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

[Army_Air_Force]

While the cloud was drying ( there's an odd concept!! ), I also added further foliage to the trees, to build up a nicer shape for them. More plant life was added over the tunnel mouth near the farm.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

While all the PVA was drying, I turned my attention to the backscene again. The three real buildings in Ponyville needed further buildings behind to increase the size of the town, even though there aren't many gaps to see through. So behind the station, I wanted a small house. After printing one the right size, I drew around the outline, and then slowly cut more and more parts off, drawing around each piece as I went. This slowly transferred the house onto the backscene. The paper print out is seen below with part of the building already transferred to the backscene.

 

 

Once all the lines were drawn out, I began to fill in the colour. The pale colours took two or three coats. The baseboard made it difficult to hold the brush at a comfortable angle to work here too.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The house is pretty much done in this picture, bar some small details.

 

 

The station building does hide the house to some degree, but it should still be seen in the gap between the station and oak tree library.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

September 9th '16 saw further back scene progress, with additional buildings painted between the Boutique and Library and a small wood.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's a closer shot of the wood. Much of this would be hidden by the foreground buildings, so I didn't go to town on these.

 

 

By early evening, the pink detail painting was done - 90 minutes peering through a magnifying glass, painting with the sharpened handle end of a paint brush.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

These pictures show the backscene through the gaps between the buildings. Much is hidden, but it needed to be done.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

September 10th 2016 - Sweet Apple Acres Farm is now done. My wife brought a white gel pen back from shopping, which allowed the detail work to be applied. The pen was much more easy to use than a paint brush. The inch rule gives scale to the building.

 

 

Based on the picture I was copying, the beginnings of the second farm building was started.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Five apple trees were added to the field in front of the farm, with their trunks blended into the ground with a paint/PVA glue mix, with a little fine sawdust mixed in.

 

 

Also based on the picture I'm working from is this rose bush archway on the path leading to the farm. Some square section brass tube was heated, formed into the arch and soldered. It was given a coat of white enamel paint and is seen here drying. The other farm building in the background is also complete.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Another detail on the picture is a well. This is the start of my copy. The base is 1/32 inch ply, while the main part of the well is turned modelling resin.

 

 

Some further gel pen detail was applied to the large backscene house.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's a closer view of the completed farm building.

 

 

Here's the well, heading towards completion. The well still needed thread adding and some detail painting of the stone work. Once that was done, it could be glued down. The rose arch is glued in place in this shot, and waiting for the roses to be added. A path has been painted to the farm. 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The rose arch was covered in foliage, and after force drying it a little, the roses bloomed!

 

 

The apple trees have also grown some fruit!

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

September 12th 2016 - The Everfree Forest grew rapidly that day. About 80% of it was planted, with a few extra new trees being made later and left to dry.

 

 

The well received a little more detail painting, but that was it on the well for the day.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

After planting the remaining trees in the forest, the swamp and river were varnished. At this point, it had only had one coat of varnish, but the river would need more.

 

 

Looking along the river makes quite a nice view.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Since the early days of the project, my daughter wanted frogs in "Froggy Bottom Bog". Frogs proportional to the ponies was impossible, but for a child, scale and proportions doesn't matter, so I decided to have a go at a master frog that could be moulded. 

It was carved and sanded from modelling resin block with the legs made from styrene. It was left for the day with filler hardening around the legs, and needing a final fine sand before moulding.

Yes, it's way too big, but my daughter loves it.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[spaddad]

This is mental, you're mental, but in a good way.

[Army_Air_Force]

Sept 13th 2016 - After some fine surface sanding, the frog was boxed up along with some non-rail accessories, ready for the silicone rubber.

 

 

Once the silicone was mixed and poured, I used a palm sized orbital sander to vibrate each mould to help expel any trapped air.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Once the moulds were done and left to cure, I turned my attention back to 'Cloudsdale', the home of 'Rainbow Dash'. The screen capture of Cloudsdale from the TV was a tall thin building in the clouds. This didn't suit the space I had, so I reworked the image on the computer, making it much wider. As before, the image was transferred in pencil first.

 

 

There was lots of peering through the magnifying glass for this, as there were lots of small curved lines to follow with the brush, and the white paint not being particularly dense, required three coats to cover the blue sky.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

With the artwork almost done, 'Rainbow Dash' visited to see how things were getting on. The rainbows had a white base coat painted with the colours added with gel pens.

 

 

The last painting for the evening was some detail work on the buildings and some trees and hedges on the backscene below the cloud.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Sept 14th 2016 - The backscene paint was sanded away along the base of the Cloudsdale painting, and the cotton wool cloud epoxied on. A few more small painted clouds were added to the left side above the cotton cloud.

 

 

The well reel was painted and then some thread wrapped around and glued in place. It was then glued down to the layout and sand used to blend in the landscape.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The Station and Oak Tree Library were glue down next, and sand used to blend in the bases.

 

 

The LED's were also connected up to the wiring harness already made on the bottom of the layout.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

A mix of PVA glue and a light weight wood filler were mixed to make the white water on the waterfall. After it dried, it was varnished again.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The camp fire received some small stones around the base to stop the fire from spreading.

 

 

The last job done for the day was sanding both the cone shaped sections on the boutique and using car body filler on the top cone. This was sanded smooth and some fine surface filler added after that.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[stevehnz]

Impressive, I'm impressed, that's for sure.

Steve.

[Army_Air_Force]

Thanks. It was a fun and very different project to the usual.

The top of the boutique was wet sanded, rubbing off most of the fine surface filler.

 

 

Magnets were recessed into the main building and top section to hold the top in place. Since the whole thing is round, I planned to add a dowel key, so it only fits on the way the magnet holds it most securely.
 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Sept 15th 2016 - Some long M3 bolts were used for the pillars on the top and an eight sided resin cone epoxied to the top to complete the building height. This was left over from another project, but was just the right size. It just needs some filler to blend it into the circular ply base.

 

 

Later in the day, a small cottage was started to go on the road up to the station. I was thinking about a two storey building to start with, but decided against it as it would block too much of the station. The 1/8 ply frame would be clad with 1/32 inch ply, into which will be set the glazing, as I'd done on the station.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force