- they were our first customs! She spent about 2 hours sculpting and we put her in the oven to bake. And... Apparently I set the temp too high, or we forgot about her or something, 'cause when my alarm beeped to pull her out, all we had was a melted puddle with a pony head. Sadface.

[hlbmlp]

I found a few G3 McDonald's toys and my partner started sculpting one while I worked on a fakie -- they were our first customs! She spent about 2 hours sculpting and we put her in the oven to bake. And... Apparently I set the temp too high, or we forgot about her or something, 'cause when my alarm beeped to pull her out, all we had was a melted puddle with a pony head. Sadface.

I can think of a dozen awesome things to do wiht it!!!!! " I"M MELTING IM MELTING!!!!!"

Post Merge: March 20, 2012, 08:56:24 PM

it's sad though that you put that much time into it!
I've been learning not to get too attached to things because of reasons like this, and kiln explosions!

[Maniah]

I wish I had pictures I something to share, but I only had one train wreck since I haven't done a ton if ponies yet. I made a blue pig pony for a coworker but he quit before I could give it to her. Her blue dye fade to grey and purple pule colors and I chopped her up to expirament on. I have pics of her now all butchered. But not her original design.

[HavACrumpet452]

I've just been inspired to spray paint a G4. That is awesome!

[deeleelambbaa]

Oh noo! Poor Teddy! Sculpting materials are tricky business. What did you use? I've had a little experience with epoxy putty, and it seems to work alright.

The inside of Apocalypse Pony's head is kind of funny-- I forced waayy too much hair through, so it's got a whole mess of tangled hair up inside, and some seriously reamed out plugs.

It's called Sculpt-It, I got it at Michaels... it says on the tub "good for sculpting doll components" !!! lies...
but ya, it seems that types of sculpting materials and paints are really specifically picky in this particular hobby of ours! There's a possibility to screw up royally waiting for us all around every corner D:
but with these kinds of threads, we learn what NOT to do, thank goodness!

[Bergamot]

Oh my, Kitkumi! I've never seen anything quite like that! I thought I was doing it right with mine. I had a spray primer that was plastic-friendly... But apparently not Pony approved! I've since moved on to using my air brush and diluted acrylic paint. Works much better!

It's a bummer that you got your custom haired and everything before the paint went haywire on you!

Hahah, I do hope that people come across this thread and learn a few non-pointers. I kinda stinks to learn things the hard way, but it can be funny to look back!

[okiegurl1981]

I have a few custom disasters in my bait box.  Okay they are waaaaay down deep at the very very very bottom of my bait box.   My very first try at sculpting a corset is in there.  It's horrible!  It way to thick and lumpy, plus it's covered in finger prints!  A pony I gave a FBR with shiney folk art acrylics is there as well.  For some reason the "shiny" Folk Art paints dry sticky.  She's covered in dust and god knows what else.  There are a couple of others, but I don't want to relive them!

[Kitkumi]

Lol, yeah. I really hope I never see it again either! Ponies can be so picky. I've since moved on to just using a paint brush, though I hope to move up to an air brush at some point.
 
I think that this thread is great, by the way I've picked out a few pointers on what not to do on future projects, and I think it can be fun sharing stories of haywire-ponies like this lol.
 
Okiegurl, I know exactly what you mean about the shiney folk art acrylics! I have a pony sitting around that has been done for months that is really sticky (and is now quite the dust bunny) and I have no idea what to do with her.