Vintage Club 2020

Now normally I'm the kind of self restrained person that says "I'm going to BF next year I won't spend money"

But normally doesn't come into it when we look at the 2020 Vintage Club.

First of all I give you everyone's dream horse:



The moment they said it actually came with the comb and stuff they had me!



And then there are the pretty standard Vintage releases like this girl:



And then there's the Gambler's Choice. Take a moment. Breath. Then look...

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Yes you are not seeing things, that is an IN BETWEEN MARE GAMBLER'S CHOICE MODEL!!!

I mean if you are not screaming at your laptop right now then why not? How lush do they look? BEYOND LUSH!

I NEED ALL THREE!!

So guess what I just joined :p

If you too are completely lacking in self-control you can join the Vintage Club here: https://www.breyerhorses.com/products/2020-vintage-collectors-club

Countdown to BreyerFest - 276 Days to Go

I received the first part of my Bursary payment on Friday which could mean only one thing, it was time to actually start thinking about BreyerFest and do some booking!

The first decision that needed to be made was where we were going to spend the second week of our two week holiday as this would effect where we chose to fly into and also the times of flights etc. Having assessed the surrounded area and thought about various things we both concluded that a week in Nashville would be pretty awesome (whisky and country music you say?!?!) and so planning was a go!

The plan is to fly into Nashville on the Monday, because long haul flights are tiring and if there are delays that can cause all kinds of issues we decided to spend the Monday night in an airport hotel and then drive to Kentucky the next day in the hire car. So hotel number 1 = booked.

Now it came to the most important part, where are we going to stay for BreyerFest. Having looked at various different options (it's been left too late but I can't really help being poor)! We decided to go with the Embassy Suits. A significant chunk of our budget later and one week is #BOOKED!

We actually have a proper suite as well so gonna feel well posh!

And then came to Nashville. This was actually the hardest part, as I was prepared to splash out on the hotel near BF but was less inclined to spend too much money on the hotel in Nashville, but also didn't want to be next to 25c Peep Shows again (yep actual place we stayed...don't ask...). We eventually found a Great Western that wasn't too expensive and yet had the protection of being a chain brand (better if you get into issues) and a reasonably nice hotel. Can't remember if it had a buffet breakfast or not though, but it does have free parking so yay!

So that is stage 1 of BreyerFest prep complete! I now need more money to book our flights and car hire and also to get travel insurance. Once those are booked up then it's just save save save! I'm relying on Brendon having enough money to spend on the second half of our holiday though because let's face it I'm going to spend every penny I own at BreyerFest!

(also don't forget I'm going to need a lot of money put aside for waffles, and then probably for the personal trainer so I can lose weight once I get home)!



WAFFLES!!!!!

New Breyer Minis

This has been doing the rounds on social media and I just had to share it with you guys! As we know Breyer have been playing around with shrinking models a lot recently but this is beyond cool, look at these! Four new tiny mini Traditional/Classic Breyers!

I cannot wait to get these, I'm going to need an entire box of the tiny little gems.

Some more pics have appeared, I'm not sure who took them but if they are yours please let me know so I can credit you!

Countdown to BMECS 2019 - 8 Days Till D-Day!

You know how something just creeps up on you like the creepy old man at the bus stop? Yep. Well that's BMECS this year and OMG THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO!

So I started packing last weekend (good me) but things descended into complete mayhem and chaos as I decided to spend the last few days being a depressed artist, drawing melancholy pictures and writing poetry like a 13 year old girl who has just read Edgar Allen Poe for the first time and has John Clare's I Am written on her wall.

Look a packed box! I can take a break now right?

So what is left on my to do list for this year's BMECS.

Well first and foremost I need to like pack my horses...I'm taking 399 this year! So you know not that many, and well 399 horses need to be in boxes by next Friday. Which is fine. Until you think that one of my scene entries is literally in pieces, hasn't been assembled since last 2016 and was raided for bits for another scene entry which I'm also entering. So umm yea everything is fine right? *panics*

On top of that the Christmas horses are late. Which means I have to find a different raffle prize. Brilliant. I'm tempted to do an order simply so I have something to sell because there isn't a chance in potato land that I'll have something painted and ready to sell by next weekend let alone more than one thing!

The last horse I actually finished painting, over a month ago!

So yes. Chaos reins here and I am very stressed. How are you getting on with your BMECS prep? Probably better than me! That said I'm looking forward to getting very drunk, eating waaaay too much pizza, sharing some cookie dough (with Donna probably :p ) and generally having a great weekend with my besties, believe me I need it!

Buy What You Love, Not What You Think Will Win

One of the many advantages (or as Brendon would probably say disadvantages) of being a moderator on a sales group is that I get to see sales ads before anyone else.

This means I can buy the thing before anyone else. Which is probably not a good thing. But my latest impulse buy hardly broke the bank so it's all good.

So here's the story. A few weeks back I was happily minding my own business wasting my life on Facebook when I decided to actually contribute something to society and moderate my own Facebook group, you know like a civilised human being. After repeated rule infringements I've had to set the posts on UK Model Horse Sales to approval, which has actually made moderating a LOT easier. But it also means that I see the sales ads before anyone else does as I'm the only person that currently does any moderating.

So I click on the list and I'm going through, approving posts when I see this gorgeous custom. She's just too cute! The post is full of "she's not very good, only really a body etc. etc." and I'm like "no poor baby she's adorable, I love her, I have to have her!". So I approve the post, search Facebook for the group, find the group, find the post and then message the seller because I HAVE to have this horse!

Several messages later and my very extravagant purchase (less than £20) is made and Badger is on her way to me. I'm so excited, she's just adorable and I love her so much!

You see the thing is, the seller is right, this isn't a show model. She could pass for PSQ but she is never going to be part of my live show string (although she will come to some shows), but that DOESN'T MATTER. Because you know what? Winning isn't everything. I know shocking news flash but for some people this is something they need to hear. It makes me sad when I see younger collectors in particular selling things because they don't show well that they've had for years, or only searching for the best of the best, because if all you are looking for in a model horse is show success then you are only ever going to be disappointed. Even if the horse does as well as it possibly can at some point it is going to lose and you are going to feel crappy. If you spend £500 on a top quality custom and it never places (trust me it happens) how will you feel about that model? If you spend £500 on a top quality custom because you love it more than anything you've ever seen and you couldn't care less if it places or not then yes you probably are going to feel a bit bummy when it doesn't place but at the end of the day you love her so it doesn't matter.

Buy a model you love and you have a piece to cherish for eternity.

Buy a model to show and you will have nothing but that aching feeling that maybe you could have just done a little bit better.

And with that I'll leave you with a final picture of CRS A Mushroom (aka Badger), a beautiful custom by Steph Lovely.

This Custom is #Lit

Honestly I need to stop making that pun but I won't because it is funny and I am SO in love with this pigment it is amazing.

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to order some of Stuart Semple's 'Lit' pigment, because who doesn't want a glow in the dark model horse?

I've been pondering what to do with it for a while but then suddenly on Monday I had inspiration and 'The Climb' was born.

First of all a look at the pigment, it glows like nothing I've ever seen:

I mean if it looks like that on my hand what will it look like on a model horse?

Stuart Semple also produces a base medium which is what I used to apply it, I'm not 100% happy with how this turned out as it was a little too think and clumpy for the kind of find detail you want on a model horse. But plenty of time to experiment in future.

I also experimented with adding the pigment dry, I didn't think it had actually done anything until I took a night shot of the model glowing and realised it was all over its face and neck!

OOPS!

So I gave it a bit of a dust off before finishing the model and sealing. I love this shot here because it shows just how much the pigment itself actually glows:

So what about the model? Well I decided to start with a silver base. First I added non-mixed colour shift paint (from Green Stuff World) to give it a pearly finish on top of the white primer. This is a technique I use a lot if I want a unicorn to look pearly, although I need to order more as I'm really the point where the pigment is mixing in and I'm getting a hint of the colour coming through each time I do it!

I then used Citadel silver airbrushed on for the silver coat, simply adding more or less to give a bit of shading.

Now came the fun part! I mixed the pigment with the base and added it to the tail, mane, face and the end of the horn for that bit of glow! I then checked what it looked like at night.

I finished the coat colour with lots of tiny white dots, almost like stars. No idea why I just wanted tiny white dots!

I then added the yellow detail, I did a tattoo tree up one leg (which is becoming a bit of a trade mark of mine) and then added some streaks in the mane and tail. This blocks the pigment so in the dark it looks a little more detailed.

Finally I did the eye in silver and yellow and finished the hooves off with dark silver.

And doesn't she look cool in the dark? This was taken in the airing cupboard with curtains and door closed to bedroom to try and give as much darkness as possible!

This was taken in light box with just the room light on, still a glow!

And this is in light box with no room light on (window is blocked by curtains)

Isn't she awesome! I can't wait to play around with this pigment more, I need to experiment with different bases to get the desire effect I want and the smoothness needed for model horses.

If you want to rehome her then she is for sale at £25.00: https://www.chestnutridge.co.uk/store/p275/The_Climb.html#/

Hamilton

Breyer's latest Premier Club release Hamilton is now available to order for Premier Club members. This stunning American Saddlebred Stallion was sculpted by Jennifer Scott and is priced at $141.66 if you are a member of the Premier Club.

As always I'm waiting to see what he looks like 'in the flesh' before I think of ordering one, but he is definitely pretty! I can't wait to see him as a regular run and get a custom, I'm already thinking of course. Poor Deb is going to get harassed with emails when this guy comes out!

If you are a Premier Club member you can login to your account and order him now at www.breyerhorses.com

Shetland Ponies and Broken Camera Lenses

Well this week has not exactly been my finest, I've had two vet bills and I've broken my favourite camera lens (again).

This time I haven't actually broken the lens itself (yay go me) but a small piece of plastic inside the lens. The result of which is that I can't actually move it in or out, which means I must be fully zoomed in at all times or I can't focus it. It also won't focus automatically but I suppose that isn't the end of the world, it just means I have to actually wear my glasses when photographing models!

Anyway the reason I'm moaning about this is more of a way of an advanced apology for the poor quality photography that you will now see in the following blog post! Which is a real pity because I love this little Shetland, she is just adorable!

So I started this model a few weeks back but haven't really been doing much painting since Herefordshire Live mainly because I've been busy but also because I've been really tired. So I was really happy to get her finished as I knew she was going to look so cute when I was done!

She is a Schleich Shetland Mare. She's a bit of a cartoony model and she can be a pain to work with as the hair direction is all wrong, but if you go for a decent solid colour you can pretty much hide that and that's what I've done.

I chose a really dark liver chestnut for her, the kind of colour that always looks lush on a Hackney. In fact I'm pretty sure my reference was a Hackney! But I think it works well for her as well.

I added really long white socks on two legs and a nice white stripe, perfect for this cute little pony and to try and show off her adorable little stubby legs. I did have a few issues with hair when painting the mapping around the socks! But it wasn't as bad as the time I tried to do a leopard spotted on this mould and ended up nearly throwing it out of the window because of the hair direction issue...

I think she turned out quite nicely. I've named her 'The Click' (because she just clicked) and put her up for sale on the website. She is priced at £27.00 + postage and I will happily ship her anywhere in the world.

For those who are not familiar with the size of this model here is my desperate attempt to get a penny shot, note that I couldn't zoom the lens out and my light tent isn't that high! I literally could barely get my head in to get the picture! Hence why it is at a weird angle! But you get the general idea.

Want to rehome her? Then follow the sales link here: https://www.chestnutridge.co.uk/store/p274/The_Click.html#/

Iris

The fourth release in the Breyer Stablemate's Club, and this year's Gamblers choice model, is now available to order for domestic members.

International members have to wait until December to order their final three.

Iris is a gorgeous little pony on the G3 Highland mould.

There are four colour ways available:

Grey Pinto

Silver Dapple

Cremello Blanket Spotted

Decorator

Which of the four variations are you hoping for?

Personally I would really like the silver dapple (that gloss is lush) or the cremello blanket spotted. None of them would make a good purebred Highland so who cares what colour! That decorator is also gorgeous.

Now there's just the really really really really really long wait until January when I get my one and find out who I've got! Last year I got lucky, the year before I didn't, so who knows. To be fair I would be happy with any of these four they are all really nice.

Got your model? Drop a comment below and let me know which colour variation you received!

Herefordshire Live 2019

Wow! Can't believe it's taken me a week to get around to having time to right this. I am still absolutely shattered, totally burnt myself out prepping for this show but I think it was worth it :D

I am going to start with the thank yous first :)

Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported the show, without your help on the day and generally awesomeness it wouldn't have been such a great day. I don't have enough time or space to single everyone out (but I will single out a few special individuals) but you were all really really awesome.

Special thanks firstly to Laura who helped set up and clear up and generally was a huge help throughout the weekend. Also well done for tolerating my awful taste in music, Westlife is awesome and you just need to accept that. Thank you so much to Jan, who judged some horrendous classes, I promise if you ever run a show I will judge all the really awful classes including Light Youngstock! You were really great and so tolerant, thank you so much x A massive thank you to Donna who stayed afterwards and helped clean up! That was a huge help when I had to pack all my horses! Thank you to Dave for cleaning the kitchen and amusing Brendon for the whole day!

And of course a massive thank you to Brendon for all his help in the run up to the show and on the day. I couldn't ask for a better husband :) Thank you for cutting BMECS cards, helping pack, loading cars, putting out tables, carrying things, selling raffle tickets, tidying, cleaning and generally being my rock for the last few weeks as I've been stressed and working all hours of the day to try and balance work, studying and show prep. I love you so much and you're a complete star x

And finally...thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets! We raised an amazing £207 for DOTS which is such an awesome charity. Those little doggies are gonna be so happy :D as will their owners of course x

So onto the actual show report, well you may have guessed from my early morning and late night Facebook and Insta posts that I was getting a bit stressed getting ready for the show and getting everything prepped! But in the end I managed to produce three customs for prizes, five customs for the raffle, six tack pieces as prizes and numerous goody bags, raffle prizes and general prizes for the show.

The goody bags were a huge hit, I went major OTT with them and I think most people were on a sugar high by the end of the day but I really hope you enjoyed them :D I do like to spoil people and I hope I managed to do that.

The day started really early for us, once we had managed to find the hall (I did not get lost go me), find the key box and battle through the weird doors we made it in and ready to set up.

The hall is a great space, maybe a little small and seriously lacking in tables but we managed to fit everyone in!



As you can see it didn't take long for Brendon and Dave to start having important man talks. You can see the green goody bags on everyone's tables and the entire stage taken up by a raffle!

The day started with Original Finish in ring one, Performance in ring two and Workmanship in ring three.

Here is one of the workmanship classes, Bay



This photo also gives you an idea of how neat everything looked to start with :p But also how competitive some of the classes were, I mean look at the standard of entries!

OF was also hugely competitive and there were some stunning horses on show, here is a really nice PSA



Performance was also really well represented, I only had one class with a single entry over the entire day which was great! Here is a CF ISH approaching a cross country jump



And just because I love these little Schleich models here is a little Schleich cross country entry



My first yay moment of the day was getting a Workmanship Division champ with CRS Mona Lisa :D Now touched up she can finally hit the show ring again,



Uti also did really well as always, although Curtis was mean to him so he did cry a bit. Mean Curtis.



All of the sections had division championships as well as section championships, here you can see the stunning rosettes made by Inspirations Rosettes in front of a gorgeous Julip dressage entry



As you can see some of the classes had lots of variety in them which was nice. This is OF Paint horse



The leopard spot class made my eyes hurt! This is one of my favourite Harleys, a Kim Burd paint job



It was great to see lots of newcommers and younger showers having a go at performance as well, look at this lovely Roxy in Western tack



I just love the colour on this ISH



This was the other spotted workmanship class, less eye hurting than leopard but still SO MANY SPOTS



The part colour division champion, another favourite model of mine, this little pinto Hazel is just gorgeous



I was over the moon with Muir Woods :D He took home his second BMECS card and got a reserve division champion! Such a clever boy :D



Who doesn't love a Smarty Jones in Western tack? This rider looks like she is really going for it!



There were some really creative entries on the day, especially from the newcommers, look at this lovely Marabella in costume



WORKMANSHIP CHAMPIONSHIP

Prizes donated by Chestnut Ridge

Workmanship Champion



Workmanship Reserve Champion



Workmanship Reserve to Reserve Champion - CRS Mona Lisa (painted by Deb Brown)



These little mini whinnies were having great fun next to a stream



And because he was mean to Uti here is an embarrassing picture of Curtis



A gorgeous little CM Valegro (fun fact this guy was UK Workmanship champ at BMECS a few years ago)



PERFORMANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Performance Champion



Performance Reserve Champion



Performance Reserve to Reserve Champion



Obviously the day wasn't thrilling for everyone



At lunchtime we had three fun classes, one of which was Apple most like Horse. I must say that everyone became worryingly competitive over this class. Some strange things went on with these apples!



At lunch we also had the raffle which took a very long time because genius here acquired A LOT of prizes. But Brendon was happy because he took home two teddies and I was happy because I got yet another teapot (I had managed to cut down to just three teapots). I think everyone got something, it was great to see a young hobbyist win the little artist resin I donated! They were over the moon! I can't remember who got the stunning AA Mule but it was such a beautiful donation, thank you Donna x Thank you so much to everyone who donated something, you were all so generous x

Anyway back to the show and on with OF!



After lunch we then started the CTF section, Albert did me proud (again), I swear this horse has so many rosettes I could build a fort out of them. I can't believe Donna was worried I wouldn't like him!



ORIGINAL FINISH CHAMPIONSHIP

Original Finish Champion



Original Finish Reserve Champion



Original Finish Reserve to Reserve Champion (nice to see the King Arthurs are still going strong)



The AA section then ran after OF. So at this point we had AA in ring one, CTF in ring two and CM in ring three.

Look at the paint job on this guy it's just gorgeous



Because I love bays and I love shiny china things, a really nice little bay AA TB



One of my older customs still doing well and taking home a 5th in CM Fantasy



We haven't had any cuteness in a while so check out the CTF Pony Youngstock class!



Another gorgeous paintjob, I just love the dapple on this AA model, and I don't normally like dapples!



CUSTOM CHAMPIONSHIP

Custom champion



Custom Reserve Champion - CRS I Am Spartacus (painted by Deb Brown)



Custom Reserve to Reserve Champion



Judging all of the classes was tough and required a lot of concentration! Also check out Brendon in the background, caught in the act of sweet stealing!



CTF CHAMPIONSHIP

CTF Champion



CTF Reserve Champion - CRS Albert I (RubberNedz Trakehner in Bay)



CTF Reserve to Reserve Champion



This was my favourite model of the day by far - I am just in love with her!

ANIMAL ARTISTRY CHAMPIONSHIP

AA Champion



AA Reserve Champion



AA Reserve to Reserve Champion



The prizes, rosettes, trophies and certificates for the Supreme Championship, some amazing things on offer for the winners, they also all got goody bags!



Waiting for judging...the custom champions



Herefordshire Live 2019 - Supreme Champion



Herefordshire Live 2019 - Reserve Supreme Champion



Herefordshire Live 2019 - Reserve to Reserve Supreme Champion



Don't worry I won't share the embarrassing pic of you all stood behind your models on here!

Thank you so much to everyone who came :) I hope you all had a wonderful day and your models did you proud. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year :D Now ROLL ON BMECS!