Tales from the Body Box - I bought some new paints!

Time to talk about paint! 

Over the years I've had a few people ask me what paints I recommend for customs, or touch-ups and restorations to vintage or damaged models. Well, I always use a brand of paint intended for another kind of model entirely : Citadel colours made for Games Workshop (Warhammer) miniatures.
They may be designed for tiny mini soldiers and fantasy creatures, but they're by far the best I've found for our model horses too. They go on very smoothly for brush-painting by hand, whether as base coats or lightly smudged shading layers, they blend well together, and cover neatly in not too many layers without getting lumpy or rough. And best of all, they have this deep, lustrous sheen to them, rather halfway between a matte paint and a gloss, which looks just like the shine on a healthy horse's coat, which does a lot towards making your colours seem vibrant and rich.

They are exasperatingly expensive, in a pounds-per-ml sense, as you pay about £2.75 for a tiny pot whereas £1 will get you ten times as much in the cheaper artist's acrylic, but after early trial and error with all sorts of paint which was a hassle to work with and gave dubious quality results, I've found it worth the cost because the results are so gorgeous and they're so nice to use.

But there's loads of them, and the labels all say different things! Let's make sense of the range...

'Base' colours are thicker and cover a bit more easily, but don't mix smoothly if you're trying to do wet blending or smooth smudgey shaded colours (I've had to scrub paint off and start again because the Base wouldn't play nicely, just clumped and lifted!), so I tend to only buy the Base black & white - black because they don't do it as a Layer paint, and white because it covers better for streak-free markings.

'Layer' colours have a slightly different formula, and these are the ones which blend beautifully together so you can mix and vary your shades, work wet paints together, and add thin layers of lighter or darker tones over a basic coat colour. Go for Layer paints for all your brown/tan/beige/grey coat colours.

There's also various technical paints, and the new 'Contrast' range, which can make the sales stands look confusing at first, but just ignore all those, they're not what we want for model horse painting.

You do have to be careful, as some of the sandy colours tend toward khaki, and some of the browns have a distinctly un-horselike greenish tinge, but remember they're not mixing them with us in mind, and just take care to choose your colours in good light (no, the model/wargames shop people won't mind you picking them up to hold near a window, or taking ten minutes to pick a nice beige - we're in just as nerdy and creative and delightfully obsessive hobby as they are, they'll get it!)

Because they're so pricey, I tend not to buy very many, but each time I do choose a new pot, I can paint some horse colours I haven't done before!
On my most recent trip, as well as my usual favourite chestnut and bay paints, I picked out a pale milk-chocolate shade of brown, and a cream colour which looked nice for cremellos, perlinos, buttermilk duns, or flaxen manes and tails.

My first attempt with the cream paint, a little shading and some black points and we have a sweet little buttermilk buckskin baby! No name yet, but I really do like how she turned out. 

(I bought a mixed lot of very scuffed played-with second hand foals for my body box, so expect a whole flurry of new babies in the Harecroft herd this year!)

And to vary things a bit, meet Peaches and Cream - this one's the same body colour but with a tobiano pinto pattern. The G2 Saddlebred is one of my favourite moulds, she was actually the very first Stablemate I owned (in regular run chestnut) and now my conga line must be over 40 of these showy little mares if we count OF and CM together! I like to carve the moulded braids away, and replace them with plaited thread for the extra touch of realism.

Another foal, this one painted with my new light chocolatey brown, but faded out with softer shading, the way foals' coats are so often paler than their eventual adult colour.

And finally, a trace-clip skewbald on the G3 Warmblood mould, just because the new paler brown paint reminded me of the colour bright bays go when their coats are clipped. This one was painted body colour first, then the clipped areas laid on with a couple of coats of the new brown straight from the pot, then I added the white markings last of all. 

As usual, the pinto pattern didn't turn out as I had in mind (I was planning a lot more white and less colour left showing), but I made it up as I went along and suddenly this just seemed to look like enough, so I left it rather than risking spoiling the paintjob. I've got another G3 WB body, so that one can become the more-white skewbald I intended to make this time round!

Tales from the Body Box - Mini Alborozo customs

This week, something I've been looking forward to painting ever since I found out they existed : the Mini Alborozo mould!
Breyer releasing a tiny version of the much admired Traditional scale Alborozo may be a little bit of a cheat after all the hype about the mould being broken after just one exclusive release, but it really was a treat for the mini-scale fans to be able to collect the little version of this fantastic sculpt. Although I'm the kind of collector who's happy either way - I love Trads and SMs, and was already lucky enough to own the original big Alborozo because a friend in the States went to Breyerfest that year, and sent one over for me.
The only disappointment with the mini version is how frustratingly difficult he's been to actually buy. You can either chance your luck with blind bags - the Series 2 of Mystery Horse Surprise, or the unicorn ones if you don't mind having to snip and file the horns off! Or, you can pay about three times as much for the specific Paint Your Own Unicorn set he's in (again, with a horn to remove, and the fact everywhere sells out of the Alborozo one first!)
He's also in the new set of colourful glittery clearware SMs, but I have a feeling the painted-on glitter finish for the mane & tail would be too gritty and lumpy to paint over, and too hard to remove, so I'm not going to risk that as a cheaper way to get some bodies for the new moulds!

I managed to get two duplicates from the blind bags, one by chance mail order and a second by a little careful squeezing of the bags on a trade stand, and this week felt like my painting was going well enough to give them their new colours...

A paintjob I'd decided on ages ago, more or less as soon as I got my first duplicate to set aside for the body box - a dark dappled rose grey. I'd painted one on the Spanish walk Andalusian SM earlier this year, and thought how nice it'd look on this mould too, so my first Alborozo was always going to turn this colour.

I find paler greys really difficult to shade for some reason (I say my white paint doesn't like me), but darker ones are fun, and I like adding in the redder tones to suggest a dark bay body colour going grey.

How different he looks in the shade! The mould is another very good one to paint, sculpting style and finish is something which makes a great deal of difference to the success of a brush-painted custom - the detailing is crisp which picks up the highlights well, but the style is smooth which means the shading doesn't blotch and catch the way it would on a rougher less polished sculpt. 

I've named him Harecroft Peregrino - the name 'peregrine' has been on my list for ages, and shuffling through a few real Andalusian pedigrees online, the Spanish version jumped out as something to suit him very nicely!

Of course once I'd finished him, I had to choose a colour for my second custom, and after a little musing on typical colours for the Andalusian breed, google photos of real horses for inspiration, along with considering which colours I actually enjoy painting and get decent results with, I decided the best option to make the most of such a hard-to-find mould, would be a nice dark shaded bay.

So that's exactly what I painted - one of those rare times when the finished custom is more or less identical to the idea I had in mind! I couldn't be happier with how he turned out, the dapples were a bit of a risk when he was already looking ok without them, but I managed to keep them looking relatively blended-in by adding a bit more bay colour shading over the top of each layer, so they look like part of his coat pattern rather than spots dotted on last!

His name is Harecroft Altanero, another name which popped out of a real pedigree, though he wasn't based on any particular real horse - I find it way more difficult and stressful to try to copy a photo than to just aim for a colour I know horses can be! 

It's the time of year when taking photos requires all the scenery to be balanced on a board on a box on a chair at the far end of the garden and half into the plants just to find a patch of sunlight; these pictures may look perfectly serene and sensible but the process of getting them is anything but easy!

Altanero and Peregrino together, the beginning of what I hope will be a whole herd of Mini Alborozos - if only I could easily buy a few more!
I might try ordering another batch of blind bags later on, as every model in the second series is a mould I wouldn't mind painting, so I'd not be too disappointed if I ordered say four or five, and entirely missed the Alborozo bags.
But I'm really hoping that they'll put him into the next set of standard single SMs on a card, so we'll be able to buy duplicates to customise, as well as getting another OF release. Very dark almost-black bay would be nice, or a fleabitten grey...

Tales from the Body Box - catching up with my customs!

Quite a few to post today, I've been painting a lot more than usual over the last few weeks (my creativity goes in phases, soon I'll be back to not touching the paints for a year or two, hahah!) and have gathered up a batch to have their photos taken while we got a bit of sunshine, along with three who already had pictures but didn't get posted yet.

A mustang with no name yet, this one happened because I liked the base colour on my dun overo reiner and wanted to do another without the pinto patches!

One from the big bargain body box (last year's blind bags on special offer), my first custom on the G3 warmblood mould - I've ended up with a fair amount of the OF releases on this mould without really meaning to, but this is the first custom body I've got my hands on. I think it's also my first dark chestnut, I've usually painted them brighter purely because that's the shade of my orange pot of paint!

At a slightly different angle to show her face marking better. I've named this one Harecroft Nutmeg.

Another first, this time I picked out my only spare copy of the Mini Valegro mould to have a new coat of paint, meet Harecroft Valiant - one of my favourites of recent years, I love how he ended up!

He's been in the body box ever since the mould first came out and I bought a duplicate to customise, being saved until my painting was going well enough to do him justice! I went for a very shaded dark bay, I enjoy doing these and think they look more striking than a plain even-coloured bay when they're finished.

I tend to do quite small markings on my customs, a set of short socks and a stripe at most, 

so my idea this time was to paint one up with extensive white, and as the American breeders are often proud of what they call 'chrome' on the flashy gaited showring breeds, I chose the TWH mould.

She's also the result of trying to vary my chestnuts much more, with a paler paint mix, light shading, and a flaxen mane and tail. She's named Harecroft American Dream - I'm doing surprisingly well with naming them as I go along, there's not too many in my little book with a space beside their description!

Harecroft Mabel, repainted from a scuffed up foal with a damaged leg which came in a mixed lot of paint-rubbed bodies and good horses. Not the neatest of paintjobs as the body was rough, but broken horses make me sad so I just had to do something with the poor little thing!

This horse wasn't meant to be a bay! He was intended as the base for a tobiano skewbald, but as I went along I just got really attached to how he looked as a solid colour, and decided he wasn't getting partly painted over after all! He can be shown as a Welsh Cob now he isn't a pinto partbred, so I've called him Harecroft Gwydion.

I had to be a bit more firmly resolved to actually add the white for my next attempt at a tobiano skewbald, and although it's always a bit of a faff painting layers and layers on in such a specific pattern without ruining it or overlapping a bit that wasn't meant to be white marking, it's worth it in the end! This one was the WEG 'driving' stablemate I'd got a duplicate of years ago, I'd carved the legs down a bit to refine them, then left her languishing in the dusty bottom of my battered old body box. But now she finally has a fresh new coat of paint, I'm really pleased with how she turned out. I'll show her as an Irish sport horse, Harecroft Ballymena.

And finally, for now, one I've had in mind for months, Harecroft Silversmith, a dark rose grey on the G3 TB mould. I don't think I'll have him as a thoroughbred - a bit too chunky in the legs and wide in the shoulders, though both those seem to be a feature of this sculptor's style, rather than deliberate breed characteristics worked in to each model. He makes a much better hunter type, and I think this colour suits him.

Horatio

Here's my second really exciting parcel to post about - a horse I've wanted in Julip form for about eight years - meet Horatio!

Horatio is a fictional 1910s hunting horse from my own writing and illustration. He can be a bit of a character, and a right handful to handle on the ground, but he has a spectacular enthusiastic jump, and is a very keen and sure-footed horse cross country in just about any conditions. Here's a few of the pictures he's been in over the years...

I've been drawing him since 2011 and always thought I'd need a Julip eventually, but never got round to ordering one as a portrait. I'd been kind of hoping I might be able to pick up a bay of the right colour on the TB mould as a spare, then adjust the markings myself, if I waited long enough and was lucky enough, but it never did happen. 

Last week, this stunner of a hunter popped up second hand on ebay, and I immediately forgot all about the preferred TB mould because this one had the makings of the perfect Horatio. 

He had a very tiny white star, and no socks, which meant I could easily add on the right markings. He also had a full length tail, and I admit it was so lovely I didn't have the heart to chop it off for the historically accurate bobbed tail of the era - instead I carefully popped out his whole tail unharmed, and made him this short one with some spare black mohair. The original tail is safe in a plastic bag, and because I didn't use any glue in attaching this one, they can be swapped at will - if he does any showing, he can wear his long tail for the breed classes!

Here's his distinctive kinked stripe with a pink nose, carefully copied from his drawn version but trying to keep to a 'Julippy' style, so he looks as if he could've been a factory-finish order and not look out of place with the rest of my herd.

Another side-on view. The first few pictures of Horatio had a smattering of dapples, but at some point I accidentally forgot this while colouring him, and for the last few years (I draw him going out on the Boxing Day Hunt every winter) he hasn't had any! This may've started out as a mistake in my artwork, but at least it means the model's accurate, and I'm not wishing I'd waited for a dapply one. I think the hunter mould genuinely does suit him better than the thoroughbred I'd had in mind, too, it's much more chunky and rounded, where the TB tends toward being lean and leggy and very narrow in the body.

I made him a headcollar with this really nice antiqued leather I got on ebay, it's given an aged colour treatment, smoothed edges, and with a bit of bending between your fingers it softens up beautifully too. It's too wide for bridle leather (and you can't cut it down narrow because you'd lose the colour and roundness of those antiqued edges) but ideal for headcollars, and I'll be able to use it for Horatio's rug and surcingle buckles, too, as he's from the era where those were leather straps, not modern nylon webbing. And yes, in his day, headcollars did have browbands!

And the creativity didn't stop at the halter, in the wet-weather wait between his arrival and getting his pictures taken, I also made him a bridle.

Here's a closeup, again this was leather lace from ebay, and it's a good flat, crisp quality to work with, though their 'tan' turned out to be quite red! Unlike the antique brown, this lace can be cut narrower for the thinner straps; here the browband, noseband, and headpiece are the original 3mm width, while the rest of the bridle parts had to be sliced in two lengthways with a scalpel and ruler, then the edges painted in to match. The bits are made of paperclips bent to shape, with a little blob of tinfoil rolled round for the ends of the mouthpieces.

Harpley Horatio - I'm delighted to have added him to my herd at long last, he's been on my wish-list for such a long time it's hugely satisfying to look up and see him on my mantelpiece!

The Copperfox Conga gets Longer and Longer

First of two very exciting parcels to post about today, and as the title says, my Copperfox Welsh Cob conga line has lengthened a little bit lately!

The two gorgeous new boys actually arrived last week, but some truly hideous weather stopped me taking their pictures til today. And because my garden is so shaded now the sun's slower in the sky, I still had to chase the only tiny patch of un-dappled light across the lawn, and halfway into the flowerbed and bushes, just to get any pictures at all!

Here we have Sovereign, the regular run of 250 from 2016. I've had my eye on a few of these since I set my sights on collecting Copperfox cobs, but each one sold for £100 or more, finally I was able to get one for much less, and I'm so pleased - isn't he handsome!

I've named him Harecroft Welsh Gold - at last I've hit on a naming scheme for these cobs : rather than words in Welsh (which I find way too difficult to figure out the right pronunciation for!), I'm calling each one 'Welsh something', the name taken from whatever he was officially released as. Celtic Warrior becomes Harecroft Welsh Warrior, and Prince Cavalier is Harecroft Welsh Prince.

A really striking colour with his true-white mane and tail to match his socks - the 'fact' that a palomino has to have white hair is one of those lines horse books always seem to make note of, but in real life and also in model form, they're very often flaxen or blonde-haired instead, so it's interesting to see one who really does fit that old much-repeated rule. He's also got beautiful subtle dappling, the picture doesn't really pick it up so well as the eye.

I don't know what it is about these Copperfox cobs, but they do seem to like bringing friends along for the journey - he came with this travelling companion, from the same seller...

This one's Percival, also one of 250 from 2016, and another really beautiful colour I was thrilled to add to my collection. Again, his dappling barely shows up in the photographs, it's so faint and soft, but this is a very good thing when you think back to the rather polka-dot spots the first batch came out with way back at the launch; the delicate dappling of the later runs shows how the factory did get things very right in the end!

I've given him the name Harecroft Welsh Knight (Sir Percival was one of King Arthur's loyal knights). 

His pictures aren't the best for lighting and bad shadows, but by this point I was standing with one foot on the garden and the other on the drain outside the back of the house just to be able to reach a shot from where my chair-of-scenery set-up had ended up!

This leaves me with three to find for my Welsh Cob conga - Tiger Woods in black, Rupert in chestnut, and Gibson in dark dappled grey. I'm not after the original Kickstarter versions or rarities, I don't do glossies, and I'm not going to get my hopes up too high that any future releases will be on the affordable side of pretty horses just to look at and not buy, but finding the three colours to complete my regular run set is a target I can definitely aim for.

Tales from the Body Box - Icelandics

One of my favourite recent Stablemate moulds is the Icelandic horse, a breed I've been interested in for decades - even before the internet, their unusual gaits and colours fascinated me in the pages of my horse breed books.
I happily welcomed into my collection the Trad scale Svali frá Tjörn (who I thought was a bay, but in asking google how to type his name with the right little accents on the letters, I've discovered he's really a dark buckskin!), and later Elska the pale dappled grey on the same mould.
But the arrival of an SM-scale counterpart opens up another opportunity - not only are the releases going to be cheaper to collect, but they're also cheap enough and small enough to buy a few spare bodies and paint up some customs!

First, here's my small OF conga - Eirikke the grey 2018 regular run single, Hrimfaxi the flaxen chestnut from the 2015 mystery foal set, and Heimdallr from 2018's glow-in-the-dark set.

  

Last month at Burghley, I picked up a couple of duplicates of the plain grey for my body box, but they didn't spent long languishing in it, and both have already been given their new coats of paint!

The palomino was inspired by a pony in one of those free advertising-stuff horsey magazines you find in tack and feed shops. I always pick one up even though I don't really buy much for my real horses (they live out, their rugs are all second hand, and I don't buy riding gear because I don't ride!), so the advertising may not work on me but they're always handy as potential painting references for horse colours. This one provided a lovely dusty greyish shade of palomino I hadn't ever tried before, so out came the paints and here's the result!

Copying the photo also meant the shading didn't go in my usual pattern - I tend toward having the belly paler, especially behind the elbows, with the shoulder and neck darker, where this one's almost the opposite with the deepest golden tones on the girth area but much paler shading to the shoulder and neck. I think that's why it's so good to work from a photo now and then, rather than falling into a basic template of 'this is how I paint a horse' - trying to match a picture forces you out of the habits you've slipped into.

I gave him different socks and face markings than the reference, just because it's not a famous horse but someone's pet pony; it'd be a bit weird to make portraits of ones which aren't in the public eye or our own personal friends!

I've named him Falhófnir, meaning a horse with white feet - Icelandics are very often named by a physical trait, with names having literal meanings like 'brown head', 'stripe on face', or 'long mane'.

For my second Icelandic, I decided to go for one of the more obscure colours that are found in this breed, this little stallion is a smoky black. The smoky gene is a dilution factor, acting on base colours, a bit like the better known cream or dun. Actually, I was a bit concerned he was looking more like a dun during painting, but there's no dorsal stripe or leg barring, and the mane and tail fade out to brown and blond toward the tips, so hopefully he doesn't look overly grulla-like. 

He did look good plain, but even as I was buying the bodies I'd wanted one to be a pinto, so I decided to go for a minimal flash of white and a small star, snip and single sock.

I've called him Gullinbursti (the name of a mythical boar ridden by Freyr in the Norse sagas), which is just a fantastic-sounding word to an English-speaking ear!

My main thought on completing them : I wish I had some more of these! I've already had a look but the single one seems to be out of stock everywhere, so I have to wait before I can paint up any more colours, but I'll definitely be adding to this conga at some point.