General Additions thread - Catching up on all I missed, pt1

Wonderful model and restoration!!

I love when special figures are restored respectfully like this wonderful Mustang.

Nice find, I'm glad you were able to get him at a good price and restore him. I would never have known certainly based on your pictures, he looks immaculate! How large is that mold, is it a true traditional scale?

The little gray morgan is a mold I am not familiar with, what a delightful little guy. :)

Yeah, I'd say he's true to scale - probably would be a little smaller than an average Traditional mould if he was standing on all four feet, but mustangs are generally a smaller breed, so it fits. I've compared him to the few moulds I've got in the room with me (because there's no space to put them away yet ) and he scales just right when stood against a Saddlebred, Winx the TB, a warmblood, and the grey pony.

Ok, thank you!

I seem to be gaining about one Traditional (1:9) scale model every month lately, they've all been second hand older ones from Ebay to make up for the fact the UK still doesn't have the 2022 models

This month's introduction is the 2019 Breyerfest Celebration Horse.

For those of you who don't know Breyer well, each July for the last thirty-something years they've held a big themed event in Kentucky, with model shows and contests, raffles and auctions and sales rooms, real horse guest performances, hobby clinics and talks, and special run model horses. Most of these models you have to pay for (often they're quite expensive) but the entry ticket includes being given one free model to take home, known as the Celebration Horse.
A lot of people who go will then sell on their free horse afterwards - maybe it's not a breed they care about, or a mould they like, or it's just the wrong scale to keep for their collection. So those of us who can't possibly afford to actually take part in Breyerfest, can often get a chance to get hold of these special runs on the second-hand market afterwards - I've been lucky enough to catch quite a few over the years.
Some pop up more often than others - in a year where the mould/colour combination's not been very popular with fans, you'll naturally find a lot more of them being sold on! 2019's must have been a much-loved edition, very few have yet made their way to UK Ebay.

Here he is!

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His official name is Oliver, and he's a portrait of a real horse with a long connection to Breyerfest - he's one of the mounted police horses who lives and works at Kentucky Horse Park, where it's held every year. So a lot of people who've been to the event will have seen or met the real Oliver, making him a very popular choice for the Celebration model. He's also a really big handsome chunk of a horse, a Shire cross with big bold markings which must make him very eyecatching when he's on duty.

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This mould was sculpted as a Cleveland Bay, a hefty carriage horse breed from northern England, but has been released as other breeds too, from Irish Drafts to heavy crossbreds, and he does look pretty similar in build to the real Oliver. I'm used to seeing Shire crosses with the leg feather left on when they're shown in the UK, but it seems US draft crosses are more commonly trimmed to have neat heels.

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I've named him Harecroft Wizard, which has no link to his official name or anything, just a personal tribute to the gentle old horse who lived next door to my pony field, who died recently at a grand old age.

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At first glance he looks black and white, but there's a really pleasant hint of brown in his paint - and I also find Breyer's jet black paint tends to be glossy and not match the matte white areas, where this tinted dark dark brown isn't any shinier than his white bits.

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Although he's posed trotting, which can be a bit of a worry making models tippy and prone to wobbling, he's very very steady on his feet - the sheer weight of so much solid plastic in his chunky limbs seems to ground him better than the light breeds which have a scarily fine balancing point

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The striped hoof detailing is a nice touch, this is the sort of thing which crops up when they're copying a real horse, added markings which they probably wouldn't have invented off-hand but need to be there to keep a portrait paintjob accurate.

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Lovely big ears and a very kind face - the pink shading inside his nose marking is so sweet!

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The sort of photo everyone with a tall horse always has a lot of

He is very nice, what a wonderful find.

That's a very beautiful model and I like the color pattern. It is not a mould I expected to be a carriage horse but considering it was based on a real horse, I am sure it is what was supposed to be. Beautiful last portrait.

Oliver is a beauty and made even more special because he has been at the Breyerfests

Nice addition

Wonderful to have got this special run horse! Completely agree, it's not always easy to get these special models, and now years later I'm finding that with some of the Breyerfest dogs I'm trying to track down- prices aren't always that friendly! I love the last photo, such a tall and realistic model!

Very beautiful model!

Beautiful model!

Beautiful horse, good-looking face! I am surprised that any Breyerfest horses reach the UK. I thought you could only get them if you attend the event in Kentucky.

thebritfarmer wrote:

He is very nice, what a wonderful find.

I was quite lucky to get him, the rarer runs usually get snapped up quickly when they have a buy-it-now price so you have to get there first (and of course most model horses are now sold through Facebook rather than Ebay, so I don't even see those ones!)

Roger wrote:

That's a very beautiful model and I like the color pattern. It is not a mould I expected to be a carriage horse but considering it was based on a real horse, I am sure it is what was supposed to be. Beautiful last portrait.

The mould was sculpted as one individual stallion of the breed, Tregoyd Journeyman - this is the real one, and this is my copy of his portrait model, you can see they've done a good job getting his build and his colour copied into plastic, this is one of the few portraits which really, really resembles the real horse!

They're quite a nice chunky horse in real life, I used to ride one for a little while - she was traded in to the riding school I learnt at, when her owner couldn't manage her, and they tried her in lessons. But she kept running away with the various small early-teens girl riders, occasionally unceremoniously losing her passenger somewhere along the way, so the instructor put me on her, thinking someone with a bit more strength and a longer leg might be able to a) not fall off and b) have some input in which direction we went
I never fell off her, we even did some jumping, and I even took her to a show once before she was eventually retired. But there was quite a lot of pretending we really did want to go that fast whenever we got out on a grass field, and one memorable occasion where she did an extra half lap then very nearly jumped us out into the farm next door while attempting to pull up after a race (I still got my prize rosette for placing though, it just took a while to get back to where they were being handed out )

sunny wrote:

Oliver is a beauty and made even more special because he has been at the Breyerfests

Yes, that makes him a really suitable subject for a portrait, doesn't it! The theme that year was Horse Heroes, so they picked one who did a good worthy job as well as being familiar to the people who knew the venue.

Bonnie wrote:

Wonderful to have got this special run horse! Completely agree, it's not always easy to get these special models, and now years later I'm finding that with some of the Breyerfest dogs I'm trying to track down- prices aren't always that friendly! I love the last photo, such a tall and realistic model!

If you message me the names of the ones you're looking for (or IdentifyYourBreyer links might be better, as I'm not familiar with the dog models), I can keep an eye out too, and let you know if I see them. Sometimes even a matter of minutes warning might give you chance to grab a bargain before anyone else spots it!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Beautiful horse, good-looking face! I am surprised that any Breyerfest horses reach the UK. I thought you could only get them if you attend the event in Kentucky.

Yeah, they were only available there in person, but a lot of people buy extras specially to re-sell (some people go there just to buy the models to sell on and never keep any), so there's always a massive flurry of sales activity immediately afterwards, and some UK collectors will have them shipped over. Then, a few years later, they're maybe selling moulds they've stopped collecting - the case with this one I just got - or have bought in a better colour since, or they're changing models which aren't new/exciting enough to win at shows anymore, so they'll sell them in this country. On Ebay right now there's eight listings for Breyerfest models which are already here on UK soil.

Things have changed in the last couple of years : there's been online Breyerfest ticketing, which lets people take part in buying the models without having to actually go to Kentucky. Some collectors don't like it (a kind of 'the models are our reward for making the effort to go, if you don't go you don't deserve them' feeling) while others are just glad to be able to join in somehow despite covid and the safety/travel issues around it. From my point of view, it just makes it a little bit more likely that models from 2020 onwards will come up second hand on UK Ebay, cos more British collectors were able to buy them direct with their online access tickets!

What a lovely guy! I'm not familiar with the celebration horses of recent past, but this one is really nice and my first time seeing him. Love the mold, and the unique and individual markings, especially the ermine spots. I love especially that he is a horse connected with Breyerfest so closely, no wonder he's a popular one to keep. :) Congratulations on getting him, it is interesting how some are so much more common than others. (I would still love to add a Bright Zip to my collection someday!)

I was very lucky to live on the right side of the US as a child and got the chance to attend some Breyerfests in the mid and late 90's/early 2000's. My parents have tried to sell their ticket horses, since they do not collect, but I guess we went on not as popular years because only one has ever sold. I am glad they have gone more digital with their special runs, since it's so difficult for even most people in the US to get there, much less international collectors! But HOO the prices!!

Today's my birthday, so I bought myself a model horse! Well strictly speaking, I pre-ordered him from one of my favourite sellers, then when the stock arrived in the UK about a week ago he was sent to me, but knowing my birthday was so soon, I put the box away so I'd have something to open on the right day

This is one of 2022's regular runs, the one I was most excited to see and own - Adamek the Akhal-Teke stallion

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He is absolutely stunning! I loved this sculpt right from when it was first revealed, it really nails the conformation and character of the breed, and although I was sad the two best Akhal-Teke colours got used up on unattainably rare and expensive exclusives (a sooty buckskin to the Premier Club, then perlino for a limited Breyerfest SR), I do think this colour looks good on him. There's just enough metallic sheen to the paintjob to capture the famous golden coat, without it looking at all overdone or decorator-ish, and there's so much shading it doesn't look flat or boring despite being yet another solid bay for my collection. There's no way this horse will ever blend in and be boring, look at him!

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His markings are great too; I know they're based on a real horse rather than an aesthetic choice by the Breyer designers, but the four white socks really lift the colouring, and the big star and snip on his face are lovely - an off-centre pink nose always gives a horse an appealingly quirky face.

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And if you look closely, you'll see something remarkable : the face markings are mapped, that halo of dark skin showing clear through the fine peach-fuzz on a horse's muzzle, and even on the forehead on this ancient desert breeds with such a sleek short coat. Breyer have dappled in mapping before, so we know they can do it, but it's always been saved as an added level of detail for exclusive releases, the limited editions and club models, small runs and one-of-a-kinds - never on anything 'basic' for the regular run range. I love it!

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The other side, just as wonderfully detailed

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His expression is so sharp and alert, and of course this dynamic pose gives him a huge amount of movement and life. One of my favourite horsey books is 'Golden Horse' by photographer Artur Baboev (chances are if you've ever looked up photos of the Akhal-Teke online, you've seen some of his work), and this sculpt really reminds me of those pictures : a horse free and playing, enjoying his own speed and strength.

I like to give my models a name from the right language and naming traditions, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to borrow them from real horse pedigrees. So I looked up Adamek, and scrolled back through the generations, til I found a name which appealed - hmm, Melekush, that's nice? But it's always worth a quick run through Google, just to make sure a name doesn't translate to something which wouldn't be fitting (like a meaning of 'dark' for a palomino, or 'white legs' for one with not a speck of white on it ), and in this case it was fine - apparently it means 'angel', which isn't colour-dependent at all.

And as well as a name, I do enjoy making little pieces of tack which suit a breed, especially if there's a long-standing tradition of them wearing something very distinctive or decorative. Akhal-Tekes are frequently photographed wearing collars, from simple braided cord or studded leather, all the way through to elaborate jewelled and beaded pieces with fantastical levels of detail and creativity.
There's a huge amount of variety, in materials and styles, so it's a chance to be creative and play with what I can create from things I've already got in my modelmaking craft boxes, left over from other projects. I spent the last couple of days constructing a couple of collars, using a random other horse to stand in because he wasn't out of his box yet

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The narrow collar is braided thread, beaded gold along one edge, with a hanging blue 'evil eye' charm or nazar. I don't know how commonly these are hung from the horses' necks like this, but I saw them in a few photos (as seen here), and loved the idea so much I had to make one. It's done with glue and paint, layered on a little circle of clear plastic cut from the front of another Breyer's box.
The wider collar is two layers of coloured paper, drawn on with pens, with tiny glass beads I glued on afterwards. Only they kept falling off, so I had to then paint the entire thing over with another layer of glue to hold them firmly in place, and that has the unexpected bonus of making the paper look slightly shiny, like leather.
Neither collar goes all the way around the neck! Because his mane is in the way, they'd emphasise how obviously artificial that solid plastic hair is, by holding them in an unnatural shape away from the neck. So instead I snipped through both the braid one and the paper one, to give the impression they continue under the overlapping locks of hair, and attached them to the model with tiny little pieces of rolled up micropore medical tape! The glue on that is very weak and easy-peel, far safer for the paint finish than stronger tape, and while I wouldn't try leaving it in place long-term, it wasn't risking damage to use it for one short photoshoot.

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I think he looks better 'dressed up' in his collars, they're a spectacular addition to the real horses so it's satisfying to recreate something similar for my mini one. But some photo showing judges insist on no tack at all, so I needed pictures both with and without if I want him to be able to enter all possible show classes in future.

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A gorgeous birthday present, even if I did buy him for myself

Wonderful Birthday present! .. and Happy Birthday George!

Thanks! I had a nice day, hung out with my real horses then went for an afternoon out in the woods with the trees and ferns and wildlife

Happy Birthday! Sounds like it was a lovely day, and that's a lovely choice for a gift! Really excellent looking model with exquisite detail, and I love the handmade collars. I'm interested to see what colors they release on this mold in the future as well.

Yeah, it's exciting thinking we'll get some more of these, even though it can be ages between regular run releases now they have so many more moulds to choose from! I'd love to see it in a slightly metallic sooty palomino (like the cover of my Golden Horse book), or that one classic photo which they used in all the books in the 1990s! This colour would look amazing, and different enough from the Premier Club release, though I'm not sure they'd ever want to recreate anything that complicated to paint in a regular run! And a wild sabino on a dark background would be gorgeous, something like this one, they could even do it on black and it would look interesting enough not to be one of their 'dipped it in tar' solid semigloss black paintjobs

I love all those ideas. Seeing the gold one (what is that horse considered genetically, a palomino?) would be interesting because it might be just a step below decorator almost if they made him a metallic gold.

Wonderfully energetic horse. Happy belated birthday. I admire your patience for not opening your own present until your birthday. I am like the judges in that I prefer horses without tack, but the collar is very beautifully made and I do like the fact that it goes "under" the mane. Are you going to enter your photos into a competition?

Yes Jill, genetically palomino, probably with the sooty trait affecting it slightly to get that dusty greyish gold rather than the usual coppery gold. Sooty usually makes us think of a much darker palomino, but they are hugely variable - some look like liver chestnuts with grey manes, some have dark bums but pale front halves, some have dark legs and streaks in the mane or tail or both, some just have this ashy tint all over. Mine's a burnt-toast shade in summer then cream with grey legs in winter
I'd like to see them do a gold one, but not too gold. This Stablemate is so metallic and over-saturated that it would look overwhelming on a bigger model, but if they could manage something like this softer shade over a semi-metallic base coat, that would look more subtle and naturalistic.

Thanks, rogerpgvg (I always have to scroll up to see if you're pgvg or vgpg when I'm typing a reply to you, and I daren't leave the letters off cos we have another Roger ) I made myself be patient by working on the collar-making in the meantime, and looking up name translations for the horse.
I've not entered him in any photo competitions yet, but I always like to have a good show picture ready for any classes which come up in future - if I had that kind of deadline to get new photos taken by I'd never enter anything, so I make sure they're on my computer just in case I do need them!

Belated birthday wishes, and what a wonderful present to yourself.