SoaringSentinel

I used minky for the eyes, i thought about using felt but it felt too coarse. And i already had some of the colors for the eyes in minky. It might not have been the best solution i could have gone for but it was the most convenient at the time. Cutie mark and regalia are also minky btw

I made the eyes by cutting out the pieces and then layering them ontop of eachother then sowing each piece onto the white eye base and then sowing them onto the head. Quicky update. things have been a bit hectic here on a personal level so i havent had much time to work on her. but i'm nearly done with the patern for the hair so with a little luck expect something by the end of this week.

next on the agenda is princess celestia which will be too scale with this luna. so luna is 1.2 meters tall celestia will be near 1.50 - 1.60 meters tall. and hopefully now that i have kind of gotten the hang of it, it should be without as many mistakes.

yes its a wacom cintiq 22HD it love it for drawing and texturing. i'm a cg artist and it really speeds my workflow since i have trouble with the visual disconnect you get when using a regular tablet.

I got the idea december 30th 2012 then i had the idea in my head for about 2 months in which i did some planning and research. then in february i started gathering materials and by the end of feb i had started work. since this has been a big learning process for me and i couldnt spend all my free time on her it has taken me nearly 2 months of work to get her to where she is now. i suspect another 2 weeks before she is done. and then comes the big decision. to sell or not to sell. In any case i plan to do Celestia next. she will be to scale with this Luna so seeing as luna is 1.20m celestia will be close to 1.50m. after that if i decide to do another i'll do a mane 6 pony and after that i'll likely open up for commisions as by then i'll have a body patern for all 3 types of pony.

hey guys its been a while since the last update, most of that was because there was the purple fabric i ordered for her mane and taill wasent availible and also some personal stuff i had to take care of. but now i'm back into the swing of things. Luna's body is now completly closed all the stuffing that she'll need to stay upright is in and now i just have to worry about the tail, mane, and crown. here's the amputated tail which will be attached tommorow. The tail will be dotted with small sparkly plastic gems (dunno what they are called) everything but the horn is now permanently attached. tommorow i'll add the ears then next week i'll work on the hair. Comments are welcome as usual

Thank you for the advice, any critique's and comments by more experienced plushie makers are always welcome. I will definetly take it under advisement

Quickie update. Upon closer inspection the satin i was planning to use for the hair is a no go. It rips to easily when attached to minky. So luna will be 100% minky. Which means i'll have to wait for the batch of purple minky to arrive which could be friday or monday. Also i am researching the posibility of doing commisions. Important note if i do start taking commisions. I'll only accept 1 at a time. Here is how i see this working: Someone sends me a comission request. If i dont have one in the works i'll accept it and start work. If i have one in the works, i'll put that person on a list, and once i am done i will contact the person thats next on that list to see if they are still interested and so on. Also no OC's, show ponies only. This simply because i have to like the thing i am making, while some oc's are quite awesome some are not. And if you want me to make something awesome i have to be invested in the project and the show ponies provide a common ground where i like almost all of them. This way i wont have to get invested in making something i dont like. Seeing as this is a hobby. Note i am not accepting any yet so dont bother sending requests yet. I am merely putting my thoughts out there to see if these are reasonable requests. Let me know

Dear Princess Celestia, Today Luna did something no pony has ever done she was able to stand still for a really long time. and earned her wings. Your Faithfull student, Soaring Sentinel. P.S. here's a picture P.S.S. you need to talk to her about her haircut...

Thank youHarvan for the coathanger suggestion it worked perfectly. its rigid enoegh to keep them up and still somewhat fllexible the result! Thanks for all the suggestions. it was very much appriciated. now comes the scary part. cutting holes in the body to put the metal through.

The wings weigh about half a kilo each hence why i need something strong. But also flexible enoegh that if (worst case scenario) someone tripped and fell on her that they wont be impaled by the wire because i used depleted uranium rods to keep the wings up or something

Thanks, ill take a look at the coat hangers tommorow, and if that doesnt work i gues ill head down to the hardware store. These are great suggestions, keep em comming i really appriciate it. As for selling her. I haven't decided yet. I've already had some jaw dropping offers from some people. But they haven't seen the final result yet. And i'm someone who want to deliver quality if i do sell her. There is still plenty that can go wrong., especialy wince it's my first. Also there is a small issue with the mouth. Hence why i havent shown any pictures from the front yet. Since its quite crooked and im looking into maybe fixing it somehow,

I am stuck, i need something to keep the wings upright. currently i've tried putting metal wire in ( hand braided 3 times) and its just not enoegh. can someone recomend somekind of strong but flexible material i could use to keep them up. perhaps some different kind of metal wire or tubing?

you cant see it in the picture but luna leans slightly to the left. once the hair is attached it will pull the head and the body to the right so it will balance out. (or thats the theory )

alright after taking a break for a few days, i'm back to working on her. i received more stuffing today so i could finaly stuff her properly. and the shape is much better now. I put her in a little pose she's also able to stand much better now that she's slightly heavier in the front. you can give her a little push and she wont tip over the added weight will be balanced out by the tail and the wings (or atleast thats my theory) I've also started on putting the helix in the horn. i'm using a ribbon for that which i will sow into place. also note how the back of the head is a little boxy, this is intional so the hair has more room to fill out her profile.

This is honestly my first ever plushie. Back in the day when I was 6 or 7 I did make some clothes for my action figures with help from my mom. so thats the only kind of sowing experience I have. With Luna, my mom is helping me again with some of the sowing (and she is providing my with the sowing machine) but the paterns are mine. I am a 3d modeler for video games with several years experience. And one thing i've learned over the years is; once you learn how to create a 3d object out of 2d plans and images, you can create anything you imagine in almost any material there is. All you need to learn are the rules of the material that you want to use. What I did for luna's patern is take KP-shadowsquirell's 3d model of luna (since I dont have as much free time to make my own) which he has on his deviantart page. modify it in maya so it is more season 2 accurate (longer legs, different neck pose change the body proportions around a little bit etc.) Then I use an automatic unwrapping program like unfold 3d to draw where I think the seams should be on the model. To determine where the seams go I look at other plushies people have made and look for which one has the best body proportions least visible seams and overall best show accurate result. Based on those pictures i draw the seams directly onto the 3d model and then have the uv map program unwrap them for me, if you did it properly you will get very accurate paterns. I then traced the paterns you get from the uv program using adobe illustrator and print them out onto sheets of A4 paper using the tiling setting in illustrator. Then I tape the pieces of paper together and cut them out. and voila you have your very own model accurate sowing paterns. Now what I learned over the course of this project. Paterns are everything, I made some test plushies using some of the free ones out there and found they didnt provide what I was looking for. not all fabric behaves the same. I've had to make several adjustments to the head paterns to get them how they are now. Also not all materials like going together such as satin and minky. When minky stretches it'll rip satin apart at the seams. I hope this clears up some of the doupts about whether or not this is indeed my first plushie. And perhaps help some people make their own show accurate ones. This is my version of KP Shadowsquirrel's model. Note i made different feet and wings for the plushie. for which i used my own models. (not shown in the pic)

i know what you mean, i initialy made luna's hooves out of satin cause i wanted them to be shiny. it looked great until i started to stuff it. then the seems just ripped open. hence why they are now made of minky. with a little luck i'll get to attaching the wings todayand start working on the patern for the tail

I agree the horn is at the wrong angle, fortunatly its not attached yet. its held on there by pins, untill I get a better handle on what the hair is going to look like.

Wel for the tail i'm going to make the navy blue part out of minky and the transperant purple out of purple satin. the mane and tail will also be dotted with small crystals to add the sparklies

here she is body is completly finished. next up, the wings also the regalia isnt attached yet. still just pins. Proof that she can stand on her own legs with the wings. The money shot

Presenting the eyes, made with minky. with a little luck I'll be attaching the head to the body permanently tommorow . then my next hickup will be attaching the wings to the body.

I am filling her with a material called fiber fill. From what I understand its the go to material to put in stuffed toys. In other news: ive been shopping around for different eye shapes to put on her instead of the default ones that everyone else uses. And from what i've seen the default ones look the best on my luna aswel so i've finished the paterns for those and will be starting work on those tommorow. Aso the replacement minky for the slippers will be arriving tommorow so expect some more progress over the weekend

I fixed the head. I will probably start on the eyes sometime tommorow. Dont mind the metal wire holding up the head, i havent attached the head to the neck yet.

I reworded it, I dont mean to offend anyone, but I stand by my statement that so far everything hasbro has put out does not meet my (ridiculously) high quality standards for official merchiandise.