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

What's on the workbench!

...or body boxes to be more specific!

As ever, my room's a complete tip but while attempting to tidy up yesterday I decided I'd had enough of the overflowing shoe boxes of half finished/half mangled bodies that would most likely never get finished.

This is how they all looked when I put them all together...

...and after sorting them out...(note my rather obvious filing system XD)

I've accumulated rather a lot over the years as you can see...

I'll probably give away the remainder free on MHL as I'm never going to get round to doing anything with them and although they're all pretty awkward to work with, I only paid pennies for them in the first place so it's not like I'll be making a loss.

Anyway, aside from all the mangled corpses in the boxes, I've been working on a select few this week. I hope to get the majority of them finished up in time for the MHL Live in September so I can take them along to show as well as a few repaints to sell on.

First up is a custom I've been working on for several years, an MBH ('My Beautiful Horses') standing horse to a warmblood stallion. I gave him a sculpted plaited mane and tail, stallion anatomy and tried my best to sort out his seams and rough patches. Once he's had another coat or two of primer I'll be painting him to chestnut - possibly a semi portrait of my friend's horse Cruz's sire - Stonegrove Ace.

A Schleich warmblood this time - he'll probably be for sale once he's finished unless I get really attached to him in the meantime. I've been using nothing but acrylics so far and I think he's looking pretty good.

Schleich TWH to chestnut sabino. One of my favourite colours, ironically on one of my least favourite breeds! I love the mould though.

Another Schleich now, well, two of them really. Both falabellas are long anticipated commissions that I just haven't been in the mood to paint until now. (curse you artistic muse, curse yoooou!) This one will be silver dapple (I might end up redoing him from scratch as he's not looking great at the moment) and the other, palomino.

I'm also painting the PAPO Thoroughbred to perlino. While I was prepping her it struck me just how much the head reminds me of a Marwari's - an idea for a future custom perhaps?

I never had any Magpie shetlands until recently when I managed to aquire three in quick succession! It's a lovely little mould and aside from the tiny, tiny eyes is possibly one of the most accurate shetland models out there. This one has been resculpted, funnily enough by the person I'm painting the falabellas for and as I already have a black shetland in my show string, I decided to give him a bit of a makeover and make him piebald. As you can see, he still needs several layers...

I think this was another PAPO mould and I'm rather pleased with her progress so far. Once she's finished she'll be shown as a Dutch Heavy Draught although obviously that's a long way off still.

I've never been all that confident in repositioning so when I had a go at the superglue/bicarbonate of soda trick the other day, to say I was pleased was a rather large understatement. No longer would I have to drag out the horrible milliput to attempt to set a head, I could do it in seconds!

I recieved a box of G1 stablemates a year or so ago and haven't done much with them since then other than repainting one of the Arabs and lopping the head off the solitary Silky Sullivan. When I finally decided to do something about it, for some reason I decided to make her an Arab - probably so I could pair her up with the aforementioned repainted one. I think the neck is now a bit too long so I'd appreciate any feedback...

I never used to like flippy tails on arabs but they've really grown on me!

Another resculpt is this Hong Kong Breyer knockoff - oddly scaled to large stablemate/small Schleich size. One of his legs had snapped off and superglue alone wouldn't seal the break. I tried to pin it but the plastic was so brittle that that didn't work either so I ended up slapping some more superglue/soda on which worked wonders. Instead of the Saddlebred I was originally going for, to hide the join I'm now going to give him feathering and much more hair so he can be a Friesian instead.

Another superglue success was this old Classic Arabian stallion who'd been knocking around the body box with his head taped loosely to his neck for many months. I'll move his eyes down a bit as they're set too highly on his face and probably sculpt him some new ears as well.

Finally, a little stablemate etchie who has become something of a project. When I'm not working on him he lives on my windowsill next to my bed, along with a scalpel with a broken blade. (which I actually find easier to use) Because I've chosen such an awkward and painstaking pattern to etch, I tend only to work on him when I'm waiting for something or can't sleep which probably explains why I've done so little.

It probably looks really rough and sketchy there but I can assure you, he looks a lot better in person! He'll be a near maximum sabino when I'm finished with him - like this one, only Arab shaped. ;)

Speaking of cobby things, look who arrived in the post this morning? ;D

Mini Haggis! ^^ I've wanted one of these for AGES so thank you so much for selling him to me Clare! He needs a lot of work and I don't have a clue what colour to paint him eventually but I'm sure something'll come to me...

Anyway, that's it for now - go and have a nice chocolate biscuit for reading all that! :D