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

I enjoy the spotted chart, much more animated than if it was made with photos with hthe same format. Interesting all these gaps, maybe they tell a little about your life story. It is completely impossible to choose a single one, they're all really beautiful.

Each and every one is stunning! I think Enzo is my favorite, I just love that pattern!

Love the colour chart!!!!!!

I accidentally didn't paint any horses since April I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but last week I picked up a couple of bargain bundles of CollectA models on Ebay (three horses for the price of one, and then four more for just £5/€6) and was plotting colours/breeds I could paint on them before they'd even arrived - this anticipation made me keen to get back in the painting habit, so I started while the inspiration was still fresh!

A while ago, someone on here asked me if I'd ever painted a Gotland pony, which made me realise I hadn't, and I wanted to. I think it might've been [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], but the forum search thing is claiming nobody's ever said the word 'Gotland' on here, so I can't check to credit the right person with the idea, sorry!

Here's a page with a brief history and description of the Gotland Russ, for anyone who isn't familiar with them. Although I've never met one, I feel an affinity for these proper old native pony breeds from various countries, because they're so much like the natives I know well here the UK : true ancient ancestry, being tough and adaptable, some still living as feral herds or in common turnout in their natural habitat, others taken into domestic life, and many spread to other parts of the country.
The more I read about them, the more I liked them - there's just something very admirable about a hardy, outdoorsy pony breed which can manage just fine without people and often does, but can also be welcomed into the human world to find all sorts of useful jobs to do, the versatile sort which can show, work, excel in sports, or just provide a child with a pony to love!

CollectA have far more pony breed sculpts than Breyer Stablemates, so it was perhaps natural that I'd turn to this brand to supply the 'bodies' for my Gotland project.
My breeds book says "a typical pony head with small alert ears, lively eyes and a straight profile. The neck is nearly always short and quite muscular and is set to reasonable withers for a pony breed[...]The legs are strong and tough with good joints[...]The feet are very tough and are a good shape"
From all the CollectA ponies, the one which stands out as having all these traits is the Dartmoor stallion, especially the tiny pricked ears, the good strong neck, and due to being one of the older moulds he pre-dates the brand's chunky-leg problem and has the crisply sculpted detail of hard limbs with good joints, and small pointed hooves.

I've already painted two in this mould, different shades of bay (one dappled as a Dartmoor, one dark as an Exmoor), so although bay is a very common coat colour for the Gotland breed, I really wanted to choose a different one just so I didn't have three bay CollectA Dartmoors in my herd - four if you count my original finish one as well
In the Gotland Wikipedia page's example photo, there's a really bright and handsome buckskin, and a bit of Googling turned up several others this colour, so I decided to go for it - something a bit different to set the custom clearly aside from his original finish Dartmoor model and my other customs of it, and a colour I haven't painted very much, too.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here he is! I always find paler colours hard to give much depth to, creams especially can turn out very flat, so I've given him quite pale highlights and some golden warmth with peach and brown tones mixed in to the yellow paints, just so he doesn't look too monotone-with-a-black-trim

This background wasn't really working with him, I could see on the camera's preview image that the pictures didn't have the same bright glow as he had in real life, posing there in the sun, so I went and grabbed a different backdrop with some brighter colour to see if that helped..

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And I think it works! These are much more flattering and bring out the warmth of his colour - because he's so bright and golden, I've named him Solsken, which means 'sunshine'.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I think he looks a decent example of the breed, and I'm really happy with how he turned out. Although not a perfect match for the feral Gotland photos at all, if you look up pictures of the stallions in the show ring they often look a lot like this - much like Dartmoors, the ones living natural outdoor lives without much human contact look very different to those in show condition, all polished up and posed for the camera!

Having painted one, I couldn't help looking back in my box of bargain ponies, and noticing another which would make a nice matching partner for Solsken. The Dartmoor Hill Pony mare, if you ignore her pinto colour, is fairly similar to the stallion in conformation, with a thick muscular neck, ponyish face, and good fine hard-looking legs.

A moment to explain the breed names here. Please skip this bit if you're not into horse stuff and just want to see the pictures of painted plastic ponies!

Dartmoor is the pure breed, ancient and with known pedigrees going a long way back.
Very few true purebred Dartmoors live in feral herds now, although they're still hardy and do fine living outdoors field-kept all year round, they've become a domesticated breed, kept on farms and yards, used for showing and as children's ponies. There are still some 'real' ones to be found on the moors, but you're far, far more likely to find them being selectively bred at normal studs then handled and trained just like any other show/riding pony.
Dartmoor Hill Pony is a catch-all term for mixed or unregistered ponies from the Dartmoor area.
They're much more likely to have been bred on the moors, by stallions running free with a feral herd. They are varied, from good to bad to everything in between. Many look exactly like the pure breed, and these are usually true Dartmoors but without the right paperwork, for example an unregistered mare and a registered stallion - the offspring IS a Dartmoor Pony, but isn't allowed to be on the breed society books cos it doesn't have fully documented parentage, these can be registered as Dartmoor Hill Pony instead.
Some are fairly true to type with nice conformation, but have crossing or unknown ponies in their ancestry, and some are deliberate crossbreds - Shetland was a popular addition to get more colour, and make the ponies smaller and cuter, so they stood a better chance of selling to decent homes. These are really useful ponies which can go on to ridden careers, used for trekking/hacking/hunting, pony club mounts for smaller children, even competing at jumping or gymkhanas where pedigree doesn't matter to enter the class. They can become family-pet types or companions to other horses, too. I know one which came through the sales and is the most friendly and adorable thing ever, bought as a friend for a lonely horse, and EVERY horse on the yard adores it, even my fussy mare who usually spends days pulling evil faces at any new arrival and barely tolerates them after that, was bonded over the fence within half a day and being gentle and caring to it, making little 'some back, friend!' noises when it went out of sight behind a bush
Sadly there's also a negative side to the Dartmoor Hill Pony, a lot are just indiscriminately bred feral herds with no selection or control whatsoever, poor things with terrible conformation sold very cheaply at weaning, or given away for nothing if anyone will take them, and no hope if not. They exist more because people want to keep up the local family traditions of keeping and selling ponies from the moor, than cos anyone cares what happens to the foals.
So with so many different kinds of pony classified as Dartmoor Hill Pony, you can see it's not so much a breed but a term for crossed or unregistered ponies born in that area. I'm surprised CollectA decided to make one, but then we know they do pick some more obscure horses to add to the range now they've ticked off most of the famous ones.

Having avoided bay for my Gotland stallion because it clashed with what I'd painted on the mould before, there was no such problem for the mare as this is my first custom on this mould. So I went back through the google image search, and picked out a good reference for the commonest variety of bay they seem to be - this shade, with the very pale pangare shading. Ignore the wibbly lines all over the pony, those aren't markings or part of the coat colour, I'm assuming it's had a bath and dried a bit crinkly

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And here she is! I think mine turned out a little bit darker than the one I was copying from, but that doesn't matter as it's not a portrait.
I looked through some real Gotland Russ pedigrees to see what kinds of names were given to them - often there's a rule, tradition, or type of name favoured by certain breeds and I like to stick to those, especially if the names are in languages I don't understand, there's a lot of running things through google translate or scrolling pedigree lists trying to pick up on patterns or trends.
I noticed in this case, a lot of mares are given human names, often two-part to give more variety down the generations. One line had a mare Lilli and many of her female foals were Lilli-something, I chose to borrow Lillimarlen from the list because it's fine to pronounce for me as an English-speaker too, some names are difficult but that's an easy one, with no complex meaning beyond being a girls' name (it would be Lili Marleen in German, Lily Marlene in English, and so on)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Again I swapped background after the first try, and I think she looks better against the green meadow, too. I don't know what Swedish countryside looks like, but a field with a bit of sky is pretty generic, so I don't think it stands out as definitely-not-Sweden either

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This mould has such a good face, the grumpy expression is very pony, and I think the turned back ears are a change when so many models are posed looking alert and cheerful. We also don't see too many in a walking pose, sculptors tend to favour trots for the stretch and symmetry, or canters/ gallops for the balanced action poses, walking is the boring pace! But this reminds me so much of a pony just mooching round in it's own time, looking for something to nibble or wandering over for a shade nap.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here they are together - it's good having two, otherwise the Gotland Russ page of my breeds website would look a little sad having just one example

And finally, here's my two boxfuls of second-hand ponies combined

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

From the top...
Three Dartmoor stallions. One you've just seen in his new coat of paint, other two will probably stay as the Dartmoor breed. I'm thinking a chestnut would be good next, but undecided on the final one - maybe something darker for variety, although Dartmoors can also be grey so he might end up the palest of the lot
The Exmoor can only really be an Exmoor, none of our other native breeds have that look and I can't think of any international ponies he'd be a good match for either, so he'll be dark bay with pangare and the typical mealy-muzzle colouration. But it's always bugged me that the mould's sculpted with the mane blowing forwards and the tail blowing backwards, so I think I'll try adjusting the tail before I get the paints out for that one
The Shetland pony I have a much wider range of options as there's a lot of colours in the breed, but with just one of the mould I think I'll go for my old favourite of tobiano pinto.
The walking Dartmoor Hill Pony is also completed already (I could've just taken the picture without these two, but I didn't think of that at the time )

And finally, the Haflinger mould, which is the one causing most of the decision-making dithering!

I think the legs are much too long and fine for a Haflinger, in real life they look far more chunky and solid, almost like a little drafter in build - similar to Highlands and Fjords, they were 'designed' for all round work so being strong and cobby made them useful for harness and farm work. This sculpt has extremely slim elegant legs, more like the British 'riding pony' type bred for showing or jumping. But the head is large, which riding ponies just don't have - bred for prettiness in the show ring as well as their build, and with a lot of Welsh and Arabian in their ancestry, they tend to have petite heads with dished or almost straight noses.

It's also quite a big mould for a pony, you can see from how it compares to the others in the photo - notably bigger than the Dartmoors and Exmoor. So I'm struggling to think of any lightly-built breeds in the 13.2-15hh size range, with such long fine legs, which also have a proper native-pony style large head.

Any ideas, horsey people?

What a wonderful job you have made of this pair. I enjoyed reading about the breed too! For your Haflinger could it be a Welsh Cob?

I'm going to want more Gotlands now I've started on my interest in the breed, I'm already wondering if there's any other CollectA moulds which would do (cos I really should let these other two Dartmoors stay Dartmoors! )

Welsh Cobs have a much deeper rounded body type, and the legs are thicker with some long feathering, rather than this mould's long slender legs and light body build. This is my horse's grandfather (may as well pick a relative as an example!), you can see the white hair at his heels, and how he's got a very rounded back and bottom.

I think it's going to be tricky to find any breed which matches the sculpt all over!

Good to see you back to painting again! The colours look great on these ponies. The CollectA sculpts are very good too.

These are great. I was unfamiliar with either breed (or "breed"), so educational as well. The buckskin is really beautiful, I love how you've highlighted that gorgeous mane sculpting with the crisp contrast of the black and cream. You did a great job giving that light color depth and form. The faces on both are especially nice, with the gray skin showing and the mealy areas. It seems like it would be difficult to make many iterations of bay without ending up with much the same horse many times, but you have really captured the variety in that color in your many customs. The lighter bay of this mare is lovely, and still very distinct from the buckskin as well.

I love the new life you give to these sculpts. I am not sure I can give you a good suggestion but I can quote Ana's post about the Gotland.

Ana wrote:

They look great! I especially love Haflinger, and Døle! Fabulous work with the resculpting, I wouldn't think of changing this Friesian into this breed but you made it work perfectly! Very nice color choices for them too

For the next one, do you have a Gotland pony already? And/or maybe Jutland draft horse?

rogerpgvg wrote:

Good to see you back to painting again! The colours look great on these ponies. The CollectA sculpts are very good too.

I never really know why I stop, luckily as soon as I pick it up again, it comes back naturally. Like riding a bike, you can't forget!

For a long while I avoided painting bigger scales cos small ones felt easier and more manageable, but I have to say I've been really enjoying CollectA-sized stuff this year, they're bigger but not dauntingly so!

Jill wrote:

These are great. I was unfamiliar with either breed (or "breed"), so educational as well. The buckskin is really beautiful, I love how you've highlighted that gorgeous mane sculpting with the crisp contrast of the black and cream. You did a great job giving that light color depth and form. The faces on both are especially nice, with the gray skin showing and the mealy areas. It seems like it would be difficult to make many iterations of bay without ending up with much the same horse many times, but you have really captured the variety in that color in your many customs. The lighter bay of this mare is lovely, and still very distinct from the buckskin as well.

I think a lot of mould details are lost with the paintjobs they're given for the factory runs - once you have the time and consideration which comes with a one-of-a-kind paint job rather than the production line efficient rush, you can pick out the detailing which has always been there.

Yes, I think the contrast helps with the pale colour, if it'd been a palomino or cream it could have ended up a bit bland, but the black makes the gold look gorgeous!

And yeah, bay is such a varied coat colour, there's no end to the variations of shade and shading you can mix up. Also helped by the fact I can't paint the same colour twice even if I try, so the variation is worked in to my rather haphazard technique

Roger wrote:

I love the new life you give to these sculpts. I am not sure I can give you a good suggestion but I can quote Ana's post about the Gotland.

Ana wrote:

They look great! I especially love Haflinger, and Døle! Fabulous work with the resculpting, I wouldn't think of changing this Friesian into this breed but you made it work perfectly! Very nice color choices for them too

For the next one, do you have a Gotland pony already? And/or maybe Jutland draft horse?

Ahhh, thanks! I don't know why the forum search never turned that up, maybe I'm not using it right

I also don't use the forum search to find posts on forum. It is not very efficient. I use Google to search specifically on STS-Forum. So, I am sure you're not doing anything wrong.

I've got a bit behind with posting my customs, better catch up on the rest of what I've painted lately, before I do any more

First, another pony breed, this time one I'm much, much more familiar with - the Exmoor

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've painted a couple of purebred exmoors before, but always a lighter, redder brown, and I really do like this deep dark chocolatey shade they can be, so I decided to go for the darkest I could make it without losing the brownishness!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Exmoors always have the pale highlights, traditionally known as mealy (as in 'had it's face in a bucket of oatmeal' ) but properly termed pangare when we're talking equine colour genetics. It's a really fun colour to paint, with so much contrast to add in - a lot of painters insist you do the lightest colour first and go darker, but I like to start mid way then add the paler shading and the darker over the top of that.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've named him Whirlaway, something to suit their semi-wild lifestyle and temperamental natures - there's a saying that if you can ride an exmoor you can ride anything
I still prefer CollectA's Dartmoor sculpt to their Exmoor, although the windblown mane is nicely done and a nod to their rough natural habitat, the lack of detail in the legs is a bit of a let-down, and I kind of wish they'd released the Exmoor many years ago, back when all the moulds were fine and crisp!

The next two are co-incidentally very, very similar looking horses, despite being genetically different colours, different breeds, from different continents!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

On the left, a Rocky Mountain Horse, and on the right, a Black Forest Horse

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The Black Forest first, here he is again. Their colour does vary, from an average shade of orangey chestnut right through to very nearly black, but always with this bright flaxen mane and tail. This is the reference picture I chose, cos it's got more variety of brown across the coat, which is more interesting to paint than when they're more or less the same all over

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The pose isn't really very typical for the breed, I'm not sure why they went for this rather than a simple standing or walking, but it does give the long mane opportunity to swinging forward into view so that's a good thing!
Schleich have made a couple of Black Forest families, I quite like the first sculpts but every example I ever saw had a terribly badly painted mane with the blonde splashed about across the face and ears as well, so I never bought those, and the second family has the company's rather lapsed attention to anatomical accuracy, so those are out as well.
That leaves only CollectA's in my herd right now, one kept as he was and now a repaint to stand beside him. I'd like to do a Breyer Stablemate custom, but none of the sculpts really feel right for the breed, all the drafters are too blocky and compact. The G2 Clydesdale is the only one I could possibly see working, but I'd need to carve off most of the leg feather and add a big new mane and tail, and while I don't mind filing bits off moulds, I don't think my sculpting is up to rendering the volume and movement the new hair would need!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I wasn't going to give him a face marking, to make him more different to the original finish paintwork, but I managed to smudge his colour off with my thumb while painting the mane in, and covering it with a marking was much easier than trying to match the shading I'd spoilt

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The Rocky Mountain Horse is a gaited breed, American as the name suggests, but don't take it at all literally - they're actually from Kentucky rather than the Rocky Mountains!
This colour is known as 'chocolate' within the breed, genetically it's black with the silver gene, which lightens the coat to brown and gives the blonde mane and tail. So it might look pretty similar to the dark flaxen chestnut, but it's a whole different set of genes causing the colouration - horse colour is complicated
I can't link my exact painting reference for this one, cos it's in a book rather than online, but this is about the nearest I can see from a quick google-search.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I tried to use slightly different paint mixing to make sure she didn't turn out just the same as the Black Forest I'd completed earlier the same evening. The company don't sell a dark brown, I always have to mix it by adding black to brighter red and orange based browns, so I this time I avoided the redder pot of paint entirely and relied on the chocolate and sandy shades, with black to darken them down.
She isn't quite as I was hoping, but cos it was so tricky getting the colour at all, I stopped while it was looking pretty and even and nice-despite-not-being-what-I-aimed-for, rather than risking ruining her with more layers!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The side without the mane isn't as good, some models photograph far better with the neck-side showing but with the graduated fade-out blonde of this breed being one of their key features, I much prefer the photo showing it.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've named her Serenity, mainly cos I started rewatching Firefly the other day and thought it'd be a good horse name, but I gave it to her in particular cos my original CollectA Rocky Mountain mare is Sundowner and her foal is Silhouette, so they match by all being S's!

And finally, one more Stablemate I fished out of the body box and gave the colour I'd had in mind ever since I ordered it - a second Orlov Trotter for my herd

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The first one I painted was a very dark dappled grey, but in researching her I'd seen quite a lot of photos showing older horses, a few years further along in the greying process, with the remains of dapples shading into dark legs. And they looked very striking, so I decided back then that next time I got one of this mould (known as Prince Charming, but actually a mare) that's what it would be set aside for.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I used an off-white base coat, lightly shaded just to give the hints of dark skin showing through to capture that typical faint greyishness which remains even in a white horse, then added all the dappling and leg shading using pencil.
I've tried paint over pencilled dappled to shade the legs before, and it seems to somehow not take properly, like the pencil graphite layer is water-repellent and argues with my water-based paints, so this time I just went with lots and lots of determined scribbling to fill in the legs with the pencil too.
The reason she has white socks on all four feet is so I didn't have to scribble all the way down, it's hard to get proper coverage in the tendon grooves so I image the tricky bits behind the ankle joints would be even more inaccessible!

I've named her Strekoza, which means dragonfly, because my first one is Babochka, or butterfly. If I ever paint up any more of this beed, I'm going to be googling the words for bee or hoverfly or moth, to keep the theme going!

These are lovely repaints to update this topic once again!
I love looking at all your photos and reading all your comments, filled with interesting observations, facts and experiences! It's like reading a really lovely picture book!
I think the Exmoor is my favourite, such beautiful rich shades of browns! I loved the story behind the pale highlights and would also say that my favourite way of working is starting with the mid-tones and and then adding the lighter and darker areas afterwards!

idem!!

Wonderful repaints !

I love them all and some are wonderful looking breeds but my favorite is also the Exmoor, the effect is unbelievable! It is fun that you're using the Russian insects words but I'm not sure all of them will sound like names.

Bonnie wrote:

These are lovely repaints to update this topic once again!
I love looking at all your photos and reading all your comments, filled with interesting observations, facts and experiences! It's like reading a really lovely picture book!
I think the Exmoor is my favourite, such beautiful rich shades of browns! I loved the story behind the pale highlights and would also say that my favourite way of working is starting with the mid-tones and and then adding the lighter and darker areas afterwards!

I went from updating it several times a week, to neglecting it for months - hopefully I'm back to painting a bit more regularly again now

Some breeds I've no first-hand experiences at all, many I've only seen at a distance, or never in person at all, so it's always fun to be able to add in any little relevant stories when they are a breed I know a bit more about.

It's curious just how many of us don't respect the 'rules' of painting yet still manage to create presentable customs we're perfectly happy with - makes me wonder who gets to decide what the rules are in the first place

Caracal wrote:

idem!!

thebritfarmer wrote:

Wonderful repaints !

Thank you both!

Roger wrote:

I love them all and some are wonderful looking breeds but my favorite is also the Exmoor, the effect is unbelievable!  It is fun that you're using the Russian insects words but I'm not sure all of them will sound like names.

Exmoors are great, they have a certain unique look and personality which is all their own. I'd have painted more but there's not many moulds which really suit them!
Getting a word which sounds pleasant and pronounceable to my English-speaking mind is always important, a lot of the time the meanings are appropriate enough but I'd struggle to know how to read them, even in my head, let alone to say out loud! I'm better with Scandinavian and western European languages, there's a certain familiarity through shared origins so the sounds and meanings seem to make sense more easily, but anything further afield needs careful research and selection so I'm able to say the names I choose

Last night, I had a dream about a very particular model. Unlike [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 's recent dream become reality, I can't seek it out and buy it : this dream was about painting! I picked out a pearly blue unicorn on the Breyer Stablemate walking thoroughbred, which is exactly the one I really do have in my body box, and painted it to match this reference photo. And in my dream, it turned out really, really nicely, just like the picture, a very striking little horse with super-flashy markings!
So I think this means I need to make it happen in real life now
I've found a photo of the same horse from the other side, and next task is to cut off the unicorn horn, and carve the mane & tail to match better. And then a very tricky pattern to match, eeek

Ok, the dream-painting has happened in real life now!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The mould looks much better without the unicorn horn, and it's not too bad for the Akhal-Teke breed either. Despite being sculpted as a Thoroughbred, it's very much the extreme end of the long-and-lean variety (many TBs these days are either much more compact and muscular as sprint distances are most popular, or else more chunky and solid-looking if they're jumps-bred to be tough and sound), so it gets away with being re-purposed as a 'Teke without much work. All I did was carve off the mane and forelock, and take a bit of the thickness out of the tail so it's more tapered toward the end.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Something about his attitude also helps capture the Akhal-Teke breed, I've added in a line of eye-white like he's giving us a bit of a wild look

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

None of my lush leafy green backdrops look remotely like the middle-eastern homelands of this breed, so rather than post him in front of something inappropriately British-looking I've used a plain fence which could be anywhere, hah

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out the name of the real horse which inspired him, so I've picked a name myself and called him Menekli, which means 'spotted' or 'colourful' depending on which Turkmen translator I run it through - either way is very fitting for his wild splashy pattern!

I think I'd like to paint more of this mould in Akhal-Teke coat colours, there's nothing else in the Stablemate range which would be a better fit, and I doubt there will be unless they ever decide to shrink down the large scale Altynai/Adamek sculpt to mini size!
So I'm plotting this one in perlino, and golden palomino, and metallic sooty buckskin, whenever I eventually get my hands on more, of course! At the moment they're only available as unicorns in painting kits, in horse/unicorn family sets, or annoyingly in those lucky-dip blind bags where you've far more chance of getting a different mould, so it's a case of fingers crossed for a normal 'single' release at some point soon, so they're easier to stock up on for the body box!

Wonderful Akhal-Teke! I love the way the white looks rather random, rather wild on the horse. Going back a few posts, the like the dapples on the Orlov Trotter a lot, your pencil works magically. And the Exmoor, Black Forest horse and Rocky Mountain horse are very beautiful too. How strange to call a horse from Kentucky a Rocky Mountain horse.

It means we need some talent and put some effort to make our dreams come true.
That's a very beautiful model, it is hard to believe it was a unicorn before.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Wonderful Akhal-Teke! I love the way the white looks rather random, rather wild on the horse. Going back a few posts, the like the dapples on the Orlov Trotter a lot, your pencil works magically. And the Exmoor, Black Forest horse and Rocky Mountain horse are very beautiful too. How strange to call a horse from Kentucky a Rocky Mountain horse.

Yeah, it's a fantastic pattern, so splashy and jagged! No wonder my subconscious mind latched on to it and wanted to make it happen as a model

The pencil really is a faster and easier way to work, it's so quick and stress-free compared to trying to detail in all those little circles with a fine paintbrush.

I've never read a reason why the name doesn't match the real origin for the Rocky Mountain, only lots of mentions that it's not from where it sounds like it should be

Roger wrote:

It means we need some talent and put some effort to make our dreams come true.
That's a very beautiful model, it is hard to believe it was a unicorn before.

I think that's one of the things I like most about being a custom-painter, I can create whatever I think up - usually I am awake when ploitting colours, but I'll take dreamt ones when they're such pretty references to work from!

Luckily the plastic is quite soft, so it's pretty easy to carve away the horn with no trace of it having been there.

On to the next repaints!
Yesterday I had a parcel of Stablemates, many were intended to be kept as they are for my collection, but I also added in a few extra in moulds I wanted to paint as different breeds or colours.

As I said in the Additions thread under the one I'm keeping, the Django mould was sculpted as a Friesian, in fact it's alternative name is the Standing Friesian. But Breyer have been selling him in lots of incorrect colours for that breed - so far we've had just one regular run (if you can call that dratted blind bag system a 'regular' run when you can't decide which model you're getting), a spotted dun. There's also been a pinto and a palomino as club-member-only exclusives, a Breyerfest grey, a bay only sold in US Walmart shops, and a couple of clear/metallic decorator colours.
So we've had the mould since 2016, and they still haven't released it in black

I got fed up waiting for them to get round it, and painted my own black one

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Black might sound like a really easy colour to paint, and it's certainly easier than fiddly colours like roany appaloosas or intricate pintos, but it's getting some sort of depth and warmth to it which is the tricky part. I used some chocolate brown in the mix for the belly and flanks, and a hint of beigey grey dotted into the black paint to give the face some shading where the skin would show.
The main body of the horse is polished with a bit of fleece to give the paint finish a natural shine, then the mane and tail I gave a coat of varnish followed by a very thin wash of dilute black just to take the edge off the gloss and soften it slightly. The hooves have two coats of clear nail varnish to capture the look of blacked and oiled hooves, the traditional turnout fashion for Friesians.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This angle shows the brilliant upright alert posture, so typical of the breed. I do like Breyer's trotting Friesian mould, but I prefer this one - the proprtions and pose are perfect, the head is more detailed, and the sculpting style is more my taste too.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've named him Adarik, cos my G2 Friesian is Alaric and matching names do amuse me

Next, my first ever custom on this mould, and my first ever custom of this breed...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Introducing Harecroft Shakespeare, the Cleveland Bay.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This mould was sculpted as an Irish Draft (again, we haven't had a regular run in any right colour for the breed - only a spotted one!) but ever since it was first announced, I thought it would be perfect for a Cleveland Bay. The roman nose, the chunky legs, the big deep rounded body, and the kind placid look of him.
Bay is a fairly straightforward colour to paint, I went for a dark shade with less of the pale highlights than I'd usually put on, this one has more reddish undertones but all toned down with plenty of black. The only issue I had was the spots from the factory paintwork - being slightly thick they showed through my experimental first layer of paint, so I had to scratch them all off with a scalpel blade and start again on a smoothed surface!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

At some point I might do another Cleveland in a lighter bay, they do come in many varied shades despite being a single-colour breed, but this was the colour of the one I rode in lessons for a little while, so it's how I always think of them.

She was an ex hunter and rather difficult for a riding school, leapt everything as though it was a five foot wide hedge, which took some getting used to, as a lightweight kid who'd only ever jumped low heights with ponies and cobs! I also took her to a gymkhana once and got scolded for 'bombing about on that great big horse' cos I had very little control and she was enjoying herself a bit too much. But we came home with a string of five rosettes (which I still have, with her name written on the back), so we did ok despite me being little more than a passenger
I credit many different horses with teaching me different aspects of horsemanship and riding over the years - she was the one who taught me the art of pretending I really did want to go that fast

Great to see the Friesian as a real Friesian. Yes, I imagine black is very difficult. With the factory-produced black Stablemates, it is very difficult to see the details of the sculpt, they are just too black and too smooth. Your repaint gives it more texture and adds a little bit of colour so we can appreciate the sculpt better. The Cleveland Bay looks great too!

Yeah, it's somehow satisfying to see the mould being what it's meant to be, instead of all these other random colours! What's the betting Breyer release a black one next year now I've given up waiting

I think the jet-black solid colour is pretty lazy of them, it's always disappointing when they do yet another of those flat paintjobs. And black doesn't have to be basic unshaded semi-gloss with faded out socks, we know they can give their factory-painted black Stablemates a hint of colour or nicer detailing, so when they don't it comes across as cutting corners to make things cheaper. Let me see what I've got...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A Friesian who manages to be black and shiny without being plain, this was the single regular run (the one from the four-pack was a flat and glossier black)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Black with a little warmth in it, combined with his masked white markings it looks like they put more effort in here.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Another really good combination of a shaded black with great markings. This was a limited edition (but at regular run price, not a fancy expensive one) so maybe they're more willing to do fiddly hoof stripes when they don't have to make as many thousands of them

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

An everyday regular run carded Stablemate from a couple of years ago, the black is actually very dark brown on the body, so by spraying it thinner they get good shading, then the legs, mane, and tail are jet black.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Less brown but they've still got a shaded effect by applying the paint thinner on the flanks for the same gentle grey shading I used on my custom. Wish they'd masked the socks, but it seems that's too much effort/expense for regular run Stablemates these days, the paintjobs are getting lazier and we never get a crisp edge unless it's part of a pinto pattern.

Wow, so many new customs! All beautiful as ever!

I love the silver bay/sorrel comparison horses. My mother always wanted a Rocky mountain horse, they're really beautiful, and yours is an accurate representation of that. Such lovely soft dappling. :)

Absolutely love that you painted the dream horse into reality. It came out fabulous! I love that mold and really wish it were regularly available as a normal horse.

Really impressed with the black Django - as you said, it's not easy making black look real and alive and interesting, it's a very cheated-on color. He looks so dapper and sharp in his correct color!

Jill wrote:

Absolutely love that you painted the dream horse into reality. It came out fabulous! I love that mold and really wish it were regularly available as a normal horse.

Really impressed with the black Django - as you said, it's not easy making black look real and alive and interesting, it's a very cheated-on color. He looks so dapper and sharp in his correct color!

I wish I could dream more colour ideas, it was such an amusing feeling to be physically working on something I'd already been through 'painting' in my mind once already!

And yes, he does look great in black! I hope Breyer do release one eventually, I wonder if they're saving it for a single carded release in some future batch (along with the Lipizzaner sculpt which they keep doing in other colours but not white-grey yet - I'm hoping to see one that colour as the first single regular run on the mould, too)