- Joined
- Sep 24, 2012
- Messages
- 1,328
Well, I promised if the dye job went well, I'd share my project, and... here I am. 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!
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!
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
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! 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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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
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! 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!
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!
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!