Tales from the Body Box - dappled greys and clipped out bays

Time for a catch-up with my Stablemate painting lately, here's a little batch of new Breyer mini customs.

One of the breeds which features in all the comprehensive horse breed books is the Tersk, but they seem to be very lacking in model form, so for a little while I've been wanting to paint one.
Based on arabian blood, with crosses of Russian light horse breeds, the Tersk is a hardy sport horse with more height and bone than a purebred arabian, while keeping the character and more than a hint of the look of their arab ancestors. The example in my favourite book was a very pretty dappled grey colour, so I picked the Magnolia mould from the body box, and got to work on the paintjob.

She's yet another example of me thinking 'this looks really nice right now, I'll stop before I ruin it!', and not painting nearly as pale a dappled grey as I had in mind! I tend to reach a point where it's all gone well so far, and I chicken out of adding any more layers or shading for fear of spoiling it entirely. 

I've named her Krilya, meaning 'wings', the title of a track from Russian rock band Nautilus Pompilius.

A couple more angles, this mould is fun to photograph cos the prancing pose looks just like the professional photoshoots of a playful horse, loose in the field.

Having found myself for the umpteenth time in the position of having failed to paint what I wanted but ended up with a successful paintjob anyway, I couldn't be too unhappy with the results cos I got a very pretty horse out of it, but I decided to try again, and really persevere with taking the paintwork paler this time...

And it worked! With more layers of white dusted over the top of the dappling this time, this little mare is much more the colour I had in mind for the first one! I think it suits this mould, too, I'd been considering very dark bay for her, and still think it'd look good, but that'll have to wait cos I don't have another in the body box.

 

 

Of course, she can't be a Tersk with her chunky warmblood build, so I'll have to pick something else - Oldenburg, perhaps? - but I'm just relieved I managed to get her more greyed out.

I'd done a bit of milliput resculpting on this body before painting, building up the rump to give it a more rounded look and perhaps get rid of whatever wonky proportion or angle of the quarters which always looked slightly off. I never did figure out exactly what was wrong, but I think she does look better than the OF mould, so whatever's up, the added extra bum has helped!

The final horse for this batch is a tribute to another real racehorse, Sam Spinner. 

Unlike my previous custom portraits, this bay gelding is no record breaker; he hasn't won more times in a row than any other, hasn't been first in the same race year after year after year, nor has he taken any of the very top prizes in the world. He hasn't been an utter superstar of the racing world, but every now and then there's a horse you just like, for no reason you can put your finger on, and it's a pleasure to follow the ups and downs of their career. He's one of those I just always liked to watch, to root for, and when his retirement was announced recently, sound and much-loved after a pretty successful career, I decided I'd like to paint a model of him, just as much as any of those record breaking super stars I'd painted already.

Perhaps one of the reasons I first noticed Sam Spinner is that he's a light shade of wild bay, like my own horse. But he's also got nice white markings, which are a blessing for a painter - they make his model look very him, not just any clipped out half-plaited racehorse. 

I enjoyed matching his shade exactly, he changes through the racing year as his clip grows out and his summer coat comes in, so I had to make a choice which look to copy, and carefully paint in the unclipped legs afterwards. You can perhaps just about see that he's got white lines traced around each braid with a fine brush, the real one is done up with white plaiting bands which stand out brightly.

I see why this mould looks better from the near side, on the other it appears to have the eye half shut! Mid-blink, perhaps!

And here he is again, with his white stripe copied from photos (it's got a roany smudge to the top right, and a crooked kink between the nostrils), and the light glinting in his big expressive eye.