Mini Madness

While October 26th is still far away, I still find myself focusing on Little Bit/Paddock Pal scale models and smaller. Predominantly those micro minis!

Micro minis, while small, and some might assume easier to paint, present their own challenges with their small size. While they do take less time to paint based on their smaller surface area, tiny, intricate details are not as easy to achieve as there are few brushes or tools that are small enough to be effective on their scale. Few to single haired brushes are the ideal, I sometimes use a tooth pick or a fine tipped shaping tool sometimes too for tiny details.

Probably most surprising, that while I mentioned single haired brushes...I don't own one. Hence my reliance on toothpick tips or shaping tool tips for details like eyes & spots. For the overall blending of the body I use the small brushes/few haired brushes. To refine details like body, leg and facial markings, I use colored pencils that are sharpened to fine points so that the pencil marks are not overly thick.

For the next several weeks, you'll be seeing a lot of teeny, tiny horses on this blog. Here are the ones that were finished this past week. Both are micro mini pewters sculpted by the talented Maggie Bennett.

Till the next time!

Weekend Works

Whew! It's been a rough past two weeks between the weather (all this rain-blah!) and then my left eye having a pain in it that made it impossible to paint (it's better now).

This weekend has been a weekend of painting, and I'm so happy to be back at it! After these last couple weeks of rain, I know that I need to invest in a lamp so that I have better lighting in my studio space rather than relying on natural lighting. Next paycheck I can hopefully do that (also hoping to add a heat gun for more customizing shenanigans!)

In original finish-dom, my friend was kind enough to feel up a bunch of blind bags and snag me not only the blue Alby-corn, but also the chase piece from the Spirit Blind Bags-the war paint Spirit! I'm super excited! On top of that, Wal-Mart had the new unicorn bags in, finally, and I got the red Alby-corn as well as the teal Clyde for my congas. My mini Alborozo conga is nearly complete only needing Sarge and the silver charm chase piece from those blind bags. I also recently purchased California Chrome (darn you Breyer for retiring him-do you know how hard your race horses are to find after they retire?!) as well as the CollectA donkey foal and the adorable silver dapple Shetland. I will need to order another one to customize as it's just too adorable to not be in other colors.

Then there's the resin I purchased at the end of August: a raw casting of Bourbon by Seunta. It's a raw casting and I am even more in love with it than I was when I first saw it on their website a year or two ago. Super happy to have it in my collection now. It just needs paint. Still debating if I want to attempt the Appaloosa pattern I have in mind, or send it to another artist to paint. We'll see what the future holds!

But back on topic/what you're here for--customs! Here are the ones that were finished two weeks ago, but never got their glamour shots:

(Fun decorator reminiscent of veined ore)

(Mummy horse for Spooky Swap)

And then here are the recently completed pieces including my NaReViMo model (who just needs the mohair at this point and white touch-ups on its stockings-same with the little bay):

(Buckskin Akhal-Teke)

(Little bay inspired by the Thoroughbred-Golden Lad)

(Buckskin Peruvian Paso with Bend Or Spots)

(Isabella Palomino for a friend-will be haired at the same time as my NaReViMo horse)

(NaReViMo horse-so close to being finished!)

That's all for this post. Till the next time!