Sunday, August 30, 2015

Adorably Tough

I'm happy to present one of my finds from the big shopping trip that I went on yesterday.

I've been thinking of him as "adorably tough".  He's all cute and stubby legged, but he haz armor!




There's a lot more about the shopping trip coming up in my next post!

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Done Did Studying

I've real pretty much the entire Arabian Costume book and about half of the Parade saddle one.  I'm eager to start trying some of the things I'm reading.

However, today I'm off on a "thrift store adventure" with some new friends.  We are going to check out several stores in the area.  Maybe I'll have some cool stuff to share when we get back!!  I'll be on the lookout for horse-shaped-objects, anything I can use for model horses, possibly something interesting for the house, or maybe just something weird, whacky, and whimsical.  (Japan seems to be good at those things)  ;)

Friday, August 28, 2015

Change of Plans

Well, instead of studying, I ended up going out with a new friend here for lunch.  I tried real sushi and actually liked it!  (I was scared... lol)

Afterwards, we went to the store where I'd found my cute little racehorse figure and...  I found a different one!  Plus an adorable rolling donkey.

So, this cutie has some new friends now.



I'll share pictures of them soon... and I'll hopefully do some tack making studying tomorrow.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Time to Study!

I'm so excited, look what came in the mail yesterday!


I ordered three of the books, Arabian Costume:


Parade and Pleasure Saddle:


and Cutback Saddle:



Today I plan to curl up with a cup of coffee and start studying!

Throwback Thursday - Old custom horses

For a Throwback Thursday post, how about some new pictures of old horses?  I did these as a quick photo shoot, not putting any time into trying to get the best pictures.  I'm still trying to work out what will hopefully be a semi-permanent photo shoot setup in the new studio.  But for now, these will have to do...


I've been enjoying all of the activity on the Vintage Model Horse Customs page over on Facebook.  I've thought about sharing some of my old customs on there, but I still haven't gotten around to it.  I feel a bit odd sharing my "vintage" models, when many on there are much older - and cooler! - than what I've got to offer.  So, I got the idea to share my own little vintage customs... here in a blog post!

These are Stablemates, except one.  They were all made between 1997 and 2002.  They've all been to some live shows in the past year and several of them have current NAN cards!


"Crown Royale" - a G1 ASB, painted and haired, complete with tiny braided thread mane ribbons.


"Hawke Nevarre" - a... I'm not telling, unless someone can guess the mold - drastic custom Friesian stallion.


He was my very first drastic custom - the one who started it all. I'm thinking he deserves his own post soon.


"Diablo" - a G1 Morgan stallion, redone to a haired, blood bay Andalusian stallion, performing the Spanish Walk.


"Molten Red" - a G2 Stockhorse, painted and tail lowered, to a blood bay Quarter Horse gelding.


"Eastern Autumn" - a G1 Native Dancer, painted to an Appaloosa sport horse mare.


"Days In Avalon" a G1 Native Dancer, painted to a max sabino, white Thoroughbred mare.


"Maskav" - a G1 Native Dancer, slightly remade to an Akhal-Teke stallion with roached mane and haired, shaved tail.


"Gamer" - a G2 Andalusian, repainted to a red dun Lusitano stallion.


"Backflip" - a G2 pony, repainted to a flaxen chestnut Shetland pony stallion


"Wild Honey"  - a G2 Paso, repainted to a chocolate Rocky Mountain Horse mare.
(she had a bit of a makeover late last year)


"Chester" - a G1 Quarter Horse stallion, repainted to a chestnut Quarter Horse stallion.


He's actually not one of my favorites...  but I do like his face.


"Honeybee" - a G2 Paso, repainted to a buckskin Paso Fino mare.


"Della" - an Ertl (remember them?) draft horse, repainted to a Clydesdale mare.


I had freshened up her white areas and her mane and tail ribbons at the Arkansas show last November.  She ended up being my highest placed custom horse at that VERY tough show.


A spontaneous, fun picture of Della and Days In Avalon.  I was randomly curious about Della's size in relation to a Stablemate.  She looks about right in scale to me, especially if you think of Avalon as a tall Thoroughbred...


"Fool's Game" - a G2 Stockhorse, tail lowered and repainted to a bay overo.


She is one of my favorites and always has been.  I actually started painted her to be a sales piece back in the day, but partway through finishing her, I had decided that I might have trouble selling her, because I was liking her so much.  She stayed with me and was never put up for sale.



I hope you enjoyed a look at some of my "oldies".  ;)


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Float Parade

This past weekend was the Misawa City Festival.  One of the events was a float parade.  Here are a handful of pictures (and video!) of some of the amazing floats that we saw.