Fox Pony

So starting this blog wasn’t the beginning of my adventures into pony modding. My first pony was started as a gift for a very dear friend’s birthday. He identifies with Fox on a semi-totemic level, so what better than a fox pony to watch over him?

I started out with a custom bait G1 Cotton Candy. She was one of the first ponies we ever had at home, so I knew she’d be easy to work with, having watched my mother make tails for her after we’d decimated the last one >.<

Cotton Candy was one of the first six ponies of the G1 range, and was released many, many times.

I got her from Ebay with the sole purpose of using her as a bait, because she had (and still has, I guess) very bad ‘pony cancer’.

This is probably the worst case I’ve seen, but at least it’s all in one area.

It looks a lot like a texta mark, but it was well under the original cutie mark, and wouldn’t come off, even when I used the heavy duty stuff. When I suspect something is texta or another substance that stains the same way, I use Remove Zit, a product by Twin Pines of Maine, which is also linked in the sidebar. It’s flipping amazing, and works on all generations of ponies, as well as dolls like Cabbage Patch Kids etc.

After doing all the preparing, I based her in black, and mixed up a foxy shade. This ended up being a massive pain in the butt, as foxes are anything from bright orange to brown.

I ended up using this guy as my basis for colouring. Photo taken from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under Public Domain

So there were so many touch ups and wash jobs done because I could never quite get the same colour again. Next time, get better paint, or take measurements >.<

So the orange went on, and I left some parts black, and had to repaint others.

You can see the colour difference between paint jobs around the nose and neck, and on the back foot.

The white parts came next, as did the detailing around the ears. A lot of people have said ‘Wow, those lines are so crisp, how did you do it?’ The answer is, with three packs of cosmetic cotton buds, two bottles of nail polish remover, and a lot of pulling my hair out and swearing not to touch that line again, then coming back five minutes later to ‘fix’ it >.<

I love this angle, can you tell? It was at this point I got super excited because it was all working really well!

Then came the eyes, and I tell you, they were almost as bad as the fur. They vary through just about every type of hazel you can think of, and well into brown, as well. The solution, of course, was to tell biology to go and get stuffed, and paint it in a copper colour.

I shouldn’t take pictures like this, apparently it’s creepy

At the same point, I was also finishing up the body and the cutie mark. I was originally thinking a paw print, but decided on a line drawing of a fox.

I found the design for this on the internet with no attribution. If you happen to know who created it, please drop me a line!

Last step before varnish was the hair. I was originally going to do it in orange with black and white accents, but I decided that there wasn’t a suitable colour for him, so it stayed in black, with a white streak in the tail (being Black Magic and White Witch respectively)

While the hair is quite easy to handle, it doesn’t fall naturally, which then leads to things like this happening-

I’m only about half way through re-rooting here, but let me tell you, sometimes it can get a little hairy. Ahahah, oh, I slay me

– but it sits nicely and becomes more easy to brush after a wash. I decided to leave his mane and tail uncut- they just felt too nice to trim, and I liked the way that the long, black hair contrasted against the paint job

After a coat of varnish, Fox Pony was finally ready!

And here’s one without the flash

The little fox charm was made by the talented Sasha at Bad Dog Productions. The recipient loved him, and he holds pride of place near the computers of the house.

I’m not going to lie, I was pretty flipping proud of myself for this one, I still am, and I think it’s going to be a while before I get over it 😀

Red Hat pony, part 2

So I’ve worked out that I really like making work for myself in regards to my ponies. Patty pony has evolved from ‘a coat with a red hat’ to a huge, HUGE affair, with all manner of media. What am I getting myself into? >.<

The Red Hat Society is very much based around the poem ‘Warning‘, by Jenny Joseph, so I’ve figured that I can add more detail based on things from the poem, such as ‘summer gloves’ and ‘satin sandals’.

So I’ve gotten some more work done. In my previous post, I mentioned that I was going to try and save as much of the hair as possible. Since then, I’ve said ‘Stuff that!’ and cut it all off. Previous experience indicates that the hair in G3 ponies is particularly hard to save, especially seeing as they usually pour a whole bottle of glue into their heads to get the hair to stay in.

Cherry Blossom was no different-

Those colourful fluffy wads are blobs of glue that came out of Cherry Blossom’s head. I should note that these were only from the third session of hair removal, so that’s not even the half of it D: The shape of the head didn’t help, either

One of the reasons I dislike working with G3 ponies. Another is how hard it is to save the head plug. As you can see in Cherry Blossom above, I managed to with this one, but that’s more good luck than good management on my part. With that plug removed from the head, it becomes much harder to make sure the head stays put once you’re done. You can frequently just pop the heads off G1 ponies, as most of them were designed to move, at least a little, but the people who made G3 ponies must have had some sort of love affair with glue >.<

So I got Cherry Blossom’s head off.

Before removing the hair. The ridiculous angle of the head and plug can also be seen here

That was reasonably painless, thank goodness. I didn’t even cut into the neck of the plug, so that’s a big bonus.

There’s yet another thing that bugs me about G3 ponies- almost all of them come with a magnet in one of their front feet, so they could interact with the moving playsets that were so loved in the range. These make it kind of difficult to post the ponies or put them anywhere near things that can react negatively with magnets, so I removed this one

They also make using any metal tools with your ponies, like, say, a craft knife, a little more exciting as it comes flying towards the leg you’re working on. True story.

I was originally going to pop the magnet out and then put the case back over the top, but no, Hasbro’s passionate romance with glue foiled that plan. So I filled the socket with clay and got back to work.

The next step was to trim down the hair, seeing as I’d already given up on saving it, and removing the residue.

I was a fussy child, and never cut the hair of my ponies. While I’m glad that I didn’t, I still missed out on a lot of fun 😀

You can already see some of the plugs along the bottom where I’ve been working at getting the original hair out.

Another shot of the plugs

Then came the fun bit- the massive wad of glue between her ears. I was using medical grade curved locking forceps and a torch, which you would think would be enough for a tricky job like this. Nope, not a bit of it. Three sessions and mountains of glue and hair flakes later, though, and she was shaved bald, ready for re-rooting.

I’ve not done very much, but it’s a very tedious process, so it’s going to take a while

I am very, VERY pleased with the contrast, I think it looks fabulous. I’m using White Witch from My Little Pony Hair, which is also linked over in the sidebar. It’s a little less forgiving than most of the coloured hair (and the black) that I’ve previously used- there are really visible kinks in it where I’ve pulled it through the plugs, but those should come out when I wash the hair.

And yes, there’s another reason in this why I dislike G3 ponies. The plugs are very messy, and vary in size rather dramatically.

It’s difficult to tell from this picture, but the big plugs are more than twice the size of the smaller ones. This will further add to the tediousness of the re-rooting >.<

All this in mind, I don’t know why I’ve given myself MORE work to do with the project. Maybe I hate myself? That being said, if I get her right, she’s going to look amazing.

When I am old, I will mod ponies in purple, with a red hat that doesn’t go…

WARNING- THIS POST IS FULL OF ANECDATA, NOSTALGIA, AND ONLY A VERY SMALL AMOUNT RELATED TO PONIES.

So, some of you may have heard me talk about Patty.

I met her via Ebay in about 2008 (if I recall correctly), while I was looking for gloves for roleplaying costumes. Pretty much everything she’s put up for sale, from then until now, has her own personal little story attached to it. Some of those stories are very glamorous- she worked as an air hostess for years, and had little pieces of memory from places all over- and some were very simple, but she made everything that she’s sent me over the years very special to me.

I kept coming back to purchase things, over and over. She realised that I loved the gloves she was selling, and always let me know when she was putting any lots that might pique my interests up.

We became very close, in that peculiar way that people on the internet do, with very little idea about who the other person is, other than our friend. She still sends me pairs of gloves out of the blue, because ‘they just needed to be yours, and every girl needs a new pair of gloves for the new season.’ I shared my love of handmade bath and beauty products with her, and it’s been a very satisfying and caring relationship between us.

I’ve been wondering for a while now if I could make her anything that wouldn’t run the risk of being too specialised- I usually do beading and BPAL for special gifts, neither of which I could personalise without giving the game away. With the advent of ponies in my life, I can do that 😀

So, this is Cherry Blossom-

I call this pose the ‘sassy’ pose.

Patty mentioned that she’s a member of the Red Hat Society, so Cherry Blossom is about to become a member. This will be the first pony that I’m documenting all the way through, from go to whoa, so it should be a bit exciting.

There’s not actually much I’m going to need to do to the pony herself- I’m going to experiment with setting her hair in curls, and she’ll need a new cutie mark, but that’s about it. I’m very reluctant to remove her original hair, but I’m going to, anyway, and try to save as much of it as possible.

While this pose is a pain in my arse to customise, it does lend itself to artsy shots like this one.

The main part of the Red Hat conversion is going to be clothing and accessories. I’ve done some work with coats for  ponies with Loki (who i’ll post about at some point >.>), so I’ve got somewhere to start, at least.

I think it’s going to be fun and educational, but not neccesarily in that order 😀