Harecroft customs : Animal figures - Schleich cat

I thought I'd start a new thread for this, my 'other animals' repaints all in one place.

I'm mostly an equine painter, and those are set up in the Harecroft Horses topic, but since joining this forum I've been really tempted to try painting some different species, too. I've finally given in to that temptation!

The red fox has been one of my favourite animals since childhood, rare sightings of a quick bright animal dashing away, and starring in some of my favourite wild-animal-themed books, including Colin Dann's Farthing Wood series. In that pre-internet era of library books and buying wildlife magazines when they had the right animal on the cover, I read everything I could find about foxes!
Later, when I had my first job, I got to meet and make almost-friends with the foxes which called the same farm home. The adults got used to me, and would calmly glance up and wander off rather than running, and later in each summer, bring their babies into the paddocks to play in broad daylight, while I worked on weeding, or watched them alongside the horses. And when I stayed there overnight to mind the place while the owner was away, I'd wait up in the evenings (in the conservatory with the lights off) to watch the foxes hunting and interacting, all round the yard and fields I could see from where I sat  

I'd already thought the Papo fox model was probably the one I'd buy if I couldn't resist a little occasional branching out from my horses-only collecting rule (which, to be honest, is purely to limit the amount I spend and the space the collection takes up, it's never been about a lack of interest in other animals!)
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a really good red fox documentary on tv, and that was the final push which inspired me to order a model to paint. I had a little look through Toy Animal Wiki which confirmed my idea that the Papo model was the one for me, and after a couple of quick Ebay orders - one for the fox himself, one for some paints in appropriately gingery colours! - I was ready to have a go!

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Here's my little fox beforehand. He's not got a bad paintjob at all, with a nicely chosen shade of reddish brown, given some texture with the thin paint over the plastic so it settles into the detail of the sculpt, and his markings are pretty good, with white and black in the right places. This isn't one of those 'It was so terrible I HAD to repaint it!' moments at all, and if I was going to start collecting original finish animals, I'd have been perfectly happy to keep this fox as he was. But this is a project to make myself a custom fox, so he had to be transformed...

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And here he is! I'm very pleased with how he turned out, considering this was a bit of an experimental venture into a whole new order of mammals

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I tried to give his coat as much variety in shading as I could, without going too exaggerated as I wanted him to be an 'average' kind of fox colour, a typical mid-reddish shade, rather than the very grey-backed, or very black-tinged, individuals. This was the reference photo I used, for the front half shading especially, and applying white in the right places, but deliberately didn't include so much of the blond/black on his back half, just to keep him more like the foxes I used to see, and occasionally still do.

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This was my first time painting with some of these colours, usually I work my bright chestnutty horse colours from a very minimalist selection of one orangey brown, one burgundy, and one sandy tan, but to bring out the redder and more gingery fox colours, I had to buy a deep orange, a bright golden brown, and a paler reddish brown, too. The three extra paints cost more than the Papo fox did

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His other side - I find that, just as with my equine models, the fox has a 'good side' for photos and display, so this other side feels very much like the back of him - I think it's the position of his legs which does it.

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I love his long, low running pose - you can just imagine him making his way along the edge of a field keeping by the hedge, or using a grass track between standing crops. This Papo sculpt reminds me most of the foxes I see here in the UK; a lot of model brands seem to be based on photos of American or far-northern-European foxes, very thick-winter-coat fluffy and looking short and stocky in the leg and neck, where our locals have a shorter coat, a longer leaner more athletic look.

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Not a great picture but here's a view of the white markings underneath, and how they wrap round the limbs - a lot more complicated than just the white neck and chest his original paintjob had. The white underside, and the black leg/ear colour, do vary hugely from fox to fox, with some having entirely red legs with no dark points, and others somewhere in between. They can also have a dark or white tail tip. I copied the markings on mine from that good clear reference picture, apart from the tail tip, which I made whiter because I really do remember seeing that feature clearly on the foxes I used to watch at work.

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With my model horse customs, the last part of creating them is usually to think of a name, so it makes a refreshing change to do a wild animal, who doesn't need one!

I love how detailed this turned out.

Thanks! It's a really nicely detailed sculpt to work with, he's even got tiny moulded claws to find and paint in (and they remembered the dew claws, too!) I was hoping to do black whisker dots but he was just too small

The good sculpting and your wonderful repaint made this model even more realistic!

Yes, I think it looks fantastic!

Wow, I was just amazed when I saw this and read it all through! You clearly have so much talent for this, even though it was your first animal other than a horse it looks just as amazing and realistic as they do! I always thought that there was no way to improve the way the Papo was painted as it is already really nice, but when I saw yours I couldn't help but say wow to myself! I love how you can't even see the paint strokes, it just looks so natural and detailed and with so many shades in its coat! I would just love to see you do a dog one day but I know they aren't your main collecting focus! I'm sure if you took commissions for repaints you would get a lot of interest!

I thought that even with a good custom painting, that fox could not be improved so much as you did. It has a great original factory paint but it is evident it is clearly more realistic after your work. I think you got a perfect base color with a rich shading. You also avoided dramatic contrasts and the final result couldn't be better.
it makes me so happy, a topic about a fox, a very realistic one and with a superb painting and presented with the most beautiful story and pictures.

Thank you, everyone

It's not quite my first non-equine, Bonnie, actually this is my second! But he's the first to start off my repaints post here, as my other 'other animal' was a while ago, before I joined the forum : a hare

I tried to keep him consistent with my usual style, which involves thin layers of mixed paint smudged on, not stroked. The only brush stroke application anywhere was the grey-blond hairs on his hindquarters and tail, and that was done with diluted paint (a licked brush!) so it went on translucent and looked less stark.
No plans to do a domestic dog I'm afraid, I'm sure to do more animal figures now I've started, but I'll carry on with wild species - that upcoming Mojo snow leopard is on the list once I can get one over here!

So glad you enjoyed seeing him, Roger, and reading the backstory of why I chose a fox. It was fun choosing exactly which shade to go for, comparing googled fox photos with the ones I saw in the documentary, and what I think of when remembering real foxes I've seen. My vulpine collection will never rival yours but I'm happy with my little feral-pet plastic fox

This fox looks fantastic! The original finish is one of the better ones for this species in toy form but your touch has made it into an even better final product. I love the subtlety of it... great job!

I loved seeing your hare too, wonderful! It was interesting to read about your smudging technique, I'm assuming it involves using your fingers, I'll have to try it some day! I can't wait to see the snow leopard!

Oh no, not fingers - I just use a very dense silky brush type, which is firm enough to push the paint a long way. I've never found the exact right kind in model or art shops, they're sold for nail art instead! Tiny amounts of paint on the tip of the brush, then imagine you're trying to spread it as far as possible by rubbing the brush down firmly, so the colour is smudged onto the surface in a super thin layer, rather than painting on with strokes or dabs like, say, an oil painter doing a landscape.

These are the brushes I use, I took a pic when we were doing the model painting month, so you can see the kind I buy

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George wrote:

Thank you, everyone

It's not quite my first non-equine, Bonnie, actually this is my second! But he's the first to start off my repaints post here, as my other 'other animal' was a while ago, before I joined the forum : a hare

I tried to keep him consistent with my usual style, which involves thin layers of mixed paint smudged on, not stroked. The only brush stroke application anywhere was the grey-blond hairs on his hindquarters and tail, and that was done with diluted paint (a licked brush!) so it went on translucent and looked less stark.
No plans to do a domestic dog I'm afraid, I'm sure to do more animal figures now I've started, but I'll carry on with wild species - that upcoming Mojo snow leopard is on the list once I can get one over here!

So glad you enjoyed seeing him, Roger, and reading the backstory of why I chose a fox. It was fun choosing exactly which shade to go for, comparing googled fox photos with the ones I saw in the documentary, and what I think of when remembering real foxes I've seen. My vulpine collection will never rival yours but I'm happy with my little feral-pet plastic fox

Yes, and my equine collection will never rival yours.
Each collection has a story and it is special on its own way. See, I have so many foxes and none like yours. Also, what turns my vulpine collection special is not the amount of foxes but the way this friendly community has been contributed to it. By the way, I have to update my foxes topic after the anteater journey. Will you repaint a giant anteater? It would be interesting to see a Safari under your brushes, maybe you can find an used one for a friendly price, without tongue or so.

George wrote:

Oh no, not fingers - I just use a very dense silky brush type, which is firm enough to push the paint a long way. I've never found the exact right kind in model or art shops, they're sold for nail art instead! Tiny amounts of paint on the tip of the brush, then imagine you're trying to spread it as far as possible by rubbing the brush down firmly, so the colour is smudged onto the surface in a super thin layer, rather than painting on with strokes or dabs like, say, an oil painter doing a landscape.

These are the brushes I use, I took a pic when we were doing the model painting month, so you can see the kind I buy

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This is very interesting, thank you so much for the tips! Definitely something to try in the future!

Roger wrote:

Will you repaint a giant anteater? It would be interesting to see a Safari under your brushes, maybe you can find an used one for a friendly price, without tongue or so.

I'm certainly not against the idea of painting an anteater!
Here's a curious fact, last time I went to see if the toyshop in my nearest town had Breyer any more (they don't), I looked at the Schleich stand before I left, just for the sake of seeing what was there - it's been so long since I actually browsed Schleich in person, so I'd not seen any of the releases from the last five or six years. And the one animal I almost picked up was the anteater. With 'No, you won't suddenly have room to collect wildlife figures just cos you keep seeing them on STS' running in my head as the voice of reason, and the certain knowledge that if I actually picked UP this anteater, I'd be too attached to put it back, and then I'd have spent the money I'd got earmarked for Breyer Stablemates to paint on an anteater by mistake
So yes, I almost came home with an accidental giant anteater once already, and now I've ventured into painting other animal figures rather than just buying them, it's suddenly a creative possibility rather than something I'd have to talk myself out of a second time

I've had a look on UK Ebay and there's no Safari ones there, one seller in the US but the shipping would be nearly four times the price of the animal, and none of the toy/hobby online shops I usually order from have one in stock either.

On the other hand, there's loads of the current Schleich one on ebay, so either I give in and go for that one, or I wait patiently for the one I'd rather have. We'll see!

Anteater fever Postage is a torture these days, there are so many figures I would love to get from Ebay and obviously it avoids me from getting them.
New Schleich anteater is at the same scale as Breyer Classic models. Maybe you can pair it with one of your horses. One with a furry tail and a long head. Please just do not paint the anteater with Appaloosa colors, I think a blue dun works much better.
By the way, anteaters have manes and long tails and they gallop.

I have always found that this fox had a too vibrant red colour so this is definitely an improvement ! I wish I could do the same easily too, to make it more compatible with my Schleich vixen.

I like the Papo fox very much too. And repainted by you it looks fabulous!
Thank you also for sharing the stories of the foxes you met. It must have been great to have a chance to observe longer
I've only seen a small number of foxes in my life and it was always just for a few seconds. Recently I saw one in a forest in the Alps, and it was a very fluffy one

Thank you both! I'm glad you think he's an improvement, when the original was already so nice it takes some effort to make sure the paintjob is really making it better, not just different :)

This fox is currently running along the mantelpiece, just in front of the clock. The horses are all too tall and get in the way of seeing the time, but the fox jogging along with his head down leaves the clock dial completely clear to view

I think my next non-equine repaint will probably be the Papo cormorant, I've considered it several times already - they're one of my favourite birds - but was always put off by the prominent lettering and logos on the wings. If I'm going to repaint it anyway, I can deal with that problem at the same time!

Repainting the Papo cormorant? What a great idea!

You've got just as much skill with wildlife as horses, it seems! Really nice update, attention to all the right details. I love how "normal" he looks. For some reason, the smallness of the white tip of his tail in particular. They often get portrayed in media with a large white end to the tail, when it's not usually large, in my experience. Also love that you've given him the graying under his eyes and on the muzzle. Beautiful use of those bright colors, he didn't come out traffic-cone-like at all, which is what I would be afraid of.

And great story for why you chose this species. Your customs often have good stories behind them, it really adds to their existence, I think!

Thank you, Jill! I think it helps that I'm coming to this not as a brand new painter, trying to figure out techniques and materials as I go along, but really quite experienced with painting horses (15 years, several hundred models!), so starting to paint wildlife figures is just a shift of subject, rather than a venture into a whole new hobby :)

As for the story, there's another reason behind the next repaint I'm going to introduce. I wrote about it in the 'your 5 favourite animals' topic here on the forum :

George wrote:

It's very difficult choosing a fifth pick - the first two were easy, then an old favourite, followed by a personal friend of mine. There's a LOT of other animals I like, and enjoy seeing on tv, or reading about, but how to choose just one to claim I'm more interested in, or more fond of, than all the others?
Well, I like a handful of exciting birds a great deal, for how brilliant they make a day when I happen to spot one. The little gems, once every few years if I'm lucky - kingfisher, bullfinch, great crested grebe, and especially, cormorants. I think the cormorant thing all goes back to a day in cold miserable january a long while ago when I was struggling with terrible depression, and the turning point was seeing a cormorant tree for the first time, these strange snake-necked black birds against a heavy pink misty sunset. It lifted the day, and my life. Ever since, seeing a cormorant has been a special moment, a strange beautiful sought-after thing, and they're a favourite forever now.

When I joined here, I saw the Papo cormorant model in the final of STS Animal Figure of the Year, and I really considered buying it. But the moulded lettering along the front of the wings was a deal-breaker for me - just too obvious, too obtrusive.

After I'd painted my fox, I was wondering what other animal I was most inspired by, which would be another meaningful choice to carry on this new direction of wildlife repaints. And then I realised - if I was going to be repainting anyway, I could get the cormorant and deal with the ugly lettering at the same time!

Here he is, straight from the packaging...

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I really like how they've given him a metallic sheen, by rubbing gold over the sculpted feather texture. As with the fox, it's not that he's got a bad paintjob to start with, just that I really wanted to play with painting and see what I could do to make him look even better.

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Unfortunately, his tail had been pushed out of shape by the plastic protective support he came in. BUT don't be too disappointed, if you get one damaged in the same way - I held his tail in a glass of boiling water, intending to try pushing the bent bit back to shape, and as soon as it got hot enough for the plastic to soften, it popped back to exactly the right position, without me even touching it! So if you get a dented cormorant, dunk him

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Here you can see another slight issue he had on arrival - he tips back onto his tail, with his toes in the air. The centre of gravity was just off, meaning he couldn't balance upright on a flat level surface. This was also fixed with the hot water trick : hold his legs under the surface a few seconds to soften the plastic, then take him out and stand him on the counter, supporting him by the wings while the legs cool down and the plastic goes solid in the corrected position.

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Another view showing that hated lettering!

At first I tried carving the lettering off, but because the Papo plastic doesn't sand down very well, I couldn't get a smooth enough finish, so in the end he had to have some patched feathers!

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There's his two little patches of resculpted wing.

Yesterday it was time to get painting, and I chose two reference photos...

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This one I took myself, for the white marking to match a cormorant I've actually met and photographed, rather than something more interesting but copied from a total stranger! They have different white patches in their breeding plumage than the rest of the year, and it does vary quite a bit from bird to bird.

And because my photo didn't show the wing feather colouring particularly well, I found a really bright and clear professional shot on google as my main painting reference : here.

So here he is - my first ever bird repaint!

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I tried to get as much colour in to his wing feathers as possible, the reference photo linked really shows how much the tone varies, even though they just look like a black bird at a distance, up close there's a lot of deep brown, and pale highlights. The only part I didn't repaint was his eyes - my blue paint had set solid so I just went carefully round his old eyes, and gave each a speck of clear nail varnish afterwards to make them shiny.

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He balances very nicely on this little resin tree trunk! I used a light application of metallic gold acrylic paint to give him some of the same sheen seen in his original paintwork, just a tiny dot of paint rubbed between my fingers then gently over the surface so it caught the tiny tiny sparkles without covering or changing his base colour. There's a little bit of dark green bloom on him, too, but just painted in with diluted viridian over his black, cos I didn't have any metallic green paint!

And here he is posing for an all-round photoshoot, with a book opened at a relevant page to provide a fitting background - all my horsey ones are fields with fences or walls, or grassy landscapes, so I needed something totally new for a water bird!

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I love my little cormorant!

Now I need to decide what's next....

Nice customization! I like how you removed the mark under the wing.

Lovely repaint! I really loved Papo’s cormorant and you made it look even better! Beautiful pictures too, looks just like the real thing! Seeing all these beautiful repaints on this forum really make me want to start repainting myself..

wonderful repaint for a so realistic result, the head with eyes is stunning!

Wow, wow, wow, another stunner!
All those shades in the wing, and the incredible detail around the head, it's amazing! And I loved reading about all your clever techniques to get that sheen, I love the touch of viridian! I can't believe it's your first bird, amazing! I'm sure you can guess what my view would be on what to do next, but I'm very excited to see whatever you come up with!