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

Jill wrote:

I am very behind on seeing your customs, all of which are the same excellent quality as always, but I want to especially congratulate you on that resin! She is absolutely stunning, both as a sculpt and the paint you gave her. What a beautiful rich bay and such cool markings. I also like that she is an established character. I follow a lot of people on DeviantArt who did competitive roleplay art for horses (HRPG), and the art if often incredible! Did you participate on that platform? The digital paintings are just as excellent as the model painting. The multiple horse scenes with humans and backgrounds - holy smokes, that are so difficult and time consuming and intimidating. You're such a talented artist, I'm so glad you share these with us.

Thanks so much!
I like making up inventive but plausible markings, usually I'm doing that for custom models but the same applies to the ones I invented as drawings long before the idea of painting them in 3D came along, doing the designs for new horse 'characters' was always one of the most enjoyable bits for me.

I used to be kind of on the outskirts of the HRPG thing - never got involved properly, but had loads of online model horsey friends who did, so I remember reading their entries and looking at the art. But like I said, with my horses all being from a historical setting, I couldn't very well send them along to these virtual events which were all modern day horse sports or shows which were taking place long after my entire cast would have been dead and gone, hah! So they were never roleplayed or competitive, just shared with friends - I mostly drew them for the enjoyment of it, and to provide illustration for my written stuff (which never did get compiled into a readable chronological story which pulled all the characters together by the end, it's just chapters and scenes, and a whole lot of fully formed ideas and characters who live on in my head, hahah)

They really were time consuming, yeah! It could take me a week to finish one if it was a big scene with multiple horses, and a whole new background rather than the cheat of editing a previous background into a different season and weather, hah It's several years since I stopped drawing them though, my creativity seems to fluctuate from one form to another, and if I'm painting I can't be writing, if I'm making miniatures I can't be writing, and so on. Like there's only so much to flow and I divert it to whatever form I feel like I can tackle at any one time.

I've now got a couple of new customs to share, after a few weeks down time while winter got the better of me.

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Another attempt at sooty buckskin, and he's better than my last one (ok, a lot lot better - that one had to be repainted over twice to salvage the mess, and even then only looked decent on one side!) so I'm much more satisfied with the results. But it does remain the most challenging colour and I haven't yet discovered the secret of making it easy or at all fun, so I don't think I'll be trying again, I just hate painting sooty buckskin and that's fine cos there's so many other colours I can pick instead

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Like roan! I actually enjoy roans

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This one's a black roan but with a hint of brown in the paint mix, like the horse's base coat colour is sun-fading black rather than jet black. Just for the variety of not painting another one too similar to what I've done before, not inspired by any real horse. I didn't even check if Connemaras can be roan before painting her, but I looked it up afterwards and yes they can, so I don't need to pick a different breed!

Stunning! Curious what makes sooty buckskin so difficult? I mean, all your repaints look difficult to me, but always beautiful.

.. to me too!

I believe what turns a sooty buckskin difficult to paint is the sooty.
I mean, the smokier base color with a glow on it. Actually, these effects seen to be contradictory and certainly hard to get. Fortunately, it is so easy to me to find your paintings always very pleasing and realistic!

Yes, it's the fact the colour has to go darker in the shading, but you can't just add black paint to the mix to darken it. Golden tan plus black makes a muddy greyish colour, or even gives greenish tone to it, which then doesn't look at all good when you apply it over the brighter base coat. So the more you try to darken your colour to give that natural variation across the coat, the worse mess you make. Adding brown instead wouldn't work, mainly because the company's choice of brown paints are limited : either very very reddish (which gives you a horse with ginger shading, not blacker!), or the pale shade like milk chocolate (which gives you a different variation of mud-coloured than the black paint would, but still mud)

So the only way I can do it (using liquid paints and hand brushes, cos I don't do pastelling or pigments or airbrush spraying) is to paint a nice warm bright buckskin base coat, and then add the sooty shading over the top once it's dry. A tiny amount on a fat silky-bristled firm brush, smudged against the back of my hand first to smush out any possibility of brush strokes by evening the paint deep into the bristles, then smudged onto the horse. Just the right amount of pressure to get an even coverage without gaps, but also not too much so it goes too black too quickly. And not in any way patchy or streaky, even though I have to keep stopping to put a bit more paint on the brush otherwise it leaves too little behind on the surface, but too much and you get a darker blotch rather than a pale one. Building up layers of this hardly-there dry brushed shading, so the legs for example are blacker than the shoulders, and the sooty deepens on the neck line and the curve of the bum.
Any slight roughness in the earlier paint layers will pick the black paint off the brush more readily, meaning it has to be a super-smooth application all the way through, with no room for the slightest texture or flaw cos those will be highlighted with black specks and streaks.

So yes, it's hard because it's practically difficult to get the colour I want from the paints available, and physically difficult to apply the shading well. Some other colours are hard to match or tricky to do, but this one seems to be a perfect combination of two weaknesses in my painting so it remains the sort of colour I find stressful and ought to avoid

The more I read you, the more I like Pandas and Malayan tapirs

Getting shades is sometimes a real nightmare with brush painting, sometimes it hurt me because the terrible thing is that the mind sees exactly what it wants to achieve, alas the hand and the brush have declared independence.

I really admire what you do, not just for the result but for the bravery you show.

When you describe it, it does sound complicated. Mixing paints to achieve a specific colour; even with my limited painting experience, I discovered that this is very difficult.

If George painted pandas and Malayan tapirs, I am sure he would give them beautiful, complex shading too .

George, it sounds extremely complex to me.
Christophe, I'm sure George would never paint a traditional giant panda but I'm sure he could do a fantastic job painting a Qinling panda.

Your description of why sooty buckskin is so hard makes sense, but I would never have guessed you struggled with it based on the custom itself, which looks excellent. I've only ever done a sooty buckskin digitally, where you have unlimited palette and layers, which makes it much easier.

Both of these customs are lovely! It's so interesting to hear what part of the process is easier or harder for you, and then to see them both come out beautiful.

Beautiful customs!! Love the details on these minis!!

This episode of 'Tales from the Body Box' features a horse who's been in that not-quite-literally-a-box storage space for a very, very long time!

My Stablemate bodies are kept in an actual cardboard box, but the few big models I bought while under the impression I'd ever dare handle painting something massive, are hidden behind the tv. Not quite as strange as it sounds - my tv isn't one of those modern ones which hang on a wall, it has to stand on a little unit of it's own, and cos I've got it pushed diagonally into the corner of the room, there's a triangular bit of dead space back there, for the wires, and the daddylonglegs spiders, and the dust, and the horses I'm putting off even THINKING about maybe painting one day

Most of them have been in there for over a decade, that's how much I procrastinate when it comes to painting big models. I'm not quite sure which year I bought the horse in question, but he was released in 2002, and I checked out old photos and I definitely already had him in 2006
He was a duplicate in my collection, a Peter Stone mid year release called Romi-o, bought extremely cheap as a damaged 'second' in the sale with a snapped-off bow from his mane, some serious paint scuffing on his rump and shoulder, as well as rubs to his ears and nostrils : one very beaten-up looking horse, who had been a lovely colour but wasn't nice enough to keep Original Finish any more.
And because I already had one of him (and the matching mare Juliet), I had a plan in mind for this boy - rather than just attempting invisible fixes to fill in the paint loss and replace the broken bow. Instead, I'd give him new white markings, extended and elaborated from the original shapes to cover every little scuff and scratch, and take off all the rest of the plastic bows to give him more realistic little ribbon ones instead. With a new sculpted tail, he could even return to his breeds' roots and become a Scottish Clydesdale rather than an American one (tail docking has been illegal in Britain since the 1920s).
Only it never happened.
All that time passed, and the poor horse sat behind the tv, gathering a coating of dust, mostly forgotten apart from the occasional times I'd remember I used to buy big horses and then not feel up to painting them

Last week, I happened to lean over the tv to wriggle a wire cos the signal was being weird, and saw this horse again. Ok, he was still as big as I remembered, and I'm still not any good at painting wide expanses of smooth plastic with my little brushes and sticky paint and shaky hands, but... that one doesn't need much painting? Just the white, right? So I picked him up, wiped off all the dust and bits of dead fly, and had a look at him. Sure, I'd forgotten about the ear rubs, but those were even easier than the markings, cos it's just running a line of black along the edges. And it wouldn't take too long to cut off the old bows, and give him that new tail I'd thought of at the time. Then, at least, there'd be ONE less horse in waiting behind the tv, and I'd feel like I'd worked a little bit on this ongoing problem of not being able to deal with the big models back there

Stupidly, I forgot all about taking a 'before' photo, but here's one from the internet!

And here he is, after his little bit of of a makeover!

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All the body colour paint is original, I didn't even try to alter or restore it - every bit of damage on him is hidden with the white markings, the the hair-by-hair ticking, the new pink and grey skin of the muzzle, and the little bit of black on the edges of his ears. It as that lovely rich and dappled bay colour which made me buy him in the first place, knowing I'd be keeping that no matter what else I did around it :)

He looked a bit weird with his mane and tail all plaited up, trotting along, but with no halter or bridle on - a horse would only have the braid and flights done for showing, and he'd always have tack on at the same time, so I decided I just HAD to make him a bridle too. I had a look back through some pictures of the Clydesdale classes at a local heavy horse show I went to last month, to make sure I was getting it correct and within the turnout rules. Geldings all wear a bridle with a bit, it doesn't always have a noseband but often does just cos that's a good place to put more decoration in the form of metal bosses, studs, or coloured patent leather to match the owner's colours seen in the mane bows and tail braid. The cheeks also have this little inset of co-ordinated colour, and many of the browbands too. So I got out my fake leather and some glossy red card from a biscuit box, and then he was all dressed up for the show ring, and not looking like he'd somehow got loose and run away without his halter on

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The bridle in closeup - I might replace the gold paint on the buckle keepers with actual gold foil strips, once I've got hold of some stickier superglue - the one I was using was awful and everything fell apart and had to be re-stuck multiple times

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And here's a full view!

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The back view, showing the new tail. It might look odd, but this is how their tails are treated for showing (which is itself linked back to the working days, when a flowing loose tail would be a risk for getting caught up in harness or machinery). The lower two thirds are clipped to remove the long hair, leaving just the fleshy tail with a spiky stubble, while the upper third is left to grow long, braided, rolled back on itself, then secured with ribbons, like a little bun. When the horse isn't in the show ring, the tail then has enough hair to hang down and look normal, working naturally as a fly whisk and to be used in normal body language when interacting with other horses. Much better than docking!

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Another angle, I'm really happy with how his new face marking came out, especially the pinking of the nose with little uneven patches of dark colour to give him some individuality.

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I haven't named him yet but I'm really pleased to have finally got him completed, after all this time leaving him waiting. I did think 'Patience' would be a good name for that reason, but it sounds more like a mare, so I need to have a rethink. Just mustn't make him wait quite so long for his name as for his paint

well done George. I love the pinky black nose! looks so real to me. And the shiny pale hooves are lovely.

How about Tolerance??

The tail looks very Korean/Japanese in the way you have done it, with the bun at the top and the red off to the side, like a designated offering :) I really like it!

Thanks for all this amazing insight into the world of these horses, regards their tails, and all the things that happen to them! I had no idea.
The strange little flags above his mane are interesting. Did you make these for him?
and well done on the bridle by the way, that would be finicky to make?

Wow, he's gorgeous! So many different talents on display here, both the painting and the tack creation. The details in both the markings and the bridle and ribbons are wonderfully done. It's so creative to use something like a biscuit box for the red and also very skillful to keep it from looking like you did. Everything looks wonderful and very realistic and detailed. I love the individuality of his face markings, as you said, and the ticking on his flanks.

I'm glad he finally got to come out from behind the television. Well worth the wait, I think.

O.m.G!!

That was definitely worth the wait behind the TV! The head and bridle are amazing. Indeed, the nose looks very realistic, you have managed to paint it in such a convincing way that it looks truly soft. I hope you'll paint some more horses from behind your TV.

What a beautiful horse and a very successful remake! I love the new markings and bows and tail. Great improvement over the original. The body color looks very well matched with the markings and details.  Wonderful work!

I'm also super impressed with the bridle

sunny wrote:

The strange little flags above his mane are interesting. Did you make these for him?
and well done on the bridle by the way, that would be finicky to make?

Yes, they're made with coloured paper, and thin wire. They're called 'flights' in the UK, and 'bobs' in the US - ours were always this slightly different style too, shaped like a V with a different colour in the middle, but over the last couple of decades a lot more people are adopting the American ones. As younger judges have taken over from the older generation, it seems standing out and looking flashy has become more important than being traditional and doing things the way they always were done

The bridle was VERY fiddly, it would've been easier if my glue was better but they must've changed the formula since last time I bought that brand cos it took several applications and a lot of holding pieces together with pliers, rather than just touch them together and they're stuck firm. I'll buy the other brand next time!

Jill wrote:

Wow, he's gorgeous! So many different talents on display here, both the painting and the tack creation. The details in both the markings and the bridle and ribbons are wonderfully done. It's so creative to use something like a biscuit box for the red and also very skillful to keep it from looking like you did.

It was interesting working with him as an entire project, tack and all, normally I only do the painting part but every now and then there's a model which doesn't look right or finished til it's got at least a halter or bridle on! I'm quite fond of recycling biscuit packaging, my household cavalry horse's drums have teacake box card covered with the foil wrappers from the same teacakes, and my chicken houses are choc chip biscuit boxes clad in fake wood made from, you guessed it, other choc chip biscuit boxes

rogerpgvg wrote:

I hope you'll paint some more horses from behind your TV.

I have! I'll post her in my next reply, a much smaller model but might've been there almost as long (admittedly I can't remember buying this one )

Ana wrote:

What a beautiful horse and a very successful remake! I love the new markings and bows and tail. Great improvement over the original. The body color looks very well matched with the markings and details.  Wonderful work!

I'm also super impressed with the bridle

Thanks very much! I think it helps that his OF bay was so nice, with lots of shading and the dapples too, some of the early regular run Stones were a very bland bay but his had a lot more effort put in. All the drafters will want a turn with the bridle for their photos now

I thought I better catch up on some customs done over the last couple of months, I've been better at painting than getting them posted on the forum!

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I haven't ended up with many of this Peruvian Paso mould to repaint in the years since it was released, at least not til the 'Handful of Horses' blind bag series came along, and now suddenly I had two at once! So I consulted my horse books and Google, and found that chestnut is one of the commonest colours by far, so that's what I painted. I decided to go for a very dark shade for a change, cos I seem to have done a lot of light chestnuts when making my racehorse portraits, so with this one not having to look like any one real horse, I was free to choose a completely different end of the spectrum chestnuts can be!

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I've named him Cascabel, picked from a real Paso's pedigree to make sure it's the sort of name a horse really would be given in Peru!

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This one was a bit more experimental, I originally set out to make him a custom of one of the Balearic breeds, either Mallorcan or Minorcan, which are typically black, leaner-limbed than the mainland Iberian breeds, with a narrow roman nose, and much shorter mane and tail. his mould seemed the best match for the physique, and the mane was easy to trim' down by carving the end into the curve of the neck. Because I'd already painted an almost-black Andalusian on the same mould, I decided the best way to make him look more different was to add the ribbon decorations which are added to the horses' manes for showing, parades, and special occasions. It was only afterwards that I realised the Balearic breeds seem to have slightly different turnout traditions, and their decorative ribbons are attached as separate rosettes, not one long running line of loops. So I've accidentally done a custom of one breed, but dressed it as another!
I'm undecided on the best course of action here, just accept that he's an Andalusian after all, or peel off the wrong ribbon and dress him with a different set of ribbons arranged the correct way so he can stay Mallorcan/Minorcan. Either way, his name would be in Spanish, so I called him Fiesta and will figure out what to do about his breed later on

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This one's a much easier breed allocation - I set out to paint a palomino Welsh Cob cos I realised I didn't have one, and now I have a palomino Welsh Cob, so that's just what I wanted to happen I've named him Gold Star.

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I think the G3 Friesian makes quite a good cob, even though in real life Friesians are much leggier-looking and longer in the back than a Welsh Cob, the model here is a little chunky in the leg (this sculptor has a tendancy to give all her Stablemates thicker solid limbs, even on light breeds), so it's perfect for having a change of nationality! And the flying Friesian trot also works well as the notoriously fast and floaty Welsh trot (hard to keep up with on foot, but a delight to ride!)

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Another model which had me reaching for my breed books, I've already painted two of this mould as grey Orlov Trotters, but wondered if any of the other trotter breeds from around the world would make a nice alternative so I didn't just keep doing the exact same thing with them, only varying the amount of dappling I settled on the French Trotter as both a good match, and also an interesting breed to add to my collection. Chestnut is a common colour for them, and the breed example in one of my books was this gorgeous bright shade with a metallic sheen, so I decided to copy him.

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I picked the name Gericault, purely cos I heard someone say it on an art documentary I had on in the background while painting, and it seemed as good a name as any!

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Down a scale now, for a Mini Whinnies model, the smallest size I paint at the moment. I got a mixed lot of bodies (someone selling their duplicates from blind bags, there were multiples of many of them!), and this one I thought would make a nice Akhal-Teke, a little bit too much mane but the rest of him is fine!

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I used a lot more of the gold paint than usual, brushed on in light layers over the top of a matte basecoat til he looked about as shiny as I thought I could take him without starting to look decorator-ish I named him Guneshli, which I need to check the meaning of cos I can't remember what it means now

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My first custom on this mould, I've been wanting to get one for years but somehow they never came my way in body batches til now. And I'd already had the idea for what I'd paint when I did get one - a Sorraia :)

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Trying to get the light to show his colour better, my first custom of this breed (on the CollectA Lusitano mould) was a very dark greyish grulla so I wanted to go the opposite way this time and paint a lighter one with a much browner tone to it. I haven't named him yet, but I'm pleased with how he turned out.

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And the final one for now, I found one of these little Highlands I didn't know I had left, and rather than paint her as yet another of her own breed (I have a LOT of Highlands from that time I set out to paint every possible shade and genetic combination of dun in the breed, hahah ), I did a bit of researching what other small chunky ponies there were with a bit of heel feather and a lot of mane. And the main candidate seemed to be the Kerry Bog Pony, so that's what she became!

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They can be a lot of colours but because I was avoiding any of the ones I'd painted on this mould already, she ended up being the most common colour of all, bay! But I don't mind, cos I do love painting bays, and they can vary so much from gingery with a black trim, to deep mahogany brown with darker shading, so they never get boring. Again, no name yet, apart from the unflattering nickname of Bog which might end up sticking if I don't hurry up and choose her something nicer

That's it for now - I'll try to keep up posting a bit more in future, so the next customs don't arrive as a herd all at once

Great colours, I think you have chosen all my favourite colours. Beautiful repaints again. The Sorraia is my favourite this time. It sounds like Fiesta has chosen to be an Andalusian. And useful to know that the Friesian can also be used as a Welsh cob when it isn't black. I may collect one or two more of these "Friesians".

How funny that I painted your favourite colours all in one batch! I've been wanting to paint a Stablemate Sorraia for such a long time, it's really satisfying to have finally got there

One more little one to add, cos I painted it just after the previous post here so it got missed out of that batch!

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Another of the Mini Whinnies body batch I got cheap, they're such tiny little models but I don't find them too small to paint, just have to find a small enough brush! These more recent moulds are a lot more precise and realistic than the early ones, most of the newer horses are shrunken-down versions of larger models, so their proportions and poses tend to be a lot better, even if some of the detail is lost in the miniaturisation process. And I even managed to give this one tiny thread braids, just like I do for my Stablemate scale Saddlebreds.

Daddylonglegs spiders, and dust? It sounds like a very romantic corner.
Everything is beautiful as usual but it is great to see a Sorraia amongst your creations.

Wonderful work, you make the mini whinnies so detailed I always think they are stablemates at first. The threads braids are a perfect touch! I grow more tempted all the time to start collecting those little guys. Seeing them up close makes them even more tempting (even though their original paint work is not nearly so effective. )

The Sorraia is definitely a gem, beautiful work on that color. It looks so soft and well blended with so much shading detail on the face. And the liver chestnut tone is wonderful, that's a much nicer color than either of my examples on the mold!

As I said on my General Additions thread ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], about four posts down), I recently ended up with a big box of second hand CollectA models, the cost of each duplicate to repaint being entirely absorbed by the total value of the models I'm keeping as they are - effectively these are free 'bodies' for my customising hobby!

Here's the first few breeds I've given their new lease of life as unique custom repaints

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The lovely little Campolina sculpt, it's so nice to have a rare breed so well-represented, and this handsome horse is the third of his breed to join my herd, after the original finish red dun, and my grulla repaint. This time I went for a different shade, a bay dun, with heavy primitive markings just like some of the best-know reference pics of this Brazilian breed. I'm really happy with how he turned out, I always find the paler colours more difficult to get looking really good, but I think the amount of darker detailing on this one stops him from being too washed-out and bland. I've named him Caldeirão, which taken literally means 'cauldron' but actually refers to a volcano's crater!

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A second Brazilian breed (I didn't do this on purpose! ), and it's the Mangalarga Marchador now in chestnut. In fact, I've named this one Castanhiero, which means 'chestnut'!

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I copied his deep shade somewhere between red and liver from the reference photo in one of my horse breed books, his high white socks and quirky face marking are inspired by that one too - not a direct portrait, but I really liked the way the rich colour combined with so much white detail.

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The shetland pony is also a sort of semi-portrait idea - my own shetland's father was written down as cremello on his pedigree, and though I've never managed to find any photos of him online, I decided to paint one of my CollectA ponies to match roughly like he would have looked. She doesn't have any white socks, and just a tiny few-hairs white marking on her forehead, so I went with the same for this mini model of her sire. His name is Snap Dragon, after the real pony I never met.

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Another notoriously cute pony breed, the Chincoteague, a hardy native island pony with a tough nature and a sweet face! Though they do come in solid colours too, pinto is common - and the best-known pattern for the breed, after the much-loved Misty of Chincoteague came to fame. I decided to go for a buckskin pinto, just cos it's one of the colours I paint least often - again, I often struggle with giving the light yellowy brown enough depth, and getting the contrasting dark paints applied evenly enough to not look messy. This time I bypassed a lot of that trouble by having the legs be white rather than black!

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One of my favourite CollectA moulds for her simple expressive calm - the twitched back ear, the passive face, the steady still pose. The Don was famously the horse of the Cossacks, and a huge influence on a lot of breeds from Central Asia into Eastern Europe. While chestnut might not be too far from the original finish paintwork of this model, I really wanted to have a go at my own version of this typical colour for the breed. Mine's turned out a lot more muted, tending toward brownish rather than orange, and I've gone a bit lightly with the metallic sheen - it's there, but I didn't want the gold to overwhelm the paint itself!

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And finally, for now, the Nonius sculpt repainted as a Kabardin, an ancient breed from the Caucasus. Why the change? All Nonius horses are black, and I already had the black original finish model, and it's not a colour I could really add much variation to - not like my new chestnut Don being different enough to my other chestnut Don
So I got out my breed books and hunted through for one which made the best match to CollectA's Nonius mould, with his sloping hindquarters, slim shoulders, and lonnng convex profile - and this was it! The example in the photos had a particularly nice pale nose, too, which settled it - I do love a mealy muzzle on a very dark bay!

Batch two from the Big CollectA Body Box!

Much like with the Nonius-to-Kabardin custom introduced above, I picked the CollectA Friesian from the box of duplicates to repaint, and thought 'now what am I going to do with you?'. My existing one in original finish is already a well-painted black, with some nice warm tones in his paint and a sleek semi-glossy finish, so if I painted a black custom it wouldn't really be that much different to the one I already had, only in the eyes and feet would I be able to show any more detail. And the breed is almost entirely black.
So, any other breeds it looks like? Not with that body type and that much feathering, combined with the typical upright pose - it's pretty much only Friesians which have the exact same outline as Friesians
Then I had an idea which solved this dilemma - the breed is almost entirely black, but not 100%. Purebred chestnuts exist! Sadly they're deeply unpopular in the show ring, and chestnut stallions can't be approved as breeding studs. The vast majority of breeders from the post-war period onwards have been trying to eliminate them in preference for all black, and these days they're all DNA tested - any stallion which even carries the red gene (despite being black!) cannot be registered with the international breed society either.
We may well end up losing the red gene from all continuing stallion lines in future - except in the USA, where a second spin-off unaffiliated breed association allows chestnuts. So I've painted a specifically American chestnut Friesian, to create a little model character who can be appreciated for what he is, and not treated like a rule-break or a mistake

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I think the mould looks great in a different colour to usual, the lighter paint brings out a lot of the sculpting detail which is hidden in a plain black. CollectAs always have such beautifully expressive faces, too!

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He looks like he's a bit of a lively one, on full alert and ready to spring into action!

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I still have one more duplicate Friesian to paint, so I'm going to have to think even harder to come up with another colour, or a different breed he could switch to be instead! May have to go partbred in the end...

Here's another pony who changed breeds significantly! To me, the Haflinger sculpt never really looked like the breed she was designed as, too light in the body, too long and lean in the leg - more like a lightweight riding pony cross, than the mini-draft build of the true Haflingers which are like big chunky barrels of blonde pony But the head is too large and long for a really refined show pony type, so I spent ages sifting through all my various horse books to try to find something which has both the small elegant build, and the larger head.
Eventually settled on Indonesia, and the similar Java and Sandalwood ponies, which seemed ato be the closest match - they look small and pretty, with the heavy head being noted as a negative 'flaw' in the text description. The Sandalwood seems to be a little bit finer in the leg, a couple of books mention imported Arabians and small Thoroughbreds being used in the colonial era to refine them and make them more a riding-pony type, than a practical tough working animal - the Java is still truer to old type.
One of the Sandalwood pony photos showed a very-speckled fleabitten grey, and I decided that was the one I'd copy for my first repaint of this breed - I actually found the exact same photo online, though it's very tiny : here

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And here's my model version! Not a colour I've painted very often, even though my first real-life horse was a speckly grey, it's very fiddly at this scale where using the toothbrush-paint-spatter technique wouldn't look quite so good as it does at Stablemate scale - on a horse this big, the specks look better if they're slightly elongated to follow the direction of the hair. I used a combination of two methods this time, firstly a lot of little paint strokes applied with a tiny brush, then over the top of that I added more detail (and more darkness to the most heavily speckled areas) with a normal writing pencil. I think it's quite effective, she looks as speckly as the reference picture!

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Another angle, which doesn't flatter the proportions of head to body in the slightest, but shows her face well! I do have one other Haflinger body, not from this boxful but from an earlier purchase of play-worn models which needed a new lease of life, so I think she'll be getting a friend of the same breed at some point soon - they come in plenty of colours!

The final one for this batch, and yet again, this was the result of flipping through several different breed books to pick a best-match to a model I didn't really want to repaint as it's original all-one-colour breed This time was the American Cream Draft, a sculpt with a hefty neck, long back, chunky leg, and not a lot of feather, so I looked through the pages til one jumped out as a good likeness - the Muraközi. A draft breed from Hungary, they're mostly black and grey but the example in one of my books was such a stunning dappled chestnut that I knew that was the colour I wanted to paint!

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Here he is, I'm really pleased with how he turned out - the dappling was a bit nerve-wracking to paint cos there's always the feeling that I'm potentially ruining a paintjob which was working out fine and would've been best left well alone without the dapples, but they were worth the scary stage cos they look nice in the end!

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It's always satisfying to make a brand new breed page on my website and expand my collection's range, but I think researching and painting them myself is even more fun than just buying one!

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And here he is with his book self, so you can see the beautiful photo which inspired my breed choice!