Questions about removing marker & discoloration

[ShannonInPonyland]

I have a Windy that is pretty dear to me, she was the first pony I got that started me into collecting them. Recently I've been taking better care of her by washing her mane/tail and scrubbing her with a Magic Eraser but I have to idea how to go about removing this pink marker off of her cheek. She also has little spots of it here and there on the rest of her body but I'm mainly concerned with the big one. I was thinking about sunfading but I've never sunfaded a pony before and I don't know how I would go about covering her glitter symbols.
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(As a side note, I'm not sure if she is originally supposed to be purple or white. I know there is a variation of her lol)

I also recently received a Baby Blue Ember from a tag sale who is in great condition other than the fact that she has discolored a bit. I was wondering if there is any way I could restore her back to a closer blue to what she originally was?
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If anyone could help that would be great! I've been meaning to ask this a longggg time ago but have been procrastinating 

[babystarz]

As for Windy, anything you don't get off with Magic Eraser you can try acetone on. It'll only work on surface marks, nothing that has bled into the plastic will be removed. Just use a q-tip to rub the acetone on those spots and be sure to keep the acetone away from any paint and her symbols. I only use pure acetone because it's stronger than nail polish remover.

Once you've tried acetone, sunfading is the next step. To cover her symbols, I think the easiest way to do it would be to trace her symbol on a piece of paper and cut out the shapes of each wind gust, then tape them down, You'll have to be very precise about it and the tape can only touch the very edge of the paper to her body as you don't want any unfaded dark spots when you're done. But you can be pretty exact with painter's tape ^^ Then rip off tiny pieces of the painter's tape and place them until her eyes and lashes are fully covered. Wrap her hair in tinfoil to protect it from the sun, you can also tape the edges to her neck with painter's tape but again you'll need to be very careful about this to not leave spots unfaded.

Once she is prepped, put either a mirror or some tinfoil down on a sunny window sill and then put Windy on it. Since she's already quite white (she is supposed to be purple, but various theories for why white Windy exists involve dye leakage and variants) you won't have to be obsessive about checking her every day, but check her and flip her over at least once a week. Depending on how big and dark the marks are, it could take a month or several months for them to fade completely.

For Baby Ember, that's a tough one. It's hard to make ponies darker again. The only thing besides an FBR that I know of would be a dye job, but this is not necessarily recommended for restores because the dye will fade over time. If you want to try it, you can color match on RIT's site to approximate her color, and be SURE to set the dye with a vinegar bath, as this seems to be the most effective and colorfast way to prevent future fading, but even it doesn't ensure permanent dye. And my personal experience with blue RIT dye has been very serious fading within 5 years.

[MoongazerThePony]

Hi! You can find plenty of good cleaning tips and tutorials in this post: http://mlparena.com/mlp/index.php/topic,292336.0.html

I always loved blue baby Ember, she looks pretty with that dark turquoise/green!

Hope I helped!

[ShannonInPonyland]

Just tried acetone but it didn't even make it budge so I guess it looks like I'm going to have to sunfade her after all.
Thanks for the tips!

[Elisto]

You can definitely sunfade the yellow tint out of Ember. I do that with light colored ponies all the time and have yet to fade the original color (although checking on it regularly is still a good idea)

[ShannonInPonyland]

You can definitely sunfade the yellow tint out of Ember. I do that with light colored ponies all the time and have yet to fade the original color (although checking on it regularly is still a good idea)

I wasn't sure if I would be able to sunfade her or not seeing as she's more of a color than a white. Good to know though, I think I'll try that too 

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Soaking Ember in hydrogen peroxide with sunlight hitting the jar might also be an idea to restore her original color...

[ShannonInPonyland]

Soaking Ember in hydrogen peroxide with sunlight hitting the jar might also be an idea to restore her original color...

It's okay to get it in her hair? and about how long should I soak her? 

[hathorcat]

I know others have said and have had luck with whole body fading ponies but personally [as a paranoid lady] I would worry about making her over all a little "lighter"...I mean you cant fade "darker" in colour if you know what I mean [lol]...can I ask those who have had luck does this not happen at all?

Babystarz guide is perfect for Windy - magic eraser, acetone and then a sunfade to get rid of them! Good luck!

[Elisto]

Well, it's hard for me to say that the body color doesn't lighten at all when the whole pony is exposed, but I have one Dancing Butterflies that has had her leg sunfading for over a year now and the exposed leg isn't any lighter than the rest of her. Plus, even if they do lighten, I'd rather have a slightly lighter pony than a yellowed one.

I am about to test a Bow Tie though, so I'll see how it goes since she's fairly dark (but very very discolored from mildew. I don't have pictures though because I can never show the color change well at all.

[hathorcat]

Well, it's hard for me to say that the body color doesn't lighten at all when the whole pony is exposed, but I have one Dancing Butterflies that has had her leg sunfading for over a year now and the exposed leg isn't any lighter than the rest of her. Plus, even if they do lighten, I'd rather have a slightly lighter pony than a yellowed one.

I am about to test a Bow Tie though, so I'll see how it goes since she's fairly dark (but very very discolored from mildew. I don't have pictures though because I can never show the color change well at all.

Bow Tie will certainly be a good "tester" for the darker colour ponies! Cant wait to find out the results!

[balletpot]

I don't think you have to be super careful when covering up Windy's symbols. I'm the one that posted about a sunfaded Gusty in the brag arena, you commented on it, I remembered something about a Windy and double checked.   The picture shows how "careful" I was when covering up her symbols, i.e. I tried my best but it didn't look like it. What happened was that the plastic also got white underneath the foil. So, if you just try your best the plastic should absorb the sun anyway. I've just started sunfading a Moondancer and I couldn't even bother to try and cover up everything separately, I just put a bit of foil all over the symbols. Wonder how it will turn out though. I've noticed that it's a good idea to tie some string around the base of the tail because, at least for me, there's a gap between the pony and the foil covering the tail. The string takes care of that exposed area.


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[kittybethy]

Wow!! That picture looks like they are undergoing surgery!

[hathorcat]

I don't think you have to be super careful when covering up Windy's symbols. I'm the one that posted about a sunfaded Gusty in the brag arena, you commented on it, I remembered something about a Windy and double checked.   The picture shows how "careful" I was when covering up her symbols, i.e. I tried my best but it didn't look like it. What happened was that the plastic also got white underneath the foil. So, if you just try your best the plastic should absorb the sun anyway. I've just started sunfading a Moondancer and I couldn't even bother to try and cover up everything separately, I just put a bit of foil all over the symbols. Wonder how it will turn out though. I've noticed that it's a good idea to tie some string around the base of the tail because, at least for me, there's a gap between the pony and the foil covering the tail. The string takes care of that exposed area.

Isnt that a bit of a worry though? If the plastic "under" the tinfoil still changes colour...itsn't there the danger that the symbols and eyes and blush "under" the tinfoil may well also change colour?

And Bethy is right...lol...she looks like she has just come out of some serious plastic surgery! Pony face lift.

[balletpot]

Well, I think it works like this, the foil you use to cover eyes, blush ans symbols protect them so they don't fade but the plastic itself absorbs the sunlight somehow, must be something chemical. That's how I experienced it but I'm not a chemist. What wasn't supposed to fade didn't and what was supposed to fade did. The paint, glitter and hair didn't fade but the yellowed plastic did.

Is it my ponies that look that they're getting / have gotten surgery? Hm, I never thought of like that. It worked wonders on Gusty, just hope it will do the same on the pen mark on Baby Gusty.