Sometimes ponies get the bad end of the adventure. They bravely face animal and human teeth, hands, scissors, and who knows what else!

Some restorations involve replacing missing parts.

So, what are the tips and tricks for repairing damaged vinyl?
What do you use? How do you smooth it? Where do you get it?

I use apoxie sculpt. It's an air hardening two part epoxy clay that takes painting and sanding like a dream!

The hardest part of sculpting is patience. It takes several times of curing the clay, sanding, resculpting, curing the clay, and sanding again to get everything smooth and clean.

What about you guys?

I've fallen in love with Lumina (a semi translucent air dry polymer clay) for my sculpting. It dries flexible and blends with the plastic well. I also love that I can mix in acrylic paint into the clay and have it dry close very close to its wet stage. It can take a few days to completely dry, but with a touch of water you can still smooth out the rough spots til then.

Did I mention that I love Lumina.

I've been using bendy sculpty, But I'd love to try out the Lumina!

I always worry about the pony in the ovens.

I use Apoxie Sculpt too, smooth with water while malleable and lots of sanding when cured.

I use Apoxie as well. I smooth it out with water or a bit of hand lotion and sand it once it's cured. I love the fact that it's air dry. I can't even cook macaroni without messing it up. I'd hate to see what would happen if I tried baking ponies!

Tinker, that Lumina sounds awesome! I'd love to try it.

I am very interested in the Lumina - have read lots of reviews on it - but I am on a craft store ban until I can control my spending...te he he.

I use apoxie too - I used to use hand lotion for smoothing until I got the solvent they sell - it is way better imo. It smoothes so much easier and when it is dry you can take the solvent to it and further smooth it. I use my dremel to sand it and buff it.

I also use sculpey for some things.

Really?! They sent along some of the solvent with my last order for no charge. I haven't used it yet b/c I thought it was just for cleanup. I had no idea it could be used for smoothing too.

What about for those just starting? Maybe they only have one pony to touch up and don't want to invest much. Any ideas?

this may sound very noob-ish but I wonder if that crayola air dry clay would be good for anything small???

I have one or two unicorns who are missing the tips of their horns. I don't want to buy a large amount of clay for something small...are there different sized packages I can buy? Is the clay expensive?

dorabialota wrote:

this may sound very noob-ish but I wonder if that crayola air dry clay would be good for anything small???

I've tried working with that stuff, and really can't stand it. It's crumbly if you don't add water to it, cracks easy when it dries, and the finished pieces tend to be brittle.

I've got some air-dry polymer clay (can't remember the brand right now) and love it. I haven't tried it with ponies yet, but wonder how well it would stick to the plastic.

I am not participating in the contest, but as a completely clueless beginner on the subject of sculpting I could need some help in general.

What would you guys recommend for reparing very small holes and missing bits?
I have this poor non BBE Baby Licketly Split with bite marks and a missing ear tip...
Bite marks

Also, I hate the idea of having to do a complete repaint... but on the other hand, it seems impossible to mix acrylics to match the rest of the body that well. I guess I could repaint the head only?


I fear I might not be able to find Lumina or Apoxie over here... we have a huge range of FIMO, but most of that needs to be baked in the oven... surely that would be too hot for a pony?

I have never sculpted anything on a pony until last night---- I tried sculpting bat wings on a fluttershy using clay meant for pottery. When they dried, they cracked everywhere and then started falling apart, so to everyone: pottery clay is for pottery, no ponies and it was so messy, it felt like I was piling mud on the poor fluttershy lol. I'm going to try some epoxy very soon, so I hope that goes along better than the pottery clay lol.

Sculpey is a great polymer clay that's about $3 or $4 for a 2x3 inch brick of clay. You can find it at craft stores and I *think* walmart has a version. The bad news is that although it is easy to use, it has to heat cure. While the instructions call for oven baking, some people have had success hardening it with boiling water or a hair dryer on high. It might work for quick fixes, but if it's not baked it might not be as easily sanded.

Aves sells a 1/4 pound of apoxie sculpt that would also be nice for beginners or experts. It's $8.50 plus shipping, but worth every penny!
www.avestudio.com or ebay.
The studio ships super fast, ususally arrives in 2 or 3 days for me.

Hope this helps Any other ideas?

okiegurl1981 wrote:

Really?! They sent along some of the solvent with my last order for no charge. I haven't used it yet b/c I thought it was just for cleanup. I had no idea it could be used for smoothing too.

Thats how I got it too - I got some free and heard all the great reviews on their forum and tried it and haven't used lotion since. Make sure to wash your hands very well afterwards but wow it just cuts through the apoxie like it was made of butter and allows so much better detail in the tooling.

I also like the apoxie paste - a little messy for beginners but it is the best when there are chew marks and you need to smooth them out.