Breyerfest!

Ever since I found out about Breyers and Breyerfest, I have wanted to go. Unfortunately I live in Sweden and it costs quite a bit to get to Kentucky. As a kid I wanted to go, but I also knew that my family would not have the means to do so. Now that I am an adult, things are different. It'll still require quite a bit of planning, money, time and so on, but it is possible. My boyfriend and I plan to o go one year. We have yet to decide on the actual year we are going, but it will happen. 

When I saw this year's theme I was intrigued. It felt like an interesting theme and I have always had an interest in history, legends, mythology and different religions so it felt like a theme I would really enjoy. When they started to release sneak peaks and pictures of special runs I was even more intrigued. Sporthorses are my thing so when they released the Celebration horse I knew I would need to try and track one down. And then the released Epona. I do casually conga the Strapless mold (I don't try to get all of them, I don't want all of them, I only buy the ones I like) and this one caught my interest. It looked to be a year where I would need to try and track down several horses (first year I have felt the need to have more than maybe one or two).

And then Covid-19 happened. Everyone of my plans for the year slowly but surely went down the drain. Falsterbo Horse Show (the week of horse competitions I attend with my mother every year) was cancelled, shortly after they cancelled the week we go dancing. This year has been hard on me and I was really looking forward to the summer and all the fun things I was about to attend to keep my mind off of things and hopefully make me feel a bit better. Then the news came.

Breyerfest would go virtual! I was ecstatic. This meant that I could attend! I watched the special runs being revealed and soon decided that I wanted a shot at more than 2 special runs. So I bought 2 three day tickets. Then the Single Day Stablemates were revealed. I liked most of them but I absolutely LOVED Jersey! I treated myself to a 4-pack to get one of each.

Breyerfest has always been an exciting time but I have never been more interested and involved in every sneak peek, every reveal and new info that came out! I loved the special runs! My favourites being Brighid and Beltane (the mare and foal) and Epona (the Strapless). But I was also intrigued by the Surprise horse as I had a feeling that it might be on the Giselle mold (which, is a sporthorse and by my favourite sculptor). Ash is another one I really liked, and so did my boyfriend. He is not a horse person but he loves miniatures and to make scenes so he has amassed a little collection of his own and the one mold he has taken a real liking to, is the Othello mold. The ones I liked the least was Thorn and Boudicca, however they are still very nice models and I would not be too sad if I got those. That meant that it was rather easy to put together my special run master list when that time came.

I started to prepare for Breyerfest by taking Friday off of work as I felt I needed it. Timezones can be a pain so I wanted to be prepared so I wouldn't miss out on anything.

When Breyerfest came, it was an absolute blast! I did a little shopping on Thursday evening from the Artisans Gallery. I am very happy with the things I bought and can't wait for them to arrive! Friday I mostly spent watching the livestreams and the tutorials. It was an amazing experience! I loved every bit of it! 

Saturday I went to the shop to try and get a couple of the store specials. I managed to snag myself 1 out of the 2 things I wanted at the first restock of the day and just a little bit later I got the second thing. Happy to have gotten the things I wanted from the store I kept watching tutorials, livestreams and more of the recorded content. I also watched the evening show, which I also really enjoyed. My first SR time was on Saturday. When I went to see what special runs was chosen for me I was so excited I jumped off the couch squealing and almost starting to cry! I was chosen for my first and second choice!

Sunday was my second Special Run time but before that I once again immersed myself in the livestreams and tutorials. I tried to pick up as many tips and tricks as possible and learnt so many new things! My next SR time was Sunday and I was once again a bit nervous about what models would be chosen for me. I opened up the page and I couldn't believe it! My third and fourth choice of models were right there! I felt incredibly lucky!

I really loved virtual Breyerfest. I think Breyer did an incredible job in putting it all together. I know quite a few people had issues. Fortunately I was not one of them and yes, that might be one reason I really think it went well. But no matter what I think Breyer tried to fix the issues that arose and tried to make the best of it. And to be honest, it is no easy feat moving an event as big as Breyerfest online in such short amount of time! I would love to see a virtual aspect of future Breyerfests as that enables all of us who might not have the opportunity to attend in other ways.

When Breyerfest was over the waiting started. My celebration horses and my single day stablemates arrived last week and I am so happy!

Both my Celebration Horses was a bit flawed. Nothing too bad, but bad enough that they'll probably be less competitive in a live show. I kept the one I liked best, he does have run in the paint on the inside of his right back leg and a couple of factory flaws but he will be fine for photoshows and to be admired on the shelf. The other model had a mold flaw on his nose that disturbed me but he got a new home, in my boyfriend's shelves. He will be a performance horse for a scene my boyfriend has been wanting to do for a while and for that, he is good enough if my boyfriend decides to keep him OF.

My celebration horse who I named Chacco Gold. He will be shown as a Mecklenburg,

Orkney was my least favourite mold of the four. However I really, really loved the golden palomino colour he had.

I named him Éirinn go Brách and he will be shown as an Irish Cob.

Skye was my second favourite when they were announced. He has a very nice colour and the mold is very cute. Although it might remind me a bit more of a mare than a stallion. He was the only one of the four to arrive with a visible flaw. He has an obvious eartip rub, I might fix it if I feel brave enough, otherwise he will be a fine photo show horse.

I named him Phoenix Ashes and he will be shown as a Morgan.

Arran was the wild card of the four. I am not a fan of the traditional Croi model. However I actually like this little cutie. Her colour is much better in person and I really, really like her.

I named her Poetic Grace and she will be shown as a Connemara.

Jersey was my absolute favourite out of the bunch. I have really taken a liking to the new stablemate thoroughbred and chestnut is my favourite colour so it might not have been a total surprise. Anyway, Jersey did not disappoint! He has a lovely color and markings and no visible flaws.

I have yet to decide on a name for him but he will be shown as a Thoroughbred.

My first shipment of Breyerfest horses has been great! Hopefully I am as lucky with the rest. One package might arrive tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

70th Anniversary Stablemates

There is something about blind bags. I love the excitement of opening up a bag and not knowing what I will find inside, I love to feel up the bags, trying to guess what's inside and then opening to see if I was right or wrong. So when Breyer announced the new 70th Anniversary stablemates blind bags I was intrigued. I love the thought of the shrunken traditional molds and I really wanted to paint several of them! So I decided to buy an entire box.

I have learnt that there are several different way this boxes could come packed and I think I got the ultimate box layout with three of each model.

In these boxes there are 8 different molds.

Pictured below are the Missouri Fox Trotter, the Smart Chic Olena mold, the Fell pony mold and the Indian Pony mold. 

Pictured below is the Croi (Connemara Mare) mold, the rearing stallion mold, the clydesdale stallion mold and the gypsy vanner mold.

I kept two of each for repaints, except for the gypsy vanner (I only kept one of those) and the Clydesdale stallion (I kept all three of those, hoped to keep one OF but they had paint flaws so all will be repainted).

The only one I liked enough to keep OF was the rearing stallion. I did keep the other two for repaints. Picture of the guy I kept below.

Most of the molds, I have never been a fan of in traditional scale but for some reason I really, really like them in stablemate scale. I can't wait 'til I have the time and inspiration to paint these!

Finally!

Back in March I decided to join Maggie Bennetts Monthly Micro subscription. Unfortunately I joined to late to get the cranky Trakhener mare Castanea. I saw that mare and decided I needed her! I just love her attitude!

Fortunately I found a seller willing to part with two (I need one to be a chestnut mare but I also want one in another colour. I do have a bay in mind as she kind of reminds me of a mare I knew)

Anyway I bought these girls in the middle of April, the seller sent them super quickly and I got the tracking number. Then I waited. I wasn't quite aware of how bad shipping would be because of Covid-19 but I would definitely find out. According to the tracking number the package left the US on the 18th April. Since late June I have been in contact with the Swedish PO 3 times. The first 2 times they did not know where the package was and told me that I should probably contact the sender as it was probably lost. The third time (around the 13th July) I was told it had reached the Swedish customs. They finally arrived on the 22nd July. I am very happy to have these girls in my collection, finally!

More ponies

For Christmas this year, my father gifted me some money to spend on something for myself. Since me and my BF just bought a house, my father knows that most of our money at the moment go into the house. As I found a Breyer retailer with a serious sale on their stock, I decided to spend some of the money I got on a couple of models. 

They arrived soon after I ordered but I would say that the packing left a bit to be desired. 

They came in a black plastic bag.

Inside the bag the boxes where wrapped in 2 thin layers of bubble wrap. Fortunately, the courier service had treated my package very well as there wasn't even a dent in the boxes and all models came out with no issues.

Inside was a couple of models I've wanted for a while.

The Protocol set, I mostly wanted because I really liked the horse (but the dogs will stay as they are really nice as well). The glitter unicorns I really liked the colours of and mostly wanted because of the Alby as it's in my favourite colour and the walking TB as that is another of my favourite colours and one of my favourite stablemate molds.

The Suncatcher stablemates where mostly bought as I really wanted to try painting some clearware models and I have some really fun ideas planned for them!

Christmas Ponies

Even though my boyfriend and family are, and have always been, very supportive of my model horse hobby, I don't really expect a lot of model horsie gifts. Last year I told my boyfriend about a couple of models that I would love to have in my collection but since then I didn't think to much about it. 

However BF remembered and so, I got some models for Christmas ♥️. 

Firstly, he got me the Breyerfest 30th Anniversary Stablemate Set. 

And he also got me the Beautiful Breeds Christmas Ornament. This is my first Breyer Ornament but I wanted it really, really bad since it was a Fjord 😊 With the move and everything we didn't have a Christmas tree this year so he is still in his package. However I will try to find a good way to display him on the shelves until next year.

I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the newbies.

Altivo, will be shown as a P.R.E

Harmonic Rain, will be shown as a Morgan

Fahad Ibn Ryshad, will be shown as a Straight Egyptian Arab

La Boiúna, will be shown as a Paso Fino

Lil' Golden Pistol, will be shown as a Quarter

Mistral, will be shown as a Welsh Sec D

Everest, will be shown as an Ardennais

Octagram D, will be shown as a Swedish Warmblood

Iridium, will be shown as a Thoroughbred

For some reason I didn't get any pictures of the Mariah's Boon stablemate. Anyway, I named him Indigo Blue and will show him as an Irish Cob.

New mini and news

I wouldn't really consider myself a micro person. At least not until Maggie Bennett started releasing her amazing micros! I don't own a whole lot of them but there are some on my wish list and I kind of hope that I might be able to join her Monthly Micro club in a few months. Anyway. In January this year Maggie released a model I really, really needed!

A micro mini Fjord named "Viking". 

I happened to stumble upon one in a model horse auction group on Facebook and put in a bid. I won and he arrived a couple of days ago.

I have painted very few micros and I have never painted or prepped a pewter model. I have heard that they shouldn't be any harder to prep than a regular resin but we will see when I get that far. I am very happy with my cute little addition.

In other news, TiMe Stables and Studio can now be found on Instagram @timestablesandstudio! I will still post on the blog as this is my main hobby page but sometimes I only have a picture or very small progress to show and I think Instagram will be a good place to do so.

Grail and update

It has been a while since my last post and unfortunately there might not be too many more posts for the rest of the year. The last month or so has been busy, my boyfriend has had to work overtime everyday of the week since coming back to work after summer vacation, which means that I have had to do most of the chores around the apartment. I have also had a busy time at work and on top of it all, we are buying a house!

So I have barely done anything model related for the last month. And as we will be moving in the beginning of December we will be quite busy packing stuff up, sorting stuff that we won't bring with us and buying new furniture. That means that I might not be able to do much model related stuff over the next few months (but I hope to make up for it after the move as we will have a designated craft room and a designated room for horse shelves and collector's stuff! I have never, ever, had that before! So excited!) I do however hope to have time for a couple of posts before the move as I entered ICCE this year! But more on that and onto the real reason for this post!

I kind of shouldn't by unpainted resins at the moment. My shelves are kind of full of unpainted beauties begging for paint. I really don't need to add to that.

But sometimes you get a chance to buy something you have wanted for a long, long time and never thought that you would actually own. I recently found that. Back in August a picture was published on the Brigitte Eberl Appreciation Force facebook page. It was a picture of a whole lot of resins standing on a floor. It was announced that there were Hermiones in the picture and that she was available again.

For those of you who might not be that familiar with Brigitte's sculptures, Hermione is an older sculpt by Eberl, of a Fjord mare. I am quite sure that there were very few of her in existence and I have only seen a handful during my 16 years in the hobby. Therefore I was quite sure that my shelves would never be graced by this beautiful sculpture, who I think is one of the best Fjord sculpts out there. 

I emailed Brigitte the same moment I saw what sculpt it was and I read it was available. And a few days ago she arrived. She is not as rough as I thought she would be and I am so, SO happy to be able to add her to my collection, even though I really don't need anymore unpainted resins.

I need NaMoPaiMo to kick me in the butt and get at least one of these beauties painted, but who to chose?!

New Jumping Horse

I saw the promo pictures for the new regular run Breyer jumper and was immediately interested. It's a Warmblood after all. He looked okay in pictures so I thought I'd give it a chance and buy him. I wasn't quite sure I'd like his braided mane though.

He arrived a little over a week ago and I am pleasantly surprised by how good he looks. I don't love the braids but I can definitely live with them. And I will probably need a couple of bodies on this mold to remake, I think he would be absolutely perfect as a mare with button braids!

He has quite the nice colour and only minor factory flaws.

He has a really nice face that I really like. The stand is a bit different as it is not completely rigid and the if you put it down on a table or shelf the horse might bob a little bit on the stand. 

I will show this guy as a Swedish Warmblood and have named him Attack.

First painted mini resin

I recently finished painting my first mini resin. I won this guy at a show not long ago and decided I wanted to finish him in time for the show I was attending in July, as there was a special Mini Division.

This is the Kelly Sealey Maxi Cob mini resin and he is absolutely adorable. I am not particularly familiar with Cobs and cob showing/breeding so I did some research to decide on a colour and breed for shows. 

I decided on a nice, classic bay with some chrome as I thought that would be a simple, yet striking combination for a show ring. 

I am very happy with how he turned out and I really like his colour. I am also really glad that his markings turned out as good as they did. 

This little boy was a joy to paint and thanks to his small size, I managed to paint him quite fast. I really liked painting this tiny guy and might need to get my hands on some more mini resins to paint. Maggie Bennet's Monthly Micros are REALLY tempting! 

He has such a nice, gentle look to him that I just adore!

I decided to name him Abercrombie and I show him as a Maxi Cob (Ardennes x Irish draft) as I found a horse similar in body type with that breeding.

Wee Jay

I really, really shouldn't be browsing model horse sales groups or pages as it seems like interesting models have a tendency to pop up for sale at the moment.

I first spotted this guy on Jamie's website, probably not too long after he was finished and I fell in love with him. I think he was a commission or already sold by the time I found him (anyhow I wouldn't have been able to afford him back then anyway). So I saved a picture of him onto my computer as a reminder.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago I was joining a model horse auction group on facebook and scrolled through my feed. And out of nowhere I saw a photo of a Wee Jay up for auction, the picture was from a live show so it wasn't really clear but since it's a Warmblood model and I like warmbloods, I took a closer look. I had to do a double-take as I thought I recognized the model and I did, for sure.

I didn't want to let him slip through my fingers and put in a bid for him.

As you can see, I managed to win the auction and he started his journey to me.

The journey was a bit eventful as it took him quite a while to get here and at one point I was scared he was lost as the tracking number just stated "In transit to destination" for well over three weeks. I contacted the Swedish post on a Thursday (Friday was a public holiday) and got to talk to a quite rude person who said that my package was not in their system and when I asked her to check again as I have gotten that answer before when the package was in fact in their toll system. Then she got super rude and pretty much insinuated that I would be considering her to be a liar and started stating unnecessary information about packages I had gotten months ago. I was quite pissed by then and ended the call.

I then contacted the seller who tried to contact the USPS and was met by another rude postal worker. I wonder if that is one of the requirements to get a job with the post...

I tried contacting the Swedish Post again on the following Monday and was met by a super nice and helpful woman, who took her time to find my package (which was in their Toll system and had probably been since the week before when I talked to the rude postal worker) and even gave me the new tracking number that gets put on packages when they've gone through the toll.

So a week or so later, he arrived home, and I was over the moon! He was just as beautiful as I had imagined and I am so glad he found his way into my collection at last!

As I am into pedigree assignment (and have been for years) I created a pedigree with this horse in mind several years ago (around the time when I first saw him) and now that he came to live with me it was only natural that he got that pedigree and name. So he is Accent, a Swedish Warmblood.

The Forgotten Package

A few weeks ago I got a notice from my post office, that I had a package to pick up. And I couldn't for the life of me remember what the package could be. When I picked it up I soon realized that it was my order from ModellPferdVersand.

When I ordered, one of the models I ordered was not in stock according to the website. 

That model was the new, traditional Catch Me. So when I opened the box and found him in it I was quite surprised.

I ordered several of the new unicorn stablemates along with Catch Me.

All of them will loose their horns and become horses instead of unicorns. My Thoroughbreds will all be mares when done and they will be chestnut, grey and chestnut with one of the W-patterns.

The Warmbloods, I am not quite sure about yet but I might make one a Morgan and keep one as a Warmblood but we'll see.

I named Catch Me, Casanova and plan to show him as an Oldenburg.