Koniminiatures' recent acquisitions

Ohh, so you have this most amazing horse now!! wow, he's incredible. You're lucky girl! Congratulations!!!

I love Andre! I was drooling over the auction piece they had for NAN this year. Congratulations!

WOW  
What a amazing detailed and big horse.  
Big congratulations

What a wonderful sculpt.
The feathering on the lower legs is amazing. The way they are windswept in the direction the hooves are moving is a very nice touch.

that's a beautiful horse!

beautiful.

So this is how an ardenner look like! Now were talking
Schleich guy could check this out... It's a gorgeous model with such a wild pose. Think his eyes are really nice. And ofc your halter makes this masterpiece look perfect! I'm sure there's one who will like him even more than I do... Where are you Carola

Oh my gosh. He is astounding. Enormous congrats on such a gorgeous model... flowing mane and tail, rippling muscles, and those awesome horse shoes! CONGRATS!!!

Oh wow, congrats!!
That pose, that face, what a beauty!

What an impressive figure, congratulations!

Gorgeous animal, congrats

Thank you for the comments, everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed seeing him.

Animal_Figures_4U wrote:

I love Andre! I was drooling over the auction piece they had for NAN this year. Congratulations!

I'd not seen that one before - nice! The Kimberly Bleeker Phoenix in the next lot wasn't too shabby either. Mmm.. wall eyes.

Bloodrayne wrote:

What a wonderful sculpt.
The feathering on the lower legs is amazing. The way they are windswept in the direction the hooves are moving is a very nice touch.

I, too, like that extra gesture. I'd have a mind to cut off and extend the lifted front leg and reposition it so the toe'd be flicking a tad (merely my tastes, no other reason), but then I'd have to destroy and change flow direction on all of that feather, and mess with the beautiful forearm musculature.. It just won't do, now that they're all so perfect.

jonesee wrote:

So this is how an ardenner look like! Now were talking
Schleich guy could check this out... It's a gorgeous model with such a wild pose. Think his eyes are really nice. And ofc your halter makes this masterpiece look perfect! I'm sure there's one who will like him even more than I do... Where are you Carola

Ah, that poor Schleich dwarf Ardennais. When I first saw it, I was instantly excited, and scrolling down, almost as instantly disappointed: the feet! What the hell is going on with the dwarf legs? Still, it could make a fair custom. I too appreciate the eyes Rose gives her horses, yes. They're all worried for some reason, but doubtless it is a noble look. Thank you for the compliment on the halter! It's just a quick thing with thick fake leather and strips of soda can, but I couldn't have Andre wait for his painting turn for years all naked.

Oh yes, the Bleeker Phoenix is lovely too. I got to sit next to her at a show recently, her finishwork is amazing!

Congratulations Lea:)

Congrats on your new addition !

Absolutely stunning model, big congratulation Lea

Ooow, indeed a peek worth Very much! I am familiar with that model, but I just stay away from resins, and I'd dream that Breyer gets the rights to mass produce this one in plastic Traditional sized!
Amazing draft - maybe the nicest mold ever made! But need him in plastic !

Looking forward to see the paint you'll give him

Very wicked halter too (maybe the halter for my vixom - should be that - or - like that I like it a lot! what are the opportunities? Can I change mind yet

Wonderful horse Lea! Wow, it's a real beauty. I look forward to seeing pictures of it painted too.

Yes, when I had seen your addition and read "Ardennais", I thought, "wait, Schleich one looks completely different!". Then I've Googled it. And then... oh, well, right.

Thank you for the many comments! I'm afraid I won't have pictures to show you of him painted in a long while yet - he'll have to wait his turn and there are many models for me to do before him. But at least I'll have ample time to decide on the colour and perhaps practise doing it, too.

Carola, good that I didn't drag you over here for nothing. Breyer have begun "borrowing" our most liked resin sculptors for their plastics (seen the new Eberls and Minkiewicz-Breunig piece yet?), but I doubt they'll have any chance at producing this particular sculpt. It would be fun, though! I'd need to buy a bigger house. An estate. A castle. Small island.

As for the halter, sure, yours can be made like this. I'll PM you to discuss.

Fisva, oh dear - I can imagine the desolation. If only Schleich got their act together for something even half this nice. Again, I'd need a bigger house then. But surely with your skills you'll be able to improve upon the Schleich Ardennais, too? Make Andre here a little brother.

An isle only for model horse collection -
I have seen the new Mink one - looks very neat - will be very interesting to see a Regular Run of her. I had hoped for a drafter when she was announced, but well.. The model looks very promising!
And a new half-heavy kind of mold has also been annouced for the Premier Club, sculpted by Eberl. As some say - it's a mix of Weather Girl and Cleveland Bay

(No no, the isle would also have a wetlands nature reserve; botanical gardens; a stableful of heavy draughts and Eastern European native breeds; shacks for dissections and sculpting; a train line of its own; and a hoarde of sprightly young chaps to mind the lot for me while I putter about the grounds on a flat-shod Walker, issuing orders as I go. In fact, I may just build it once I come by my next paycheck.)

I've seen the new Eberl sculpt, yes - I just wish it were a "full heavy", not mere half. Ditto for the Mink, actually, as you say - but oh, most anything by either will be an improvement upon the current lines. We may get our heavies yet.

koniminiatures wrote:

(No no, the isle would also have a wetlands nature reserve; botanical gardens; a stableful of heavy draughts and Eastern European native breeds; shacks for dissections and sculpting; a train line of its own; and a hoarde of sprightly young chaps to mind the lot for me while I putter about the grounds on a flat-shod Walker, issuing orders as I go. In fact, I may just build it once I come by my next paycheck.)

That sounds just totally awesome

Unexpected roof repairs have prevented me from making new purchases recently, but luckily, there have been trades! I've been unlawfully lucky with a few really splendid ones and a couple of early Yuletime presents - these latter on a year I'd again agreed with the few concerned that there'd be no presents on.. So that lasted long. Not that I'm complaining, though - below is why.


Firstly, I got Anna's splendid resin gaur in an excellent trade with her. Prior to this I'd spent over a year flailing my arms, bemoaning how I'd probably never get to ordering one before the edition closed - but what do you know! The edition did indeed close, but as an unexpected trade proposition, Anna very generously offered to cast me a late copy with the caveat that it would likely be a fixer-upper. Thank you, Anna! To make things even better, she gave me full permission not only to fix whatever needed fixing, but customize my copy to my heart's content as well. Above is the result, albeit still in progress. Wouldn't go pat its muzzle just yet.


Another little dream of some time came true when Andreas had this grand little Preiser bull sent to me from Germany. It's a vintage sculpture (although newly produced) that I've admired ever since I learned of it years ago. I never really thought I might come by a copy of my own. The figurine is only 5cm tall or so, but has wrinkling and rolls of fascia all over, matted fur, whorls and veining. The sculptor's tools have left faint traces of themselves here and there, too, which I quite enjoy. It's a very fine, organic little sculpture overall. Thank you for it, Andreas!


Going for more vintage cattle, I arranged a silly two-man, four-computer sniping operation and managed to snap up these beauties for next to nothing on eBay. They are of course the 4th generation Lineol yak & wisent from the 1950's, both in the later colourway. Not much to say about these. They're about as nice as cattle sculpts can get, I think, true lessons in how it's done when it's done well - "composition animals" in every sense of the word. I still can't believe they're here, and as early Yule presents from my anonymous partner in crime, too (thank you humbly, second sniper).


Continuing with that theme (not unnecessary wartime allegories, but early and hideously undeserved presents), this long-admired, long sought-after, and long Kazunari Araki Seismosaurus (=Diplodocus hallorum) from the Kabaya Dinosaurus Collection 2 came from the very courteous Blackdanter in the UK. I tried to make it feel more at home by propping it up among my exceedingly sparse fossil collection and, uh, some etched ferns (that 1880 facsimile biology book is an early Yuletime present, too! I'm being spoiled alive!), but it still looks to be cringing. Maybe it's thinking: "You can see my vertebrae through my neck but didn't think to offer more than a desert setting with pictures of plants..?"


Among the more miscellaneous newcomers I've one more very appealing vintage-style sculpt, the old Schleich nanny goat from NightLioness (thank you, Karin!); a violently green mystery iguana that played travel companion to the goat; and like them, from the Netherlands though from a different sender, an Epoch golden eagle that flew here with the gaur (thank you Anna!). Playing the eagle's perching-branch is the 2010 Papo gift pack thoroughbred mare, a flea market find headed for the butcher's. It's a crude, inexact sculpt I find nevertheless inexplicably appealing. In the future it'll become a historical hack in hunting tack, and hopefully a smidge more accurate. The horse's halter and goat's bell I made myself to keep them a bit more clothed pending repainting.

In the middle there is a curious gift from Blackdanter - a mystery tiger shark gashapon, presumably created as a prototype for a Japanese aquarium or another, but never released. The company that created the figurine would appear to have gone out of business since. Perhaps we'll never know the story behind these little figurines. The sign behind the shark reads, humorously, "ANOTHER AQUARIUM". Thank you for it and the Araki Seismo, Blackdanter!


Some more Japanese fish. From left to right, they're the Takara Tomy A.R.T.S Encyclopedia Mystery Deep Sea Fish Collection Macropinna microstoma; Bandai DG Digital Grade Tropical Aquarium Fish set Sterba's corydoras (Corydoras sterbai); in the background a Yujin Freshwater Fish in Colour series pt. 1 rosy bitterling a.k.a. Tairiku baratanago (Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus); before it a Kaiyodo Choco Q Animatales - Pets series 5 145-P69A saddled bichir (Polypterus endlicheri endlicheri); and rightmost the armored, extinct UHA Kaiyodo Dinotales series 3 Hemicyclaspis 059. Thank you kindly to Andrew Tsang from eBay for the fish - he proved once again a stellar seller and greatly helped me in getting these.

And as a bonus, a closer look at what's happening behind the fish: In the tank Riccia pearls, Lemna float and 2-millimeter Planorbella neverendingly eat, eat, eat; while outside it Soleirolia tendrils and thrives, probably plotting to eventually overtake my sculpting space.

I can confirm that having to do roof renovations in pitch black late Autumn rain no longer bothers me at all. Thank you for the lovely trades and figurines, everyone - I'm left quite humbled how many, gorgeous and undeserved they have been.

Very very wonderful newcomers Lea, and nice to see the bull arrived you safetly:)