Painted in 2019

Here's a neatly arranged look back at all the customs I painted during 2019...

There's thirty two in total, 18 solid colours and 14 pintos. Two are racehorse portraits, all the rest made up colour and marking combinations.

Five bays, two chestnuts, a dun, a buckskin, a palomino and a baby brown. 

Two mulberry greys, three dark dappled greys, one pure white grey, one fleabitten with dapples and a dark face. 

Seven bay skewbalds of varying shades, one buckskin tobiano, one dun overo, one piebald, one chestnut skewbald with not a lot of colour on, one pinto foal, one smoky black minimal tobiano, and a pintaloosa. 

I think the summary of this year should be that I really like painting pintos, but have tried fairly successfully to dip into some colours I haven't tried before, and also improved on the ones I have done but never quite so nicely as they turned out this time. 

I've also very much enjoyed getting my hands on more recent moulds I'd never painted before, especially the Icelandic, Django and Mini Alborozo. 

My aim for next year is some different pattern appaloosas, more varied bays and duns, and hopefully more new moulds.

I'd love to know which you like best? I'd struggle to pick just one favourite, but a good nine or ten of these are up there among my favourites from all the customs I ever did, and that must mean it's been a good year for my painting! 

Two Peter Stones and a Breyer SR

This is a bit of a catch-up post as time runs out at the end of the year, because I want these horses to file into the 2019 archives for the blog! None of them have names yet, which is why I've hung back in posting them, even though one's been here since summer and the other two arrived earlier this month.

Here we have the Peter Stone Niveous, one of 250, from the 2005 Signature Series. 

It seems a really long time ago, another era of collecting OFs, when Stone still did cheaper regular runs in basic colours, but also offered more detailed models at a higher price in limited numbers. They're almost a forerunner of the current situation where all Stone releases are an expensive and exclusive luxury - looking back it seems as if they tested the waters with the Signature Series and Show Line, then decided there was enough of a market for a better grade of model, they could drop mass production and make regular runs a thing of the past. 

The only Stones I buy now are second-hand, so it's always exciting to be the winning bidder on an ebay listing, and particularly in this case, as I remember admiring Niveous all that time ago when he was new!

Though his colour might not look spectacular, not in this day and age where we're used to seeing special runs with mapping and dappling and every possible detail, back in 2005 these were the paintjobs which stood out in a crowd, and the horses so many of us OF collectors coveted most of all. It may only be 15 years, but there's a sweetly retro appeal to buying a model I wanted all that time ago; it brings back memories of happy times discussing catalogue pictures and new arrivals on internet forums, and friends I didn't manage to keep in contact with when everything gradually slipped over to Facebook instead.

One of the nicest things about the ISH mould is the friendly, happy face, don't they do great 'looking at the camera' poses! 

And here's that emphasising-the-quarters angle so beloved of the stock horse breeders, although funnily enough Niveous wouldn't be a favoured colour in the real-horse world, as I've heard Paint breeders dislike greys as the colour patches fade out as the horse ages, and the visual impact is lost. I've seen some great hunters and eventers in greyed-out 'white' skewbald and as a coat colours fan I think they're really interesting and always try to get some pictures which capture the colouring, but I can see why people want something that stays flashy forever if they're more into showing than sport!

The next buy was a horse who almost didn't come here - at first sight I resisted cos I'd spent a bit too much lately, then I got tempted I put him on my watch list as a maybe... and promptly forgot to be online to bid before he ended. Luckily, no-one else bid either, so he came round again and I promised him I'd try harder this time... and managed to get him, for less than regular run price!

Introducing Marsh Tacky Two Step, who was a Breyerfest special run in 2013. Only my second on the Desatado mould (after Picasso), he's a nice unusual colour for my herd, too; primitive dun with leg barring, and the prominent barring on his shoulders and to a lesser extent on his rump. 

I'd never even heard of the Carolina Marsh Tacky breed until he was on the way and I googled what his name meant (I thought he just had a really long name of four words!), so it's been interesting reading about them and their history, watching a few videos of their unique 'swamp fox trot' gait, and I'm sure that bit of research has made me appreciate the model more. I always think it's brilliant how model horse collecting can spark these little moments of curiosity and broaden our knowledge of the real horse world too.

Another mould which photographs well from the front, I like how his heavy tail lets him hold a rearing pose without being the slightest bit tippy.

The Marsh Tacky didn't travel alone, either - while I was bidding on him, I left a small bid on another horse from the same seller,  not expecting to be anywhere near the finishing price but worth a shot just on the off chance... and imagine my delight when I flicked tabs after winning one auction, to find I'd won this handsome chap as well!

This is the Santa Fe Morgan mould from Stone, the first edition release called Santa Fe Renegade (a portrait of a real horse), from 2012. I was never a fan of their original morgan mould, but this one is a huge improvement, and the gorgeous deep glowing colour with a hint of dappling really brings it to life. It's a model I can't stop having one more look at, maybe because the mould is new to me - I'd never even seen one in person - or maybe just because he's so pretty!

Doing the 'OH, WHAT'S THAT?!' face of horses who've spotted something they're not sure whether to find scary or exciting!

Not the best of photographs, but this shows his beautifully detailed eye, and how the little white half-star on his forehead is actually a marking etched in with hair-by-hair rough edges, not masked as a blob to be peeled off after painting.

Much like with his Tacky travelling companion, I did a little bit of extra reading about the morgan breed while waiting for his arrival here - I'd heard the story about Justin Morgan the foundation sire, and have seen a lot of photos of them being coat colour examples over the years, but realised didn't know the breed standard in terms of looks and conformation. Having read about it now, I think maybe I did know this all along, but didn't know I knew it : I just pictured them as the pretty-faced, curvy, compact horses, deep in the neck and chest but rounded all through the back and rump too - not sharply upright and exaggerated like the gaited breeds, or heavy-quartered and muscly like the stock breeds, but something in between. They have a presence all of their own, and this model seems to capture that specific Morganishness far better than I can in words!

Breyer Holiday Horses

I don't celebrate christmas, so the general appeal of Breyer's annual Holiday Horse is rather lost on me : I don't use the glittery themed tack they come dressed in, and don't use them as decorations. But, I do like some of the models inside the seasonal outfits, as long as they don't have the pearly or metallic paintwork which puts so many of these releases well off my wishlist.

2007's Wintersong, who I was lucky enough to receive as a gift from a hobby friend who knew that a shire mould in a good shire colour would be exactly my taste in model horses! I kept the name as Harecroft Wintersong, as I liked it so much and it just suits him perfectly with that frosty grey coat and his mid-winter arrival. He also got allocated one of the more tasteful outfits by the breyer design team, traditional and without the plasticky spangles of so many years, so I've kept them even though I've never dressed him up again since he got here!

2010's Jewel, a very welcome addition to my conga line of showjumping warmbloods, a very simple paintjob under his sparkly trappings but it does suit the mould so nicely. Mine's called Harecroft Lionsmane because I already had a custom yellow dun called Dandy Lion and wanted to carry on the theme.

And this stunner is a new arrival to me, a second hand find back in the summer, even though he was released for 2013. One of my very favourite moulds, sadly much under-used by Breyer for regular runs so I don't have very many, just the tobiano pintos in black and chestnut, a fleabitten grey SR, and this guy. He is very slightly metallic, but it's subtle and doesn't carry on into his markings or hooves, so it comes across as a realistic richness to his golden sheen, rather than pearlised paint for festive decoration's sake. Sold as Holiday On Parade rather than with a name of his own, I've called him Harecroft Paradise Valley.

Breyer 2020 releases - first impressions

Well, the pictures are out for the Breyer 2020 regular runs, and I thought now I've got a bit of time to muse on each one, it'd be nice to do a little mini review of my first impressions, make a note of what's on my wish list and what's not, then look back and see if any of my opinions change as the year progresses and we get the first 'real' photos from collectors, or chance to see and handle the models themselves on trade stands.

All the releases so far are up here, a dedicated New for 2020 page on the excellent Identify Your Breyer site.

So, let's have a look through them. They're a bit muddled at the time I write this, with some Collector's Club glossy exclusives taking up the top spot where we'd usually see the regular runs first, but scroll a bit and you get to the first model that'll be general release - Stingray.

At first glance I thought she was a flaxen chestnut on the Wyatt/Babyflo mould, and was questioning the logic of doing two regular run chestnuts in a row, but then I googled the real horse to investigate what seems to be an interesting dark blotch on her side, from flank up toward her back. The marking is there, but the horse is very much not a chestnut after all - just do a quick search on 'Stingray barrel racing' and you'll see plenty of photos of a very pretty sooty/chocolate palomino mare. My own pony is this colour, so I know it well! It's curious that the model and the real horse don't seem to match at all; I'm wondering if the lighting or colour balance in the promo shot is misleading, as I can't believe they struggled to find the right pigments for the paint and just did it ginger! I didn't buy Bablyflo because I thought her colouring was a bit on the plain side, so I think I'll get Stingray instead.

Next on the page we see The 'Gangsters', a pair of skewbalds on the Galiceño and Pony of the Americas moulds. Neither of these moulds do anything for me, I'm not a fan of the older sculpting style and although I'm sure the real ponies are great characters, the models don't appeal to me.

The next model down is the Connemara Mare mould, most recently seen as Banks Vanilla. Again I had a reason to avoid the Vanilla release, it screamed WRONG MOULD! for a show-ring champion pony, where manners and rideability matter just as much as anything else. I just didn't like that they chose a mould of a wild-looking temper strop or playfight for a portrait of a show pony, and even though I might've overlooked that and ignored that it was a portrait model if I really really loved the colour, the white grey was plain enough that I never did get tempted.
This time, however, they've used the mould for a Sable Island Horse, a feral pony breed which lives a natural life away from all human interference. They're not meant to look tame, and so the mould is a much better fit! I like the colour too, especially the paler shading round eyes and muzzle, and the sun-faded tail, so I'm quite looking forward to being able to add this mould to my collection this time round.

The fourth on the list is apparently 'The Ideal Series' American Quarter Horse. Breyer's site explains that it's based on a famous artist's portraits of the ideal example of various horse breeds, and as he's started with the QH, I'm going to assume he's mostly famous in the USA, the way horsey people in the UK are more likely to know artists like Stubbs and Munnings.
Anyway, the Ideal QH is a chestnut Geronimo, that mould which always makes me think Breyer badly wanted an equivalent of the Peter Stone Ideal Stock Horse which is so popular, so they commissioned something like the ISH but not quite. Sadly that's exactly what I always see it as : the one like the ISH but not so nice. The head's not as good, not as friendly-looking, I can't put my finger on what's up - the eye's maybe too high, too far forward perhaps, the head too small as a whole, or too wedge-shaped? It could be a little of all of these added together! Maybe one day they'll do it in a colour which changes my mind, but a simple chestnut is not that colour - not for me thanks!

The next release is a bit complicated to describe, but easy to review - I hate it.
There's five different models, each representing a different era of Breyer moulds plus a bonus rare Chase Piece, and when you order one, they're randomly shipped - you don't know which you'll get.
This mystery game may be all well and good with Stablemate Blind Bags, where you're risking £3.99 if you get a model you don't like much, and maybe wasting a few extra £3.99s on duplicates if you want to keep searching for the one you're after, or to complete the set.
Now try thinking that about fifty pounds.
You send off your £50, and you get one of five models. Maybe you like it, but maybe you hate it. Maybe it's a mould you don't want, or a breed you've no interest in. Maybe you have that one already. With £3.99 models, you can shrug it off, a disappointment but no big deal. You can always buy another one, even a child saving up pocket money can keep trying.
But no-one's going to say 'oh well, it was only £50' and order another without minding. That's just not throwaway money, not something you can lose without flinching. That's a hefty amount to risk on not knowing which horse you'll get. And nobody's going to be cheerfully content wasting a couple of hundred pounds trying to chase down a full set of these models. Sure, you can sell your unwanted ones on the second hand market, and you're certain to find buyers who want the sale without the risk, but the point is, the initial outlay is just too big to make it a fun gamble, unless you just happen to like all the models and don't care which you end up with.
I like the Andalusian so so much, his colour suits the mould, is really well done, and not something we've had on any other regular run before. I'd buy him outright if he were just, you know, buyable.
The chase pinto is nice enough that I'd not be too disappointed if I got him instead.
The saddlebred? Ever since we first saw the photo of this mould I've been thinking the body is very well done but the tail is kind of freaky, and I'd want to see one in person before I can really tell what I think of it. Would I be disappointed if I got that one? No, I can overlook a bizarre tail if I like the rest of the horse.
The Fighting Stallion and Indian Pony, though, I don't like those moulds. I don't hate them and think they're hideous, just the sculpting style isn't my cup of tea, and I wouldn't buy them by choice, nor want them in this lucky dip gamble. So with an unknown ratio of Chase models in the mix, that leaves me with a slightly more than half chance of getting a model I'd like enough to keep, and a slightly less than half chance of getting a model I'd have to sell (including the hassle of setting up a seller account on Ebay) to get my money back and try again.
That's not a game I'm going to play for £50 a go, Breyer, so I'll leave this 70th Anniversary Assortment well alone for now, and hope that maybe one day the Andalusian might pop up on Ebay, if someone else receives a duplicate or a disappointment and wants a new home for him.

Next on the page comes a chestnut Flash morgan, Avatar's Jazzman. I like him but not enough to buy, as I feel like I've said a lot on this post already his colour just strikes me as a little bit plain - don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a good basic chestnut, and he has rich shading, nice highlights to his mane and tail, and good crisp socks (an unmasked fuzzy sock is one of my pet hates!). If I didn't already have a bay, a dun and a couple of customs on this mould I'd probably have put him on my 'maybe' list, but with shelf space an ever-present problem for my herd, and Trad prices rising year on year, I just can't have All The Models anymore and it's the plainer, less inspiring ones which get left out.

Last regular run Traditional, Airiella and her foal Favory Airiella. I'd said a while ago that it struck me as odd that Breyer had got this Lipizzaner mare and foal mould pair but not released them in a Lipizzaner colour yet - and here they are! Despite the wait, this set's only a 'maybe' for me, as the foal's really similar to the 2019 Hackney one I've already got, and I'm not 100% sure about the fleabites on the mare. Cedric (Showjumping Warmblood) from a few years ago had sweet subtle speckles which looked natural and pretty, where this looks a bit spattery, and maybe standing out because her specks are brown paint but her leg shading is grey. Fleabites are the horse's body colour, left behind in the greying process, so if she was bay before greying out, then the dots would be brown on her body and black on her legs. If she was chestnut before, then her speckling would be brown all over, but her leg shading ought to be brown-toned as well. It might look less jarring in person, especially if the speckling is softer, so before adding to my wishlist, I'd want to see one myself - or at very least in real collector photos rather than the promo shot, which is often the prototype model and not one picked out of the actual production run.

On to the Classics...

First up, the Horse of the Year for 2020, and it's a sleek, stylish, and detailed new morgan mould, with a great colouring and a very well painted face. Again, this may well be the prototype and the models from the production line might not live up to the initial photo, but from what I can see here, it looks like a possibility for my herd, I'm rather low on morgans in general and would happily have a handsome new classic addition when the majority of my models are Trad or Stablemate scale.

Next we've got some horse and foal sets, I haven't gone for these in the past and again there's no combination which shouts BUY ME on first look, the grey TB with a chestnut foal is the only one which might perhaps tempt me later.
The decorators I'll just skip past, I don't collect these so reviewing is best left for people who are into them!

Now Stablemates!

The first SM model we see on Identify Your Breyer is a rainbow clearware unicorn, but check out Breyer's own page for 2020 models, and this release is actually a set of 5 blank clear unicorns to paint yourself. And hmmm, I think I might get a set of these - snip and file off those horns, and you get a really good selection of new(ish)-mould bodies : Magnolia, a Mini Alborozo, a walking thoroughbred, the new standing warmblood, and what looks like a new SM foal mould. It depends on the pricing, but I'm enjoying painting Alborozos already and looking forward to getting my hands on the walking TB and warmblood for the first time, so this could be a handy way to buy them!

Next on the page, the 'Stable Surprise', which seems to be much the same idea as the blind bag Mystery Horses except they're in a little box this time so you can't squeeze them up to guess the moulds! I like all the models in the selection, so I'll be trying for the full set and also not minding any duplicates because as I said, I'm looking forward to painting some customs on the newer moulds, so this is the kind of gamble I don't mind taking.

The Mystery Unicorn Foal Surprise is a logical combination of the colourful unicorn blind bags and the mystery foal sets in realistic horse colours, I can see these being popular enough with people who like the decorator-style unicorns but I still wish they'd do one, just one, model unicorn in a real horse grey with no pearl or metallic or colourful bits.

The last thing I'll review is the Deluxe Horse Collection of SMs (all the items after this are exclusives, accessories, ornaments etc), and this is one I'm very pleased to see!
It seems the old Shadowbox set has been around forever, and although it was great, you can only collect it once and then you're left waiting and hoping they'll change it and give you some more minis to buy. This box might not have quite as many as the Shadowbox, but each one is a nice little horse, good colours on good moulds (I'm still dubious about Darley, but don't mind meeting a weird mould so much when it's part of a set - I ended up quite fond of the last cantering arabian after thinking it looked ugly and strange to begin with, I 'had' to have my first to keep a set complete, and have bought them on purpose since!). My favourite is probably the palomino jumping horse, but there's nothing in there I wouldn't have bought if they'd been single horses to pick and mix, so I'm very pleased with this selction box, and it'll probably be the first thing I order when the 2020s eventually make it to the UK.

So in total, there's two Trads I definitely want to get, and some others I'd consider once I see them in person, one Classic on the maybe list, one must-have SM boxed set, and some surprise SM horse-and-foals to collect til I have them all. This isn't too bad, as it's always a disappointment in the years when there's not enough (or anything!) you're excited about buying, and it'd be too expensive if I ever loved and wanted all the Trads in any one year, but the amount I've got on my wishlist here is manageable, so I'm happy!

What do you think of Breyer's selection this time round? Which horses have gone on your wishlist for next year? Do let me know in the comments, it'd be great to know what other collectors think about the 2020 models (and if you're posting a similar review on your blog as well, do leave me a link, I'd love to read it!)

Tales from the Body Box - the next batch

I may go several months or even a year without painting a single custom, but once I get started, I tend to do a LOT before finally putting aside the paints and leaving the body box neglected for another dormant period! This year's creative burst of painting has lasted a bit longer than usual, so I have yet another batch of minis to share today.

First of all, here's take two on the bay skewbald G3 warmblood - last time I tried I ended up liking the look with a lot less white on, even though this is the pattern I'd originally had in mind, so I had a second attempt and this one's more or less exactly how I'd pictured my idea in the first place!

I've called this one Harecroft Corncrake, a name I'd had on my list for a long while but seemed to suit her halfway through painting, so by the time she was finished she was already named!

Here's a horse who already comes with a name - he's a portrait of the National Hunt racing star Sprinter Sacre. I'd wanted to do a mini version of this much-loved horse back when he retired, but only got as far as picking out the body and sculpting the plaits on, and now I've finally got round to giving him his coat of paint. 

I like doing a custom from photos now and then, because it does make me paint what I'm seeing, rather than how I imagine a bay usually is - the shading becomes more individual and not just the way I like to do them.

A grey. I mean, look, a white grey! One of the most basic of all horse colours, and yet somehow this is the first time I've painted a plain grey model. I think the tendancy in customising is to go for the interesting, the challenging, the unusual, the decorative - while ignoring the simplest plainest colours like black or white-grey. But I've got four of these little Spanish-walk Andalusians to work with, so one of them gets to be the pure white so common (and so handsome!) in the breed; I've named him Harecroft Palomo, the male variant of 'paloma', meaning dove.

When I came to file his picture in the right place on my laptop, I realised I'd somehow missed out photographing another custom, one I painted way back in the summer!

Romanesque, so named because one of my first ever customs was a mulberry grey andalusian called Picaresque. With a lot more colour to him than the pure white grey, this one was a great deal more fiddly and looks a little messy, but as greys do fade out in a rough and patchy way, I'm ok with that!

The next one had to have a swift change of scenery, because I realised I couldn't have a horse doing a sliding stop up my 'tarmac road' base - I did once have to do very much that kind of manouver to stop a runaway pony heading toward a main road junction, but it's not the kind of scene you'd set up for a photo!

This was the result of me not being overly keen on the reiner mould, and thinking maybe if I paint one a really good colour, I'll like it as much as a less interesting colour on a mould I like more. And yes, it worked! I'm so happy with how this one turned out in a flashy pintaloosa pattern, he's well up there among my favourites. I might go with solid but even spottier appaloosa for the last reiner in my body box.

Harecroft Tullius, inspired by a horse I've seen out eventing this summer - he's got the marking more usually known as a 'bloody shoulder' on one side of his face! This combined with the dark legs, faint dappling, and softer fleabite speckles over the rest of his body made him a really striking horse to look at, and I made sure to get a few good reference pictures so I could paint up something similar. I swapped his face marking to the opposite cheek so it'd be on the display side of the model, and gave him a couple of socks so he wasn't a direct portrait of someobody else's horse.

Another clipped model here, this time a cob. At times I think I really do need to paint less bay skewbalds, but then I tell myself I like my bay skewbalds, and may as well keep doing a colour I know I enjoy and can do a decent job with! I've trailed a tiny line of dark paint along the join between clipped and unclipped colour this time, to pick out the little shadow you get where the thickness of the coat has some depth to it.

A slighty angled photo makes the cob mould look a bit less flimsy through the chest and neck, it's a bit more flattering than directly side-on, and his clip shows up lovely here, too!

This boy had a lucky escape when he fell off the board I was carrying him on, bounced off the doorstep, skittered across the concrete path hitting it at least three times, before stopping in a pile of wet leaves. All this, and he got away with only the tiniest of ear-tip rubs - I just had to name him something good luck related, then remembered riding a bay skewbald cob called Felix years ago, and because that name comes from the Latin meaning 'lucky', he can have it!

Last one for now...

I was able to get my hands on one more Alborozo body, and did him the third colour on my wishlist - here's how he turned out! Really pleased with him, I do always find pale colours harder but as long as the paints co-operate and the brushes are just right for the smudgey shading, I can often end up with something I love just as much as any of my darker colours, it just takes a little bit more care and stress to get there!

I think he stands out better on the green background, although the paler one does look pretty, so I'm not sure which I should use as his showing/website photo?

And here's a bonus shot for you - the lengths I go to for photographing models in winter when most of the garden is in shade! First raise the scenery as high as possible using a selection of boxes on a bin on a chair, then arrange the background and base at peculiar angles so the light is on the right parts of the horse without shadows on the backdrop, with help from the bird table to prop it up, and finally, stand off to the left somewhere in among the bushes just to be lined up right for some shots before the sun moves too far and the whole garden is dark again!