New Horse

CM Breyer Weathergirl, for sale on the MH$P along with my other show horses!

Check them out here http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/sales/searchlist.asp?Accid=3253

Tango

Just finished this guy. He is a SMB Tango resin that I have painted to a lovely black chestnut sabino with a badger face and pencil roaning. I think he turned out fantastic and am well pleased with my work on a smaller scale. He is what they call "curio scale" being slightly bigger than LB size but smaller than CL.

I LOVE how the shading on his mane and tail came out as well. I may add some roan hairs at the base of the tail, not sure though.

Muscat

Brigette Eberl's fabulous pissed off Arab, Muscat. I love this guy and have lusted after one forever. I have painted mine a striking dark red chestnut sabino. All roaning done with colored pencils. This guy took a long time! I have named him ERS Sailor Take Warning.

ERS Voodoo Doll

Morgen Kilbourn's fantastic performance mare Hazel that I have painted a wild blue roan pintaloosa. Very minimally airbrushed base coat, then color pencil roaned and hand painted. She is for sale or will (preferably) trade for an Azham or Stormwatch (other Eberl resins, Sarah Rose or Sarah Mink pieces considered too).

Show Pics

New Stuff!

CM Breyer Lonesome Glory to a Kathiawari Stallion. Part of a trade deal.





Dance Magic resin painted to a smutty dun with primitive markings. This was a commission piece.

My new Renovatio resin...

Something Different

I sometimes dabble in jewelery making, mainly Medieval/Renaissance era stuff. Here are a couple of my recent creations.

New Stuff!

CM Breyer Smart Chic to Gray Pinto (Commission)

CM Breyer Goffert to Noriker or Appy/Friesian Cross

CM Breyer Goffert to Brindle Dun Unicorn

A few new pieces I have finished recently... the Noriker and Unicorn are for sale. The grey pinto was a commission piece. You can find their ads on the MH$P under my name (Jessica Saucier).

I'm still here!

I haven't disappeared, I just have not had much time to work on horses here lately, so I don't have much to show you. Here is a random pic for your enjoyment.

This is a Brandus resin from Horsing Around, he was the first Leopard Appaloosa I painted. He was finished in 2008.

Fantasy Friday

As promised, another edition of Fantasy Friday. This week I have a piece that I did in '05. It is the most extensive and complicated one I have ever done, and have never done another like it. The wings are completely hand-built with Apoxie sculpt over a wire frame. This thing is huge! Nearly 18 inches tall and weighed about 6 lbs! It is a remade Breyer Clydesdale stallion. I took my inspiration from a drawing I did back in '04 or so. The title of the piece is "The Old Warrior", and it was sold along with the model.

Not an exact replica of the drawing, but close. I would LOVE to do another on this scale, though I have done a couple of SM sized ones over the years using Tammey Abbey's wings and horns.

Done!

Finished the dapple gray Anuk Amen-Ra resin. I think he looks pretty good, I really like how he looks on the custom base too. Now to get him sent home. He was a booger to prep, someone had made a rather botched attempt at it.

Inspiration

I rarely do portrait models, some folks are just too picky about things for me. I do them on a limited basis for the most part. Mainly I work from my imagination, and my knowledge of equine coat color and patterns. Sometimes I will use a photo of a horse for a basic idea of what I want to do. This horse was brought to the school where I was a Vet Tech student, it was at the local animal shelter, and we were doing the vaccinations and Coggins testing on it for them. This is the only Palomino Pintaloosa I have ever seen. I know Pintaloosas exist, but have mainly seen them on Minis, this was a 2-3 year old. I wish I could have taken it home!





This is the model that I created using the photos of the horse as inspiration. I love how he turned out. He was done for a show donation back in 07 I think.

More Tack

This is another tack set I made for myself when I was showing performance. It is also a Rio Rondo pattern with the etched plates that I antiqued. It is fully basketweave tooled and sports adjustable stirrup leathers and a latigo tie girth. I did enjoy making this one, it is kind of fun sometimes, and a change of pace. Might be something I start doing more often as I feel like it. I don't know.






The horse is also by me, one of my first Paint patterns that came out LSQ.

Wednesday Tip

Something I have found is that locating good sandable primer can be difficult. The absolute best I have found, and used for YEARS is Duplicolor Sandable Primer. It is normally found in auto parts stores, Auto Zone, PepBoys, O'Reilly's and Advance Auto Parts all carry it. It comes in gray, white, and rust colors. It has a very even spray and once dry sands easily without "gumming up". It also has sufficient "tooth" to hold pastels.

Innovations

Every now and then I have one of those "OH, WOW, why didn't I think of this before" moments. One of those occured when I started on this horse, AL Horatio, for a customer in Australia. She wanted a fleabitten gray and I didn't want to do a spatter painted one again. So I decided to see if I were patient enough to do it the hard way, one fleabite at a time with a colored pencil. Lo and behold, it worked, and it won a NAN card in a tough WB class his first time out and is a multi-champ in Australia.



Click on the photos to see the details, you can also zoom in on them once they open up.

Fantasy Friday

I have done a lot of fantasy models, in fact I was one of the first handful of people to really do them on a large scale. I started with unicorns, and when I discovered the resin wings Kathleen Moody had produced I began doing pegasi. After a few years, another aritst, Tammy Abbey, began producing wings and horns in stablemate scale, later she added Classic and Trad scale horns and Classic wings.



I will be posting photos of more of my fantasy pieces next Friday! Have a great weekend!

Another Early Piece

This is one of the first "successful" dapple grays I did and the only horse I have done braids on. This is a Breyer Big Ben done in about 2001. He is a drastic resculpt to a half pass to the left. From what I understand, he showed fairly well in performance, though I don't know what he is doing now, if anything.

Model Horse FAQs - What is a model horse show?

Well, a model horse show is similar to a real horse show in that there are both halter and performance classes. Halter classes are fairly simple, you place your untacked model on the table with the appropriate class and it is judges on condition, breed type, workmanship (for CM/AR models) and rarity (OF models). You might wonder how a judge decides when there are multiples of the same mold or sculpture on the table. They have to make a decision based on condition and workmanship. Say for instance, there are 2 identical models in an OF halter class. The judge would look closely and determine if one has better coloration, shading or is a bit more neatly painted. That would be the tiebreaker. AR/CM models are a bit easier, they are judged on workmanship and breed type more so than OF models are.

This is Firareth, he was Res Champ at a show and multi NAN qualified in halter.

Performance classes are a bit different. I mean, the horses can't actually PERFORM can they? The solution to this is to make your setup look as much like a snapshot of a real horse performing the activity as you can. Say you have a horse you want to show in Western Pleasure, you would need appropriate tack for a start, it needs to be on the horse correctly, the fit must be right, and the horse needs to be in a pose suited for this event. A wildly galloping model is not a good candidate. You don't really NEED anything but the horse and tack. A rider is nice, but is just another variable to either make or break your entry. If you use a rider, you must be sure it is posed correctly and is on the horse exactly right. It is also nice to have props, like an arena fence and footing, but again, not necessary. It can be as simple or complex as you want. The judge is looking for suitability of the model for the task, tack fit/correctness, doll placement (if used) and overall neatness.

A versatile diorama, can be used in many classes, consists of an arena base made of a shallow box with sand and an arena fence. I have used it here for a trail setup.

This is a more specific diorama, used here for a cross country jump setup, but can also be used for a natural trail or costume setup.

Most shows award ribbons for most classes, some give bigger prizes for Grand/Res as well. There is also the chance to qualify for North American Nationals, or NAN. NAN tickets are awarded to first and second place models in each class excluding Grand/Res classes. The ticket allows the horse entry at the Nationals. Horses that have won these tickets are said to have NANed and this is a large selling point in the hobby.

My (sold) Champion Performance Mare Jim's Bourbon Lady, a Kentucky Mtn. Saddle Horse