Pieces of Flair…finally

My newest model is done, but truly he’s not so new. In fact, I started him five years ago when I first took a dremel to a Breyer Citation ornament. He languished in my work in progress zone for years, getting attention every once in a while. The poor thing even went through two or three head swaps as I tried to find one of the right size and worked on my head sculpting skills.

I finally got truly motivated last winter when I decided this horse would be my BreyerWest performance horse. And several months later, he was finally done.

BreyerWest 2018 – Western Pleasure

I nearly defeated myself by deciding to paint him buckskin, a color I’ve never done in oils. And of course since he’s a large horse, he also needed a bunch of new tack. But I managed to get him and his gear done in time for BreyerWest, where he was the Overall Performance Champion.

BreyerWest 2018

I am finally happy with how Fancy (as I called him while in progress) turned out, especially his floating trot. His head is from the Breyer stablemate Django mold, which turned out to be just the right size- and has such sweet character. His neck, back, mane, tail, ears and much of his legs is totally new sculpting.

This month I’ve entered Pieces of Flair in the Breyerfest Best Customs Contest, in the Performance Excellence division. His entry is an expanded version of his winning stock work entry from BreyerWest. He’s shown doing a really neat event called Rodear, which is a newly-developed version of a cattle dog trial.

The goal is to have the cows go into the chute and over the bridge. Fancy and his rider herd the cows while their cattle dog (left) blocks the other end of the chute.

Judges watch the team work while a trainer videos the run on her iPhone

The scene from above, showing all the fun background elements.

It was fun to take the time to set up a performance entry as a full scene, with more background action and detail than is usual for a live show. The scene includes other competitors with their horses (can you spot Puns N Roses, my 2016 BreyerWest performance champ?) and dogs, spectators snacking on concessions, and a brave kitty taunting one of the doggos :)

If I’m lucky, I’ll be selected as one of the finalists and get to bring Fancy and his gear to Kentucky with me for exhibition at Breyerfest!

Commission finished!

Now that she’s been delivered to her owner, I’m happy to share that the red dun overo Moxie is finished! I was able to get her done in time for her to be delivered as a surprise to her (very patient) owner at Breyerfest.

This was my first dun paintjob in oils so it was a new challenge for sure, but I’m happy with how she turned out. I’m looking forward to painting my own Moxie… once I finish customizing her :)

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Planning Pintos

I have a new tool for planning pinto patterns and marking that I wanted to share with you all. Some of you may have caught a peek in my last post.

Consulting my notes while working on details

One of my current commissions is a pinto drafter. I had gathered reference pictures for his pattern, but none of the same horse. As is often the case, I needed to do some sketching to make a pinto pattern that combined two references into one realistically-marked horse.

My reference photos

I decided to look around online to find a horse outline that I could use to sketch the patterns onto. I was stoked to find this image on the UK’s government site.

Click to enlarge

It’s meant to draw detailed pictures of your horse’s identifying marks for a Horse Passport, which makes it perfect for me uses. I modified it slightly, printed it out, and then used a pencil to sketch in the patterns.

Now I can see where I need to adjust the reference horse pattern to fit together nicely. I’ll do my base chestnut coat first, and this drawing will guide me as I map out the pinto markings. I’m excited to have found this so I have a blank to use whenever I’m planning complex markings. And it was great to use for Ducky since I was trying to match a specific horse’s marking exactly.

And speaking of Ducky… he’s all done and wrapped up to go home :)

I added his pictures to my Bay & Black gallery. I also added some better pictures of recent customs to their respective galleries. I’m looking forward to painting and posting more ponies soon!

Progress, here and there

I wanted my next post to be the first in a series about molding and casting my rider doll, but those posts are… postponed…until I can successfully write about it without expletives. My first try was rather bumpy, but I’ve reassessed and have a grand plan for Success on the second try- whenever I get a chance to do that.

Meanwhile, I’ve been progressing pretty well on my other goals. I’m done resculpting Alpo and he has his tail back on. I’m painting him white as a base for some new clothes. He’ll still be a grey, but slighty different. I really liked how his eyes, muzzle and teeth are though, so I’m doing my best to reserve those features while I redo the rest.

Chryselephantine 2.0 is getting her deeper color! And some little health dapples too. I’m working hard to avoid grain on her- buffing between every layer which means more work, twice the fixative, and more time. But worth it if I can avoid the dread grain.

Working on her definitely makes me happy that I usually do Stablemates. She’s only a Pebbles but man! There is a lot of space to cover with pastel! And my hand gets tired holding her. Remind me never to say yes to a Trad! : P

The Hale resin has both his details and a name! This photo does not do him justice, but meet D’Artagnan, the blue roan Breton stallion. He’s done except for his eyes, which needs glossing. He was the second resin I got, and I’m excited to have him all dressed. I worked really hard on his roaning too, and I love how it came out. Hopefully I get a chance to take some better pictures soon.

Click to enlarge the roany goodness

Nightfoxes minor repairs are coming along well too. I’ve also been doing a bit of brainstorming on performance ideas, so all in all I’m feeling a lot better than I was a while ago about getting things done. I just got to keep fingers crossed on this pesky casting business…

MEPSA Donations, finished!

I know I’ve been remiss in blogging, sorry about that. I’ve been on my computer a ton lately for work, and when I’m done for the day I’m not super keen to get back to staring at a screen.

I finished up the second MEPSA Donation horse this weekend and posted his pictures in the gallery.

I wasn’t able to capture his color quite right in the photos, but it’ll have to do. I was eager to get him boxed up and sent, along with my other donations. My entries for the MEPSA Championship show went in the mail a few weeks ago. So now the wait begins :)

Ponies and prizes, boxed and waiting to be shipped

Meanwhile, there was plenty of model horse news (and eye candy!) as the results from NAN came in. I had a custom of mine showing there for the first time ever, which is exciting. Alas, I didn’t see her on any of the judge’s cards. But still, exciting!

Alianora qualifying for NAN in her breed class at the Spring Fling at Big Mill live show. She also placed 4th in Workmanship!

You can check out the results and lots of pictures on the NAN 2013 results page. There’s also a bunch of photos bouncing around Facebook and Blab. Congratulations to all the winners!

I’ve been putting a lot of work in recently on my Pebbles Saddlebred, so hopefully the next post will showcase her in her new-and-improved state.