Harecroft Horses - Tales from the Body Box - CollectA batch two!

Another excellent work! Very nice flecked coat, I think it looks quite similar to the real thing.

That's beautiful and a brilliant idea to replicate an Olympic horse! It has been so fun to watch and will certainly bring back lovely memories from Tokyo! It's so clever the way you have done the speckles with a toothbrush, they have worked out very well, all so neat and small as they should be! You have so many little useful tricks like this!

Splendid portrait! I'm very impressed with the fleabitten coat, that took some control. That's one of the hardest coats to paint (two dimensionally, I've never tried it three dimensionally) because I've just never found a good way to "summarize" it or imply it without actually creating a billion little dots. Your billion little dots look amazing!

Beautiful paintwork again and the color, and pattern look just like on this horse! What a great tribute to him

Thank you! I don't often paint speckledy colours, purely cos it's always a risk to ruin what was shaping up as a perfectly good paintjob with a very difficult-to-control method for adding the detail, but this horse needed it, and after years of seeing him out on the cross country course in person, he deserved to be painted.
I did the eventer Nereo in miniature too, just cos he was my favourite for so long. But really, I've done more portrait minis of racehorses I've never seen in person, than event horses which I have! Don't know where the logic in that is
My next racehorse project will be one who lived and raced in the 1920s and 30s, so I definitely never met that one, but I'm reading his contemporary biography at the moment and know that by the end I'll want to paint him up, so I've started working on the body that'll become him!

I love the idea and your next project sounds even more exciting!

Over the last week, I picked up a few different horses from my box of blank, duplicate, or damaged bodies, and it was only as I went to photograph them that I realised I've done three heavy horse types in a row!

First, another from the selection of unpainted resins gathering dust. And yet another I bought a long time ago, as part of the International Blessed Broodmares Project.
This was a fundraiser set up by model horse sculptors, sellers, and collectors, to help rescue and rehome mares, foals, and a few stallions, from a rather unpleasant trade which was closing down. Human hormone-replacement therapy was made using pregnant horse pee, so hundreds of mares were kept almost constantly pregnant, in barns 24/7, so it could be collected. When Canada banned the pregnant mare urine trade, the farms were going to close down, and the mares were due to be sold to slaughter.
An animal rescue was willing to do the organising of getting them into permanent safe caring homes, but needed help to raise the transport/medical/feed costs. With so many horses needing out, and a deadline which was literally a life or death deadline, the model horse community rallied round, and did everything we could. Donations, show fundraisers, selling models, raffles, and sculptors who donated all profits from their work selling through the project. We raised thousands of pounds, because so many people wanted to do what they could. And, after all the effort, the mares were saved. We saw all their pictures, knew their names, saw updates on where a lot of them ended up, and their rehabilitation into happy pets, companions, and riding horses.
It was a huge success story, and one a lot of model horse people look back on with a lot of happiness, and pride in how our community pulled together to do something above and beyond the hobby.

So, the model itself : 'Crusher' was a large Traditional (8th or 9th scale) scale resin by Kitty Cantrell, sculpted as a Norman cob he was given a hogged mane and docked tail, with relatively clean limbs. After his initial release came a mini version (around the size of CollectA horses), and then the original sculptor reworked the mini to add a lot more hair, naming this new-look edition the 'Miss Cheryl Lee' resin, and releasing it specially as a limited edition for TIBBP.

I got my copy as part of the charity fundraiser, and set her aside til I felt ready to paint something bigger than Stablemate scale - she'd done her bit to help with money for the horse rescue, it didn't matter how long it took me to get her painted, right? At the time, I thought it might be a few weeks, a couple of months, perhaps.
But creativity is fragile and flighty, and my painting deserted me.
A couple of years went by. I put the resins somewhere safe so they wouldn't get damaged while they waited. For a few more years.
When eventually I dabbled in painting Stablemates again, I didn't approach anything bigger.
Time passed, dust settled, I forgot what horses I'd even got there, waiting for their paintwork.

It wasn't til last year that I finally plucked up the courage to start painting larger resins again, and started rummaging through the selection I'd got set safely aside, meeting these old familiar unpainted faces again, and some welcome surprises - Oh, I'd forgotten buying you!, and I didn't even know I ever had you!

I picked up the blank white Cheryl, and remembered her being a TIBBP charity edition. I remembered all those poor but lucky PMU horses the model community raised money to save and rehome. I remembered the colour I'd had in mind for my mare. And finally I'm ready to make it happen.

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Here she is, all done! This is the colour I'd had planned for her all along, a dark chestnut tobiano pinto, with a two-tone mane, white face, and 'eyeliner' eye. She's turned out exactly as I'd imagined, which perhaps means I waited til exactly the right time to tackle her, when my painting's going well enough to control the results reasonably well, to be able to match my mental image!

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The feathering on her legs has a lot of action, swinging in sync with her movement. I love the way her mane and forelock curl loosely without being ringlets, and the way a big wave of hair folds back on itself down her neck; I gave her an extra streak of chestnut in there to have the colours cross.

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I haven't thought of a name for her yet, but I'll be showing her as a traditional cob - nothing to do with the word Traditional in model scales, but simply the British (real horse!) show-ring term for what Americans call 'vanners'. She looks a very confident and forward-going character, and suits her flashy colour - if I did performance showing she'd look great in a cart!

The next body I picked up was a G2 Clydesdale, one which I'd already given an extended tail and slightly more roman nose - some leftover mixed milliput from another custom, I had to use it up on something!

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His colour and markings are based on a shire I saw at a show a long time ago, way back when I had a film camera not digital so my reference was a print from my own 1990s photo album. I didn't quite get the coat colour the right shade, but it still looks fine, like it went this way on purpose! I always enjoy how this mould can be carefully balanced on two feet for photos, although I tip them down onto three toes for extra stability on my shelf display afterwards.

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You can see the markings better in this shot, the shine on the previous picture hides the three little detached spots of sabino white on the flank and quarters. This one's going to be called Olympus, I wanted to give that name to a custom which was painted during the Tokyo Olympic Games and it suits him best out of the relevant batch!

The final heavy horse is another body I've had a very long time, one of the Stone Chips from way back when they were being produced as regular runs by Schylling. I ordered five at the time - one to keep for my OF collection, and the rest to paint. But only two got their new coats of colour, while the second pair got lost, tucked with a few Stablemates into a box of craft supplies, until they resurfaced earlier this year. Another Oh, I'd forgotten I had these! moment of pleasant surprise.

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I hadn't any particular colour plans for the Chips Drafters, so for this first boy I just went with an old favourite coat colour, a shaded dark bay. I know it's a bit predictable, but why not pick a colour I know I can do a decent job of, always enjoy painting, and really suits the mould!

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His markings are deliberately very similar to the OF colour underneath - I find it oddly amusing to do these 'this is how I'd have painted it' interpretations of original paintjobs, taking the time to add more shading and detailing than factory production allows.
The four long socks look very bright white, and for a while I thought about toning them down with a bit of cream and beige, but real shires have their legs shampooed and treated with chalk and white sawdust for a dazzling bright look in the show ring, so I left them as they were.

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This is such a great little mould, very alert and proud looking, though I do always show mine as 2-year-old colts rather than adults, as they're rather too leggy and lacking in weight and bulk for a mature stallion. I also added a bit more foot on each back leg, as they have unfeasibly upright pasterns without altering that angle to the ground!
And here's one confession : I had added a full-length tail dock below his little braided bun, as horses over here are never surgically docked, but it crumbled while I was painting and I couldn't reassemble the bits neatly enough to glue it back on. So I owe him the bottom half of his tail back at some point - luckily it doesn't touch or overlap his body colour, I can easily replace the extension later without spoiling his paintwork.

Got to love the heavies! Three beautiful customs! And wonderful story with the first one, the PMU horses are always a sad tale. What a great story to go with a model, though, that so many were given brand new lives! She's an incredible work of art to top it off, the wait to paint her seems to be have been worth it. Love the gradients in her mane and tail and on her feathers. Her spot pattern is really interesting but still totally realistic and not distracting. Looks like you did even a little more detail work with the mapping, I love where it extends a little further into the color and creates those "bluish" areas. Great choice with the multicolored mane as well to show off that beautiful sculpt.

And love those two little sabinos with their minimal markings but big bold stockings and blazes. Both of them are very handsome! The stablemates looks great with a roman-ed nose. Both coat colors are rich and really nice, you're right, why fix what isn't broken when it comes to a classic combo?

I grew up next door to a shire horse breeder, and learnt to ride on hairy piebald cobs, so these heavy types feel very much like 'my' kind of horse (even though I ended up owning various native and native-cross ponies instead )

The unusual patch on her face was borrowed from a horse I saw on a cross country course a few years ago, I took a reference shot cos I knew it would look interesting in one of my paintjobs eventually - the real one was black and white, and a sport horse type (ridden by the man who got Bronze at the olympics last week), so very different to the model it got painted on to

And yes, the slightly bigger scale leaves more scope for detailing the patches, with mapping and feathery edges and roaning, compared to my usual Stablemate size. I even got to use some slightly bigger brushes!

I have one more of the Chips drafters left to paint, I'm trying to think what colour would work well. The previous ones were both portraits, turned into fillies I knew, one's black

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And one's bay sabino (and needs a better photo!)

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The real Goldie, just cos that patch on her side is awesomely weird

Amazing repaints again. Before I scrolled down, I wondered whether you had seen the white patch on a real horse. The question is what does it have on the other side?

Although they are heavy horses, they still look quite athletic. I am used to the Britains shire horse, which has a much heavier build.

Here's the other side of the same horse - just one small patch of white right behind her elbow, and some roany ticking of white hairs mixed in with the brown ones

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She's also a couple of years older in the second shot, you can see she's got a more Britains-like mature heavy horse build there

I didn't expect you to have a photo of the other side . Yes, it looks much more like a Britains shire in this photo.

Haha, yeah, this was a horse who I knew her whole life, she lived next door and although this was well before digital cameras, and we could only afford one film's worth of photos each year, I made a point of always taking pictures of the horses I knew at the local country show. So I have several of her dressed up posh, as well as a few just hanging out in the field at home.

There is just something about draft horses that I really LOVE. Spectacular work, each one is beautiful.

So many stunning repaints and it was both interesting and sad to read! I love that interesting marking on the sabino!

Glorious repaints and the draught horses are among my favourites!!

Those are all beautiful! Goldie does have a unique marking- looks like a pinheaded cat lol. Dark shaded bays are my favorite color, and I enjoy the sabino touches as the horses of my childhood had the sabino gene.

The PMU mare is especially glorious. Why not her mold name, Miss Cheryl Lee? Or Sabine, a TV show with a Bigfoot type creature called the Sabine Thing is playing in the background.

Funny how the horses you grow up with end up being your ideal of beauty.

Those two portraits are really lovely! Excellent recreation of that unique marking, and I love the unique shape of the black horse's blaze down on her muzzle. That makes it look like a portrait.

Oh, wow! Heavy horses are my favorite too, together with ponies
Miss Cheryl Lee looks amazing. And I love the story behind this artwork too.

And all those lovely Shires and Clydesdales I love this unique white shape on Goldie, I think you recreated it perfectly!

Wonderful reading, excellent pictures and perfect customs! I love the shaded dark bay youngster.

Thank you, everyone, it really is lovely reading your comments on my work, I'll always be most driven to make whatever gaps need filling in my herd, or colours which strike me as inspiring, but it's great to know what other people are enjoying most too - it helps me imagine what else would look interesting and effective to an outside eye, not just my own little random obsessions and typical horse-artist 'ooh, pretty, must paint it!' moments

I think I've come up with the right name for the Cheryl resin - Hope. It may be extremely short and simple, boring even, but fits so nicely as a reminder of her backstory, all our donations to give hope to mares needing new lives - and with my prefix added, Harecroft Hope sounds quite complete and enough :)

Some ideas for painting models roll around my mind for a lot longer than others. Back when I painted my first two WIA Gustav customs, I mentioned that I'd managed to get my hands on a couple more duplicate copies to plot new colours for. This week, about a year later, I got round to making one of these plans happen!

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Meet Harecroft Rasmus, my first ever Jutland custom!
I've always thought this mould would look good in a flaxen chestnut, and had a couple of nice reference photos picked out from my horse breed books. Although my dash of black in the mix - just to dull the paint less gingery - sent him far darker than I intended, I kind of liked the way his colour was going, and carried on with the more liver chestnut tones. Chestnut Jutlands vary in shade, some very sandy and pale, others even darker than mine turned out, so the accidental wandering off plan was fine, really!

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Gustav never was released as any one particular breed, but a lot of the continental European drafters share a similar type, and he makes a perfectly respectable example of the Jutland breed : a compact broad build, deep chest and neck, convex profile, short stocky legs, and medium feathering - more there than the lightly tufted heels of, say, a Percheron or Belgian, but nowhere near the length of hair for a Shire or Clydesdale.

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Of course, this excellent sculpt by Brigitte Eberl has so much personality and presence, you get the impression of a noble stallion in his proud pose, but with a calm attitude and gentle eye - the kind of horse who'd be easy to handle.

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My reference photo was a little more dappled, but as always I got to a point where it looked ok, and thought I better stop before I ruined it! He certainly looks content with his new coat of colour, after a year spent in the body box.

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There's still one more of this plastic mini Gustav in my body box, and I do have a colour in mind, but it's a much more daunting one than Rasmus ended up with, so who knows how much longer it'll take me to work myself up toward tackling him!

Having ticked one long-considered custom idea off my mental to-paint list, it was time to be brave and do another, one I've been putting off for almost as many months!

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Another from a small bargain bundle of scuffed and dusty CollectA models I got on ebay, this time the mustang foal. Although I chose a spotted paintjob, I'll keep her as a mustang, rather than changing breed to appaloosa - her colour reminds me of one of my Stablemate customs, here.

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You can't really see, but I went for a dun rather than a sooty buckskin this time. She does have a dorsal stripe, and a little bit of leg barring, but like most baby colours her points haven't fully developed yet - her dark legs would fade in gradually as she got older. I might go back and edit the tail colour a little bit more, though; I'd given it brown edges, but they don't stand out much at all in the pictures, so I think there needs to be a highlight of paler brown to bring out the contrast a bit more.

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This is one of my favourite CollectA foal moulds, so I'm really glad that was the one I happened to get in my second hand batch - the pose is just so sweet and full of energy despite the standing pose, with the tucked head and flippy little short tail.

I'm definitely starting to feel more comfortable with these larger scale models, though confident would be pushing it - every paintjob still feels like a bit of a panicky rush to get past the possible disaster without ruining it entirely!

Absolutely stunning repaints again, they all look like real horses and I was particularly drawn to how you did the eyes, so realistic, they look just like the eyes of all the horses I've known!

Marvellous repaints!!!

Anytime Gustav gets a new color, it looks a completely different horse but it is always easy to know which horse it is. Sounds contradictory and it is.
It is an easily recognizable sculpt but different colors seem to work differently on that beautiful model. Jutland is a perfect idea and the result is magnificent as always. I was almost tempted to collect all Wia horses but I cannot spend all my life trying to reduce my collection and going for new adventures. However, I intend to get one of the WIA models someday.