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!

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 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.

Original Sculpt - Aslan project

My first original sculpt, did not go as planned. I had every intention on taking my time, making the best I could out of him, but I didn't.

He managed to get pushed down to the floor during his sculpting process so I put him on hold for awhile and I worked more hours at my job than I thought I would so I had to rush him a lot to get him finished in time for the show, I even had to finish his paintjob the day before the show.

I am not extremely happy with the sculpt but I am a bit more happy with the paint work as I think I managed to get a decent fjord dun on him (the picture doesn't do the colour justice, he looks a bit better IRL).

The Original Aslan

So because of all this I have now started what I call the Aslan project and look at this sculpture as a practice in working with the materials and tools I used. 

The Aslan project will be a series of similar fjord sculpts that I will make to see my sculpting improve and it will continue until I have a fjord sculpture I am happy with. So in the next couple of weeks I plan on making the armature for Aslan 2.0.
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Hellhorse

Shortly after the last liveshow was over, I started preparing for the next and I had promised myself to finish a few new horses to bring. One of them was of a kind of Hell horse I have had in mind for several years.

He started his life as a Breyer G4 Reiner. I removed his mane and tail and sculpted a new more Devil-like tail. I also drilled holes in him and attached a pair of AbbeyInc bat wings to him. I then started to paint him.

He started out in a very shimmery, light purple colour before I darkened him to almost black. The purple still shines through a little bit in places, just as I had intended.

I also used PearlEx powders for the first time, using Interference Purple on the underside of the wings... 

It is a bit hard to see the interference purple on the underside of the wings but it is there.

And interference gold on the top of his wings to give him some colour shifts. 

I am quite happy with how he turned out and with time I have plans to make him a bit of a scene where he is just landing in an old graveyard. I also named him Faust as I thought it was fitting.

Drafter

I don't consider myself a Fantasy collector, and I don't consider myself an active draft horse collector either. I do like drafters and have some in my collection, it's just that I usually prefer sporthorses so I don't usually, actively search for the drafters.

But this little mare caught my eye at the last show and I told her owner (and customizer) that if she would ever be for sale, I'd be interested in buying her. 

The owner told me that she would probably be for sale and at the end of the show she went home with me.

The former owner named her Amulett and showed her as an Irish Cob and I think that I'll keep that name and breed assignment as it suits her (and I actually don't have a model named Amulett in my collection).

I love her playful look and her beautiful colour, but I am a sucker for a nice chestnut with lots of white so she is right up my alley.

I can't wait to show her, but until then, she'll stand in my shelf looking pretty!

Fantasy

I am not a Fantasy collector, at least I don't consider myself a Fantasy collector. But slowly and surely my Fantasy collection is growing. At the liveshow there was a shower who had several gorgeous Fantasy models. I would've loved to get my hands on one of the Dragon horses, but unfortunately they weren't for sale.

But, one of her beautiful Pegasi were for sale, so he came home with me.

I really love this model and it has so many beautiful details.

I love his eyes and face.

I haven't managed to figure out a name for him yet.

He has a really nice base to help him balance with the wings.

The part I like best with this model is probably the detailed wings!

Both sides are wonderfully painted and detailed and I just love to look at him. He makes me very happy, standing on the shelf but I do have plans to bring him out to shows as well.

 

Better Late Than Never

My poor Mini Hazel has been in my possession for almost three years. And been in progress for two of those. I have had the best intentions of finishing her several times the last year but always seem to have lost my inspiration or something happens to make me put her back on the body shelf.

Last time I put her back was rather close to finishing her body colour and then she fell and broke an ear. I manged to fix the ear but was so bummed about it happening that I put her back on the shelf.

And there she stood for awhile before I decided to bring her out again and finishing her.

And lo and behold, I managed to finish her! 

I am pretty sure that this is the first model I have painted that has no white markings but I still think she is quite stunning. And besides, as I plan to show her as a Cleveland Bay, white markings (besides a small star) are not allowed.

I Finished her base in a simple, light beige colour that will do for now but I might spice fix it up later when I have decided on how I would like it to look.

I quite like how she turned out and I am SO happy that I have finally managed to finish her!

New family members

A few days after Christmas my boyfriend and I got to bring our new family members home. These two cuties (and their brother) were born to a half wild mother who moved in to my mother's stable. Mommy cat hid the kittens and we weren't able to capture them until they were around 6-7 weeks old. Then we moved them inside an office where they got to stay while my mother tried to tame them.

They did become quite tame and me and my boyfriend decided to bring two of them home (when they were old enough) as my mother couldn't keep all three of the kittens and Mommy cat as she already has another cat, 2 horses and 2 dogs. 

When I write this, the kittens have only lived with us for 3 days so they are a bit shy still and we don't know each other that well yet.

The first of the two siblings that we brought home was Sigrid, the only female of the litter and the smallest of the three. So far she is quite sociable and like to cuddle and play. She is getting braver and braver, exploring the apartment.

Sigrid

The other kitten, Sigrid's brother, Sven is quite a bit more shy than his sister. He likes to play and cuddle but as soon as we start to move around in the apartment he usually hides out in one of his safeplaces. We hope (and think) that this will get better with time as they haven't been her for long.

Sven

We are very happy for this addition to our family and look forward to get to know these cuties better! I'm sure they will show up in pictures every now and then 😊.

Verdades

I am definitely a Warmblood person and even though I nowadays tend to focus more on resins than OF models I still buy the occasional OF warmblood when they strike my fancy.

A recent Breyer release definitely did and I decided to order it when I ordered a few other things from Modell Pferde Versand.

The release was the Verdades on the Keltic Salinero mold.

The Keltic mold is one of my favourite plastic Warmblood models and I already have the original release and the Mistral Hojris model so when Verdades was announced I jumped the chance to own one.

He is really, really nice. He stands really well on his stand and he is almost flawless! His colour is a really nice, shaded bay, even more beautiful IRL than in photos! And they really made some nice eyes on him!

I have yet to decide on a name and breed for him. But I think that he is my new favourite on the Keltic mold just because of the really beautiful bay colour on him!

Akelei

Long time no see. Work has kept me very busy since my last post and it has taken its toll on me so I have been neglecting the blog for a while. But that doesn't mean that nothing has happened with the models. I have recently acquired a new face for the herd and worked on some small projects that will be shown in another post.

My new addition is another Eberl Warmblood, this is Akelei. If you haven't noticed by now, I have quite an obsession with Eberl models, especially her Warmbloods. This model was a bit of an impulse buy but when she showed up in a model horse sales group at pretty much body price I tried to resist, but obviously, failed. 

She had two broken ears (well one and an eartip) and a broken leg but I thought that it would be possible to fix without destroying the paintjob which seemed pretty nice.

I am not completely sure who painted her (she's not signed) but thanks to some kind people on a facebook group I might have found her painter (I am waiting for confirmation from her).

Her colour is really nice even though her prep work might not be perfect in all spots and there are a few small areas in the paintjob that is not completely smooth. But I really, really like her shade of chestnut and that irregular blaze is adorable!

So if I can get in touch with her painter and get permission, I will have her restored (which is my hope as she is quite charming).