Yeah, doesn't look much like a friesian, and that's a huge package on that stallion. Still, it spoke to me (probably helped that it was black), and I decided to give it a shot. There is a perfectly good Breyer friesian out there, but that horse is built like a stallion and I don't think that I could have lightened him up enough. Here's what I altered:
- a crooked leg - the rear right was crooked, so I held the leg in boiling water and straightened it.
- gender reassignment. Hello Mr. Dremel! The plastic was surprisingly thick - I only broke through to the hollow on a tiny bit in the scrote.
- roman nose needed flattening - dremel
- little denty ditchy thing needed to be put in the middle of the nose - dremel
- carved out the inside of the nostrils. Again, the plastic was quite thick, I didn't break through at all - dremel
- carve out the inside of the ears - dremel
- smooth out the raised veins popping out of the belly, legs, and face - dremel
- thin the neck to take away the stallion look - dremel
This is how thick the neck was - obviously not this horse, not my pic, but a good shot of the neck thickness:
- mustang roll the hooves :3 - dremel
- recarve where the seam smoothing filled in mouth and mane details - dremel
Whoo... that was just the carving....
- Smooth out neck alterations - epoxy
- fill ears back in with "fur" - epoxy
- thicken legs and enlarge hooves - epoxy (and then dremel to redefine the underside of the hooves)
- add feathering - epoxy
- fill in the ripped muscle look in the shoulder, flank, and upper legs - epoxy
- fill in tail - the thing was a hollow V shape! - epoxy
- add the weird little faux-wang-but-probably-something-umbilical thing - epoxy
- add chestnuts - epoxy
WHEW! Then I sanded, and sanded, and sanded some more and I probably still have epoxy in my lungs despite wet sanding.
Here's what it looked like after all that. Pardon the crappy shot on my sofa (bought before I went veggie, tyvm), but I was anxious to get on to the next steps:
Next was priming for painting with gesso.
I painted with acrylics. Thank goodness the body was easy - about 4 coats of black for the body and mane. Then, I did the eyes with black and burnt umber, painted pink in the depths of the nostrils, and added the face markings with white, some pink where needed, and washes of black so that they didn't stand out so much. The hooves and chestnuts were done with grey followed with washes of black and highlights of a lighter grey.
Then, it was time to clear coat. Everything got at least 4 coats, but probably should have more. But, by that time I wanted it out of my house! :)
Lastly, the eyes and nostils got a couple coats of clear nail polish for some shine.
Yeah, the pics are still crappy but I was in a rush.
Blooper reel:
In the epoxy stage, I decided that the front leg that's held up needed to be straightened a little... and crack went the epoxy. I had to pull off the entire alteration to the leg and start over.
The feathers were a pain. I'd create some, take em off. Create more, take em off. It seemed like ages before I settled on a look that went with the rest of it. They are still far too fluffy for Mona, but it went with the mane and tail so :P
When I was applying the nail polish to the right eye, there was a little spot that got on an eyelid. I tried wiping it off with my nail and ended up with white left over. Hoping that it was just a thin layer of polish I rubbed some more. Nope, it was stripping off the paint. Fuck. I eventually ended up with the horse's original eye staring back at me. Commence the fastest painting, clear coating, and re polishing ever. I still got it to Anne that same day.
I already have the model for Peanut. I saw it the same day I got the Andalusian, and it said Peanut from across the room. I got closer and saw that it was indeed a TWH. Awesome. Seems like there will be minimal remodelling (gender reassignment, complete redo on the hooves, and she is far too skinny for Peanut), but the paint job will be complex. I'm sick of redoing model horses at the moment, so it will just sit on my desk for a while longer. :)
Edit: wth is with the fruity flower bullets? Ick.
6 comments:
This is AMAZING! I'm so glad you journalled and detailed the process. There's SO much you put into it, but it really does look like Mona! I'm shocked! I'm most impressed with the conversion of the andalusian "ripped" body type to the friesian (dumpy, plump hahaha!) body type. And the head shape is right on! The feathering modification added the necessary bone density to the legs to make this look very correct!
As for the Peanut model, yeah, you're going to have to use about as much epoxy as the whole horse is made of to make up Peanut's fat rolls LOL!!!!
Thank you so much!
I actually thought that the head was way off, that the muzzle was too short. I was hesitant to show it to you because I figured that - since you know her best - you'd think that it looked nothing like her. Glad to hear otherwise. :)
I just wished that the muscle fill could have been smoother, but maybe the lumpiness is... um... friesian muscles. Yes. I will go with that. I had to work with the epoxy with gloves on and with a very small window before it set so it was very hard to get what I wanted in some areas or to smooth it properly. I'm worried about that when I fatten up "Peanut" since it might end up all lumpy.
Although... sometimes Peanut is lumpy too....
And it was amazing how adding thickness to the lower legs instantly transformed a light horse into a light draft.
Thank you very much for the comment. I really almost didn't send you the email since I figured I probably botched something major. *blush*
That's so awesome!
I actually met my husband when we both worked at a gaming store - the kind that sells Magic cards and Warhammer minis and D&D books. I would love to get back into painting minis :) Tiny space orcs are much easier to paint than large horses, and I'm really impressed at how good Mona looks. Can't wait to see Peanut!
Thanks! :)
Tiny things are easier to paint than larger things? :o Did you use acrylics too?
What's scaring me most about the Peanut one is the dapples. Dapples! He's so cute when dappled, but they sound intimidating. Guess you don't get many dappled orcs. Plus I'll have to deal with shading on more than just hooves and chestnuts. Meh.
Well, they're tiny and covered in detail. Not many large expanses of anything at all - tiny bits of chainmail need grey with charcoal washes, tiny little pig-faces need green skin and red eyes, little guns are black and silver. You really don't have to worry about brushstrokes or shading technique all that much.
Just about everybody uses acrylic over spray primer, and getting the primer sprayed on smoothly was the hardest part. It was a ton of fun, really :)
Well I absolutely love Mona! My husband said he will make me a shelf over my living room bay window so she can sit on it. I was actually very impressed that he even recognized who the horse is. Major cudos and thanks to my very talented and creative friend, Sara.
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