Customizing For Beginners
Hi there. Welcome to the fun world of customizing ponies. Customizing a pony involves taking a hasbro My Little Pony, removing the symbols and hair and making her (Or him) into something totally your own.
Terms
Before we get started you need to know the lingo most customizers use.
G3.5: (Meaning Generation 3.5) These are the ponies currently in stores. They have a tiny body and a huge head. I consider them ugly but others have chosen to use them.
G3: (Meaning Generation 3) Ponies made from 2003 to 2009
G2: (Meaning Generation 2) Rarely will you hear this used in customizing circles seeing as how most of us believe the only good G2 is a trashed G2. G2's were Hasbro's first attempt at ressurecting the MLP line and they flopped miserably because they looked hideous.
G1: (Meaning Generation 1) The ponies made back in the 80s.
Bait: The pony you plan to use as the base for your custom.
OOAK: One Of A Kind
DG fakie: Baby ponies that you can only find at Dollar General stores (These are mainly in the mid-west.). They are $1 for 2 of them and they are almost identical to G1 newborns. And I say almost because I recently compared them and there are some minor differences. They are a little smaller, their leg pose is a bit different and their face is a little thinner. Other than that they're perfect for customizing. Defanitly get your hands on 'em if you can.
Fakie: Refers to pretty much any non-Hasbro MLP look-a-like. Most of these are fairly ugly and look absolutely nothing like G3s, however, lately many G3 copies have been showing up in dollar stores and the like. They can be used for customizing but be careful as the plastic is often much thinner and weaker than the real thing.
Chibi ponies: These are a fairly new addition to the lingo list. Chibi mean 'small' in japanese. In the world of MLP it refers to the new ponyville ponies which are no bigger than a breezy.
Supplies
Now, some of this stuff is optional—such as the curling iron if you prefer straw curling or don't plan to curl hair at all—but seeing as how every customizer is different I decided to just go with my full list and let you pick and choose your own arsenal. ^_^\/ Items marked with a 
are an absolute MUST.
A bait pony: This can be G3 or G1. Always remember, when choosing your bait pony make sure it is not rare or hard to find. If you customize a rare or potentially valuable pony it tends to upset collectors. There is a list that can tell you if a certain G1 is rare here. For a list of rare G3s click here
Large, medium, and small flat brushes: Available at most craft stores. The brand I use is Plaid.
Medium, small, and tiny (These are usually no more than 6 hairs or so) round brushes: Basicly, you're gonna want a large amount of brushes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
100% Acetone: You can find it right next to the nailpolish remover in almost any store. You can also find it in hardware stores (Usually near the painting supplies). This is what you use to remove symbols, eyes and clean up painting mistakes.
Acrylic paint: The brands people use varies, but I use Americana (Available at most craft stores). It's usually about 0.88 per bottle and comes in a large selection of colors. For white, however, I would strongly suggest buying a tube of Gallery paint (Near the fine art supplies). This is also acrylic, but it's much finer and covers WAY better. White paint is notorious for not covering well, which is why buying this will save you many headaches. Just make sure you thin it out properly.
A Lady Daydreamer rehairing tool: This tool is a customizer's lifesaver. Just run a search for her site on Google and you'll find 'em.
Aleen's Tacky Glue: Awesome stuff. And if you rehair your ponies, you'll be using it a lot. (Found almost anywhere there are craft supplies)
Zap-a-Gap: A fantastic glue found in many hobby shops and some Wal-Marts. Comes in a small white squeeze bottle with a green label.
Scissors
Sandpaper: You'll need multiple grit levels.
Sandsticks: Usually the ones found in nail care packages will do.
Metal files: These can save you a lot of time if you are sanding down something large that you're too afraid cutting may damage. If you go to a hobby shop they often have them in a fabulous range of shapes and sizes.
Apoxie sculpt: I keep this in my stock at all times. It's a self hardening, 2-part apoxie sculpting medium that has no shrinkage when it dries and is hard as a rock once it's completely set. I aDORE this stuff.
Super Sculpty: The cheaper, easier alternative to Apoxie sculpt. Usually the best bet for beginners. It's a clay compound and is found in most craft stores (Unlike Apoxie sculpt, which must be ordered from the Aves website). It's a home oven bake clay and that's its major disadvantage. Especially if you're going to be doing a lot of sculpting on a single pony since repeat trips in the oven can cause problems. It's also not quite as durable as Apoxie sculpt, although it's volumes stronger than regular Sculpty. There are also times when I've needed to sculpt something over hair, and hair can't go in the oven. Sculpty also doesn't smooth as well as Apoxie Sculpt.
An X-acto (AKA: hobby knife): This is very useful for taking the the head off an early G3 bait.
Long tweezers: These are for removing hair from the inside of the head of a bait pony.
Fishing line: For threading tails.
Lightweight sculpter's mesh: For making tails (You'll see why when you read the tail tutorial). I know most people use washers or pull ties, but I find the mesh to be infinitly simpler. This can be found in most craft stores. Just ask the staff if you're unsure of where it might be. My Michaels has it with the fine art supplies.
Soft artist's pencil: For outlining.
Kneaded eraser: For pencil mistakes.
Q-tips: some people will tell you to use cotton balls, but I find Q-tips much easier to work with and they don't shed any of their cotton into paint like cotton balls tend to do. Others will tell you to use paper towels, but I find they absorb too much of the acetone and it's hard to remove small parts of a symbol or eye paint without accidentally taking off the parts you want.
Round chopsticks: I find these very helpful for appyling glue to the inside of pony heads; which you will be doing if you plan to rehair.
Delta Ceramcoat matte interior varnish: For sealing symbols and full body paint jobs.
Delta Ceramcoat gloss varnish: For sealing eyes. Gives them a wonderfully life-like shine.
A paint pallet: You can get a good sized, round, plastic one at at craft store for under $2
Hair: If you rehair a pony then you obviously need new hair to put in. I get my hair from 2 sources.
2) Dollyhair.com: Large color selection. Great prices. Carries Saran and Nylon hair.
2) Restore Doll.com: This site has saran hair. One order contains 2 skeins and each skein should rehair one adult pony. Because of the higher prices I usually only resort to this site if Dollyhair doesn't have the color I need.
A hair dryer: This is a MASSIVE time saver. I use it to quick dry paint in-between coats. I love love love it.
A curling iron: Usually the smallest size you can find is best
Design blanks: These are VERY important. These let you work out the design of your pony before you start painting. It much easier than fixing time consuming mistakes on your pony later. Below are links to the blanks I use. These are official Hasbro images, jut to let you know. The only one that isn't is the baby pony outline and I drew that myself. You are free to use it to design baby ponies, but do not post it on your website without my permission. I'm slowly working on optimizing these blanks for bucket filling. Enjoy!
Okay. Now that that's out of the way we can get on with the tutorial. ^_^\/ First, choose your bait pony. Whether or not you use a G1 or a G3 is up to you, but with the G3s you have a lot more choices and you're less likely to accidentally customize a rare. After choosing a bait use the blanks to design your pony.
Here are the links to the different parts of the tutorial. I've numbered them for you. You can follow them in order if you need the full tutorial. You can also visit just a couple sections if you don't need help with every aspect of customizing. Have fun! ^_^\/
- Getting the head off (If you're going to rehair)
- Hair and tail removal
- Taking off the symbols and eyes
- Painting symbols- Time to color ^_~ (Open, but no images yet)
- Painting eyes- (Open, but no images yet)
- Rehairing- Time for the "mane" event. Lol. Learn how to give your pony a new mane and tail.
