NaMoReViMo Begins

August is now National Model (Horse) Retro Vintage Month! The event is hosted on FB (private group) by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig. It's a fun event honoring/commemorating the vintage custom model horses of yester-year. The rules for the event are simple-grab a model, paint it how you want, and have fun. Of course, due to it being vintage/retro themed, we have many different interpretations of this event.

In my opinion the best interpretation was from a vintage custom artist in the group: while they worked to have fun with their customs back in the day, they were striving for realism. The models weren't throwaways (though they could be considered experiments). As many hobbyists have seen, vintage customs were/are drop dead gorgeous and many were very life-like with epic paint jobs and real hair mane and tails. A lot of hard work went into them.

So I set some parameters for myself based on this general idea of "have fun, but strive for realism"

-No online reference photos
-Acrylics only
-Hair mane & tail
-Real horse color

I am striving to be as "vintage" as possible, hence no use of internet for a reference photo as they didn't have that back then, acrylics-as it was the predominant medium of the hobby at the time, hair mane & tail because they were a HUGE deal back in the day, and of course, a realistic horse color, just because.

Originally, I wanted to use a Misty's Twilight model as the body, unfortunately, I wasn't able to acquire one. With the help from a friend, I made my first alterations to a model. I changed Breyer's Trotting Warmblood Stablemate to more closely resemble Misty's Twilight.

From there Apoxie was added to the cuts and now she just needs a good sanding followed by primer. Then she's ready to paint. I selected a dapple grey as my color of choice off of the cover of one of my horse books.

Is anyone else participating in NaMoReViMo? What are you painting? Are you going to add a hair mane & tail? Flocking? Let me know!

Till the next time!