A little bit of everything

At the moment I have a really hard time sticking to just one project. So at the moment I have a few different ones simultaneously in the works.

My "stable" has had the inside painted:

I also managed to put in the bars over the window:

I've also started removing some ears and manes on a few poor models, preparing them for some resculpting.

I also did a tiny bit of painting:

I just blocked in the mane and tail so that I get a better feeling for how dark the body colour really gets as I have some layers left on it.

Pardon the bad picture (and messy table). This is Tambo for my Silver Brumby project who has gotten his markings started.

It's nice to see some projects moving forward!

Working on it

I have done some small model related stuff the last days. I am working a lot and have a whole lot of plans for several weekends to come so hobby time is limited and I feel like every small thing I do is great progress.

First of all I've fixed the interior of the stable scene. Next up is to paint it.

I've painted the outside of the stable scene.

To get the right texture I painted it with a sponge as the look of the stable walls I'm after is not completely smooth.

I have also painted the base for the stable scene. There are still some way to go. I need to find the part for the stable door that I misplaced and then there is painting the inside, decorating the outside and fixing the window so it'll take a while to finish but so far I think it looks good.

I've also re-organized my body shelf. It has been quite a mess for some time now and I feel it's hard to get a good overview of what you have if they are just lying in big piles. So now I've organized them so that the ready to paint models are at the left on the shelf, the ones that have been started are to the right and the ones that needs work/customization/primer are in the middle.

It's quite crowded so I need to start painting more models (or at least paint some of the bigger ones) to get room for more!

Finished portrait

I week or so ago I finally took the step and mixed up some pinkish colour so that I could paint the tongue and inside of the mouth on my Kandinsky Dino model.

That means that finally, my portrait of my dearly missed Hjalmar is finally finished! A picture of the real Hjalmar can be found on this page.

Since the model is in a running pose he'll need a base to stand correctly.

So far I've made a very simple base with only a piece of wood and some white apoxie (he is not permanently attached).

I will need to refine the base and make the "hill" under his right back foot a bit higher so that he'll get the right position. I then plan to cover the base with fake grass and the hills with small fake leaves so that it'll look like he runs through a pile of leaves and I'll also make him a ball of some sort (probably a deflated one as that's what he loved to run around with).

I'm quite happy with how he turned out and I think he makes a great representation of Hjalmar for my miniature herd.

The last picture shows how his pose will look when I've fixed the base to my liking.

Hopefully he'll show up in some model horse pictures some day 😊

Live Show Report: Halter

In conjunction with the Craft Day that was held this weekend there were also a small liveshow. Only plastic and bendable models (customs or OF) were allowed to be entered.

We started with the foals as we usually do and both my babies did well. R. Peppermint (PS Weanling rr S. Nordström) took second in her class and Troublemaker took first in his class and went on to claim the champion reserve title behind a really nice Thoroughbred foal.

Champion Foal: Dead Shot, Breyer Zenyatta's First Foal OF
Champion Foal Reserve: Troublemaker, Breyer Sm. G2 Scrambling Foal rr. T. Wolmer 

Arabians were up next and it was one of the smaller championships. I only had one Arabian to show, Farasha (Tr. Weathergirl Thunderstorm OF) and she took fourth in her class. In the end two beautiful Cl. Arabian mare customs took champion and reserve with a cute little Schleich as Best Novice Owned and an adorable Schleich foal as Best Arabian Foal.

Champion Arabian and Best Arabian: Diwa, Cl. Arabian Mare cm C. Johansson
Champion Arabian Reserve: Mitza, Cl. Arabian Mare cm S. Nordström
Best Novice Owned Arabian: Snow Crystal, Schleich Arabian Mare OF
Best Arabian Foal: BBA Thadine, Schleich Arabian Foal OF

Next up were Sporthorses, probably the biggest championship of the day with no less than 7 classes. I showed 7 horses and most of them did really, really well. A Star Is Born (Tr. Smarty Jones OF) took fifth out of five in his class. Sunny Side N (Tr. Seattle Slew OF) and Ice Baby, Ice both took first in their classes. As did Vivaldi and Bailando (Sm. G2 Andalusian rr by me). Charisma (Tr. GG Valentine OF) and Fandango (Tr. Valegro OF) took second and sixth in their class. In the end my Vivaldi was crowned Champion with Ice Baby, Ice as Reserve.

Champion Sporthorse: Vivaldi, Breyer Tr. Web SR Acadia OF
Champion Sporthorse Reserve: Ice Baby Ice, Breyer Sm. G2 TB rr. C. Johansson

The Drafthorse championship was diverse and quite tough. My only drafter, Fallen Warrior (Tr. Foxvalley Oliver OF) took third out of three in his class. The champion was an absolutely beautifully painted PS Chips Clydesdale with a custom stablemate made into a Fjord. In this championship the Best Suffolk Punch was also chosen and given a prize.

Champion Drafthorse: Stan James, PS Chips Drafter rep. S. Andersson
Champion Drafthorse Reserve: Doris, Sm. G5 Quarterhorse cm P. Lawson
Best Suffolk Punch: Georgia May, Sm. G4 Vaulting Horse cm P. Lawson

Next up were ponies and both of the ponies I brought did rather well. Remembrance won his class and Gold Rush (Copperfox Sovereign OF) took second in his class. There were a bunch of really nice ponies in this championship but in the end my model Remembrance claimed the champion title with a beautiful Copperfox Marble OF as reserve.

Champion Pony: Remembrance, PS Shoal OF
Champion Pony Reserve: Marble, Copperfox Marble OF

The Riding- and Carriage Horse championship was quite small with only two classes. I showed 2 horses in each class and they did rather well. Since You Don't Love Me and Madonna took first and second in their class and then Bocelli (Tr. Tregoyd Journeyman OF) took first in his class. My last horse, Ancient Gold (Tr. Akhal-Teke OF) didn't have his best day and ended up placing last in his class. With my horses winning both of the classes the callback table consisted of my two horses only. In the end Since You Don't Love Me was chosen as Champion with Madonna as reserve.

Champion Riding- and Carriage Horses: Since You Don't Love Me, Sm. G2 ASB rep. A. Gustafsson
Champion Riding- and Carriage Horse Reserve: Madonna, Sm. G2 ASB rep. C. Johansson

The stockhorse championship was also quite small and I only showed two horses. Both of them did good, Chocolate took first in his class and Whiskey Lullaby (Tr. JCP SR Smart Chic Olena OF) took second behind the model that went on to claim the champion title. My Chocolate got Reserve.

Champion Stockhorse: Magic Chex, PS ISH cm P. Lawson
Champion Stockhorse Reserve: Chocolate, Breyer Tr. Impress Me Shannon OF 

There were only one "wild- or crossbreds" model entered at the show, my own Acuatico so that championship was included in the Other Equus championship on this show. Acuatico did well earning himself a champion title with a super cute donkey as reserve.

Champion Wild horses and Other Equus: Acuatico, Breyer Tr. Blue Suede Shoes OF
Champion Wild horses and Other Equus: Tanja, Papo Donkey OF

The voting for Best in Show was really tough and close but in the end the Sporthorse champion (my Vivaldi) was crowned Best in Show with the adorable foal champion as reserve!

Best In Show: Vivaldi
Best in Show Reserve: Dead Shot

I had a blast both crafting and showing this weekend and I hope that something similar would be arranged again as I'd definitely be interested in attending 😊

My Craft Day Stablemate

So I did promise I'd post some more pictures of my Craft Day Stablemate. So here they are. We knew what models we would get to paint a few days in advance so that we could have some time to think about our colour choices. I wanted to paint my American Saddlebred a nice red chestnut but it didn't go the way I planned.

I haven't painted a horse entirely in hand painted acrylics since about 2006-2008 I think and I never really got the hang of it so I struggled quite a bit trying to shade my model. I didn't manage to nail the colour I wanted so I decided to go with a more brownish chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail.

I can't say I feel like she's up to the standard of most of my later models but I still think she's pretty cute. And I actually like the shading on her mane and tail.

She might not see the inside of a showring but I might photoshow her sometime. She doesn't have a name yet but will probably be shown as an American Saddlebred.

This model is the 13th model I've managed to finish this year!

Craft Day

First of all I just want to acknowledge the fact that this is my 300th blogpost! 😄That's quite a milestone for me and it was quite the surprise realizing I had written so many as I'm not the most frequent blogger. Anyway, back to the real reason for the post! 😊

Yesterday a couple of fellow hobbyist hosted a craft day. Since both me and my boyfriend enjoy the crafty part of the hobby, we decided to go. We had a whole lot of fun sharing tips and tricks, chatting, painting and making props and scenes. The "plan" for the day was to paint a stablemate model and for all to have a chance at trying some diorama/scene/base making. 

We all managed to finish our stablemates and I really like how they all turned out! For a few it was their very first try at painting a model, some have done a few before and some have done a few more.

It wasn't the easiest task as we were hand painting with acrylics (which I for one, have never been good at) but I still think we did some cute horses. The painted horses was later ranked by all the entrants to crown the one we all liked best and honour it with a prize.

The horse in the middle and to the right are their owners first painted models.

The one on the right is my horse. I don't feel like she's up to my current painting standards but I still kind of like her. She's my first model fully painted in hand painted acrylics since somewhere around 2006-2008.

Another view

It was a tough competition and there were not too many points difference between the top three or between the fourth to seventh placings so I was very surprised when the votes were tallied and it turned out that my horse had gotten the most points! I will show you some more pictures of her at a later date.

All of us were not able to finish our scenes/dioramas/bases but some were.

My boyfriend wanted to make a key-hole jump but later realized he had forgotten some materials at home and unfortunately no one else had the materials he needed so he had to change his plan. Instead he made a base with a fence that is quite common in some parts of Sweden.

This setup was made by my boyfriend with the first horse he's ever painted. The background was borrowed from a fellow collector.

 I tried to make a stall scene/diorama but unfortunately my horses took longer time to paint than I had hoped so I had less time to fix my stable.

This is how far I managed on my scene/diorama on the craft day. I brought it home in order to finish it.

This was my inspiration, a scene owned and made by a fellow collector.

As I wasn't able to finish my scene/diorama I'll continue on with it at home and I'll share updates of it as it comes along 😊