Tales from the Body Box - Harpley Red Queen

Back after nearly a month break from painting - with something very big and precious to share!

Normally, I don't paint many resin models, they're a bit beyond my budget. And I don't paint anything larger than CollectA, as they're too big for me. So a large scale resin? Not something I've ever tackled before!

But recently, one of my long-time friends contacted me with a wonderfully generous offer I couldn't refuse - would I like one of his resin sculptures to paint? No charge, just that he'd really like to see one in colour, and thought my painting style and area of interest would suit the horse in question so well - a historical hunter.

Years ago, we got to know each other not only though the model horse world where we collected the same brand and met at the company's live show, but also a shared interest in horsey art and writing online - we often drew things for the same community events, and got to know each other's fictional horse and rider characters. So with the resin in question being a portrayal of a hunter from 'my' era, and me being known for drawing historical hunters, it was a perfect match.

I just had to be brave and scale up my painting by quite a lot, as this mare is the size of a small Traditional scale Breyer (those are 1:9 scale, she'd be a little less) You can see her on the official shop page here.

I waited til Tomas had seen and had chance to talk about the photos of the finished horse before posting her here, as it seemed a bit rude to go showing other people before her creator got 'first look'. And then I wanted to hang on til I'd got some sunnier photos cos I wasn't too happy with the first batch. And then I just ran out of mental energy and couldn't make myself catch up on blogging, so what with one thing and another she's waited a little longer than she should've. But now it's time to introduce her : meet Red Queen!

Red Queen is one of the fictional horses I made up a few years ago - there used to be regular community art events where lots of people drew their horses doing the same thing, for sharing together on a certain deadline - maybe showing, or jumping, or in this case, hunting. The other artists taking part drew modern scenes, so a lot of events I couldn't take part in. But I could get away with virtually sending my historical characters along to hunt meets, as hunting hasn't changed very much over the generations (no foxes now, but I never did put foxes or hounds in my pictures anyway), so they didn't look out of place at all.

The drawn version was a rather chunkier horse than the resin, which is very long and lean-legged, but it doesn't matter too much - it's more the colour, the markings, and the personality of the horse which I'm translating across to 3D form.

Here she is the first time I drew her, making on her first appearance on the hunting field - Aubrey is a hopelessly ineffective rider, but doesn't like to admit weakness, and will insist on hiring a horse which is far too much for him to handle, for the sake of trying to look good on something impressive. Usually they sneak along slowly at the back for a bit, then take a detour to the pub, where he'll tie the horse up outside and spend the rest of the day seeing how much he can drink. Sometimes he doesn't even remember to return the horse, and most of the dealers hiring them out have started to refuse him.

Red Queen is far too keen on bombing along toward the front of the field to go steady or wander off part way through - she's really going for it, and Aubrey's hanging on for dear life - but for how long can he stay in the saddle?

Not for long, it turns out!
Red Queen's still jumping with enthusiasm, but she's lost her passenger somewhere along the way. Val, in the green coat, is hunt staff and planning on catching the loose horse he's spotted as soon as they move onto level ground. Iris, on the chestnut horse, is thinking it looks quite the powerful jumper, with attitude and bravery, and might go and try it out another day, if the dealer's open to selling rather than hiring.

And here she is with Iris on their first hunt after the sale went through. With a more effective rider and a change of tack, Red Queen is much more under control and enjoying her job.

Now, on to the creation of her model counterpart. I took some progress stages to show Tomas the way the paintjob developed, and thought they might be of interest here too.

And then a photoshoot all finished -

But I was never happy with these pictures, cos the light in my garden is so terrible at this time of year, with the sun low near the horizon it barely clears the roof and wall, what does reach in is streaked with tree shadows, and the models themselves cast a shadow on the backdrop if it's held at anything but this awkward angle, which doesn't flatter the horse well.

So, finally fed up with not being able to take pictures of any of my other recent arrivals or repaints, I convinced my mum to drive me and a box of towel-wrapped model horses into the open landscape outside the village, so I could take photos without the problem of catching small patches of light, or shadows on backgrounds!
Red Queen went along too, to see if I could get some nicer pictures than first time round.

And here she is, looking a lot brighter against a beautiful blue sky! It was -4 so the ground was icy under foot (you can see the frozen stripes in the ditch water), I held her up with one hand and the camera in the other and tried not to blur the shots by shivering, or breathe condensation into the scene like fog!

The winter scenery is a bit bleak and grim round here, I don't live in a pretty landscape, but it does look quite like some of the backgrounds I used to draw for my hunting scenes, I even had a few ditches to play with. Imagine how good this would look with tack and rider as a performance photo!

In the end, painting a much bigger horse wasn't too scary, but I think it helped that I was so grateful for the gift, and determined to do justice to the sculptor's trust in my ability, which made me motivated to hurry along and get her painted up. I couldn't have left this one gathering dust for ten years like the others! I love her already.

Tales from the Body Box - hairy heavy horses

Over the last week, I picked up a few different horses from my box of blank, duplicate, or damaged bodies, and it was only as I went to photograph them that I realised I've done three heavy horse types in a row!

First, another from the selection of unpainted resins gathering dust. And yet another I bought a long time ago, as part of the International Blessed Broodmares Project. 

'Crusher' was a large Traditional scale resin by Kitty Cantrell, sculpted as a Norman cob he was given a hogged mane and docked tail, with relatively clean limbs. After his initial release came a mini version, at Pebbles/Littlebit scale, and then the original sculptor reworked the mini to add a lot more hair, naming this new-look edition the 'Miss Cheryl Lee' resin, and releasing it specially for TIBBP. 

I got my copy as part of the charity fundraiser, and set her aside til I felt ready to paint something bigger than Stablemate scale - she'd done her bit to help with money for the horse rescue, it didn't matter how long it took me to get her painted, right? At the time, I thought it might be a few weeks, a couple of months, perhaps.

But creativity is fragile and flighty, and my painting deserted me. 

A couple of years went by. I put the resins somewhere safe so they wouldn't get damaged while they waited. For a few more years.

When eventually I dabbled in painting Stablemates again, I didn't approach anything bigger.

Time passed, dust settled, I forgot what horses I'd even got there, waiting for their paintwork.

It wasn't til last year that I finally plucked up the courage to start painting larger resins again, and started rummaging through the selection I'd got set safely aside, meeting these old familiar unpainted faces again, and some welcome surprises - Oh, I'd forgotten buying you!, and I didn't even know I ever had you!

I picked up the blank white Cheryl, and remembered her being a TIBBP charity edition. I remembered all those poor but lucky PMU horses the model community raised money to save and rehome. I remembered the colour I'd had in mind for my mare. And finally I'm ready to make it happen.

Here she is, all done! This is the colour I'd had planned for her all along, a dark chestnut tobiano pinto, with a two-tone mane, white face, and 'eyeliner' eye. She's turned out exactly as I'd imagined, which perhaps means I waited til exactly the right time to tackle her, when my painting's going well enough to control the results reasonably well, to be able to match my mental image!

The feathering on her legs has a lot of action, swinging in sync with her movement. I love the way her mane and forelock curl loosely without being ringlets, and the way a big wave of hair folds back on itself down her neck; I gave her an extra streak of chestnut in there to have the colours cross. 

 

I haven't thought of a name for her yet, but I'll be showing her as a traditional cob - nothing to do with the word Traditional in model scales, but simply the British (real horse!) show-ring term for what Americans call 'vanners'. She looks a very confident and forward-going character, and suits her flashy colour - if I did performance she'd look great in a cart!

The next body I picked up was a G2 Clydesdale, one which I'd already given an extended tail and slightly more roman nose - some leftover mixed milliput from another custom, I had to use it up on something!

His colour and markings are based on a shire I saw at a show a long time ago, way back when I had a film camera not digital so my reference was a print from my own 1990s photo album. I didn't quite get the coat colour the right shade, but it still looks fine, like it went this way on purpose! I always enjoy how this mould can be carefully balanced on two feet for photos, although I tip them down onto three toes for extra stability on my shelf display afterwards.

You can see the markings better in this shot, the shine on the previous picture hides the three little detached spots of sabino white on the flank and quarters. This one's going to be called Olympus, I wanted to give that name to a custom which was painted during the Tokyo Olympic Games and it suits him best out of the relevant batch!

The final heavy horse is another body I've had a very long time, one of the Stone Chips from way back when they were being produced as regular runs by Schylling. I ordered five at the time - one to keep for my OF collection, and the rest to paint. But only two got their new coats of colour, while the second pair got lost, tucked with a few Stablemates into a box of craft supplies, until they resurfaced earlier this year. Another Oh, I'd forgotten I had these! moment of pleasant surprise.

I hadn't any particular colour plans for the Chips Drafters, so for this first boy I just went with an old favourite coat colour, a shaded dark bay. I know it's a bit predictable, but why not pick a colour I know I can do a decent job of, always enjoy painting, and really suits the mould! 

His markings are deliberately very similar to the OF colour underneath - I find it oddly amusing to do these 'this is how I'd have painted it' interpretations of original paintjobs, taking the time to add more shading and detailing than factory production allows.

The four long socks look very bright white, and for a while I thought about toning them down with a bit of cream and beige, but real shires have their legs shampooed and treated with chalk and white sawdust for a dazzling bright look in the show ring, so I left them as they were.

This is such a great little mould, very alert and proud looking, though I do always show mine as 2-year-old colts rather than adults, as they're rather too leggy and lacking in weight and bulk for a mature stallion. I also added a bit more foot on each back leg, as they have unfeasibly upright pasterns without altering that angle to the ground! 

And here's one confession : I had added a full-length tail dock below his little braided bun, as horses over here are never surgically docked, but it crumbled while I was painting and I couldn't reassemble the bits neatly enough to glue it back on. So I owe him the bottom half of his tail back at some point - luckily it doesn't touch or overlap his body colour, I can easily replace the extension later without spoiling his paintwork.

Tales from the Body Box - Danny Whizzbang

One of my main aims in my own customising lately has been to push myself to tackle some of the bodies I've had hidden away safely for a very long time. We're talking a decade's worth of dust, at least! 

At live shows, and on ebay, through the mid to late 2000s, I managed to pick up quite a selection of broken resins, and seconds, for really good prices, plus the occasional charity purchase in perfect condition. I bought them with all good intentions to give them a colour coat quickly; I had ideas, and enthusiasm to turn each blank horse into a little character for my collection. So it wasn't indifference, or not liking or wanting them after all, which meant they never got beyond blank stage.

Over time, I had to admit that my comfort zone for painting was really mini scale models. Anything bigger was daunting, too difficult to spread and shade paint smoothly & well blended with my old fashioned brush-and-pots-of-paint technique. 

So I stuck to SMs, and gradually the larger resins became the section of the body box I determinedly ignored. Tucked in safety in an inaccessible corner of the room, they wouldn't get broken - and I couldn't see them, so I didn't feel guilty about abandoning them there!

Last year as a turning point, broadening my range, working my way up through the easy, textured finish of Schleich horses, to smoother CollectA, I finally got as far as painting one of the long-lost resins. This week, I went back to the hidden corner, and rubbed the dust off another horse I felt ready to tackle at long last. 

I knew what colour he was going to be. I'd known that for ten years. It was just time to make it happen.

And here he is! Meet my latest little skewbald cob, Harecroft Danny Whizzbang - named for the character in Peaky Blinders.

Danny is the HA Fritz resin sculpted by Tina Lamport, as a Friesian stallion. I picked him up from the Horsing Around stall as an extremely cheap second, with several moulding flaws and bubble holes, around 2008 or 2009. I just knew he'd make a stunning little coloured cob, and despite the long long long delay, he's turned out exactly as I'd imagined!

Looking bright and lovely in this light, and his shadow against the fence makes his feathery white legs stand out better, so I'm torn which to use as his main display/show photograph.

Although I'm delighted with him, and the fact I finally got the poor neglected boy painted up, I do have one confession to make - he isn't finished! 

You probably noticed I've got him posing for his photoshoot in a sand-school set-up : that's because he's moulded attached to his 'grass' resin base, and I haven't got any green to paint it...

But I don't think that matters, certainly not enough to put off sharing him til whenever I buy some green. I prefer taking pictures with bases hidden anyway (under a grass sheet if they're detachable, with sand if they're not), so it's really just for shelf display that it matters about finishing off the little patch of grass for him to trot across.

Tales from the Body Box - Wee Wyakin

One of the things which must feel familiar to most people who paint model horses is the guilt that comes with having long-unpainted bodies. You know the ones. You really, really wanted them at the time - a fantastic example of your absolute favourite breed, or one you'd always wanted and never had chance to buy before? Maybe you took pity on a damaged horse, or fell for the real-life backstory behind a resin, and couldn't resist. Or perhaps they were in a charity sale and your heart was behind the cause. 

The International Blessed Broodmare Project was that worthy cause for a lot of collectors - over a decade ago now the hobby pulled together to help rehome hundreds of horses from the defunct PMU industry, by supporting the dedicated work of Animali Farm. Mostly mares, many pregnant, their plight struck home for our community of horse lovers, with money desperately needed to pay medical testing and shipping fees so the horses could be adopted into caring new homes before they were sold for slaughter.
Artists painted donation models, sculptors sold their own unpainted resins, there were live show raffles, online auctions, fundraiser shows, and all sorts. I remember running a photo show and when I sent in the total raised, told them simply 'put it toward whichever horse you think needs it most', and received a lovely email some time later telling me our money had gone toward homing the piebald draft stallion, King.

The other day, I picked out a half forgotten, wholly neglected horse from my hidden stash of resin bodies : Wee Wyakin, by Michelle Platt. But didn't remember the circumstances of buying her til I checked my notebook, where beside her name, I'd scribbled down 'TIBBP charity model'.
I think, and I'm not too sure after all this time, that she may have come over direct from America (I know my big Aalef resin, by the same sculptor, was also a TIBBP purchase), though it's possible from the vagueness of my note that someone here in the UK sold or auctioned her for the charity.

Either way, she'd come to join my herd, and raised a bit of money toward the PMU mares on her way here.
And here's where the guilt comes in.
Despite loving the resin, I'd tucked her away safely to paint 'later' because she was a little big when I only felt up to tackling Stablemates, and then for a long while, I didn't feel like painting any models at all.
So she gathered dust. A whole thick fuzzy coat of 10 years' worth of it all down one side. So many colourful Wee Wyakins out being enjoyed in the world, and one blank one being ignored, patiently waiting for her paint.

Well, she doesn't have to wait any longer, here at last I can introduce Mishawaka, the long lost copy of dear little Wee Wyakin!

She was always going to be spotted, as I remember her sculptor writing about the real appaloosa mare the original Trad scale Wyakin was based on, but I admit my early imaginings of her paintjob were much paler in colour, either a chestnut or the sandier shades of dun. Only, I've done some blanket spotted Stablemates lately, and found the pattern and roaning stood out in a far more distinct and effective way with a darker base colour, so decided to go for the one which had looked best of all in mini scale.

Her name has no profound and carefully chosen relevant literal meaning - this morning I had a parcel arrive from an American bookstore recycling and rehoming ex library books (the only place I could find an affordable copy of a slightly obscure book about the history of cormorants, which I've wanted for aaaages!), and it was sent from a place called Mishawaka, Indiana. It just seemed to suit her, and work well as a horse name - you can imagine it being shortened to Misha as her barn name, and a long sing-song Miiiiiii-shaaaaa when calling her from a dozing spot under her favourite tree!

Because this is definitely a horse for whom napping under shady trees is a high priority in life! I love the many models of horses at peak fitness in proud showring or athletic poses as much as anyone, but there's a special place in my heart for the ones which just look ordinary. That much-loved backyard pony, that broodmare aging gracefully, or that lazy happy hacker  - the horses which look laid-back and kind and like they've no ambitions of ever winning a rosette but maybe I could have an apple if I ask nicely?'

One of the nicest things about working a slightly bigger scale than usual is how much more detailing can be done, like all the pink speckling on Misha's face here

She did look rather nice before I added spotting, and I briefly considered leaving her as a snowcap appaloosa, but having had spots in mind for such a long time, I think I'd have regretted not including them after all.

I love how she turned out - there's a long delayed satisfaction in having wanted her so much at the time, and liking her so much now she's done. Welcome to the herd, Mishawaka!

Tales from the Body Box - Two resins

It's a little known fact that my infamous body box isn't just a simple cardboard box, but has an extension out the back. Hidden in the space behind the tv stand are all the resin bodies I've accumulated over time - some rescues, which I got cheaply broken or battered; some raw castings picked up at live shows over a decade ago; some over-ambitiously BIG horses I've put to one side because brush-painting larger scales is scary. They'd become very much an out-of-sight-out-of-mind aspect of my collection of bodies, Stablemates were smaller and easier and that's where I felt comfortable so that's where I tended to stay. This year I've been determinedly broadening my painting horizons little by little, with Mini Whinnies and CollectAs sprinkled between the SMs, and the other day I decided to go one further and have a careful rummage through the dusty resin graveyard and pick out something different.

What I found was a horse I didn't know I'd got. I don't have a clue where I bought her, other than it might've been the sales table at a live show because she'd got her price and someone's initials scribbled in pen under her belly!
She also had a moulding flaw, the poured liquid resin not having reached one of her feet, so she had a hollow hoof tip but no heel or sold, and a big chunk of her feathering lost. I suspect that's why she was cheap enough for me to have come home with her in the first place, though I do wish I could remember this happening!
It took me some investigation after painting to even find out what she was, the resin not being instantly familiar, and I had to look through every shire, clydesdale, non-specified draft, and finally the 'other' section on Equineresinsdirectory before finally finding out her details : Horsing Around's Lissy, by James Richmond, an edition of 50 back in 2010. 

Here she is, all finished up!

I've named her Harecroft Grace, and done her as a bay with plenty of white, but not too-white white - I imagine her as a relaxed broodmare taking it easy in her field, fidgeting to shift position mid nap on a sunny day, rather than all scrubbed and polished and chalked for the show ring, perhaps she's even retired, her tail's been allowed to grow long as a fly whisk, not trimmed for correct turnout.

 

The weather and low sun trouble this time of year made it tricky to get any photos of her at all, so these were all taken indoors with fake light or raking awkward daylight from the window above the front door - I had several goes on different days, which gave a huge amount of variety in the lighting and how it makes her look, but none of it was helpful for especially good photography! The third picture is perhaps the best of the three, though I do like the blue sky in the first shot, and still haven't decided which I'll use for my website or to show her.

The raised hind leg is where I replaced her missing hoof and heel, I did that before tracking down any pictures of the resin which I could have copied from, but now I've seen them, I find my guess isn't far different from how she was originally sculpted.

 

I really like how she turned out, one of my favourite customs of this year, but I love her profile most of all - that big roman nose which looks all the more noticeable under the highlighting wide white blaze!

The second resin is going to be much more familiar to a lot of collectors - he's Breyer's christmas ornament version of the Traditional vanner mould. He came to me in a box of normal plastic SM bodies on Ebay - whoever had them before had taken off his unicorn horn with a saw or possibly a dremel, but also cut a chunk out of his stifle in the process, then given up and sold him with the rest.
With a bit more filing, some carefully milliputting to patch up his accidental wound, and a lot of scraping to get rid of the coating of glittery glue all over his mane, tail, and legs (part of Breyer's persistent insistence that all unicorns must be sparkly), he was ready to paint.
And let's be honest, there was only one colour this lad was ever going to end up...

He really suits this colouring, I think, I might've aimed for more bay and less white but this is just the point where he started to look good so I stopped before I spoilt the paintjob. On this one I did the white first, because I had a nearly-dry pot of white paint to use up, and it goes on fine as a base coat if it's getting sticky and solid, but doesn't co-operate if trying to add markings over the colour. I just went along at the end and used a little bit of my fresh new pot of white for feathering the edges gently into each other so he looks fluffy.

Like with Grace, I gave him faintly dirty feathering, and also a hint of blonde in his mane, just cos he doesn't need to look show-ring-shampoo-white. I've named him Harecroft Rapscallion, though with a mouthful of a name like that, I bet it'd soon get shortened to 'Scally' round the yard!

I'm not sure if there's any difference between this resin edition of the mould, and the plastic Stablemate version, one day I'll have to compare them in hand but I think they're identical and you'd only know this one was resin by the weight, they did a good job of translating the mould into plastic without losing the crispness of detail for the hairy bits!