WIA Arabians

Here's the next bit of the parcel I received earlier this month - a new WIA model released last year, an Arabian mare in a choice of two colours, chestnut and bloody-shouldered grey. I gave them a post of their own, thanks to the way my blog is organised by tagging brands, types, and scales - for reasons of tidiness, the WIA models are best kept separate from the Breyer ones!

This is the first time I've seen any work by the sculpting artist, who goes by HorRaw Studios. As with the Erren sculpt from earlier this year, I can see the difference in art style and detailing from the initial four WIA models by Eberl, but as a whole they work well together, these mares don't stand out as a bad fit with the older models - even though you could pick out which ones are by someone else, they still look like they belong.

I admit I'm surprised the company have gone for another Arabian horse, so soon! With such a small range, you'd think they'd be more keen on developing a good spread of breed types, so having ticked off Draft, Arabian, Andalusian, Warmblood and Criollo, I was predicting the next choice would an American stock or gaited horse, or a native pony, not a repeat on one of the few breeds they've got already!

The grey is interesting, because her shoulder patch is created with a stencilled solid outline, speckled over the top with random spatters for more detail. This means all the individuals of this model will be slightly different, depending on how the paint spots spread out as it's flicked on. The softer speckling over the rest of the body is unique to each model, too, but stands out less - I think it's under the sprayed white coat, so it's very nicely blended in - a really lovely effect!

Oh what a face! Everyone who's known a mare has probably been on the receiving end of those ears a time or two!

The chestnut's paintwork is less complex but still effective, with a nice rich brown base and just enough shading to avoid it looking flat. And her white markings are flashy and realistically designed.

The beautiful flowing mane on the other side. As with the Erren release from last year, the different sculptor doesn't mean the WIA models don't match well as an entire range, the style is slightly different but the general feel is the same, lean elegant models with great proportions and slim legs, detail without over-crisp texturing, and plenty of expression and character in the face and the pose.

CollectA 2022 and some older models

I'm still trying to catch up on recent arrivals, I've got very behind on blogging arrivals and reviews - I've had not one but two parcels of CollectA since I last shared photos of my arrivals, so I'm combining them into one big post. 

Let's start with the newest releases....

Oryol mare

Much better known as the Orlov Trotter, named after their developer Count Alexei Orlov, this is a famous breed but not a common one outside its native homeland, and it's fairly rare to see in model form, too. With nothing yet from Breyer, the market leader in the model horse world, we have to turn to the more toy-type brands : Mojo Fun have released their Orlov Trotter sculpt in two different shades of grey, and now CollectA bring us a brand new one.

Sculpted in, quite logically, a trotting pose - but it's a rather relaxed-looking jog, rather than the high speed trot which the breed is capable of. This could be for stability reasons - a pose at full extension can cause the dreaded issues with model horses : wobbling, or warping of the limbs, both of which often end with tipping over entirely. This trot has enough movement to look energetic, without causing actual movement on your shelves!

The dapples on this model aren't quite so successful as those on the beautiful Hanoverian released earlier in the year, I think they come across more like messy paint-brush stipples compared to his neatly shaped and carefully arranged blobs of paler grey. But although they look hand-painted, they are definitely an applied transfer print, it hasn't been left up to the factory artists to dot the speckles on individually.

The mane and tail are given a bit of depth with a graduated fade to grey down the tail, and a blondeness sprayed on both so they don't look starkly white but more realistic, like the horse is carrying a little bit of natural dirt in the hair.

The other side, where perhaps the dapples are a bit better, being more spread out and with less obvious gaps around them!

All in all, it's a nice enough model, of a breed I'm glad to see, slightly let down by the dappling design.

American Saddlebred stallion

The American Saddlebred is a breed which we already have abundance of in the model world. Multiple brands, with multiple moulds each, often in more than one scale already. But they've been a notable gap in CollectA's catalogue for all this time - it's rather baffling that they've taken so long to get round to adding one to their range!

And here he is! A stallion in liver chestnut (the mane and tail are a very dark brown, not black), with nicely done crisp-edged markings, he's quite handsome and has the right showring stance and attitude to suit his breed.

But he's sadly let down by CollectA's tendancy to very chunky legs these days. Saddlebreds in real life are very fine-boned and light; an impression of elegance and height with their long slender limbs. Giving him such solid thickness, lacking definition between the joints and what should be narrow shins and pasterns, makes it look like he's wearing legs from a much fatter horse or much heavier breed!

As with the Hackney and Marwari from previous batches, which should have been spindly-legged lightweights but ended up heavy-legged, it really does detract from the overall accuracy of the model when they don't have the 'typey' conformation model collectors are looking for.

Despite the legs, the general proportions of the horse are ok - the shoulders and quarters are where they should be, the neck is the right length and the right angle, the head is very nicely put together and has a nice expression. This is where CollectA do excel when compared to the more widely available Schleich horses, and why they're still the best of these toy-type brands : even when the fat legs are taken into consideration, they're still more accurate and visually appealing than their main competitor.

I'm not sure why they went for a fairly bland coat colour, when Saddlebreds are one of the most colourful breeds in the world; with so, so many dilutes and pinto patterns to choose from, who really thought a dark-maned chestnut was the most exciting option?

But still, it's satisfying to tick such a popular breed off the list. Although some collectors don't like it when a common breed is made again, I think of it in a different way, and like to see each brand expanding their catalogue and compiling a comprehensive range, regardless of whether anyone else 'got there first'.

Noriker mare

Just one draft horse breed from CollectA this year, the Noriker from Austria - but we get two, cos they've released a mare and her matching foal. Frustratingly, the foal wasn't in stock the day I ordered my adult horses, then the very next day it popped up as in stock after all, so it had to follow separately in a little parcel all alone, poor thing!

CollectA's draft horses are blessed indeed, as the chunky legs which are such an issue with light breeds blend perfectly into the sculpt - they're meant to be this thick! The faces, too, are a delight, and it's remarkable how many times the same person can form a handsome roman nosed heavy horse head without it becoming repetitive and formulaic : every single one looks unique and this gives the models their individuality and a whole lot of character. Where one is stern, another looks kind; where one is alert and sharp, another is so placid she's almost ready for a nap. This Noriker has a bright and cheerful look, and will pair well for posing with her foal.

A breed which comes in several coat colours, it's a bit of a pity they didn't go for the famous leopard-spotted pattern, as there's not many chances for a big spotty draft horse, and this would've been ideal. Perhaps something to hope for as a future release - now we've had extra colour options on the Icelandic, Appaloosa, Arabian, and Hanoverian it's seeming a little more likely that any one mould may return with a second (or third, or fourth!) colour some time.

But chestnut is perfectly ok, and I like that they went for a very different version than their Belgian mare, using a spray-shaded coat and much blonder mane this time.

Noriker Foal

I'm not sure how CollectA decide which breeds should be issued with matching foals - it's not just automatic when they've chosen to make the adult example a mare, as many of them aren't given foals, while some of the breeds which do have a foal available are represented by a stallion. But it's always nice when they bring out a new matching baby, and even more so when it's a draft breed for a change!

Much like the matching mum, this chunky little one is just right for the breed, with stocky legs and a solid draft build, even at this early age. The colouring's done well, too, remembering that foals' first fluffy coats are often much paler shades than their adult colour will be.

Of course, the best thing about buying family groups or pairs is posing them together for cute pictures - here's a little selection from their photoshoot (as with all images on my blog, click them to see a larger copy)

Paint Horse stallion

I've saved my favourite in this batch for last, the stunning Paint Horse stallion!

As with the Arabian Mare in liver chestnut (see my other CollectA 2022 review here), I had my doubts about the honesty of the catalogue image for this one. It just seemed too good to be true, like they'd photographed a one-of-a-kind artist's proof model with a high-quality finish but then the production models would turn out to be a simplified let-down lacking the added level of detail. But, just like the Arabian, I was pleasantly surprised to find I'd got a model in my hand which was every bit as good as the unspoken 'promise' of the promotional picture!

With his bay colour nicely shaded and a super-realistic fiddly-outlined pinto pattern, this has got to be one of the best renditions of this two-tone coat ever done in the world of toy-type small plastic models. Where stencilled or airbrushed markings often leave a smudged or blurry edge (and peel-off masking is only used on harder plastic like Breyer models) this application by decal/transfer of a white layer over the top of the sprayed base colour leaves a perfect crisp edge, and means every model will have an identical realistic outline to the patches.

He also has a spectacular level of detail for a mass produced regular run toy : eye colour and pupils, grey skin smudged carefully around the mouth and nostril, and within the pinking where his marking reaches his muzzle, a couple of dark spots on the upper lip. This is the sort of effort you expect to see on custom repaints, not factory finish figures!

Here's the reverse of his pinto pattern, just as well designed as the display side.

Another nice touch is the fact the socks are crisp markings too, when it's easier and cheaper to do a fade-out that's often what happens, so it's great to see CollectA stepping up the majority of their paintwork decisions this year.

Although he's another re-used mould, it isn't quite a repeated breed in a new colour, as this stallion was originally sculpted as an Appaloosa and now represents a Paint Horse. So that's one more to tick off the list of breeds available from the brand, and one I can wholeheartedly recommend!

And now, the second boxful : some older models I ordered when there was a discount offer on BigJigs Toys, the site I always buy my CollectA from now - colours I'd missed out the first time round.

The pinto Friesian cross, variously spelt as Barok or Baroque Pinto depending on how the name's translated. I didn't get him at the time cos I'd already decided to go for the plain black purebred, and thought there was no need to get the one with a bit of white painted on as well! And while it still does look like the Friesian with a bit of white on, he's quite a handsome model in his own right, and I'm glad I've gone back through to fill in some of the gaps in my CollectA collection. I've given him the name Hadriaan.

Several years after the stallion, a matching foal was released, and of course not owning the father I didn't get the colt either. But I couldn't resist any longer, he looks so smart and proud of himself! I've named this one Hendrikus.

Of course, the best thing to do with matching pairs, is family photos...

The next addition was done a bit inside out! BigJigs do free postage if you spend over £40 - the only thing is, four adult-horse sized models comes to just under that limit, by a few pennies - but a foal-sized model doesn't cost much more than the shipping fee would be, so my logic is always may as well have a foal rather than pay postage, and I add one on to my order, Only last time, there weren't any foals left which I already owned the matching mums or dads for, so I had to buy a random one without anyone to adopt her when she got here, poor thing!

This is Spider, the grulla Mustang filly, and you can tell she was from the earlier batch of my additions cos she's got a whole different photo set up here - and I forgot to take her out on the trip to find a bit of sunny open country, oops!

So when I was making up my most recent order, of course what I had to do was make sure I ordered the matching mare in grulla to re-unite the family.

I've named her Scorpion, so they share a theme, but as I said I forgot to take the foal along for this winter expedition to get some sunshine outside of my shaded garden, so there's no pictures of them together, either. But they're standing side by side on a pile of books here, while they await some shelf space.

2022 Breyer Stablemates

I've finally managed to find the rest of the 2022 single carded Stablemates. These were a batch of 2021 mid-year models for the USA, but only got a full global release with this year's regular runs - and it's been really hard to catch them all in stock in the UK ever since!

A slightly pearly finish, which as you know is not my usual cup of tea at all, but this one I couldn't resist : the colour is one of my favourites, on a mould I love - a beautiful mulberry grey mini Alborozo. A few years ago I painted one this colour, so it's amusing to have a matching original finish model!

I've named him Ferrando, a Medieval variation of the name Fernando. I bought two of these, so I'd have a spare to repaint, and I'm very glad I did give myself that chance to choose the best to keep, because the other one has a horrible overspray in the paint application - his ginger hair overlaps almost all the way up his neck to his ears, and he's got a ginger bum-cheek too!

This palomino pinto was probably my least favourite from the promotional photos, but is actually much nicer in hand. They're saying he's a Paint Horse on the packaging, but the mould looks much more like a partbred-TB riding horse type than a stock breed, so I've allocated mine as an Irish Sport Horse.

I've given him the name Firebrand, after one of the military horses leading the Queen's funeral procession, as he arrived that day.

This is the relatively new Morgan mould, and the first attainable release after club and exclusive runs only. A pity it's a plain un-shaded colour, but Morgans do come in black so there's nothing wrong with that.

Although I am pleased to have one in my collection at last, I'm not a huge fan of the mould - it looks very pulled-in to an unnaturally short outline, which might look less odd if you had it tacked up and ridden in a scene photo/class, but does look strange for a horse running loose!

Stormcloud, named not just for his colour, but the fact I grabbed these photos in a brief snippet of sunshine between two very low dark looming clouds!

Again Breyer allocated a breed which doesn't suit the mould, calling this one a Mustang despite it's draft horse legs! I've switched mine to being a US draft cross, these chunky lightly-feathered crossbreds are a fairly common type for leisure riders who want a casual easy-tempered and hardy family horse, much like the traditional cobs of the UK.

Along with the Alborozo, this was the release I was most eager to catch, and I had to be patient as those sold out very fast every time, so I think other people agreed with my taste in horses!

A lovely shade of dun on the gorgeous little 'Django' mould, which was sculpted as a Friesian, but they keep releasing him in non-Friesian colours and never got round to black yet - I think I'm going to have to paint one myself.

I think the colour does look nice on him though, and they do call the model 'Friesian Cross' on the packaging so at least they're being nicely accurate there. I've just added mine to my website as a Friesian x Saddlebred, a cross which can be known as a Georgian Grande, along with the bay in the same mould which I got a while ago. My older one is called Duststorm, so I've called the new dun Firestorm so they match.

I already had the Appaloosa Sporthorse, I managed to catch him earlier in the year and added him as an extra to come along with some blind bags to paint, but here's his picture again just to round this post out with the complete set.

Breyer Adamek

Today's my birthday, so I bought myself a model horse! Well strictly speaking, I pre-ordered him from one of my favourite sellers, then when the stock arrived in the UK about a week ago he was sent to me, but knowing my birthday was so soon, I put the box away so I'd have something to open on the right day.

This is one of 2022's regular runs, the one I was most excited to see and own - Adamek the Akhal-Teke stallion.

He is absolutely stunning! 

I loved this sculpt right from when it was first revealed, it really nails the conformation and character of the breed, and although I was sad the two best Akhal-Teke colours got used up on unattainably rare and expensive exclusives (a sooty buckskin to the Premier Club, then metallic cremello for a limited Breyerfest SR), I do think this colour looks good on him.

There's just enough metallic sheen to the paintjob to capture the famous golden coat, without it looking at all overdone or decorator-ish, and there's so much shading it doesn't look flat or boring despite being yet another solid bay for my collection. There's no way this horse will ever blend in and be boring, look at him!

His markings are great too; I know they're based on a real horse rather than an aesthetic choice by the Breyer designers, but the four white socks really lift the colouring, and the big star and snip on his face are lovely - an off-centre pink nose always gives a horse an appealingly quirky face.

And if you look closely, you'll see something remarkable : the face markings are mapped, that halo of dark skin showing clear through the fine peach-fuzz on a horse's muzzle, and even on the forehead on this ancient desert breeds with such a sleek short coat. Breyer have dappled in mapping before, so we know they can do it, but it's always been saved as an added level of detail for exclusive releases, the limited editions and club models, small runs and one-of-a-kinds - never on anything 'basic' for the regular run range. I love it!

His expression is so sharp and alert, and of course this dynamic pose gives him a huge amount of movement and life. One of my favourite horsey books is 'Golden Horse' by photographer Artur Baboev (chances are if you've ever looked up photos of the Akhal-Teke online, you've seen some of his work), and this sculpt really reminds me of those pictures : a horse free and playing, enjoying his own speed and strength.

I like to give my models a name from the right language and naming traditions, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to borrow them from real horse pedigrees. So I looked up Adamek, and scrolled back through the generations, til I found a name which appealed - hmm, Melekush, that's nice? But it's always worth a quick run through Google, just to make sure a name doesn't translate to something which wouldn't be fitting (like a meaning of 'dark' for a palomino, or 'white legs' for one with not a speck of white on it, hah), and in this case it was fine - apparently it means 'angel', which isn't colour-dependent at all.

And as well as an authentic name, I do enjoy making little pieces of tack which suit a breed, especially if there's a long-standing tradition of them wearing something very distinctive or decorative. Akhal-Tekes are frequently photographed wearing collars, from simple braided cord or studded leather, all the way through to elaborate jewelled and beaded pieces with fantastical levels of detail and creativity.

There's a huge amount of variety, in materials and styles, so it's a chance to be creative and play with what I can create from things I've already got in my modelmaking craft boxes, left over from other projects. I spent the last couple of days constructing a couple of collars, using a random other horse to stand in because he wasn't out of his box yet.

The narrow collar is braided thread, beaded gold along one edge, with a hanging blue 'evil eye' charm or nazar. I don't know how commonly these are hung from the horses' necks like this, but I saw a few photos (like this one here) and loved the idea so much I had to make one. It's done with glue and paint, layered on a little circle of clear plastic cut from the front of another Breyer's box.

The wider collar is two layers of coloured paper, drawn on with pens, with tiny glass beads I glued on afterwards. Only they kept falling off, so I had to then paint the entire thing over with another layer of glue to hold them firmly in place, and that has the unexpected bonus of making the paper look slightly shiny, like leather.

Neither collar goes all the way around the neck! Because his mane is in the way, they'd emphasise how obviously artificial that solid plastic hair is, by holding them in an unnatural shape away from the neck. So instead I snipped through both the braid one and the paper one, to give the impression they continue under the overlapping locks of hair, and attached them to the model with tiny little pieces of rolled up micropore medical tape! The glue on that is very weak and easy-peel, far safer for the paint finish than stronger tape, and while I wouldn't try leaving it in place long-term, it wasn't risking damage to use it for one short photoshoot.

I think he looks better 'dressed up' in his collars, they're a spectacular addition to the real horses so it's satisfying to recreate something similar for my mini one. But some photo showing judges insist on no tack at all, so I needed pictures both with and without if I want him to be able to enter all possible show classes in future.

A gorgeous birthday present, even if I did buy him for myself!

A Classic and some Stablemates

A few new original finish additions this week, I have a little parcel of Breyers to introduce. Taking advantage of a 20% off offer from Chestnut Ridge, one of my favourite online sellers, I decided to go for a model I'd been dithering over for a while, some opened blind bag models, and finally (but not pictured here) a few unicorns to de-horn and paint up, because the moulds aren't available as normal horses yet.

Here's the first one, a Morgan in a simple but very effective bright bay colour.

I don't buy many at Classic scale (1:12), because I don't like all the moulds, and they do a lot of overly pearly or generally poorly designed colours in this range - and more often than not it happens that the good colours are on the moulds I'm not a fan of, and the bad colours spoil the sculpts I'd have happily owned otherwise! So when a mould I was keen to buy came out in a colour I liked, he went on my 'maybe' list...and then the special offer price made up my mind!

I like his flicked-back ear like he's paying attention toward the 'photographer' in pictures, it's a nice touch which gives him a little more life and realism.

He seems a pretty good rendition of his breed, with the typical compact, rounded body, deep neck, and handsome-looking head. Bay is also a very common colour for Morgans, and it's nice that they gave him nice bright highlights rather than flat plain brown, or the metallic reddish bay they use so often.

The rest of the parcel were Stablemates, here's the ones I'm keeping as they are - all three from the 2022 Mystery Horse blind bags, though I bought them already opened so I knew which horse I was getting. I'd have bought one of each to complete the set, but the others had sold out before I made my choices, so I just picked the best-painted example of each remaining horse.

This one's the Peruvian Paso mould, but I admit I'm not quite sure if they intend it to be chestnut or red dun! I assumed chestnut, in all the pictures it looks chestnut (the legs are no darker than the body, with is a bit too orange for a dun), but in person I discovered there's a dorsal stripe painted along the back in a darker shade of paint, so it's quite possible they mean it as a chestnut-based dun

A mould which looks good from either side, but I think I prefer the first picture with the gently windblown mane. I've given him the name El Ambajador.

The Loping Quarter Horse mould in chestnut, again a really typical colour for the breed and nicely done, with nice pale shading on the flanks, and just a hint of gold in the paint mix - this is when the metallic effect can work well, it's subtle enough to enhance the paintwork rather than making it look silly and plasticky, and on a horse breed which can have that subtle sheen on the coat in real life.

I've named her Rock And Roll, to match with my other solid chestnut QH mare, Cinnamon Roll. I do like picking themed or word-linking names for the breeds which do that in real life, it's kind of cheesy but quite fun!

The reiner in frame overo pinto, a neat combination really, as in this mould I've already got a solid coloured grulla and a frame overo chestnut, so if you take the base colour of one with the markings of the other, it's this result.

I wasn't too keen on this mould when it was first released, but I think that was just due to a lacklustre paintjob on the first one, as in good eyecatching colours like this it's just fine!

Hopefully at some point I'll be able to get hold of the other three blind bags from this series - there's a spotted dressage horse, the Valegro warmblood (which looks almost the same as the original Valegro portrait release, but perhaps in person they're a different shade of dark bay), and a gorgeous Icelandic which I really, really want!
If nobody else lists opened bags so I can choose my missing horses, I might just start buying a few unopened bags from wherever they're cheapest, as I wouldn't mind duplicates too much - more moulds for repainting is always a good thing!