Chop Chop

One of the pony projects I’m really excited about right now is my beautiful HA Fritz resin, a gift from Caryn. He is so cool and dynamic, and even though the casting was sold as raw he was really quite easy to prep.

But of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I was researching breeds for him and kept seeing that his back was just a bit short for any of the mixes I had in mind. Furthermore, if I ever wanted to show him in performance, saddle fit would be tough. So with the blessings of both Caryn and Horsing Around, I set out to lengthen his back.

The first thing I did was take the above photo into a photo editing program and add length digitally, as a way of testing things out.

I liked how that looked, so I set to work. First I went back and reviewed Jennifer Buxton’s post on halfsy horses. Not all of her tips were applicable for this much smaller scale, but I did make a point of drawing lines across Fritz’s barrel so I could match him up again, like Jennifer did with her Boreas.

Then I did a whole lot of dremeling. The resin turned out to be totally solid, and with those trotting legs it wasn’t always easy to get the dremel blade where it needed to go. I did my best to cut as straight as possible, and to not cut away any more material than I had to.

After that, I pegged the two pieces together with three big wires, filled the gap with aluminum foil covered in super glue and baking soda, and then epoxied over that to get a nice smooth barrel.

And here he is, several hours of sanding and priming later, nearly ready to go:

I’m thinking a mulberry grey or bay going grey for him, but I’m open to suggestions. He’s already so pretty just in his naked white, I can’t wait to see him painted.