Tales from the Body Box - CollectA customs

I'd collected up several duplicate/damaged CollectA models over the last year or so, I still haven't done them all but I'm getting there - here's a trio of recent repaints!

Harecroft Indiana Firefly, the Morgan stallion in bright chestnut. Probably the brightest chestnut I've ever painted, thanks to those new colours I bought for my fox repaint - suddenly a couple of new ginger and orange shades to mix and blend with my usual tan paint.

It's a really nice sculpt, one of the older McDermott horses with very crisp detailing and fine limbs, and a really good rendition of the breed.
I chose his name because my original finish CollectA Morgan is called Indiana Mayfly, so they'll match nicely together, like how name themes carry on down family lines in real horse breeding.

One of the things I like most about CollectA's horses is how, even if it's a standing pose, they all have expressions and seem to be looking at something, thinking something, rather than just standing there being bland!

And a closeup showing the face marking, I've been wanting to do one of these cut-out stripes with a spot within the white for ages, but it's hard to fit that much detail on a Stablemate scale horse, so I had to wait for a bigger canvas to paint on!

This custom is a bit of teamwork! He started off with a friend of mine, Chloe at Henhafod, who gave him the base coats of shaded grey on the body, then gave up, and sold him to me to finish! I don't usually take over other people's paintjobs, either buying them fully finished or starting my own repaint from scratch, so it was an interesting experience taking him on half way through. 

As well as doing the dappling, dark legs, and detailing, turning him from a plain grey to a mulberry grey (red mane and tail) was my idea - I hoped it'd look interesting and dramatic, and it does!

Another of the peak generation of CollectA moulds, this one is the Andalusian (Pura Raza Española) stallion, a very graceful and elegant looking cantering pose, given plenty of action with the flowing mane and tail.

Handsome face! I haven't named him yet, I've just been calling him 'mulberry' for now but he'll get something more noble-sounding later on!

And finally, one more from the body box, this is the Trakehner stallion. I've always wanted to repaint him to bay, and finally got round to it. I did almost mess him up, though, because I noticed a patch of slightly-too-pink shading on his hip when I saw him in daylight after painting him in the evening, intended to just adjust it slightly, and ended up mis-matching the paint so badly he's shaded dark there where I just had to blend it in and make the best of things!

I like the pose for this sculpt, but the proportions do feel a little bit off with this one - I've always thought the head's too large and the hindquarters too small - he could do with a bigger bum!
I did trim and file his long ears substantially before painting, one thing I could fix without major work my sculpting isn't up to, and I think it does make his head look a little bit less oversized than it did before.

He doesn't have a name yet either; I only have one other Trakehner so far, so I have no theme to work with yet!