The aim at the moment is to be completing on average a custom every day. We are definitely not hitting that target but I am painting far more than I have been previously and we are getting a fair few completed, so that is something!
I've been trying to work through lots of the unpainted resins and pewters as well as doing a few other customs. Whilst I usually keep most of my little resin and pewters for the micro army I am also trying to be discerning and rehome a few of them as the situation is getting slightly out of hand (you know things are bad when you literally cannot fit in any more micros).
Last week I got four models completed, apologies the photographs aren't very good I had a killer migraine yesterday and was trying to take the photos with said migraine, which was maybe not the brightest idea I'd ever had!
Anyway let's go through them:
CRS Economy Plus (Turbo)
Turbo is a Maggie Bennett Turbulence micro pewter. He is one of the micro club subscriber models (I think he's actually from this year). I really love this little rodeo horse but he was definitely living up to his name whilst painting.
Firstly he is a bit of a wobbler, but kept luring me into a false sense of security by looking like he was stable, allowing me to spray sealant and then flipping over once I'd left the room. Helpful. So he ended up having to have several repairs done on his coat.
That said I was so happy when I finished him and went to do his final seal. And then the nightmare happened (for once it was not me accidentally spraying him with primer). The sealant did the white dust. I did my best to recover the situation, gave him a bath and sprayed another coat but he did have to have extra pastel added and some repainting. He very much lost the richness of his colour on his show side (of course it was his show side I sprayed first). I don't think it ruined him as he's a snowcap spotted so you would expect some dustiness in the coat, but it really annoyed me. I'd been so happy with him.
Anyway he has been painted to a chestnut snowcap spotted. I went for a red halter and then put his initials on the noseband in white (similar to a horse I'd looked at for reference). He will be shown as a Grade Draft as that seems to suit the general draft mix rodeo horse that he is sculpted to be (and frankly I can't be bothered to come up with an exact mix).
Named Economy Plus after the Kaj song which has been stuck in my head since it came out and his name made me think of aeroplanes which made me think of the song and got it stuck in my head again (which it now is again because I've written this). Also it worked well as a name that could be abbreviated down to be put on the front of the halter.
Maybe It's OK
Maybe It's OK is the 17th Teeny Tiny Night Heather resin that I've painted. As this was the last one that I have I wanted to go with a traditional Fell Pony colour. I had thought about keeping her but I do have my super small one who is painted to a Fell Pony and two black Fells on essentially the same mould seemed a little bit much (space people, space). So I've decided to rehome her, just like the other 16 of them (yep I've never actually kept one I painted). I made sure to make her a decent purebred Fell Pony by ensuring she had no white markings. I did give her lots of depth and shading in her coat though.
She's available here: https://chestnutridge.co.uk/products/maybe-its-ok
Numb Encore
Numb Encore is another Maggie Bennett micro. This is Ducat who was released in December 2020 along with his brother Dosh. Dosh has been painted up already and joined my collection as a lovely light bay Clydesdale with heavy white markings. For Ducat I went with another bay but this time used a reference of a much darker foal with some lovely contrast shading. I wanted to go with a Clydesdale again so added typical heavy white markings on the legs and face. He turned out really nicely.
Again sense has prevailed (I have so many ARC foals) and he is going to be rehomed. I do feel a bit bad separating him from Dosh but maybe you have a Dosh in your collection who needs a Ducat to be friends with?
He's available here: https://chestnutridge.co.uk/products/numb-encore
Bisexual Pride Necklace
To finish I have a really cute little unicorn necklace. I absolutely loved painting the rainbow unicorn with gold mapping and wanted to spend some time doing some more models with a similar technique in different colours. I decided that doing a range of pride flags would be a really cool way to do this and obviously started with the one with the best colours, the bisexual pride flag.
I used the same technique as the rainbow unicorn, using Maskol to map the markings and then airbrushing the colours. I maybe should have thought more about the pattern used in that the purple is quite hidden but I'm really happy with how the colours turned out.
The model had already been prepped to be a necklace so I kept that and added a purple cord with gold hardware to match the model. Every collector needs a Mini Whinnie necklace and why not also have one that has your pride colours on?
He is available here: https://chestnutridge.co.uk/products/bisexual-pride-mw-necklace
