Show models?

With the liveshow less then a week away this is the state of my models:

Bailey might have to be shown as dark bay/seal bay instead of roan if I can't find the time to do the roaning.

Wherever You Go needs her mane, tail, markings and details done.

Shot In The Dark also needs her mane, tail, markings and details done.

Amulette also needs her mane, tail, markings and details done.

Brigand (who might need a new name) needs some more shading before doing his mane, tail, markings and details.

I really hope I'll be able to finish them in time but now I'm back in uni so we'll see.

Painting Progress

I'm working on three resins right now. That's quite scary but as a fellow hobbyist (and customizer) told me when encouraging me to try; the worst thing that can happen is that you need to strip and reprime if you're not happy with it.

My first victim is my poor mini Haggis who've been standing naked in my shelves for 9 years. Yep, 9 years. Except for some drip marks around his neck and shoulder (because my sealer was almost out and acted up), I'm quite happy with the look so far.

He's only gotten two layers of pastels so far but at least he is less naked then ever so I'm happy :)

Quintessance had to be redone due to a broken ear and she's been fighting me quite a while in her two coats of pastels. Managing to fall over both times with her sealer still wet... Hopefully I'll get that fixed...

Bat girl is my last resin and she's been cooperating quite nicely and going along (only two layers in).

She will be a chestnut splash white overo, I think.

This is Lubra or Highland Lass from the Silver Brumby series, she needs to have a few more coats of colour and details done.

This little dog will be a portrait of Oreo who I met at the farm I was volountering at in South Africa. She has a few coats of colour left and details before being considered done.

Please excuse my fingers in the picture. I have been lazy and haven't made him a base yet. His paint wasn't even dry when I took the picture. He still needs a few coats before I can start darkening him (he will be black, a portrait of our late rottweiler-cross Hjalmar).

Apoxie Adventures Part 2

Here are my apoxie adventures, all dressed up in white!

This stablemate jumper was my first ever attempt at resculpting a mane and tail.

I'm quite happy with the mane, considering it's my first attempt (eventhough I think that they are a little big).

I'm not as happy with the tail but for a first try I think it's okey.

I think his forelock braid turned out really, really cute.

This rearing arabian only got a minor facelift with me straightening out his dished profile. But I really like his new profile. He will be Tambo from the Silver Brumby series.

This little mare started her life as a stablemate arabian mare. She lost a leg from falling out of the bodybox when I was moving. So I had to sculpt a new one (which was my first leg and it is definitely not perfect). I also resculpted her mane, tail, forelock, gave her some fetlock hair and straightened out her profile.

You can see that the leg is a bit wonky. But I'm quite happy with her overall look.

I really like what the forelock and straight profile does to her face, it's so cute.

This little lady is probably the one I'm most happy with so far.

Her braids are smaller and more even than my first try (remember that this is only my third try at sculpting a mane and second try making it braided).

The tail is also better but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Her little forelock braid is also very cute!

I can't wait to get them all painted up!

Last Chance Photoshow

In about a month and a half it's time for the Swedish equivalent of the North American Nationals (NAN). And yesterday was the last day to enter the Last Chance Photoshow. 

This photoshow was as the name suggests, the last chance to qualify your horses for the Swedish Nationals. I do have most of my "good" horses qualified already but there were a few that I would've loved to bring with me as well.

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I haven't had a good photoshow-photoshoot with my models for... more years than I can count. That means that most of my newer horses doesn't even have decent show photos but I took a chance with what I had so I entered the following five models in the show.

Acuatico 

Chester VS 

Dunbar Prince

Epsilon

Viking

Dunbar Prince placed 4th and Viking placed 7th in their class so no qualifications for them. Epsilon took another fourth so another one that didn't qualify.

Chester VS took first in his class which meant that he had a chance to qualify (only champions and champion reserves qualify) and he took it with a champion title (with that lousy photo! Good boy!). 

Acuatico took second in his class which was good enough for him to claim a champion reserve title and another qualification for me! :)

And to top it all off, Chester went to claim the Best in Show reserve title! He is such a good boy! :)

The Story Behind The Model

It's quite some time ago that I did my first "story behind the model" post so I thought why not make another one.

This time I'll introduce a model that is kind of special to me.

So without further ado, let me introduce; Since You Don't Love Me

Since You Don't Love Me is a repainted Breyer Sm. G2 American Saddlebred. She was painted by the Swedish artist Annika Gustafsson.

The story behind her is quite special to me. My younger brother was also a part of the modelhorse hobby several years ago. He didn't have a large showstring but it did quite well for him and at one show he won a painting certificate in a raffle. The certificate was for a stablemate repaint by the Swedish artist Annika Gustafsson.

My brother quite liked the G2 American Saddlebred mold so he sent one of those to be painted. He wanted her to be a pinto colour, I belive he decided on bay too but pinto was the most important part and he wanted the ribbons to be painted red and white as that were the colours of his handball team.

Not long after the horse arrived, my brother left the hobby, so she just stood in the shelf (my shelf as my brother's models had their own shelf in my cabinet, and still do!) with no name and was never shown. I thought it to be a pity as he had a nice showstring and I thought that that mare could do really, really well for him but I never mentioned it. One day he came to me with the model and told me that I could have her. Just like that. I thanked him over and over and that's why she is extra special to me as my brother gave her to me.

I really can't remember where I got her name from. I think it was inspired by a song or perhaps a line from some film or tv-series. I just remember that I thought it would be a cool name and scribbled it on the inside of my wardrobe door to remember it for when the perfect model horse showed up. As American Saddlebreds often have these long, quite cool names I thought it'd be perfect for her.

She has proven to be an awesome show horse and have won a lot for me in the past years but she would be special to me even if she wouldn't win a thing. This is one horse that I'll probably never sell.

Apoxie adventures

Today I opened up my apoxie package! I actually thought that the containers would be smaller (since where I bought it from only stated it as "small container of apoxie") so that was a nice surprise.

My first victim test subject model horse to be fixed was this lady:

She is a Bat Girl resin that I won in a raffle at a live show years ago. She suffered a broken ear for me when my bodybox fell to the ground during my move. I could never find the piece so why not make her my first apoxie test? 

She also had another problem. She came to me with this problem. Her tail had been broken and glued back on but it wasn't perfectly aligned making a long gap in her tail. 

This is what she looks like after today's sitting:

Sorry about the light, don't know why it came out so yellow.

The tail looks dark and it still looks a bit like there is a gap but I think that's because the apoxie is darker than the primed resin.

The underside looks way better!

Her new ear seen above, I'm actually quite happy with how it came out. It still needs to be sanded but for now I think it looks okey. I also found a hairline crack in her lifted front leg that I reinforced and fixed with some apoxie (can be seen in the picture).

I thought that I only mixed a little apoxie but I still had apoxie left when I was done with Bat Girl. Even though my only real goal was to finish her (I didn't set any higher goals since I've never worked with anything like this) I couldn't stop, it was so fun! 

So my next model to be fixed was this girl:

She is a Quintessance resin by Liddy. I painted her a few years ago and updated her paint job for a live show before I moved back home for summer last year. I was actually starting to like the colour I got on her but unfortunately she fell of my table and her ear was lost in pieces. 

I was quite sad to have to reprime her and repair her but I hope I can do it even better when I get that far.

                       

This is what she looks like at the moment. Even though she needs to have her ear sanded I think I managed to do a pretty good match to her other ear.

I still had some apoxie left so I was looking for another body to do some work on. I found my G2 Stablemate rearing arabian. He will be my interpretation of The Silver Brumby's Tambo so he needed to loose the dished profile so I tried to even it out a bit.

He looks a bit more convex than he is but I think that it is the colour of the apoxie that makes it look like it. I will prime him to see if he needs more work but for now I'm happy with his look :)

My last project of the day was this guy:

He is the Breyer stablemate G3 jumping warmblood that I removed his mane and a bit of his tail to give him braids. They are far from perfect and they are a bit too big but I like them! I will show him as a pony so I can always blame it on his fluffy pony mane ;) Fluffy, unruly pony mane means big, not perfect, braids ;)

Anyway I'm quite proud of my first apoxie adventures and can't wait to do some more work!

All in all I think I spent 1½-2 hours on these horses (it was a little more than 2 and ½ episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) and hopefully I can spend some more time on them tomorrow!

Work in progress

My mother let me set up a little studio on her dining table (as we rarely use it, mostly we use the kitchen table) and she also lend me her special lamp and electric file (she's an educated nail artist but doesn't have the time or space to work with it at the moment so her stuff was just laying in the closet)! You can see the electrical file in the background of the picture.

These two are some of the MANY horses I have, to work on at the moment. I'm kind of excited about these two as I bought a tiny jar of apoxie (I'm gonna get it from my father's house tomorrow or on Thursday) and these two will be my first attempts at minor resculpting! They will have braided manes and tails. The plan is to make the mare chestnut and the gelding blue roan.

They still have quite some way to go, along with the rest of my "bodybox" horses but I will share any and all progress here with you :)