Breyer 2020 Traditional - Winx

When Breyer first showed the photos of their portrait model for the famous racehorse Winx, I admit I was disappointed. Though I don't follow Australian racing, so I wasn't a particular fan of hers, I've seen photos of the real Winx, and she has beautiful colouring. See here - there's various shades of rich brown through her coat, and even some dappling if you see her here without her saddle. On the other hand, the model in the promotional photo looked a uniform mahogany red-brown, with shading only applied in the grooves of the muscles. I was disappointed enough that at the time I said I probably wouldn't ever buy her, unless at some point a cheap second hand one came up and they hadn't released the mould in a better colour by then.

But at various points through the year, I saw collectors' real photos of the Winx models, and they were much better than Breyer's original shot - more depth of shading, lighter patches on the flank, and a richness to the finish which made the colour look vibrant despite being dark. And I began to slowly change my mind, looking at the prices from various retailers I knew, checking out how many were in stock, perhaps I needed to hurry or regret it?

And yet I still held off, because perhaps they were varied, with different batches having the paint handled in a more subtle and skillful way than others, and I didn't want to make up my mind on the fact I'd seen good paintjobs, then get a flat dull one and be disappointed. I even bid for one on Ebay, but dropped out once the price got quite a bit higher than I knew I could order a brand new example!

Last week, I saw one more 'real' photo of an actual model, and gave in to temptation - I just had to risk it, and order myself a Winx : I'd regret it if she sold out once retailers concentrate on the 2022 models coming in, and I never did get chance to own one. The worst that could happen is owning a truly beautiful, elegant, and realistic sculpt, but in a bit of a boring colour, and that's no hardship or waste of money at all!

This morning, my parcel arrived, and while the cat 'helped' me with the box, I got to see her for the first time...

And she's lovely! Phew! 
I got one of the nicely painted ones, with a dark but deeply painted colour, almost black in places with really warm glowing highlights which show through in natural places. Sure, not quite so shaded and bright as the real horse, but as I said, I never followed her career from here anyway (we tend to see just UK and Ireland racing on free tv, and I don't have any of the subscription stuff for international sport), so although I can appreciate and admire her fantastic racing record (37 wins, the last 33 of which were in a row), I've no huge attachment to the real mare to need an accurate portrait.

Trying to catch a big enough bit of sun was tricky, this one's brighter but the shadows on her aren't so flattering.

I think the mould looks even more striking in this dark, sleek, shiny colour than it does in the pale matte buckskin I have already. It draws attention to the detail and contour in the sculpt, the way the light catches.

Breyer tend to do a lot more action-posed moulds these days, so it's a change to have a placid, relaxed-looking horse just standing there.

The other side looks just as handsome when you're handling the model, but with her head turned slightly away it's not so flattering for photos.

A really fine example of the lean, racing-fit Thoroughbred breed - how I'd love this to be the next mould they scale down to add to the Stablemates range, then I could paint more racehorse portraits of my own!

Because racing people just love a clever name bringing together something from each parent, I went through the Thoroughbreds page of my website and find some classy-sounding combination between two of my existing models.
I've got a very dark bay thoroughbred mare (Zenyatta) called Ravenswing, and a brighter bay stallion (Frankel) called King And Country, so Winx's show name will combine monarchy with the bird species and sound quite cool too : The Raven Queen

Hello! Look at those lovely long ears.

Harecroft Galaktika

This week sees the arrival of one of my most-wanted Breyer models.

A couple of years ago, I'd bought and paid for him on Ebay, only to be told the seller didn't have the horse any more, and although I was given a full refund, I've always regretted the failed purchase. To have decided, and paid, and be waiting a few days, then find out it's not coming after all, was a big disappointment, and every time I saw the same model afterwards, I'd feel frustrated and sad - I should've had that one in my collection, and didn't.

So when the same model came up on UK Ebay this month, I made up my mind to try again, and this time all went well; a few days later I had a very exciting parcel to unwrap.

Allow me to introduce Harecroft Galaktika, the newest Akhal-Teke stallion for my herd! His mould was sculpted as a lean racing-fit thoroughbred, but in this lovely buckskin colouring, I always thought he'd make a pretty good Teke.

He was one of 1695 made for 2019's Breyerfest, and his original release name was Rocket, after the character in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy films - that year, Breyerfest had a horse heroes and superheroes theme. The name I've given him is the Turkmen word for 'galaxy', so it's appropriate to his change of breed and nationality, but with a nod to his original theme.

Some of these photos were taken before I'd finished making the little ornamental collars for him to wear, but I didn't re-take all the angles I wanted to show here, so the final collar vanishes and reappears a few times through this post!

He looks a bit less Akhal-Teke from the other side, with this much mane, but as I'll only be using the display-side photos on my websites and for any future showing I might do with him, the off side doesn't matter!

There, see, the collar's come back again, hah. I love his markings, especially the blaze; emphasising his nose with a wide white marking really seems to change the shape of his face.

Some Breyerfest runs are given brown or blue eye colours, but he only has the little sliver of pink eye-white, which makes him seem to be peering at you.

Laying down you can see his shading and dapples more clearly, here's a stock photo reference I found showing a real Akhal-Teke in pale dappled buckskin, with about the same amount of white on.

And finally, in dramatic lighting, just because the raking light was pretty the first time I tried to take his pictures too late one evening in the last patch of sunlight.

I'm very happy to have added this handsome chap to my herd at long last; one model I can tick off the wishlist, and no longer have any regrets about!