Max Does NaMoPaiMo 2024 - Photostory! IMG INT

What's this, blog activity?! In this economy?! 🤯

I actually shot this photostory last year, but procrastinated to a ridiculous degree in doing the actual writing part, so here we are a whole year later and I'm still finishing it last minute!😂

Anyway, here's when Max reeeeeally struggled to get started with her NaMo pony...

There's a LOT of photos in this btw, and I'm still getting to grips with google photos for hosting instead of Flickr. XD

 

Max Does NaMoPaiMo 2021! (img int - plus stopmotion!)

For the last four years, I've not been alone in my NaMoPaiMo experience, Max has joined in as well. This year she also decided to paint a dapple grey, kind of as a throwback to her first NaMo horse which she also reculpted a little. 

 

 

NaMoPaiMo 2021! (VERY img intensive!)

 AKA the year I created Seònaid, hands down the best custom I've ever done in my life. 

Just FYI there are literally hundreds of photos in this post so if you have slow internet, consider yourself warned! 😅

NaMoPaiMo 2019!

I've been procrastinating more than usual recently, and as a result my documentation of this year's event has been delayed by far too long!

I filmed as I painted, so there’ll eventually be a full video tutorial on YouTube at some point once I’ve got round to editing it all!

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For a project like NaMoPaiMo, success can be measured in many different ways.
For some, success can be as simple as adding paint to a model after years of no motivation, or trying out a new colour or technique. For others, it can be more specific, like finally finishing that AR you’ve been putting off painting because you lacked the confidence to even start it, or nailing the perfect dappling technique.

Everybody’s experience is entirely their own, and therefore, in the words of the inimitable Bob Ross:

’we don’t make mistakes, we make happy accidents’

That said, I made my fair share of mistakes this year, but I think the successes drowned them out overall.

NaMoPaiMo prizes!

As everyone who took part in this year’s NaMoPaiMo knows, being lucky enough to win a prize wasn’t the point of the challenge, but a nice bonus and not something to be expected! However, I was told a couple of weeks ago by Jennifer that both myself AND Max would be getting something in the post, and it arrived last week. 

I didn’t sleep much the night before, after staying up until 6am to watch Critical Role (damn you timezones!) so I wasn’t quite with it when the parcel arrived, but once I’d woken up and realised what it was I couldn’t wait to investigate! 

 I’m utterly blown away, this is so incredibly generous and I just don’t have the words to thank you guys!  I got this absolutely beautiful Classic scale ‘Gigi’ resin by Mindy Berg, which I can’t wait to paint, though it might take a while to settle on a colour, but I’m already getting a very matronly broodmare feel to her, perhaps an old retired riding school pony or something? She’s currently the biggest resin I have now too! 

 Max didn’t come away empty handed either, and now has another resin to paint, this time a Maggie Jenner Bennet grumpy pony! I have to admit that out of all of Maggie’s minis this one wasn’t my initial favourite, based purely on the pose but oh how my opinion has changed! There’s so much personality in this little beastie (I love the neck wrinkles!!!) and I’ve got so many colour ideas! I’ve been buzzing all day! 

Rest assured guys, there’ll be a repeat of Max’s adventures in painting next year!

On another note, I've been very bad at updating this blog recently - extra annoying as I actually have lots to post about for a change! Hopefully I'll get some more interesting stuff up on here soon.

Christine does NaMoPaiMo!

Max has hogged the limelight for far too long so here's what *I* got up to this month!

My goal for NaMo this year was to paint some models to sell (which I utterly failed at sadly) and finally get round to painting the Maggie Bennet micro mini Shetland I'd had sitting naked on my shelf for the last few years. I'd never been able to settle on a colour so he'd been relegated to the 'procrastination station' until such time as inspiration struck. It kinda didn't, but I pushed myself to paint him anyway and I honestly couldn't be happier with how he (and his bonus friend!) turned out.

Max does NaMoPaiMo - The Conclusion!

I meant to post this ages ago but I've been distracted by painting more ponies!😂

I managed to get everything spliced together into one video, so ta-da! Here's Max's work in its entirety!

I had a lot of fun making it all so I'll definitely be doing more like it in the future.

Max does NaMoPaiMo!

A little late to the party as ever, but the first of February marked the anniversary and new start to the incredibly fun and rewarding 'National Model Painting Month', or 'NaMoPaiMo'.

With well over 600 entrants this year, it's instantly bigger and better than last time and some people are already posting their finished horses on the Facebook group - some the same day the month long challenge began!

I aim to paint a micro mini I've had lying around naked for far too long...

 

...but I wasn't the only one in the household who had some goals for this month - Max wanted to take part too!

This post will contain the first part of her NaMoPaiMo experience...which includes stopmotions!
(click on the Instagram posts to view them)

If you're on Instagram you can follow #maxdoesnamopaimo to see her progress! 

I will of course be posting my own NMPM work, but let's face it, Max is way more photogenic!

Going Incobnito!

I realised a few weeks ago that I never actually showed the progress of my final NaMoPaiMo horse - Hamlet the hogged show cob!

I finally settled on a pattern...

...and then totally forgot to update on his progress! XD

I went from primed to complete in only a couple of days - one of the benefits of black pintos is that you can get away without a lot of complicated shading!

I blocked out the markings in black acrylic, then added in some mapping. Shading was added with pastels and coloured pencils - those especially came in handy on the hooves.

I always make a point of dirtying up the feet a bit, as even with the best will in the world and a ton of cleaning products, no horse ever has absolutely perfectly white legs unless they're never allowed outside.

I started making him a tack set almost as soon as he was finished - the same night, if I remember correctly.

 I'm confident enough with the saddles but the bridles are something else entirely at that scale!

As a result I cheated hugely with the bridle as I absolutely loathe strapwork, so the buckles are only painted on and it's split at the crown so it all goes on/off in one piece. It isn't brilliant and in an ideal world I'd like to do it again but I'm not really ready to attempt it again so it'll have to do for now.

I gave him a photoshoot the other day but the lighting was terrible and makes him look much 'colder' than he really is. The WIP pictures above are closest to his actual colour.

 

 In preparation for his ridden career I'd been customising an old Britains rider off and on for a few months. He had a flat cap transformed into a helmet and had most of his inside leg removed and reshaped so he'd sit properly, as well as having his arms resculpted. He needs a skoosh of dullcote to take away the gloss but I think he'll do!

Because of my love of puns and cobs, I decided to name him 'EA Incobnito' as he went under the radar for a bit!

Counting Bodies Like Sheep...

In addition to the painting aspect, one of the things I wanted to achieve this month with NaMoPaiMo was sorting out my rather extensive collection of bodies.

I'm not exactly the most organised of people - though I do try! - and despite getting a big box with a lid to store them in, the lid had gone walkabout and the corner I'd stored it in had turned into...this.

The red box has some of my leather in it and the one behind, my felt.

Shockingly that wasn't even all my bodies - ones I was actively (or occasionally) still working on lived on top of a set of drawers, the windowsill and my poor Playstation 4 because it was the closest horizontal surface. (and it's nice and warm when it's on, so it speeds up drying time!)

I don't mind a bit of clutter here and there but this was getting ridiculous. I didn't even know what I had any more, so I finally bit the body shaped bullet and hauled everything out of that corner.

 (The flatpacked wooden stable will be sold eventually, though I have someone already interested so don't bother asking!)

Not including the WIPs, all piled up in the box it didn't look like I had that many. I'd had a cull of my bodies sometime last year, and I've got a big cardboard box in the loft full of the rejects - either cheap and nasty horse-shaped-objects that need a lot of work to look semi decent, or ones I know I'm never in a million years going to get through. I'll probably do a sales post with them at some point as they're just taking up space.

Once I took everything out however...

I had just a few more than I was expecting.

A post shared by Christine Sutcliffe (@lynkhart) on Feb 16, 2017 at 9:04am PST

I found a completely unopened bag of unpainted stablemates, in addition to a lot of loose ones too - I think I ended up with about 50 of those alone!

Some were WIPs I've had on hold for years, like this naked flockie-turned-zombie horse.

The rest were a glorious mixture of Schleichs, Magpies and other random brands thrown in.

Mini Haggis came out of the box with a friend. XD

 

The final tally, including a tupperware box of mini whinnies, came to 232, though I know I have a few more lurking elsewhere!

I'll probably take a few to Copperfox's Stirling show in a couple of months time, but the rest are very much not for sale. I went out to Homebase after I'd had a sort though, and bought two more boxes to store the smaller ones in and I think this looks a bit more organised now!

The current WIPs still live on the top, but there's far less space now so I hopefully won't be tempted to add to the pile!

I'm not sure if I'll finish any other horses this month but I've still got the best part of a week so you never know! :P

NaMoPaiMo - A few finished ponies!

Against all my original predictions I've not only finished my designated pony, but several others too and I've still got half the month left to go!

NaMoPaiMo - Day...3?

I've kind of lost track of the days a bit here, haha!

Progress has been made on all fronts however, and some are getting closer and closer to completion!


After another couple of pastel layers, the Shetland had his markings outlined, which is one of the most tedious, yet fulfilling parts of doing pintos.



I always love this stage, as the coloured areas really start to pop, even with just the basic outlines done!

NaMoPaiMo - Day 1

First things first, I needed to clear my desk! XD

NaMoPaiMo 2017!

As many of my regular readers will have noticed, other than the recent Julip one, there's been a distinct lack of pony posts over the last wee while. I've always had something of a wandering muse; one minute I'll be really into something, but in a matter of days or weeks I'm in the mood for something else, and so I've been doing a lot more with my dolls over the last few months while the horses took a back seat.

 I really needed something to get myself back in an equestrian mood, as my body piles have been mounting up whilst my motivation to paint them ebbed away. So, you can imagine my delight when Jennifer Buxton announced a brilliant challenge for February - NaMoPaiMo!

Inspired by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) she came up with this one specifically to get hobbyists back into painting and interest in it has been rather dramatic!

I had no shortage of bodies and quite a few awaiting primer, so choosing my victims wasn't too difficult. Only one model would be counted in the challenge, but I've picked four I'd like to get done this month.

From left to right; 'Horatio' by Clare Stokes, 'Truffles' by David Mayer/Horsing Around, 'Night Heather' by Kelly Sealey and 'Hamlet' by Clare Stokes.

All of them have been sat next to my desk for the best part of a year. I occasionally sanded a few seams and carved out some hooves but other than that they've lain more or less untouched.

UNTIL TODAY!