Presenting The Future Grand Moff Sparklybelle

[elsajeni]

So, I have decided to enter the world of My Little Pony modding.

Yes, this is weird. I was never that interested in My Little Ponies, or any sort of pony, for that matter, and I have no artistic skill to speak of, so naturally, I'm experimenting with a hobby requiring a certain affection for ponies and competence with paint.

I bought a pony at Toys-R-Us for roughly five bucks. Her name is Royal Bouquet. This is her:



As you can see, she has a little pink clothes hanger on one hoof, which apparently means she can wear My Little Pony clothes. The idea of My Little Pony clothes strikes me as something of an abomination -- they're ponies, they're SUPPOSED to be naked. I threw away her awful hat immediately.

I studied a bunch of pony-modding tutorials, particularly those by Aikarin, and decided the first thing I should do was rough out my design. Luckily, I was able to find a coloring-book-type outline; if I'd had to draw my own pony, I might have given up right then. Here's my rough design. The people who do this as a serious hobby all use Photoshop or other expensive graphics programs.



Naturally, I used MS Paint. Compare:



I'm an artistic genius, right?

So far, I have beheaded my pony (I felt kind of uncomfortable about this step), removed her tail, ordered new hair (black, white, and silver), made a shopping list, and started removing her painted-on symbols (the flower on her tush and the little clothes hanger). Oh, and spilled nail-polish remover all over my left leg in the process. Further updates as I make progress.

Comments

[noevilliveon.livejournal.com]

First of all: you are absolutely, completely, diabolically, insane. And it's AWESOME.

Second: I miss ya, hon! What's been up?

[nojh.livejournal.com]

That is both very geeky and rather disturbing. Had I not already had a friend who did pony modding I'd be even more weirded out.

[newtonsenigma.livejournal.com]

can you make it say something like "You may fire when ready. You are too trusting Princess Leia" or some other thing...?

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

... Probably, or Zack could, anyway. I don't know if I'd want to, though. Royal Bouquet is a closed-mouth model, so I feel like making her talk would ruin the, um, verisimilitude. Of having a pony dressed like a Star Wars character. Right.

If this one comes out well, though, I will be looking for an open-mouth model to make a Princess Leia, so that I can re-shape the mouth slightly and make it look horrified. Then they can stand next to each other and be a pony tableau.

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Frickin' awesome! Do, please do post further updates as you make progress.

[sheepfairy.livejournal.com]

Man, that is genius.

And I forgot their little heads detached! I'd wondered how people managed to switch the hair out.

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

The hair is going to be a bitch and a half. The neck opening is tiny, and the only way to get the old hair out is with strong tweezers or very tiny needlenose pliers.

[djhacidic.livejournal.com]

I can't believe there is actually enough of a subculture to warrant a name like "ponymodding." Also, in the vein of alternative My Little Pony, you should check this out: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05282008.shtml
That is all.