G1 baby Masquerade - complete!

Uftaki

Big Bulky Brother Pony
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Joined
Sep 24, 2012
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Well, I promised if the dye job went well, I'd share my project, and... here I am. :smile: Please excuse the quality of some of these photos. My camera is old by now; it's a simple point-and-shoot that has trouble with focussing properly and the white balance. :/

So I had a vaguely baity BBE Lofty that I decided to turn into a baby Twinkle Eye pony. Since her base colouring already had a hint of yellow to it, I decided to turn her into a baby Masquerade. First challenge - and first question posted to the MLPTP here - was how to get her horribly rusted eyes out. Successfully poked her eyes out (that sounds SO bad...), though in the process I poked through the very thin bubble of plastic around her eyes. c_c;; Just a tear, really, and it won't effect anything, I don't think. After that, it was just a matter of wiping her symbols and getting rid of all the hair.

here she is, all prepped and ready for her dye bath!
baby Masquerade 1.JPG


Next step was the dying her a brilliant yellow. This was the step I was most worried about, because I think I attempted to dye a pony only once before, but had zero success with it. I re-read the MLP Preservation Project's tips on dying, as well as watched the linked tutorials, before going out to get all my supplies. Rolling up my sleeves (literally), I began to dye li'l baby Masquerade.

The "it only takes about a minute to dye a pony" was a complete lie, I found. Maybe it takes only a minute for everyone else, but it SURE wasn't that quick for me! I brought my water to a boil, took it off the stove and moved it to my newspaper-covered counter, put the pot on a trivit, added the dye and pony, and... well, nothing. The dye just wasn't seeming to take for the first couple of minutes, so I decided to move it back to the stove, on medium-high heat.

mmm.... pony soup!
baby Masquerade 2.JPG


Even then, it still seemed to be taking a long time for the dye to properly set in. The picture is all flash/faded out here, I'm sorry... but I kept checking the progress, and she still seemed to be mostly her original colour by this point, which was maybe 10 to 15 minutes into dying. x.x;

you can't really tell, but she's still more pale white-yellow, than bright yellow, here
baby Masquerade 3.JPG


So I decided to add another spoonful of dye to the pot. While it was on the stove. .... Wrong idea! Thing frothed up like you wouldn't believe! :surprisepony: I quickly turned down the heat to wipe up the water that had spilled over. But that seemed to do the trick! Turning the heat back up, the extra spoonful of dye plus the lower level of water seemed to be the magical combination, and the dye was finally starting to take!
That's also probably why my earlier dying attempt failed, too. (Too much water, too little dye, didn't leave it in long enough, and water probably cooled down too much)

finally, progress!

baby Masquerade 4.JPG


All told, after about half an hour of dying, she was finally at a colour I liked! Turned off the heat and brought the pot back to the sink, washing her off. Most of the dye was saved, in case I need to re-dye her (or I want to dye another pony yellow), and she got a soak in vinegar while I cleaned up. She ended up quite a nice, bright yellow colour! There are some spots where the dye didn't take on the neck seams (understandable and not an issue since you can't see them), and there are also a few spots that look a little dingy to my eye - stuff that didn't completely clean, I guess? All in all, though, I'm pleasantly happy with the results!

baby Masquerade 5.JPG

baby Masquerade 6.JPG


Progress is going to halt here for a while. I want to wait at least a month or two, to ensure the dye sets in. The next step will be to fill in her eyes, with the tutorial uploaded here to the MLPTP. I'm also waiting for the hair I ordered to come in, and re-hairing her will probably be the last step, after painting her symbols.

So... yeah. Happy with my results! But updates won't happen for a while now. For everyone who answered my questions and pointed me to the correct tutorials, thank you! :lolpony:
 
Looking good!! I've never tried to dye a pony before, I'm inspired by your courage! I can't wait to see her transformation!
 
Looking good!! I've never tried to dye a pony before, I'm inspired by your courage! I can't wait to see her transformation!

Thank you! I was really worried myself, but it wasn't as bad or as scary to dye as I thought it might be. I just needed to be patient and careful, and be ready to clean up any little spills, just in case. And also I didn't need a full pot of water. (lol)
 
Wow. Great work! So far she looks great!
 
Looks like your baby pony is going well
It’s good to see those eyes have come out okay, phew

But standing next to Masquerade, the shade is really good! :winkpony:
 
What a great idea to turn a BBE into a TE!! I love it! You did a great job matching her color. I can't wait to see her finished!!
 
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Well, I promised if the dye job went well, I'd share my project, and... here I am. :smile: Please excuse the quality of some of these photos. My camera is old by now; it's a simple point-and-shoot that has trouble with focussing properly and the white balance. :/

So I had a vaguely baity BBE Lofty that I decided to turn into a baby Twinkle Eye pony. Since her base colouring already had a hint of yellow to it, I decided to turn her into a baby Masquerade. First challenge - and first question posted to the MLPTP here - was how to get her horribly rusted eyes out. Successfully poked her eyes out (that sounds SO bad...), though in the process I poked through the very thin bubble of plastic around her eyes. c_c;; Just a tear, really, and it won't effect anything, I don't think. After that, it was just a matter of wiping her symbols and getting rid of all the hair.

here she is, all prepped and ready for her dye bath!
View attachment 36895

Next step was the dying her a brilliant yellow. This was the step I was most worried about, because I think I attempted to dye a pony only once before, but had zero success with it. I re-read the MLP Preservation Project's tips on dying, as well as watched the linked tutorials, before going out to get all my supplies. Rolling up my sleeves (literally), I began to dye li'l baby Masquerade.

The "it only takes about a minute to dye a pony" was a complete lie, I found. Maybe it takes only a minute for everyone else, but it SURE wasn't that quick for me! I brought my water to a boil, took it off the stove and moved it to my newspaper-covered counter, put the pot on a trivit, added the dye and pony, and... well, nothing. The dye just wasn't seeming to take for the first couple of minutes, so I decided to move it back to the stove, on medium-high heat.

mmm.... pony soup!
View attachment 36896

Even then, it still seemed to be taking a long time for the dye to properly set in. The picture is all flash/faded out here, I'm sorry... but I kept checking the progress, and she still seemed to be mostly her original colour by this point, which was maybe 10 to 15 minutes into dying. x.x;

you can't really tell, but she's still more pale white-yellow, than bright yellow, here
View attachment 36897

So I decided to add another spoonful of dye to the pot. While it was on the stove. .... Wrong idea! Thing frothed up like you wouldn't believe! :surprisepony: I quickly turned down the heat to wipe up the water that had spilled over. But that seemed to do the trick! Turning the heat back up, the extra spoonful of dye plus the lower level of water seemed to be the magical combination, and the dye was finally starting to take!
That's also probably why my earlier dying attempt failed, too. (Too much water, too little dye, didn't leave it in long enough, and water probably cooled down too much)

finally, progress!

View attachment 36898

All told, after about half an hour of dying, she was finally at a colour I liked! Turned off the heat and brought the pot back to the sink, washing her off. Most of the dye was saved, in case I need to re-dye her (or I want to dye another pony yellow), and she got a soak in vinegar while I cleaned up. She ended up quite a nice, bright yellow colour! There are some spots where the dye didn't take on the neck seams (understandable and not an issue since you can't see them), and there are also a few spots that look a little dingy to my eye - stuff that didn't completely clean, I guess? All in all, though, I'm pleasantly happy with the results!

View attachment 36899
View attachment 36900

Progress is going to halt here for a while. I want to wait at least a month or two, to ensure the dye sets in. The next step will be to fill in her eyes, with the tutorial uploaded here to the MLPTP. I'm also waiting for the hair I ordered to come in, and re-hairing her will probably be the last step, after painting her symbols.

So... yeah. Happy with my results! But updates won't happen for a while now. For everyone who answered my questions and pointed me to the correct tutorials, thank you! :lolpony:
You are incredibly brave and talented.
 
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Thank you all! I was concerned for a good bit that the dye just wouldn't take, but persistance pays off! :3

What a great idea to turn a BBE into a TE!! I love it! You did a great job matching her color. I can't wait to see her finished!!

I thought the BBE's eye socket would be a perfect fit to put in a twinkle-eye gem. We'll see if it works in practice as much as I hope in theory. Already I see that my initial idea - to fit one in from behind - won't work, so I'll adapt it to the "replace/fill eye with sculpy" tutorial.

You are incredibly brave and talented.

[BLUSH!] Not so much, really. :blush: There are far, far more talented people than I am, on here. I'm rather new to the whole customizing thing, all told. But thank you.
 
Nice
 
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Awesome. Can't wait to see this project go on. What a cute little baaaybeee she's gonna be!
 
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Next stage of the custom has been finished - eyes and symbols! I'm quite pleased with how the symbols came out. I probably could have used paint that had been thinned out a little more on the first few coats, but... ah well.

Eyes were... an experimentation, and I messed up (badly) at one spot. Used sculpy to fill in the eye cavity, and added the plastic gems for her eyes. I was ... surprised but I really shouldn't have been, to find they melted a little when the clay was baking. The sharp edges were lost, and turned the faceted gems into more smoothly-rounded things. Still looked okay, though!

Where I messed up though was the eyelashes. x.x; I first attempted to use a craft marker (especially designed for use for Gundam model kits) to draw on the eyelashes, but... wasn't too thrilled with how they looked, but... um. Yeah. That doesn't come off. My attempt just smeared stuff, so it looks like she has eyeshadow, now. c_c; [COUGH]. :blush: I then attempted to paint the lashes on, but... hated how thick and blocky they looked, so I wiped that, and went BACK to the marker. I should have just left the marker as-was; it was fine, really. I was just super nervous and unsure as to how it looked. Oh well. They look okay, especially from a distance. Close-up I can see a few spots I probably could fix, but I think I'll leave it. I've fiddled with it enough already.

baby Masquerade 7.JPG

baby Masquerade 8.JPG

baby Masquerade 9.JPG


Her paint has been sealed, now, so it's on to the next step. [shudder] Re-hairing. x___x
 
I like the shade of the gems in her eyes and I actually quite like the lashes you did. She’s progressing very well! :flutter2:

Once the hair and tail are in, I hope you feel better about her if you’re still not too pleased. I’m sure she’ll have all came together by then for you. Great work!
 
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She’s turning out great!
 
She looks good
 
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