Have a Biscuit

So a little while ago, I was contacted by a friend, who asked if I could make him a custom for his boyfriend, based on one of his characters, Biscuit.

Possibly one of the brightest things I have ever seen short of being literally neon.

Immediately I knew he was going to be a challenge, but in the fun, non-nightmarish way, so I accepted!

Some of you may recall that a long time ago, I started work on A G1 conversion of Big McIntosh, from the G4 show. Seeing as I hadn’t worked on that piece for a long time, and I was never going to be satisfied with how he looked, I decided to use that base. This was not very wise on my part, for reasons that will become apparent later in the song.

Basic colour palette was easy, but after the initial paint, I realised that I’d need to change the face, as matching the lines between the yellow pieces on the body and the head was going to be a nuisance

Original paintjob- nice and simple, but with one design flaw

So I made a few changes. People laughed a bit, saying he looked somewhere between a Luchador wrestler and a super hero, but the customer was very happy with the changes.

Only the blue side is visible here, but you get the picture.

To emphasise the wolf connection, I added a nose later in the process, and gave him the copper eyes that go on most of my totems/selfies.

As for mane, again, the colours were very simple to work out. I put some of Dollyhair’s Water Nixie on the blue side, and Bubblegum from the pink.

Showing the colour variance, as well as his CUTE SMILING FACE

The body was reasonably simple, as well- clear dividing colour lines, roughly in half with yellow back panel and belly should be nothing too dramatic.

Until we got to the feet.

THE FEET.

Using a G1 Big Brother mold, he has molded hoof feathering, in the style of a Clydesdale. I decided it would be a solid choice to put some shadowing in the crevices, just to define the area.

That took FOREVER and was a detailing nightmare. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a suitable darker shade for the magenta, either, so I had to hand mix one every. time. I wanted to work on the details. UUUUUUUGH. You’re all invited to remind me of what a bad time I had next time I’m doing a Big Brother commission.

However, the contrast makes a huge difference, as you can see from this WIP shot

Once I had the body ready, I was all set to re-attach the head! Or so I thought.

See, I’ve had this bait detached for the better part of four years. That time, as well as the somewhat extreme measures I had to take to strip the literally five layers of red from Big Mac pony, had warped the head to different dimensions from the body.

Cue me screaming forever

FORTUNATELY, the customer was very understanding, and told me to keep working, and that he was sure it was fine. I love my customers! ❤

So once the head was on, all I had to do was style the hair and tidy up, and he was done! And boy, does he look good!

I thatched the hair for a good contrast (and i think thatching pretty much always looks good), plus the style covers his crooked neck seam. The yellow in his tail is recycled from a Fashion Styling pony, but is a match for Dollyhair’s Butterfly. The cutie mark isn’t quite a match for a wolf pawprint, but it’s close enough. I found the charm on Etsy at Stephanie Martin Beads, and added the same paints I used on the project.

I learned so much on this project, and while I suffered a lot of frustrations, I think he was well worth it. Apparently he was well received, as well, so that always makes my day.

Man, after uploading these photos, I need a Rainbow Paddlepop

An Australian staple and classic

The rise and rise of a Shackled Star

So when we last left our hero, she was in the middle of painting her first commission 😀 I’m pretty lazy though, so I’m going to be posting a lot of pictures without too much commentary, mostly because it’s pretty basic stuff.

One of the first shots I have of her in progress, as you can tell by the paint >.>

So getting colours right was pretty simple, given I had a solid colour palette to start with. The cutie mark was another issue, though. Pro tip! Drawing straight, geometric patterns on curved pony butt is a pain! But as you can see, I managed to get it going in the end.

Scuse kitchen, it’s where we have the best light >.>

The design for the head required a little more work, but with Shell wanting something visually similar to the Nightmare antagonists of the show and the comics, the visual was already well established, it was just working out the particulars.

The Nightmare Moon brushable, which is the other main source for Shackled Star’s aesthetic.

With the colour scheme being black and purple with silver accenting, it only made sense that the hair colours should match. As you can also probably see in this shot, I also added a shimmer effect varnish, to help make her look more nebulous and starry

Man, I wish I could smash out my own eyeliner game so fierce.

The wings were similar, with a purple ombre effect (YES OMBRE EFFECT)

Still a work in progress, but you get the idea.

Once she got put together, Shell wanted a high, ringlet-y sort of hair style, and we all know what that means…

BOIL PERMING!

And so, after a little faffing around once her hair had dried, some brushing, and a few finishing pieces…

I am so proud of her, and Shell was delighted. She took a lot of work, and I learned a lot of lessons, but I really couldn’t be happier with her.

OF COURSE if you would like your own commission like Shackled Star, or something entirely different, please contact me, and we can talk

My First Commission- Shackled Star

WELL after a year of stuffing around doing not much with my ponies, I was contacted by a friend of a friend regarding a personal display piece/sort of OC custom, so I’m PRETTY STOKED to be working on something like that!

Shell (the customer) wanted something in an Alicorn pose, with colours reminiscent of Nightmare Rarity, and that’s about it that she gave me to start with. SO ONWARD!

I love Nightmare Rarity, she’s one of my favourite things to come out of the comics 😀

Of course, as an Alicorn, I don’t have a lot of choice as to her body model. I wanted to get a Nightmare Moon Base, but it turns out that either it would be cheaper to buy one of the OC Alicorns, Princess Gold Lily or Princess Sterling, down the local shops, or I’d have to put up with a bad fakie. And by bad, I mean ‘unable to stand up due to two bowed legs’.

LUCKILY I had a Celestia in my Box of Baits, that a helpful little girl or boy decided to freshen up with some pink highlighter.

Because children scribbling on their toys with textas is almost inevitable

As you can see from this shot, not only are her hoof guards exceptionally coloured, which didn’t all end up coming off with acetone, but she has three rows of plugs on her head, and those go down past her ears. Hooray. The things we do to give Alicorns the FLOWING LUSCIOUS HAIR THEY DESERVE. SO off comes the hair!

IDK I think she looks good as a punk.

The above shot shows how much the yellow paint stained the plastic. If I was painting her any colour other than black, that may have been a problem. LUCKILY NOT. I also left the eyes untouched, partially because I can just paint over them, using them as guides, and partially because even if I decided not to, the Alicorn model doesn’t have the moulded eye recesses the regular Playful Pony mould does.

As some of my regular followers may know, G4 ponies are painful, as they have these plugs in the neck that block access to the rest of the body and need to be very carefully removed. The good news is, with both these and the smaller Alicorn moulds, you don’t have to remove the neck plug! 😀 The bad news is you need to remove the wings instead, to get the tail out D:

Removal of Celestia’s wings took several hours. It took several hours because Hasbro still hasn’t gotten over its fling with glue. I mean just… just look at this

What the actual hell, Hasbro

So several layers of plastic, a few close calls on wings, and two sincere attempts to take my fingers off, her wings were finally free, and painting could begin! Which I will address in the next post! Suffice it to say, I’m excited.