Each season I go to about six or seven events, and over the years, I've got to watch the star horses as they rise through the ranks, from Novice and Intermediate through to Burghley, rated as one of the best competitions in the world.
One horse I followed all through his career was a particular chestnut, lanky and lean, with a quirky blaze and a pink nose, and roany markings. Why did I like him? He looked so much like one of my old favourite riding school horses, an aging partbred thoroughbred called Peter. My mum and I first referred to this big chestnut eventer as The Horse Who Looks Like Peter, but soon his success and reputation as a world-class horse meant we knew him by his real name - Nereo, ridden by Andrew Nicholson.
I'd always had an idea of wanting to paint him as a Stablemate model, but never did because there just wasn't the mould to suit - my options were the G2 or G3 Thoroughbreds, G2 or G3 warmbloods, or the jumping horse, none of which looked enough like his long, lean build with high withers and wiry muscles. And then the new Walking Thoroughbred mould was released, and ahhh, there was my mini Nereo.
Of course it hasn't been easy to get hold of one, they've not been a regular run single yet, so eventually I bought the Paint Your Own Unicorn set with the blank thoroughbred body in, and filed off the horn!
His colour was really nice to paint, a paler kind of chestnut, sandy rather than reddish, with slightly faded out legs, a chocolatey brown tail, and white roaning marks, notably on his elbow and hips. One random white 'scuff' on a horse and the most likely reason is an old scar which healed with white hairs, but Nereo has them on several parts of his body and most seem too spread out and mixed in with his chestnut hairs to be the result of an accident, so they must be some odd form of natural marking.
I carefully copied his white sock and striped hoof, but you can't really see it at either angle in his side-on photos!
The other side, showing just how race-fit and muscly the new mould is - a lot of eventers are the more compact, chunky end of the warmblood spectrum these days, but this suits the longer, lighter sporthorse or thoroughbred-type extremely well, and it'd be handy for racehorse or old-fashioned hunter portraits too. I could even see it as the makings of a nice akhal teke with a bit of reworking.
His face marking shows better at this angle, with a pink nose and lower lip spot, and again he's got roaning round the edges of his stripe. Unlike his roan hip marks which have always been there, this seems to be age-related greying (a horse approaching middle age will sometimes get white hairs, just like people do!), as his stripe looks much sharper in older photos than the recent shots when he won Badminton in 2017, or retired there the following year.
Eee, he's gorgeous! Chestnuts can be really hard to make look good as they so often lack the dramatic and contrasty shading of bays for example but you've absolutely nailed it! I also really want that mould to customise now, lol
ReplyDelete(also, yes, I know it's been nearly an actual year since I replied to your PM, even for me that's peak uselessness, so I'll get round to it soon I promise! XD)
Ahh, thanks! I think it does help that he's got the roaning, and the dark tail, that stops him looking too monotone faded orange, heh. Although he did have four different paints in his faded orange bits, too, as I'm sure you know you can spend ages pefecting shading and being able to SEE it and be satisfied with the model in hand, for it all to just vanish in the photos thanks to the light reflecting upward, the sun being too bright, and the scenery draining it!
DeleteI'm really hoping they release some of these newer moulds as SM singles next year, for all the customisers out there - mini Alborozo, the mini Vanner, this walking TB...they've have sold by the thousand if they'd make them buyable instead of hiding them away in blind bags or unicorn sets! There's a 'paint your own suncatcher' set out now which includes this TB, Alborozo, Magnolia, the standing warmblood which looks a bit like a mini Idocus/Ravel mould, plus a new foal, for about £16. I admit I'm tempted, just as a way to get one of each to customise, even though I know that horn was an utter pig to remove once and don't fancy doing it five more times, hahah
An Actual Year, pfff. That's sounding a bit like that film A Good Year, but less good :D