Tales from the Body Box - four skewbalds and a grey

Today's batch contains a bit of a catch-up from all October so far, as the weather's not been co-operative in getting the pictures taken.

First up, a chestnut overo on my favourite of all the Stablemate foal moulds. Not only is it a fun playful pose, with a sweet face, but it's the most steady on those little feet, less likely to topple over and damage paintwork or set off a domino trail along the shelf!

I've named her Harecroft Red Horizon, here's a couple more shots of this very photogenic little one!

Next to be completed, the final G2 paso fino in my body box - this mould I never really clicked with, knowing very little about the breed (not to be confused with the peruvian paso), til I read up more about their history and watched some Youtube videos of their unusual running-walk gait. Do look them up if you've only ever seen still photos, it's quite something to see in action!
Despite not being one of my favourite moulds, in certain colours I do really like it, and luckily I struck on a colour I'm very happy with, here. She looks a very soft and gentle mare, so I've named her Pachamama, after the mother earth goddess of the Inca.

Something much much more familiar, next, my own local 'native breed' in the form of a coloured traditional cob. Ever since I got this body (as a free gift with an order from the much-missed Utterly Horses online model shop), I've had a skewbald cob in mind, and at long last I fished him from the body box and got painting! He turned out pretty much exactly as I'd planned, with a typical tobiano pattern and fluffily feathered edges to contrast with the sharper style I usually use.

I didn't have to wait long to think of a fitting name for him, while I was still finishing off his paintwork I happened to hear mention of the pirate Calico Jack on tv, and it seemed perfect - a calico cat is one with a tri-coloured patchy coat, and another of my recent cob customs was named Pirate, so this suits him very nicely indeed.

Here's another colour idea which has been hovering in the back of my mind for years rather than days before actually happening on a model! She's inspired by a couple of grey skewbalds I've seen out on the cross country course, horses which would have started out dark with white markings, but the greying process has taken away their colour little by little, til they're left as a pale or fleabitten grey with markings almost lost as white on white at first glance. When they're clipped, the grey stands out a little more, as the contrast of black skin or pink can be seen clearly - especially after they've been through the water jump! I've named this one Bluebird, and with those chunky legs and dinnerplate feet, I imagine her as a partbred heavy horse with the feather clipped off!

And here's the last of this batch, Valparaiso, one more mini Alborozo for my herd. He was from the unicorn suncatchers paint set, but once the horn's carved away and the clear plastic is painted over, you'd never know - it's quite a handy and good-value way to get hold of four nice newish moulds to customise!

I'd been trying to pin down colours for my last two Alborozos for a while - being a harder-to-get mould, it does take careful consideration to make the most of the bodies which come my way. Having done a bay, a dark rose grey, and a mulberry grey, a pure pale white-grey seemed tempting next, or perhaps fleabites or some faint dappling for a little more interest than a plain one? Then I turned the page of my calendar to see a fleabitten, faintly dappley grey with a blonde-and-grey mixed mane, and ah, there was my colour.

It was only after finishing him that I realised how much he reminded me of this grey version of Napoleon Crossing the Alps - mine has shorter socks but the likeness is there, especially in this sidelong lighting!