An 'MLP' modelling thread for your Daughter - Curious??

[Army_Air_Force]

The curved window was placed over the opening, and a border drawn slightly larger than the opening to cut to. 

 

 

After adding masking tape window frames, the curved window was glued into the tower.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Back to the station again. The overhanging roof has turned wooden pillars to support it. The only easy way to do this was to get on my lathe and turn some pillars! 

 

 

The door of the station had a small pan head screw added as a door handle and the windows had their outer frames made and glued on. The pillars were stained, the platform glued to the building base and the pillars glued in. The last job would be to make the thatched roof.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The next two pictures show the station placed in position, with the lights on. Twilight and Rainbow Dash chat about the progress so far. My daughter and I hoped they were pleased with how Ponyville was coming together.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

On August 29th 2016, the first job of the morning was thatching the station roof. To create a thatched effect, we used a coating of white Milliput epoxy putty. While it was still soft, we dragged a fork across the surface, followed by a scalpel blade to create the straw texture. This was left in the sun a few hours to harden. 

 

 

Once cured, I mixed up some cream/straw coloured paint and gave it a couple of coats. In the bright daylight, it still looks fairly white.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The boutique has a fairly tall tower, the top of which would have to be removeable. This is the start of that upper removeable section. 

 

 

Later, once the first parts had dried, I began planking the roof shape to create the cone. This structure would be allowed to dry overnight before the rest of the planking was added.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The lower part of the boutique had the card painted in dilute PVA to harden it up. The window clear plastic was elastic banded around it, then heated to form the curved glazing. With that done, the window openings were cut. 

The first storey was glued to the ground floor, and then planking added to create the cone shaped roof between the two levels. Those were then left ot dry overnight. The gaps would be filled in the next session and then that part of the roof would be sanded. The start of the doorway can also be seen. 

 

 

The earlier top section of roof can be seen placed in position here. There is another open structure tower goes on top of this, followed by a small spire!

 

 

The last shot of the day shows all three buildings in their approximate positions. They aren't this close in the TV show of course, but quite a few compromises are necessary in this micro layout, which is after all, a little less than 3 x 2 feet in size.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

August 31st 2016 - After a day off from building, we returned armed with some paint. Time to paint the sky.....

 

 

.....then grass and rocks.....

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

.....and more grass, leaving the area for the buildings in bare wood. The backscene would need a background painting before the buildings were attached and after that, the ground around them could be blended in and painted.

 

 

.....and the other side of the layout.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Minty, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are all impressed. Twilight is watching from the top of the Oak Tree.

 

 

Colour and buildings!!! - Excitement level was high at the end of the day.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Sept 1st 2016 - The afternoon was all about wiring. Twenty, red, green, blue, yellow, and white flickering LED's were wired up to resistors and fly leads, and then grouped in clusters of three and four. They were then glued into the holes on the layout. 

 

 

The inside of the holes were then filled with a little fine sand, and glued with dilute PVA.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

While they were drying, I started on the camp fire. I'd previously soldered a 3mm red and yellow flickering LED together, and these were glued into a hole at the campfire location. 

 

 

Some strips of wood, stained a few weeks ago, were then slowly glued into a pile around the LED's. This was done with the LED's illuminated so I could pile them up, leaving appropriate gaps to allow the LED's to show through.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Later in the afternoon, the fly-leads from the gem LED's were soldered into two clusters of three holes, so that either of the set of three could be illuminated on their own, or all six sets together. The colours show well to the naked eye, but their brightness flooded the camera sensor, making it hard for it to pick up the individual LED's in each hole.

 

 

I also added some more planking to the cone on the top of the boutique tower, and filled the gaps in the planking on the lower part of the building.

 

Here's a GIF animation of the fire. It is 1.6MB, so may take a moment or two to load.
 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The 2016 school holidays ended on September 5th, and while the layout wasn't finished, we'd made great progress on the layout. The project had filled in the Summer holidays and kept us entertained for the almost seven weeks of the break.

 

The early part of September was spent mostly with wiring, and due to the hot iron and the chance of burns, I didn't let my daughter do any of that. Since the buildings wouldn't be added until the backscene was painted, I terminated all the wiring with copper clad board next to the hole where the building wiring drops through the base board. All the wiring could be fitted and tested with a spare LED, just leaving the final connections once the buildings were attached.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The hardboard backscene, which also formed the control panel, was faced with some 1/32 inch plywood for a nice finish. A side panel would be removable to access in the tunnel and to access the switch wiring.

 

 

The top cone roof on the boutique also had its planking finished on Friday, and was left to dry. This can now be sanded and filled to create the final finish.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

After watching further episodes, we decided to give the river a more cartoon feel like the series, by painting it blue. It needed another coat before varnishing again and some white water adding around the rocks and waterfall. The swamp has been left a muddy brown colour, which is how it appears in the show.

 

 

By this time, all the switches had been wired up.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Whofan]

I've got to say that this has brought some memories of watching My little pony with our daughter, probably 30 years ago!

 

Do kids still sing the song 

 

"My little pony,

Skinny and bony" ?

 

I think the ponies seem to have become a little more cartoony than I remember, but that's how the show is, I suppose.

 

This is clearly a Labour of love for you, and it's great to see the obvious enjoyment your daughter has in doing things in the model.

[Army_Air_Force]

Sept 6th 2016 - I mixed up some PVA glue and clump foliage, then used it to form some hedges on the hillside under Cloudsdale.

 

 

The support for the clouds was a piece of 1/8 inch ply, which would be glued to the backscene over the hillside. It needed covering with cotton wool clouds first.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The river had its white water added and then further bushes were added around the swamp and river, plus some up the path through the Everfree Forest.

 

 

The beginnings of a new platform were made from more 1/8 inch ply. This stop would allow ponies to gain access to the Crystall Empire on the top of the hill with just a short walk through the forest.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The bushes needed time to dry and as the white of the PVA turned transparent, the bushes would darken a little. I still needed to work further on the backscene painting and add some more foreground trees.

 

 

As for the forest, the real trees started to take shape. Copper wire trunks and branches were painted with a PVA/brown paint mix, and then more clump foliage added. When the first stage dried, further foliage could be added, building up the tree shape.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Sept 7th 2016 - The new platform was glued down and the the gaps filled. Once dry, it would be planked with stained wood strips like the other platform.

 

 

While the platform was drying, it was time for more bushes, hedges; and Springtime has arrived, as the flowers are now in full bloom! This brought a lot more colour to the rocky areas and grass.
 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

 

The window boxes were also 'planted' on the Oak Tree Library.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The river side of the layout was also planted. Not shown in these pictures, but the trees I was working on had more foliage added. If too much is added in one go, the weight of the wet foliage pulls it off the branches.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[JPuente54]

This is really taking shape beautifully! The two of you have done a great job of building the set.

Joe

[Army_Air_Force]

I've had a busy few days doing World War 2 events. One was a school visit and the other a weekend event at a local railway, but back now to continue the story.

 

On the evening of Sept 7th 2016, I started painting the backscene. I spent three and a half hours painting Sweet Apple Acres Farm! It's only about 2.5 x 3 inches, and for several small details, I was using the wrong end of a paint brush, sharpened to a point to apply the paint, while peering through a large magnifying glass. The white window frames will probably have to be done with a gel pen.

 

Working on the backscene while it was attached to the railway was difficult, due to the angles and position I needed to hold the brush, but there wasn't really any other option due to the order of construction. The internet provided a good picture to work from.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The following morning I had a go at Cloudsdale. Cotton wool on its own would tear with play, so I had to toughen it up. I started by dunking cotton wool into a dilute PVA mix, but it lost all its fluffiness. So I painted the ply cloud base with PVA glue, and stuck dry cotton wool onto it. Once in place, I dripped dilute PVA onto the cotton wool, which held its shape better. Once dry, the cloud turned hard, but still looked fluffy.

This is the bottom, which was done first.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force