2020 CollectA model horses

One of my favourite ranges of model horses at the moment is the selection from CollectA (yes, I should've been putting the capital A - that's how they type it on their own site), who also produce a lot of dinosaur and prehistoric models. Those are touted as museum quality, accurate to the best current scientific knowledge, and the sculpting certainly has a realism and authenticity that a lot of toy-type brands can't match. Their modern wildlife range also stands up well against all the competitors, and happily, the same can be said for their equines, an area where some companies are severely let down - I genuinely think they have the best sculpting out there for the mid-scale toy horse market, and the colours are greatly improved from the early basic paintjobs.

I'd got a bit behind in my CollectA collecting this year, having gone for some body-quality ones to repaint rather than catching up on brand new original finish releases, so it was more than overdue to have a little shopping spree and bring some of the 2020 models into my herd.
Oh, and incase you're looking for stockist recommendations, I got this batch and the last from BigJigs Toys, Redworldmodels have also always been good for me (specifically via ebay for more choice and multibuy special offers) and I like Chestnut Ridge of course, though the CollectA range is currently more limited there, you can pick from real photos of each individual model to get the paintjob you like best.

Thanks to a blip in my laptop's form autofill leaving my house number blank in the address, the parcel ended up going back to the shop, but on second attempt it got here safe and sound - the moral of this dull story is always check the info rather than trusting autofill if you're a buyer, and always put a return address on the box if you're the one sending!

First out of the box, the bay roan Dutch draft mare, who I've named Marta. She's a lovely great big chunk of a horse, like all the CollectA drafters I've had so far they're properly scaled to stand at true heavy horse height, and don't skimp on width, either! 

I've thought this mare looked an exciting must-have ever since the first promo photo was revealed, and she doesn't disappoint in the slightest - the only thing I'd have had any different is that the ends of her forelock and the flipped lock of mane aren't sprayed black with the rest of it, but some dark-haired horses do sunbleach blonder at the tips anyway, so I'll give that one a pass!

Next from the box, the Exmoor stallion, who I've named Golden Gorse (after the author of the famous 'Moorland Mousie' books about exmoor ponies, who used that as her pen name). He's nicer in-hand than the promo photo suggested, small and sweet, and it's good to have a real exmoor for the range. I always thought their dartmoor pony made a decent one if repainted mealy bay, and that sculpt does seem to have a bit more stallion-y presence and spirit compared to this placid-looking chap, but I like his windblown mane and could just imagine him out on the moor, glancing up from his nibbling to check out something which caught his eye.

Here's the Marwari stallion, another breed I'm glad to see added to the CollectA range - the lineup is starting to read like a horse breed book, with significant gaps getting filled all the time to bring it from the basic, popular horses to a more comprehensive set of breeds. I've named mine Nihar, meaning fog, because it was a foggy morning when he arrived, and it suits his colour, too!

Now, I know I said they have the best sculpting around, but there is a down side with some of the more recent moulds : the legs are getting distinctly chunky. It doesn't affect the draft breeds, and isn't so noticeable on the pony breeds, but on a very light horse like the marwari here, they're left kind of out of proportion - scroll back up and cover the top half of his picture with your hand, and those look like cob or heavy warmblood legs, not the lean, wiry legs of a fine-boned light breed. 

I've seen photos of the forthcoming 2021 releases, and the same applies there - when you're giving konik or mongolian ponies stocky little legs, that's perfectly fine, but when even your hackney horses have thick legs, they're not really typey any more! 

The only possible reason I can think is that this change to chunkiness came after Breyer bought the distribution rights for CollectA horses in the USA, and started calling them Corral Pals - could they now have some influence in suggesting how they'd like them? Stablemates suddenly got much thicker legs around G3 era, making them more solid and less fragile for the kiddie market, and I'm wondering if maybe CollectA were asked for chunkier legged horses less likely to break in play, now they're being sold through Breyer as part of their line.

But, I'm really quite forgiving, despite having a tendancy to find fault in my reviews on here I'll willingly praise what's being done right, too, and even with chunky legs regardless of breed, the models are still head and shoulders above the market leader Schleich, once my go-to brand for the toy-plastics section of my collection. While Schleich have gone off the boil for many adult model horse fans, replacing realistic anatomy with excessive braids, bunches, bows, and ribbons, CollectA are still producing sensible, good-looking horses I'm happy to own, and will continue to collect and recommend eagerly!

Back to my box of new arrivals, here's the Nonius, or Nóniusz in Hungarian; again the slightly out of proportion legs are in evidence, but don't detract too much from his overall look. The long roman nose is spot on for some of the real Nonius horses I've seen, and he's got a great expression, alert and lively.

I couldn't decide which was his best side, so you get a couple of bonus images for this chap; his near side and the angled one recreating his promo photo. 

When looking up real Nonius horse naming traditions, I found something unusual - every male descendent was officially named Nonius as well, leading to a lot of roman numerals in the stud book and pedigrees! However, many are given a sort of identifying individual name on the end, so I'm calling mine Nonius Az Első (meaning 'the first', as he's the first of his breed in my herd)

As well as some of the newest models, it was about time I started filling gaps in my CollectA herd and catching up with older releases I'd missed. 2019 only introduced two new horses, this American Cream Draft stallion, and the Russian Don mare, who I'll get next time.

He's one of those rather annoying models who looks nice and handsome in-hand, then a bit awkward and ungainly in photographs, I just couldn't get a shot which flattered him before I lost the daylight! The colouring on mine is much nicer than some I've seen, with a warmer more golden tone, not the dead blue-grey paint the earlier ones seem to have got - on reflection I reckon it's quite a good thing I bought a later one rather than jumping in quickly and grabbing one of the first batch!

And finally, a really old release who I just somehow never got round to adding to any earlier order - this is the Hanoverian stallion.

I repeatedly put off getting him because I couldn't make up my mind between the two colours on offer, but it's such a nice sharp and detailed sculpt which captures the breed well, I didn't want to risk leaving it too late and missing out on owning either if the mould got retired or replaced by a new one - I think the bay had the nicer face of the two, that was my only deciding factor in the end!

Tales from the Body Box - lots and lots of spots

What do you do with an aging pot of white paint which is getting rather too solid for easy application or mixing? Smudgey appaloosa time!

This is my first go at a roany white-over-dark appaloosa pattern; usually I add the white markings sharp with brushstroke-detailed edges if I'm working over the top of a colour, or do roaned ones by adding the colour paint over a white base coat. 

It wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped, possibly because I picked a fairly light and neutral base colour in the first place, so the roaning has got a bit lost and faint - don't get me wrong, I like how she turned out, she just doesn't quite match what I had in mind, and it's always frustrating when a paintjob goes off at a tangent - I feel I should be able to just think of a colour and paint it, not paint something different accidentally!

I have several OF models in this loping QH mould already, and still don't know which is their 'good side'!

Look what happened next! My body box contains a little selection of very scuffed foal moulds which came from ebay last year, and every now and then I paint a mare who seems to need a foal at foot, so I choose one which suits her and paint up a matching colour baby.

It's always fun doing paintwork at half the size, foals are a bit like changing scale to something mid way between SM and Micro size. I seem to have missed roaning the inside of that hind leg though, oops!

Having created a pretty but not-quite-what-I-wanted-to-happen appaloosa mare, the only logical next custom was the try again for the look I'd intended in the first place, so it was back to the body box to rummage for another stock-breed type mould...

And that's much better! I used a lot more black and red to make an almost plum-colour base before the dry-brushed roaning went on top, and this makes it stand out a lot more. I think the two socks set her off perfectly, too - just as some paintjobs are disappointing by going off target, others are immediately satisfying cos they turn out so right!

And co-incidentally this is another mare mould, which was an ideal excuse to do another matching appaloosa foal!

The soft roaned pattern looks so nice on this little one - even though I only ended up trying smudgey blankets and roaning because my paint was too solid for applying them normally, I'm really glad this has pushed me to have a go with a new technique.

While I was thoroughly in spotted mode, I really wanted to tackle a custom I've had in mind for ages, based on a glorious reference picture of a very hairy leopard pattern pony (here - it took me forever to find this photo on a proper credited link which wasn't on flipping Pinterest!)

I've gone with quite a deliberately brushstrokey hairy-coated look, and really do love how it worked out, I'm thrilled to bits with him. Again, like the smudgey appaloosas, this layering of brush strokes is very different to how I usually add colour and shading, and it took some getting used to but was worth the effort, I think.

Although the Breyer Shetland mould isn't quite the same type of pony as the photo, it's the closest I've got, and handily a couple of them were base-coated with a plain pure white undercoat, which helped skirt round my white-paint's-almost-solid problem, too!

What a lot of attitude - that's a pony who knows he'll be the centre of attention anywhere he goes, and thinks he deserves every bit of it!

Tales from the Body Box - a couple of colourful Collecta cobs

Continuing my little new-found and accidental tradition of painting Collecta horses the same colour they were anyway, let me introduce my two newly finished cobs!

I'm always happy to add more cobs to the 'toyplastics' division of my collection. 

I tend to use this (totally made-up and not official hobby terminology) name to group together all the similar, mid-scale models made of solid-cast and slightly flexible heavy plastic - the mass produced ones designed predominantly as childrens' toys but with an adult collector following, too : Schleich, Safari, Papo, Bullyland, Mojo, and any others you can think of. 

They all have a charm and cuteness, but the realistic sculpting for Mojo and Collecta figures put them a bit above the rest (a few years ago, I'd have ranked Safari up there too, but their later offerings have got a tad over stylised or in some cases...uh...weird!), and in my opinion, Collecta did the finest job of capturing of this popular partbred type.

The stallion, first, and though a little lacking weight and muscle curve in his topline, he more than makes up for it with his handsome face, and all that billowing hair, from the flying ringlet curls of his mane and forelock, to the heavy and beautifully sculpted feathering in his legs. I think of him as a youngster, with some filling out left to do!

Already painted bay tobiano skewbald, I couldn't help but recreate my own version of his colour and pattern, with more detailed patches and fluffed up edges to each bit of bay to give him a hairer, softer look than the OF sharp-stencilled markings. He also gained one blue eye during the repaint!

The other side, showing the fantastic inventive sculpting for his long mane.

Another Collecta from this box of scuffed bodies was the matching mare, and of course I couldn't resist giving her a similar transformation, though she did manage to progress from plain jet black patches to very dark brown, so she isn't quite the same colour as she started out!

Again, the intent of the paintjob was to go along with her OF colour, but with all the added detailing I enjiy putting on my own pintos, with a lot of smaller free-scattered patches and spots which aren't connected to the larger markings, and softened feathery edges.

She also got a couple of little black patches in the pink nose of her wide white blaze, which show up better at this angle than side on.

I haven't managed to name either of these yet, there's a bit of a backlog of nameless models waiting at the moment, but I'm sure to get round to it sooner or later; customs' names always seem to come along more readily than OFs, for some reason.

Here's one last shot of the two together - don't they make a handsome pair of hairy horses!

Tales from the Body Box - the day of the Akhal-Teke

One of my favourite more unusual horse breeds is the ancient and striking Akhal-Teke, there's just something about their beauty and strangeness which is fascinating. Last year, I treated myself to a copy of Golden Horse : The legendary Akhal-Teke, a huge, beautiful thing to be read slowly and savoured, as much a work of art as it is of information, full of stunning photography by Artur Baboev - chances are, if you've spent any time looking at pictures of this glorious breed online, you'll have seen a lot of his.

Inspired by the book, I really wanted to make myself a custom Breyer Akhal-Teke. I've got models of them already (two resins and a Collecta), but in my Breyer herd there was only the OF metallic dun on the Lonesome Glory mould (I won him in a raffle!), and I really wanted to make a model look more Teke than just a thoroughbred mould in a metallic paintjob!

First things first, I'll admit it : I'm not the biggest fan of resculpting. I usually regard it as something to tackle if it absolutely unavoidably has to be done, like a damaged body which needs repairing, or a portrait custom which needs a different mane to look like the real horse. All other customs just get painted as they come, with just some craft-knife carving now and then to sort out seams and occasionally refine legs or jawlines. But it was clear that this time, I was going to have to get out the knife and milliput if I wanted the model to look right.
Back then I didn't have the new walking TB which would probably have been a far better starting point, but this project began last summer and moulds which've come my way since just weren't in the body box at the time - the only one I had with potential was the dressage/hanoverian, so that's what I picked out. 
Now, I did intend to take photos as I went along, and I'm certain I took at least two stages, but seem to have lost them entirely since then, so you don't get step-by-step pictures, and I'll just list what happened to the poor horse...

Plaited mane and forelock removed. 

Neck and topline reshaped.

Throat cut almost all the way through to lift the chin without detaching the head.

Ears filed pointier.

Shoulders and hips filed to remove warmbloody bulk and roundness.

Belly filed to 'lose weight' along flanks and underneath.

Legs carved thinner, especially thighs and cannons.

Raised foreleg sliced and bent at knee and fetlock.

Tail filed away so it hangs to a point, not a thick tail cut straight across.

Ribs scored in with the edge of the file.

Milliput added along spine to sharpen & straighten back and add the prominent withers & hip.

New throat filled in.

Eyelid and profile slightly resculpted.

Horse set aside because intended colour is difficult and painter is better at delaying than getting on with things.

Over a year goes by.

Dust gathers.

Last week, I finally got myself into the right frame of mind (you know, the paint this while you're still painting at all cos once you stop it'll be years again one), and it was time to tackle the Teke...

He's done! And, amazingly, he looks more or less exactly how I hoped. Perhaps my mental image was a little bit darker, more layers of the sooty shading, but I reached this stage and somehow he just looked like the colour he was meant to be, so I stopped the shading layers before I ruined him! 

I've named him Mele Bürgüt, 'brown eagle' in the Turkmen language, as many Akhal-Tekes are given names which reference their colour or liken their speed and character to birds.

I had a tube of gold paint (just a pound shop metallic acrylic, bought years ago for a Household Cavalry tack project), which I started off mixing into the tan and sandy shades, but found two problems with this - a) the paint took forever to dry and felt sticky, and b) you couldn't see the gold. I think the normal paint was coating the fine metallic specks so much it was lost in the mixture, and adding more just made it all the stickier. So I abandoned the gold paint, concentrated on getting the colour I wanted, then once he was done, dry-brushed the gold lightly over the top to give the metallic sheen I'd been trying for. It's there, but it's subtle, and looks more noticeable in person than in static photos.

Here he is with some dramatic low-sun lighting, in tribute to the Baboev photography which inspired his creation!

And then I washed my brushes, braided him a little colourful collar, and sat him on the mantelpiece, enjoying that moment of satisfaction and relief that the paintjob had worked. At long last, a custom project which'd been sitting half-finished for over a year, all done.
Now what?
Start another straight away, of course, one Akhal-Teke wasn't enough!

There in the body box was a mare mould who had the basics of Teke conformation - deep chest, high withers, long flat back, slim legs, fine long ears, and a flighty, spirited pose to suit the character just fine. Sure, she had way too much mane and tail, but that was nothing a sharp knife and a metal file couldn't fix...

Meet Roksolana, palomino mare on the Magnolia mould. Her colour's based on the gorgeous palomino on the Golden Horse book's front cover, a slightly greyed-down shade rather than the famously 'new penny' kind, again with the metallic paint gently smudged on as a thinly applied dry top coat (actually, I took the worst of each brush-dab off on the back of my hand before it touched the horse, so I ended up almost as shiny as she did!)

 

Another traditonal neck collar, and I think she looks just typey enough to say 'akhal-teke' at a glance, even without having had all the resculpting work the stallion did. Have a look for the little black spot inside her stripe - I didn't mean to put one there, but a slip of the hand while detailing her nostrils and she gained a marking which looks like it was designed on purpose!

And the painting didn't end there, either - having made myself a pair, it only seemed right to give them a matching foal, and there was a good mould for that in my body box, too...

 

I had a think about what colour babies would be possible for a buckskin and palomino bred together, and rather than have to paint the same as either adult, I went with a double cream dilution and made her a cremello. Akhal-Teke foals are traditionally named with the same letter as a parent - colts to match the stallion, fillies the mare, so this little one is Roxana to go with her mum.

Here they are together, and below, the whole family of three. That's enough painting for one day, I'm happy now!

A whole lot of photo showing

As with many events lost from the calendar, 2020 unavoidably brought the cancellation of lots of live model horse shows, including two Julip ones I'd have gone to if things had been different. Luckily, we're a resourceful lot in this hobby, and our models can compete just as easily by photograph as in person - some shows were converted from live meet-ups into an online equivalent, others were thought up as something to occupy and distract ourselves, during lockdown or difficult times for those still working. A lot of these shows provided lovely rosettes by post for the winners, so I thought it'd be nice to show my appreciation to the show runners with a little recap of the prizes my models have won this year. 

First up, is Sarsen, who won Julip's Model of the Month competion back in February.

Each month is allocated a theme, February's was No White Markings, and there's a story to him being my choice - not very interesting, but a tiny mildly amusing snippet of Julip history, anyway!
Years ago, long before Julip changed hands, the connemara mould was being recast and announced at one of the Open Weekend events down in Cattistock. Annabel wanted to have a couple of finished models to display on the day, so everyone could see how the new version looked in person, all painted up. So she secretly told two of us beforehand that we could order connemaras in whatever colour, and they'd be there at the show to advertise the mould and then take home with us. I asked for mine to be 'very dark bay, as dark as you can get it, with a LOT of white on', thinking this would look really distinctive and dramatic, with big markings on a dark colour. I said just make up the markings, rather than me finding and sending a reference pic of any real horse, cos I know how much easier it is to invent them than to copy from photos.
On the day, the connemara was revealed, and as Annabel handed him over, I noticed he was dark all over, asked 'Where's his white?' and she answered 'Was he meant to have white on?'
We had a little laugh about her completely forgetting half of what I'd asked for, and said I could go and put his markings on myself as there was a Paint Your Own table in the hall, so it would've been easy enough to update him. But I decided I liked him as he was, and it was just funny rather than disappointing. So he stayed without white forever, and this was the first time he'd ever been able to take part in a competition just because someone forgot his socks!

Next came a free mini photo show run by a fellow Julip fan on the forum, the only category was My Favourite Julip, and along with choosing a single photograph, we had to write why we'd picked this model to enter. Here's my explaination...
"Rosie might not be the prettiest pony, she's not clean or tidy or any good for showing, her mane looks more like moths have been at it than anything that could possibly have been made that way on purpose, but she means the most to me out of all my herd as she's my own custom portrait of my horse of a lifetime. Every speckle on her nose, every flaw in her fleabitten coat, that's what makes her lovely, to me. Real Rosie once met the mini Rosie, and that makes her even more precious."

And here's the  proud winner, enjoying her big shiny rosette - real Rosie would secretly have preferred a cheese sandwich to a rosette, but the model one has never nicked my lunch at a show yet, so let's assume she's better behaved!

The next show of the year was an altogether bigger event, the May Madness CTF Photo Show, run by a collector rather than any one company, with a huge class list and categories for all different types of CTF model. My herd held their own against a lot of very pretty horses, here's the Julip winners with some of the lovely rainbow satin rosettes which were on offer on a pay-as-you-win basis.

Left to right, we have : Scruffy Murphy (1st, Donkey), Smoke N'Oakum (1st, CJP), Gato (1st, Family Horse), Legatissimo (1st, In-hand Light Horse), Jaffacake (1st, Dartmoor), and at the end little Rufus the donkey foal, who was given the special Tango Award by the judge!

Later in the summer, Chestnut Ridge held their Grand Photo Show, a competition with a difference - rather than having a limit per class (usually three or four), you can enter up to a total of fifty models, spread across whichever classes you want. This means you can focus on one brand or finish or several, you can pick out your favourites or very best models only, or if a certain breed is your thing, you can enter as many of those as you can fit in that fifty limit. I decided to give the Julips a rest this time (they can't have all the fun!), and give my Breyer, Stone and resin models a virtual 'day out' instead.

One of the horses I entered was Harecroft Taradhish, a custom marwari who did amazingly well - not only did he win his class, but he took the custom championship, too! Here he is with his prizes, not just the beautiful big rosette with sparkly edges, but some extras, too : the little Mini Whinnie on the right has already been painted up as a new addition to my ever growing herd of coloured cobs, and the bee-fabric bag on the left has been filled with the bias binding I use on my home-made Julip rugs.

August brought another success in Julip's Model of the Month competition, this time the theme was 'Cheekiest Pony', and it was a tough choice - ALL pit ponies are made of pure trouble, but skewbald Popcorn probably has the most sneakily up-to-something glint in his eye out of all mine, and clearly Laura at Julip thought so too, because in the post at the end of the month was this special rosette for Popcorn, bigger than he is!

The Lake District Live and Julip's own official Live show were both converted into photo shows instead this year, each using more or less the same class list as they'd planned for us to take part in person, but carried out online during lockdown and restrictions. 

One of the Lake District classes was 'Fab Five' - any five Julips with something in common, photographed together as a group. Rather than go for a conga line of all the same mould, or a set of matching colours, I decided to go a little bit more fabulous, and entered five arabians all dressed in their bright and beaded Bedouin-style show halter sets. They must have caught the judge's eye, because not only did they win this class, but also took the Fun division championship!

The Julip live also had a Conga class, and while we usually use this term to mean a row of the same mould, the rules specified 'any other common theme' was fine too, so I entered my dressed-up arabians again - and again, they won the class, and the Fun championship!

Here they are (Larkhill, Harvest Moon, Galileo, Winter, and Echo) with both their big, beautiful championship rosettes, Lake District on the left and Julip on the right.

And to finish with for now, the Summer Swing CTF Photo Show, which again catered for different brands, not just Julips - my highest-placing horse was this handsome chap, Julius Elmar, the WIA Gustav in original finish spots, who took Reserve to Reserve Champion in the Plastic division.

But one of my Julips did astonishingly well, too; this is Olympic Flame the 1981 thoroughbred, who was champion in the Vintage sub-division.

He looks so calm about his win, I imagine him as a gentle old veteran who's seen it all before and always puts in a sensible, workmanlike performance without letting the showring get to his head!
It was so, so nice to be able to show so many old Julips this time, most shows tend to have one vintage class, occasionally split into Vintage Horse and Vintage Pony, but this time we had classes for most of the common moulds and space for the rarer and poor-condition models, too.

The pay-as-you-win placing rosettes were all different colours this time, so rather than only treat my first-place Julips, I decided to ask for one of each placing so there'd be a full rainbow of gingham for my rosette wall, and on the back I'd write all the names with that placing, so they can share - I don't think they'll squabble when I'm not looking! Click the pictures if you'd like a closer look.

1st : Olympic Flame, Petra, April, Ichabod, Albermarle, Scruffy Murphy, Charlie, Echo, and Gato

2nd : William, Neapolitano Bellamira, Bertie, Tarquin, Requiem, and Equinox

3rd : Goldie, Horatio, and Merriweather

4th : Colin, Bernard, Stardust, and Tiffin

5th : Seraphim, Ford Prefect, and Butterfly Ben

6th : Big Connie, Frank, Khalife, and Danny

7th : Neapolitano Ramona and Robin

8th : Richmond and Phari

Highly commended : Donnie, Calluna, Rodrigo, Smoke N'Oakum, The Grey King, Sylvester, Puffin

Argh. Oh dear. I've just this minute realised that I totally forgot to allow for Performance results in these pictures - there's others who should've been in the photos, really, as well as some of these needing to be in two shots cos they placed for performance classes as well as their mould. Oops! I'll make sure I add their names on the back of the rosettes, though.

And finally, another Tango Award, this time for Olympic Flame, Jaffacake, and with apologies to little chestnut foal Ginger, who also has a share in this but seems to be hiding somewhere in my house - I couldn't find her anywhere to join the picture. 

My thanks to the show runners for organising all these events - for your hard work sorting and judging, for giving us something fun to do with our models, and for every one of the beautiful rosettes - I treasure them almost as much as any my real ponies ever won!