STS Painting Month - it's May- post your in progress photos here!

Tams7prairie Moa first layer
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I have wanted to customize some of these giant birds for some years... can't wait to see it complete Kiki!

The moa is really cool! Really looking forward to seeing how it will progress

Here's a picture of my (or rather my projects') current WIP state

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Right is my painting month project, left is my on the side project.

Oh that setter is stunning! Can't wait to see them both complete!

that moa looks amazing, I've never seen that model before Christophe.

the dogs look good Anne-Joke!


here is the beginning of my Hagerman Horse
I have 2 actually

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I've done hours of reading on the Hagermans! I've waded thru so many scientific research paper findings and articles and gone back millions of years in time! It's been fascinating and I've learnt so much.
One thing I noticed is that most images of the Hagermans are with a half zebra coat in appearance. There are many artistic interpretations, all very striking and beautiful.

from wiki -
The Hagerman horse (Equus simplicidens), also called the Hagerman zebra or the American zebra, was a North American species of equid from the Pliocene epoch and the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the oldest horses of the genus Equus and was discovered in 1928 in Hagerman, Idaho. It is the state fossil of Idaho.
It first appeared about 3.5 million years ago. It was approximately 110–145 centimeters tall at the shoulder. It weighed between 110 and 385 kilograms. An average Hagerman horse was about the same size as an Arabian horse. It also was relatively stocky with a straight shoulder and thick neck, like a zebra, and a short, narrow, donkey-like skull. The horse probably lived in grasslands and floodplains, which is what Hagerman was like 4-3 million years ago. It was native to parts of Europe, including France, Italy, Germany and Greece, and to North America and South America, where it became extinct about 10,000 years ago.

After all the info I read I have a few questions needing answered.

What did the Hagerman Horses that migrated from America to Africa 3 to 2 mya look like?

One article said that equids are an open country clade with asses inhabiting deserts, zebras inhabiting tropical grasslands and horses living in temperate grasslands.

Was North America where the Hagerman Horses lived a tropical grassland?
And were there already biting flies (tabanids) around?

If it was a tropical grassland and there were tabanids around, then there could be a good chance that the Horses started to develop stripes on their face and leg areas.
This is because - (from an article)
It is noteworthy that stripes nearer the ground (on the legs and head when grazing) are especially thin and biting flies prefer to alight on shaded parts of animals low on the body. Specifically, tabanids cruise at around 30 cm above ground and prefer alighting on lower legs of cows, although the particular area differs by species; stable flies concentrate low on cows’ bodies as do blackflies, and tsetse flies prefer to feed on the hocks of cattle. Interestingly, faint leg striping is sometimes seen on some Przewalski’s horse individuals.

A-J wrote:

The moa is really cool! Really looking forward to seeing how it will progress

Here's a picture of my (or rather my projects') current WIP state

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Right is my painting month project, left is my on the side project.

Great How many layers on your "side project" ?

sunny wrote:

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The right face

I am very curious to know what dress you will give to this horse

I am far from an expert, but I would say that any "ancient" markings that we see on modern day horses (leg stripes, dorsal stripe, dark or dun coloration, dark mane and tail) would be good bets. We don't have cave paintings of these animals like there are cave paintings of horses in Europe. But the nice thing about prehistorics is that you often have room for artistic license/interpretation!

This is a link the the national park site I am familiar with Idaho... may offer something new from your research (but it sounds like you have done a ton of reading!).
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Moa step 2
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ooooooooohhhhh I love it! What model is this? You have done a great job so far.

Here is mine so far. Not 100% complete, but very close.
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The Moa is a Tams7prairie resin model 1/40 scale.

Your painted dogs are already beautiful Paige

Oh wow that Moa looks amazing! I love the layered effect on the feathers, just wonderful!
And painted dogs are awesome too, fantastic diversity of patterns

Thank you Anna

Red Elephant javan rhinoceros
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I apologize Kiki, I do remember now and can read that you posted the moa brand... That rhino is spectacular!

You are on the roll Christophe! The rhino is gorgeous, what a beautiful sculpt with subtly shaded paintwork perfection

After a few years where I missed my brushes, I put the turbo.  
I have a lot of models that have been waiting for some colors for a long time and I also want to find some new ones. I've put a veto on it until I've cleared up the projects that are already underway.

The return of the rhino, the Moa and the Pyrotherium.  
For the Moa I don't know about the beak...
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For the base, I didn't want to do too much in the diorama with plants and additions and not in a neutral colour like "beige" or "earth", so I thought of Jolie who thinks that my paintings are "prehistoric" and I tried to find the colours of a toy in composition.
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For the Rhino and the Pyrotherium I'm making unsuccessful attempts to make hair for their tails with Milliput but it's not easy. Does anyone have an idea ?
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Kikimalou wrote:

For the Rhino and the Pyrotherium I'm making unsuccessful attempts to make hair for their tails with Milliput but it's not easy. Does anyone have an idea ?


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if you are open to adding in another medium - like I did when I sculpted a striped hyena for one of the forum members here, then you can consider adding the bristles of a house paint brush or a shaving cream brush?
these bristles will be lighter in colour (if you choose the fawn coloured ones), which can be easier to add colour on top, and they are long enough for you to snip bits off to give that wirey look.

this is my striped hyena here -
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I can pm you details on how to add the bristles into the milliput, and attach to the end of the tail?

Yes Annette, PM me, I don't know if I will do it that way but it is easier to choose when one understand

great progress on the projects so far

I remember that a long time ago on the forum there was a very talented artists creating beautiful elephant models and if I remember correctly they also used "real" hair (might be plastic might be actually real) for the tails of the elephants. I think they stuck them on with some kind of transparent glue? I tried finding the topics and I'm almost certain it was elephant_maximus but unfortunately the pictures don't work anymore (at least not for me) so I can't be certain.

I must have missed the stripped hyena, that's a really cool technique

Very very good job on this 3 models Christophe!

Oh wow, love seeing the steps of your progress all together!! So very interesting, these different kind of animals come to life!

A-J wrote:

The moa is really cool! Really looking forward to seeing how it will progress

Here's a picture of my (or rather my projects') current WIP state

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Right is my painting month project, left is my on the side project.

they look great! What type of paint are you using for the white base coat? It looks really matt with good coverage.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

I am far from an expert, but I would say that any "ancient" markings that we see on modern day horses (leg stripes, dorsal stripe, dark or dun coloration, dark mane and tail) would be good bets. We don't have cave paintings of these animals like there are cave paintings of horses in Europe. But the nice thing about prehistorics is that you often have room for artistic license/interpretation!

This is a link the the national park site I am familiar with Idaho... may offer something new from your research (but it sounds like you have done a ton of reading!).
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Thank you Paige I have that link and been reading there.
Yes there are some common type of ancient markings.
I've tried to add my bit of prehistoric logic to my pattern.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Here is mine so far. Not 100% complete, but very close.
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they are excellent! I love how the coat colours contrast beautifully with the white on the coats! Great to see these 3 variations together Paige.

A-J wrote:

I must have missed the stripped hyena, that's a really cool technique

thank you very much Anne-Joke!

I want to try and keep the coat a little secret until I finish them! so this is just a snippet of what has happened.

but this is what I am struggling with - blotchy mess! I spent 4 hours on this!

I used a tiny stub of a brush and did mainly dry brushing stippling sort of work.
But for some reason the paint I am using is on the transparent / thin side and it is hard to get an even coat.

I will have to buy some different type of paint to finish them as this one is just not giving me the finish that I desire.
My style of painting isn't suited to the paint in the tube I'm using

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Oh dear, I am sorry to hear that you aren't getting the result you wanted Annette! For what its worth, the pattern looks good and I think I can see your vision for it... I can't wait to see the end result!

I know this kind of problem Annette, for the job we want to do we need paints with more pigments than to paint a picture.
Wargame paints like Games workshop, Prince August or Citadel are very good for that but you have to find your way among a lot of pots with strange and unnatural names.
On Anna's advice I bought some dense acrylics, the brand I can easily find at home is Daler & Roney but there are also Golden Fluid or Vallejo and many others.