STS Model Painting Month - post BEFORE photos of your models here

Hippocollector wrote:

I want to paint a nayab hippo but i never done this before so im afraid i could ruin the thing

Don't be afraid to try! You never learn unless you start somewhere

I still have some repaints that I made when I started and even though they are far from perfect, I really love them and they are still dear to me.

So I hope you will go for it too. And there are enough people here who will help you if you have questions or if you struggle with something.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Curious what the markings are going to be!

yes me too at this point

Kikimalou wrote:

It would be very interesting to watch or to read how you remove the seams and bumps

I will take some pics Christophe, but I use a scalpel with a triangle straight blade and I finely cut thru the seam, letting the blade glide along the surface of the body, like the body is being used as a guide.
The bumps I just knick off with the scalpel.
I try too be very careful and have something between the blade's path and my skin at all times, as it's very easy for the scalpel to slip. It's a long thin blade so putting my thumb in the way doesn't always work.
A Stanley could be just as good for this work, and be in much more control.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

I cannot wait for your Hagerman horse! I should do one someday, as it is the state fossil for my homestate of Idaho. I can't wait to see your interpretation Annette!

Thank you Paige! I remember you talking about that and the Hagerman horse.

sunny wrote:

very exciting to see the other animals being repainted and customized! Kelly's looks amazing by the way!

I will be painting a Hagerman horse, Equus simplicidens, from the Pliocene era.
The coat markings will be my interpretation of what they looked like

I'm using a paint worn Britains zebra, and have started to remove the seams and bumps.

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Yay, an ancient horse! I'll be very excited to see this!

Hippocollector wrote:

I want to paint a nayab hippo but i never done this before so im afraid i could ruin the thing

If you're afraid of ruining a model, maybe choose one you have more copies of. Or maybe you have a figure already scratched and not in a good general state, so you would be less stressed about ruining it?

If you have any technical questions, feel free to ask!

Here's the project I'm going to tackle. I wanted something with lots of hair and dynamism, so I think this is perfect:

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Awesome choice A-J!!

I chose this donkey foal by K. Parks (studio Thornrose).
Initially a miniature mule foal, it requires small resculpting to fit a donkey - the fur direction on donkeys' flanks is different than in horses and mules. I still need to resculpt the other side. And maybe add a bit more hair on the forehead
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I'll be aiming for a color similar to this one:
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I love little donkeys! I can't wait to see what you make of that St. Bernard A-J!

That's a sweet donkey, I'm looking forward to seeing it gaining more colour :)
Also, I didn't know about the fur direction it's always fun to learn something new.

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This is a Nayab aquatic bird (identified by the community as a finfoot) that I acquired relatively recently. I plan to paint it as a Sungrebe (Heliornis fulica), a Neotropical species of finfoot.

Great idea

Here's my 'before' picture, Papo's lovely pheasant!

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I've noticed quite a lot of difference in pheasants, the ones I see locally aren't the same as on days out across different parts of the county. Various subspecies were introduced to the big estates, then naturalised, and hybridised, leaving us with lots of variation in colour and pattern. Some are almost entirely metallic dark blue, others copper and dark, and some carry a lot of pale grey and gold.

I've gathered up a folder of many different pheasants just for the curiosity of comparing them, and not long ago, I thought how much fun it would be to build a little collection of models, painted in the various colours I've spotted and photographed over the years.

So I'm nominating my first pheasant repaint as my Model Painting Month project, to encourage me to actually start this and not put it off cos it's complicated and difficult

That is a SUPERB project idea George! Can't wait.

Can't wait to watch the first, then the second...

how exciting to see all these models ready for repainting and reconstruction in some cases
George that is a splendid idea! and I look forward to seeing all your pheasants among your horses grazing in the meadows :)

Yay for the two birds! Excellent choices, George and Birdsage!

I'm curious to see how both of the birds will turn out! They both sound linke a great idea

I totally missed this topic! Not sure if I can join this year due to sick members in the family.
Will see if I can do though.
Love to see all of your projects in the works!

I thought I wouldn’t be able to do justice to any models in time to post something for this month, but I really wanted to, so at the last moment I found something that I was able to do over the last day or so.  

I decided to repaint my spare Nature Techni Colour granular poison frog into a Rio Madeira poison frog, Adelphobates quinquevittatus. Instead of a magnet, this version had a hole underneath that I filled in. I also prepared a Safari good luck mini, pictured below, but I decided the NTC sculpture would work better for this species.

I’m including a couple progress pics in this post, too. The repaint is now finished so I’ll try to share final pictures very soon.

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Wow, this frog already looks amazing. :) I can't wait to see the final photos.

Great and brave idea Those Kitan are so tiny !

Wow, they look fantastic! And so tiny