My Restorations and Question Thread

[starbeam]

Decided to make this into a general thread showcasing my restorations + asking silly questions that wouldn’t need a full thread, hope thats okay!

So- good news! I got one of my grails for an amazing price, her eyes are intact and her hair is super soft!
Bad news is, well…

I remember seeing mentioned that she wasn’t safe to sunfade, as she’s prone to burn the same way Gingerbread does. However, that was year ago, and I’ve seen a lot of talks about UV boxes and salon 40.
Is it better to keep her as is and forget about fading her head back to white, or is it worth the risk?

 

[minticat]

congrats on getting your grail!

quackers is currently on the "with caution" section of the tp's safe (or not) to sunfade list. she's burned for some people, but others have had success (including myself), so i think it's ultimately up to you if you want to try. it's a risk, but possible.

 

[Alstroemeria]

I think it could depend on if there's plasticizer leak? A lot of the white ponies that are listed as sunburning are also prone to leaking and turning hard.

 

[starbeam]

Thank you guys! I’ve decided against it after all; she’s otherwise in amazing condition (perfect hair and unscratched eyes!) and I don’t wanna risk it just in case.
it’s not as bad as the lighting makes it look, especially inside the cabinet!
Here she is with her baby after a spa day; a quick pass with the magic eraser showed me that some of it was actually dirt!

 

[Einhornbaby]

Yep I second "with caution" as Quackers is one of those ponies that easily get sunburned and turn brown Id keep her as she is, she does not look to bad

 

[starbeam]

Editing to make it a general restoration question thread since I feel like some stuff I wanna ask don’t warrant a whole thread ^^’

As for the question, how do you guys reroot tinsel? I have a pack of tinsel coming but otherwise I have everything else. Should I wait for the tinsel to add it at the same time as the hair, or can I reroot and add it afterwards?

 

[CharmsPonies]

Editing to make it a general restoration question thread since I feel like some stuff I wanna ask don’t warrant a whole thread ^^’

As for the question, how do you guys reroot tinsel? I have a pack of tinsel coming but otherwise I have everything else. Should I wait for the tinsel to add it at the same time as the hair, or can I reroot and add it afterwards?

When I’ve rehaired with tinsel, I do it the same exact way I do hair (I rehair the standard way with a rehairing tool, adding a few strands of hair into the needle and then punching it into the hair plug holes.) However I only do one stand of tinsel at a time (as opposed to normal hair where you do a few strands at a time.) I also will rehair the entire pony and then add in the tinsel afterwards (BEFORE you put any glue in the head or hair), but I don’t think itd be a problem if you wanted to add it while you were still working on the other hair colors.

Also, remember a little goes a long way. I’ve had a custom where I put in tinsel in every hair plug, and while she looked nice it was a Lot of timsel…. The next time I made that pony I went for adding a strand of tinsel every 3 plugs (so there are two plugs in between each plug with tinsel) And I liked it a lot more, but it’s all just personal preference. Experiment to see how much you like adding to the pony. I don’t think you need to add more than one strand to a single plug though, lol. Good Luck!

 

[starbeam]

*very* quick question but uh… is it possible to only do a partial rehair? I don’t want to do a full rehair if the front is still intact, but if there’s no option, then I don’t mind.
I got the chuck e cheese baby for a good price, considering her flaws are fixable. Just a hair cut and tail rust and some marks that went away with magic eraser.
I think I saw “Forget Me Not” as a hair match, but Dollyhair doesn’t stock it anymore.
Shimmerlocks has “Chief” in stock which I feel could be a good match, but I’ll see if i can rehair her with the tail first, since it’s gonna be replaced anyways.
If anyone has other good color matches, please feel free to send suggestions!

 

[CharmsPonies]

*very* quick question but uh… is it possible to only do a partial rehair? I don’t want to do a full rehair if the front is still intact, but if there’s no option, then I don’t mind.
I got the chuck e cheese baby for a good price, considering her flaws are fixable. Just a hair cut and tail rust and some marks that went away with magic eraser.
I think I saw “Forget Me Not” as a hair match, but Dollyhair doesn’t stock it anymore.
Shimmerlocks has “Chief” in stock which I feel could be a good match, but I’ll see if i can rehair her with the tail first, since it’s gonna be replaced anyways.
If anyone has other good color matches, please feel free to send suggestions!
View attachment 88249

Baby Chuck E Cheese! My favorite girl
Yes it is possible to do a partial rehair! I have rehaired only a pony’s bangs before. The thing is it might be hard to remove only the hair in the back (it’s best to remove the hair with a tool like forceps from inside of the head, so getting it into the back of the head and not the front might be a little difficult.)
I’ve seen chief, it does look like a close match!

 

[minticat]

*very* quick question but uh… is it possible to only do a partial rehair? I don’t want to do a full rehair if the front is still intact, but if there’s no option, then I don’t mind.
I got the chuck e cheese baby for a good price, considering her flaws are fixable. Just a hair cut and tail rust and some marks that went away with magic eraser.
I think I saw “Forget Me Not” as a hair match, but Dollyhair doesn’t stock it anymore.
Shimmerlocks has “Chief” in stock which I feel could be a good match, but I’ll see if i can rehair her with the tail first, since it’s gonna be replaced anyways.
If anyone has other good color matches, please feel free to send suggestions!
View attachment 88249

i've done a partial rehair before where my daddy sweet celebrations had a chunk missing from the middle of his mane. your chuck e pony looks like the cut hair is at the end, so it should be easier to go in there and pull out the right plugs.

 

[Alstroemeria]

And I've added over thin plugs. You need a reroot needle for that, though.

If you just replace part of the hair with a newer nylon the color and sheen will be slightly different and you may need fo blend it into some other plugs.

Edit: I think the hair color looks closer to 4-Speed's color (slightly purple tinted to Chief's more blue tinted) if you can find a match to that.

 

[starbeam]

Thank you guys! I appreciate the help a lot!
Now on to the bad news; I managed to pull the hair off to prepare her for a rehairing session.. however…

I think whoever cut her hair got stopped halfway through, and her tail was too short to fill out the missing plugs… >_<
Now I’m thinking about doing a full reroot

If you just replace part of the hair with a newer nylon the color and sheen will be slightly different and you may need fo blend it into some other plugs.

Edit: I think the hair color looks closer to 4-Speed's color (slightly purple tinted to Chief's more blue tinted) if you can find a match to that.

The closest color match according to both Shimmerlocks and the MLP hair matching guide for 4-Speed is still Chief, which I don’t mind since it still looks super close!
Her hair did seem more purple in warm lighting, but after comparing her to the pic in cooler-toned light, I think its a very close match!
Also— I think the two toned hair would look really cool even if it doesn’t match slightly!

 

[Alstroemeria]

Good luck. I hope it matches well. It's such a different looking color and isn't used in that many ponies.

I've ordered a common color that was supposed to be a blue without any green tones, and the picture appeared to match, but the color I got was quite green tinted. Sometimes the pictures don't match.

If it's a common used color for repairs, you can usually find someone's picture of their reroot.

 

[myhatrules]

There are several Blueberry Baskets I have my eye on on eBay, but her symbol is very intricate and I don't know if I could put tempera paint over all of the little parts of the symbol before UV fading, since I'd want to get those yellowed in between bits nice and blue again. How would I cover those while leaving the body exposed?

(I don't know if I explained my question well)

 

[Alstroemeria]

If you use tape the areas covered will still be discolored. I've had to fade several nicotine stained ponies... your best bet is to intricately cover the paint as best you can. It goes faster then you'd think once you're painting.


I've had to do a TAF before... I recommend a 18/0 or 20/0 spotter for detailed painting. It works well for eyelashes, too.

 

[shes-so-unusual]

Seconding what Alstroemeria said, I used cheap Apple Barrel white paint on my Blueberry Baskets' symbol and eyes while sunfading her, and it worked very well. Just make sure the paint dries fully before applying the Salon 40!

 

[ParadiseDreams]

Im curious about something…

Nobody has been mentioning the wattage levels they are using when sunfading in the UV boxes and they aren’t mentioning (generally) if they’re using direct sunlight so….I'm thinking everyone is using a variation here.
This is really important information that should be added though when discussing the sunfading topics I would think? I could be wrong though.
Maybe the reason why some people are frying their ponies, while others are not, could be because nobody is mentioning the details of the methods that they are using?

I want to try sunfading but I’m missing important details from you guys. Or, if this isn’t important, please let me know.

Also, maybe I missed that part of the tutorial altogether and if that’s the case, please tell me.

 

[CharmsPonies]

I tend to use the straight up sun. Don’t got the time or money to do a UV box. Takes weeks or months depending on weather but it’s always worked out fine, the only time I ever had trouble was noticing early sunburn signs on my Confetti, but she’s super prone to burning so it’s to be expected, and I was was to remove her before she Actually got burned. So long as you continually check on your ponies for any signs of burning the sun works great

 

[AutumnRoan]

I think the directions for fading in the sun are this inexact to take into account the variables involved in the diversity of peoples' situations: latitude, altitude, weather patterns, the position of windows in peoples' houses or apartments. It's a kind of grace we have to have with the sun and with our ponies (and their varied composition), and just watching them carefully is all we can do to gague how well they're doing. With a UV box, you could be much more exact, but I don't have one, so I can't contribute any data.

 

[ParadiseDreams]

I think the directions for fading in the sun are this inexact to take into account the variables involved in the diversity of peoples' situations: latitude, altitude, weather patterns, the position of windows in peoples' houses or apartments. It's a kind of grace we have to have with the sun and with our ponies (and their varied composition), and just watching them carefully is all we can do to gague how well they're doing. With a UV box, you could be much more exact, but I don't have one, so I can't contribute any data.

I think I’m mostly curious about the variables of the boxes because there’s several different wattages to choose from on the market and I’m wondering if the boxes are more prone to burn the ponies.
I’ll invest in a box but I need more information to get started which is why I’m digging for more information on it.
The sun - obviously there is going to be differences in locations but I live on the east coast of the US and it’s simply too humid out here for me to trust putting a pony out for hours.