Late Unboxing

Remember these guys?

I won them at a liveshow I attended back in April! And it's just now that I got the time to unbox them!

WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS PICTURES OF THE MYSTERY FOAL THAT COMES IN THIS SET SO IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW WHAT THE FOAL LOOKS LIKE PLEASE DO NOT PROCEED!

You're still here? Great, let's see some pictures!

The stallion was a nice black with a strip and two white socks. I was very lucky with him. He's got a nicely masked stripe, no visible flaws (I see that he got some dust on him in these pictures but at least it's not flaws). The only thing I would've wished for would be a little neater edges on the socks. Other than that, I love him.

I call him Talisman for now, we'll see if it sticks.

I seemed to be almost as lucky with the mare as I was with the stallion. The markings are nicely mapped (a little on the cheek seen in above picture that weren't as neat but I think it could be MUCH worse) and no visible flaws (again some dust in the pictures, didn't notice it when I took them...). The only thing I would've wished for is, just as with the stallion, a little neater edges on the socks.

For now I call the mare Summer but just as with the stallion; we'll see if it sticks!

Las but not least it's time to introduce the little baby.

The little baby was a nice bay overo with the cutest pinking on his nose! I got another nice one with good masking and nice colour with no flaws what I've seen.

I really liked this set and one day I will take a photo of my unintentional trotting foal conga! But at least I snapped a few comparison shots with the other models I have on these molds. 

I almost immediately reacted to the fact that the black stallions head wasn't as tilted as my chestnut stallion so that's why I decided to get comparison shots! It might be hard to really decide from my pictures since it was hard to get them in the same angle but if you compare them side by side the head of the chestnut one, really is more tilted!

That meant I kind of had to compare the mares too. And comparing them side by side made it look like the chestnut mare was slightly more turned than the black mare. But not as obvious as the head tilting in the stallions.

And just because I had all of them out, I just had to switch things up a bit and photograph the same coloured ones together.

Mini Haggis

I saved the best for last, at least if you ask me. My mini Haggis is the last of the five models I finished in time for the liveshow in November.

This is the piece out of the five I was most hesitant to paint, most excited about and the one that made me nervous through the entire painting process.

I have gotten used to the sight of my white mini Haggis standing in the shelf as he has done for the last 9 years. Damn that's a long time! 

Anyway I gathered all my courage, envisioned him a typical bay clydesdale with high whites and a wide blaze and started painting him with pastels.

I was so scared many times while painting because I didn't think he turn out good since the layers didn't go on as I expected. 

Despite my fears I kept working on him, hoping that he would turn out well and he went along very smoothly! The only thing was that it took like 30 layers to get a solid basecoat (no, not really thirty, but it definitely felt like it! Think it was somewhere between 5 and 8 layers). He turned out darker than I had planned but damn I think I nailed the shading and highlights quite well on him (at least if you see him in hand).

Once again, pardon the pictures, I will get new ones as soon as I can but for now these will have to do. I'm really happy with how he turned out and even though he might not be top LSQ he is at least an improvement from the white naked body I have been staring at for 9 years!

I showed him under the name of Brigand but I think he needs a new name.

I am happy with my five "new" models and I hope you've enjoyed seeing them!

The braided ponies

It's time to show you horse number 3 and 4 out of the 5 I finished for the liveshow in November. I decided to put these two in the same post.

They started out, innocent enough, as 2 stablemate models I won at a liveshow. I was debating on what to do with these two but I've always wanted to give the jumper some braids.

The G1 stablemate Swaps is supposed to be a stallion/gelding but I think that it looks a bit more like a mare so I decided I wanted to try to give her some braids too and make her a pony mare.

I got rid of the manes of both of the models and sanded down the tails quite a bit.

I then started to work on the mane of the gelding. My first attempt at braids and to be honest I don't think they're that bad. They are a little big but I plan on showing him as a pony gelding so I just blame it on a very thick pony mane ;)

I did the tail and mane and primed him. I had plans to make him a dark brown roan.

He went along quite well. I started his light basecoats in acrylics and then went for pastels.

Once again, pardon the picture. I didn't have time to make the roaning on him in time for the liveshow so I just finished off his details and decided to show him in this dark bay and add the roaning later on. He won his class... But I still think that I'll add the roaning at some point as that is what I really had in mind for him since I won the model! I might add a tiny star to him as well but no other markings.

When I was about to send in my entry for the show I tried to figure out a name for him and the name Bailey just hit me and I definitely think that he will keep that name.

As for the mare, I had imagined a dark chestnut with flaxen mane and tail, white socks and a snip.

She was my second attempt at sculpting a braided mane and tail and I think I did even better on her. 

Her colour turned out to be spot on for me but when she was all done to the point that I would start the mane and tail, I just couldn't bring myself to make it light!

So this mare didn't turn out as I had imagined either, but I like her, I think the darker mane and tail really suits her and I am completely in love with her little snip and pinking on her muzzle! 

I'm not sure what to name her at the moment. I showed her as Amulette but that was just so that I wouldn't have to call her unnamed. She needs a better name.

Hope you like them so far. I have saved the one that I like best, for last, so he'll be up next.

Wherever You Go

This is the second model I finished out of five for the liveshow in November. She was another one that have been fighting me from the beginning.

I painted her once several years ago. I used acrylics back then so she wasn't perfect. I then got my hands on some pastels and updated her. I was quite happy with her, she was definitely an improvement from the first time I painted her. Unfortunately she took a fall when I was moving from my apartment and she broke an ear. I couldn't find the piece so she was standing like this on my shelf for quite some time.

Then I took matters into my own hands and order a small package of apoxie sculpt and tried to give her a new ear. It is not a perfect match but for my second attempt, I'm proud!

I had plans to pretty much restore her colour to the before-the-fall-shade but this girl was fighting me every single step of the way! 

Every time I sealed a new layer of the light pastels (that would be needed to make her about the same shade of chestnut as before) she fell over, still wet. It left marks in the finish and I started to give up a little bit. I decided to go a little darker than I had originally planned. And she never fell over again....

I think that it was her way of saying that she didn't like the previous shade. When it came to markings I was also supposed to recreate her markings but when I came to the point where I was supposed to start with the markings,

I just couldn't do it. I really liked her in this dark chestnut with no whites so that's what she ended up with, not what I had in mind but once again, that is not a bad thing.

I do want to apologize for the bad picture but I don't know when I get to take good ones so sorry but you'll have to stand the bad ones since I'm far to proud of them to wait :)

I named her Wherever You Go after a line in the song Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx (it's a beautiful song!).

Next post will show you my braided ponies!

Shot in the Dark

I prepared 5 models for the liveshow. And I managed to finish 5 models for the liveshow. The thing is, none of them turned out the way I had imagined.

That is not necessarily a bad thing. I am very happy with how they turned out even though I had another picture in my mind at first. 

This is Bat Girl and this is how she started out:

And what she had to endure:

In order to get to this point:

She was supposed to be a light-ish shade of chestnut with some small splash white markings. But after awhile and ALOT of layers she looked like this:

Well... Not what I had imagined but I still liked it so she got to remain this colour.

Pardon the bad pictures but I don't know when I'll have the chance to get good pictures of her and I really want to share her with you guys!

This is what she looks like finished:

Her name is Shot in the Dark and she's named after the song by Within Temptation.

She got blue eyes and some pinking and shading. 

No, she is not perfect but she doesn't have to be, because she is not going anywhere and I really like her :)

Stay tuned for the other 4 models :)

Chasing stars

If you are a member of the Swedish Model Horse Society and enter shows (live or photo) you can earn qualification cards for the Swedish Nationals liveshow if you models place first or second (for liveshows) or get a championtitle (photoshows). Nowadays you can also collect cards in order to earn "Starshower Model" certificates for your models. You'll need 5 cards to earn a bronze certificate, 10 cards (or five + a bronze certificate) for a silver certificate and 15 cards (or 5 cards + a silver certificate) to earn a gold certificate. I thought it'd be neat to see how my horses were doing in the chase for "star cards" and had to dig up my pile of cards:

I wasn't a member of the SMHF for some years so for some of the shows I entered recently I haven't gotten any cards but I still managed to gather a small collection:

Model name	Qualification cards
Ancient Gold	7
White Phantom	6
Chocolate	5
Epsilon	5
Milda	5
Royal's Mexican Heat	5
Shaniqua	5
Sunny Side N	5
Bocelli	4
Illusions Fade Away	4
Imperia	4
Lord	4
Acuatico	3
Athame	3
Deja Vu	3
Fallen Warrior	3
Kiss of an Angel	3
Since You Don't Love Me	3
Verdict	3
"Takoda"	2
AR Brigadör	2
Diamond	2
Fuego	2
Gemini	2
Lotus	2
Qarneval	2
Silver Echo (In The News)	2
A Star Is Born	1
Belize	1
Bellini of Decorima	1
Black Pepper	1
Carmen	1
Charisma	1
Chester VS	1
Colibri Daughter	1
Daydreamer N	1
Dixi	1
Dunbar Prince	1
Farasha	1
Helios	1
Liten	1
Lost All Hope	1
Lovely	1
Northern Lights	1
Pharao	1
R. Peppermint	1
Remembrance	1
Royal's Frozen Hope	1
Shabha	1
Symphony D	1
Treasure	1
Troublemaker	1
Viking	1
Zahrat	1

The ones written in a kind of bronzey colour (or whatever) are the ones that I have enough cards for to send in for a bronze certificate and will keep showing with the hopes to earn "higher" certificates! The ones written in red are the ones I will probably not actively try to earn certificates for. The ones written in green are models that I actively will try to earn certificates with.

I really need to get going with the photoshowing since I can't get to that many liveshows!

Wish me luck!

Diorama

The Swedish Nationals Liveshow also has a performance division. It was held on the Sunday but since I wasn't entering I didn't attend the show on Sunday. It was a little sad since I really enjoy performance and dioramas but I couldn't go. But I was kind of lucky since some of the show attendees started to prepare at the end of the Saturday. I was blown away by some dioramas made by one of the entrants and I decided to dedicate this post to her work!

These are britain models (I believe it was actually a toy brand but I'm not sure) that the owner have repainted and she made the harness herself I believe.

But without further ado, here are the pictures! 

I'd love to make something like this one day!