Pony collector since 1986, now trying to restore and continue collection

[Cool Breeze]

Soooo.... I'm Cool Breeze!  Or actually I just chose that name because she remains my favorite pony of all time.   

I've always been artsy so I decided to re-enter the pony world and try helping some of the sad vintage ponies that get either thrown away or butchered into crazy bad customs.  Note* I'm not anti-customs but don't really condone it unless the pony is in really bad shape.  I grew up drawing and painting pictures of My Little Ponies.  I now limit myself to custom animation cel-art or similar mediums.  I'm actually working on a 3-part piece of Rarity and Spike right now and they should be matted and framed by Monday.

I am not a picky collector but I love my ponies and am always looking to grow my collection.  I also end up with duplicates from time to time that I either share or let sit until I decide I want to sell her or him.  I can't say I've sold many since adulthood.  I sold a few during my "growing up" phase.... (cause it wasn't "cool" to still play with ponies ;p) but sorely regretted it.  *One of them was my beloved Cool Breeze!

So I'm back in the game!  I hope you welcome me.  I plan to be kind and welcoming to all of you.  I am primarily a vintage collector though I have some G3's and like the new show.  Feel free to reach out to me any time!

Best Wishes to all,

Cool Breeze~

[Miss Violet]

  happy hunting!

[Ligress]

Nice to meet you. I love customs but I agree on the fact I rather see a pony rejuvenated if it can be
Hope you are enjoying the arena so far and hope you find lots of new herd members here
Would  love to see your art, definitely post it here if you feel comfortable sharing!

[PrincessGryph]

Man, then you probably wouldn't like me. I take mint ponies out of box all the time and defile them for customs (though that's almost always G4s).

Welcome to the arena! Hope we can get along anyway ;P

[FizzyMelody]

Welcome to the forum, Cool Breeze! I'd love to see photos of your restorations!

[achab1984]

Welcome to the arena

[himmie]

Welcome to the Arena!

[shadowlark]

Welcome! I started out collecting when I brought home by childhood ponies from my parents' last year. A lot of them were in need of restoring, and I did my best even though I'm not very artsy. If you like restorations, you can check out my restoration thread in my signature. Would love to see pics of ponies you've restored!

[kiwimlp]

Welcome to the Arena

I agree it's always nice to see a pony restored - especially a G1

[Lollipop]

Hello & Welcome  Cool Breeze is one of my favourites too 

[hathorcat]

Welcome to the Arena Restoration work can be as hard and amazing when finished as some customs so I will look forward to seeing some of your work!

Have fun around the forums!

[Cool Breeze]

Wow, everyone thanks for the greetings!  I honestly haven't ever used a forum before and never imagined such a kind reception. 

I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner.  I'm working on my first official restoration of "Sweet Pop."  I don't know about the rest of you, but a nice looking Sweet Pop is hard to find.    For whatever reason the hair never lays right and there's always wing/ear/hoof scuffing or discoloration.  The one I'm working on I got off ebay.  I honestly bid without realizing quite HOW bad she was.  Eyes were all scratched and broken, shredded plastic in a lot of areas... serious road-rash.  Plus 90% of her hair had been cut or ripped out.  That part I expected.

I have smoothed the road rash, rubbed matching paint into the cracks, repainted her symbols and (OMG her EYES) with glitter and acrylic paint.  Sealed with Acrylic sealant.  Her eyes were so badly damaged that I literally sanded them down to a manageable shape and painted over them.  They were not salvageable.

She's still hairless!  I'm waiting on an order from Dollyhair.com but this will be my first REALLY difficult restoration!  The rest was child's play.  Just serious cleaning, symbol and eye painting etc.

I do also have a 3-part animation cel in the works of Rarity and Spike matted on a triple-heart board.  It's gorgeous but alas... I tried out a new kind of paint marker for the eyes and the alcohol bled.  I totally need to repaint it before I dishonor it with a picture.  Give me 2 weeks to a month at most.  Busy time of year at work. 

Let me see if I can work out how to upload images and maybe I can get you some "Sweet Pop" pics while in the works.

Best Wishes everyone!

Cool Breeze*

Post Merge: March 19, 2014, 03:28:11 PM

Sweet Pop restoration in Progress!

I hope this link works... I can't figure out how to upload pictures so for the time being I created a link to an album in my google plus acct.  It seems to work for me!  But good luck

https://plus.google.com/photos/100232471052474912946/albums/5992624862593041521?authkey=COvpvdb-jO7rAQ

[hathorcat]

She looks great You should share your restoration pictures over in the Corral.

Also here is a handy how to guide from photobucket which will help you post images in a thread
http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,341766.0.html

[Cool Breeze]

hathorcat,

Thanks!  That's actually exactly what I needed.  I expect to be rehairing soon so once I have a real set of comprehensive pictures, I'll check out the coral. 

Best Wishes,

Cool Breeze*

[Cool Breeze]

Here goes....

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


visitors can't see pics , please register or login


visitors can't see pics , please register or login


If this doesn't work, I apologize.  I'll get it!

Post Merge: March 28, 2014, 06:20:47 PM

Eureka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for the help guys!

So details....

$30-some dollars later I have a beautiful Sweet Pop!  (I think she is anyways....)

Here's how it went...


Step 1

Bought bait pony off ebay for $5.00 (inc. shipping)
Condition: BAD- Hair super frizzy and about 75% cut and missing, Symbols rubbed and lightened, twinkle eyes cracked and chipped with no iridescence, scrapes and discoloration along face, wings, legs and hooves (appeared white and yellowish), some tail rust

Step 2

Used high quality nail files to rub down and sand all scratched up parts INCLUDING her eyes!  They couldn't be fixed

Step 3

Matched body paint with Acrylics and rubbed it into all remaining cracks and scrapes on body.  I rubbed it to better blend into the rest of the body

Step 4

Used pink micro glitter on top of color-matched acrylic paint to redo the symbols, then used another pony as model to glitter coat and completely repaint the eyes OVER the twinkle eyes.  I sealed eyes and symbol with acrylic clear coat

Step 5

Bought 4 colors of Nylon hair from Dollyhair.com.  Colors: Heartthrob, Electric Banana, Wisteria, Virgin Snow and also a re-rooting tool from ChewsBrains on Etsy.  (Unfortunately I broke all but one needle in the learning process and her shop is closed till June   )

Step 5

Rerooting and Retailing.... NOT fun to figure this out.  I watched a lot of tutorials on Youtube but just didn't have the instruction I needed to understand why I kept breaking hair and how it was supposed to not come out etc.  Eventually I pieced all videos together and though I had to add to each plug 2-3 times to get desired thickness, I managed to survive on my last needle.  (Which happened to be a large as opposed to the recommended medium size for vintage ponies...)

Step 6

Glued the roots... replaced the head.... trimmed unwanted runaway strands of hair and ... TADDAAA!  She's done!  Whew.  What a challenging first custom but I'm thrilled with the results

Thanks for your interest.  I'm still learning the forum but I'll try to figure out the Pony Coral as suggested.  Maybe I should post her there?

Best to you all,

Cool Breeze*