January 2013

January was a fun month!  I managed to get thoroughly distracted by numerous little projects, whilst still managing to get in a bit of sculpting.

Firstly, I had been reading a wonderful publication that has been in the hobby for many years; Color Formulas and Techniques by Carol Williams.  I had managed to get my hands on a copy in late 2012 but hadn’t had the time to read it so over the holidays I buckled down and did a bit of learning.

I’ve never been able to paint model horses, I don’t get much time to play with this aspect of the hobby so, considering Carol’s book talks mostly about oil paints I feel that this medium can work for me, saving me having to overcomplicate my learning with translating between various types of colour application.  So, I found a body; I always have lots of unfinished models around so chose the palomino AA Welsh mare pictured below amongst some other restoration projects I’ve had on the go for a while.

I stocked up with the basic paint colours I needed (except Raw Sienna, as it turned out!) and I tried a little mixing according to Carol’s formulas, though at this point I realised my lack of Raw Sienna which did limit the effectiveness of my studying!

I did prep the model a little as this was just an experiment,  I “flatted back” the original acrylic paintwork and gave it a good scrub to degrease it, remove dust and give a good key for the paint to adhere to.  I know this is NOT the proper way to prep a model, but as it’s the first time I’ve ever painted any model, I didn’t anticipate it being any good first time!

I am working on my prepping abilities though:

Then I got to work painting, and here is the result of the first session:

It does look a bit yellow there, doesn’t it!  This is partly as I was aiming for a really “golden” palomino and partly due to night-time phone-photography (always a bit dodgy).  I was actually really happy with the effect and, of course with the tips I got in the Color Formulas book!  I was probably the most impressed with how it didn’t turn out green!  I set it aside for a few weeks to dry – I didn’t use a dryer in the oil paint as when I was experimenting I found it would dry too fast and as there’s no hurry she was deposited onto my shelf to dry fully before reassessing.

I also grabbed another model that I prepped donkey’s years ago – a Fly Fishing medallion.  Given the colours I had on the palette I chose to give them a base coat for Palomino and Chestnut.  I always found this model challenging – from the design and sculpting to the moldmaking and casting, but I never realise how hard it would be to paint!!!  Getting the paintbrush into the undercuts and tine areas around the mouths – I’m so sorry to anyone that has ever had to paint on of these – what a mission!!

I got a good bargain in the January sales at Hobbycraft too! With my new painting exploits I found I needed my paintbrushes on-hand – I have many paintbrushes as I use them for lots of things and have painted flatwork in the past, so when I saw this I just had to bring it home with me! I do love a good bargain!!

I bought another AA body model to play with too – this is the Classic Scale Welsh Section A resin.  He was advertised on MH$P as a body as he was missing his front lower leg and an ear, and was a raw cast.  I set to work rebuilding him a leg just to make him stand – I had planned to just add a wire and coat with superglue/baking soda ready to resculpt later, but I got a little carried away and before I knew it he had a whole new leg made of the superglue mix!  I wasn’t using any photo reference and didn’t know how the leg should go on this model so it’s not quite right yet, but he now stands perfectly and I plan to revisit him to finish that leg off properly at some point.

My collection also grew by one more AA model in January, this time it was something I’ve been trying to get my hands on for months – an AAE Award from Donna’s show last September.  I was at a family wedding when the show was on so missed it, but I collect these chess piece styled models and was thrilled when offered this bronze-glazed one as a part trade on some other models:

If you have any of these that you would like to sell/trade, please let me know.  I have quite a few but am also trying to find many more so am always on the lookout!

Oh yes, there was one other addition to my collection:

Affinity!!  After many months of time payments, Sarah emailed me to say I had only $5 left to pay!  I paid up immediately and she made her way to me over the festive period.  I can’t quite explain why I am so drawn to this sculpture, I know it has had mixed reviews in its unpainted condition – but almost unanimous approval once painted.  Perhaps that’s it – I want to work out how on earth you can sculpt a model specifically to look good painted!  I’m hoping to have this girl painted at some point, but to me, she is just as beautiful in all her naked-ness!

So – what actual WORK did I do in January?  Well, you saw how the Crabbet Arab mare looked back in November, well I managed to get three good sculpting sessions on her throughout January too.  Here’s her progress – spot the difference:

I posted the last image to Facebook and received strong feedback about having her tail attached to her leg.  I thought it would help when casting and give the resin copies more strength, but I didn’t realise that it would also give many performance showers a complete nightmare trying to get any tack on her! I’ll show the most recent progress in my next blog post, hopefully those who do performance showing will approve of her new tail-set

Working to my schedule for 2013 I had to start something new to offer in Spring.  I’ve made a start on a pair of medallions that I hope to reveal soon, here is a sneak peak of one of them.

During January I got into discussions with Donna Chaney at Animal Artistry.  I approached her to ask for a quote to have Union Jack cast as a china edition.  I crunched some numbers and worked out that I could manage to get the edition started and asked a couple of china collectors for advice on pricing to see how viable the edition would be.  I decided to take the plunge and have him cast in Earthenware, with each copy to be glazed to the buyer’s choice of colour.

I don’t have any photos of this yet as the edition will be cast soon, but in my next post I will share photos of the prototype models.

There was one more project I started during January, involving a bizarre type of resin I used about five years ago when I was working on the Frodo medallions.  I don’t want to share this just yet but will do once I have completed the first phase.