Customizing a Model Horse: Why and How

Why would anyone WANT to customize a model?

There are a number of reasons:

• to make a portrait model: A common request of artists is to repaint a model to look like a horse they love. Sometimes these are given as a gift to someone who has lost their treasured friend.

• to cover/correct a flaw: Models that are badly scuffed up can be repainted, and a horse with a leg in the wrong position can be improved.

• to compete: The work of well-known artists is in high demand, for they produce models so lifelike that they are almost guaranteed to place well in live showing.

• to enjoy: A horse painted gold or purple may never win a ribbon, but might be the most treasured possession on your bookshelf.

Sometimes the factory paint job just isn't up to par, or maybe you just want to see what a draft horse would look like with a wildly spotted coat. Repainting is probably the most common way of "customizing" a model horse.

Acrylic paints are probably the most commonly used, but some artists use oils, pastels and even colored pencils! Another way of customizing a finish is called etching (more on that here).

When repainting for live or photo showing purposes, great care must be taken to produce a believable color and coat pattern. If you're making a "shelf piece" anything goes!

In this practice, a "realistic" hair mane and tail is added to the horse. Various types of man-made and natural fibers are used, but almost never horsehair -- it is far too coarse.

This method of customizing is rarely done due to several factors:

• it is very difficult to attach the hair in a way that looks natural

• it is hard to store/transport a haired model and keep it looking realistic

• the glue used often deteriorates and fails with time

• the hair attracts dust and particles and is nearly impossible to clean

Many artists will choose to resculpt the mane and tail instead.

This is the violent underworld of the collecting and showing hobby: knives, razors, saws, heat, nails and other torture devices are used to "remake" the model into something new.

Plastic surgery, indeed.

Many artists will admit their early attempts resembling Frankenstein's monster more than a work of art. The trade is difficult work, requiring more than just the knowledge of how to saw off and reattach limbs and the use of tools and sculpting compounds-you also need to have a very good sense of what a horse CAN physically do, what a horse of the type you are creating SHOULD be doing, the correct ratios of head proportion to body size, and length of stride for the gait the horse is to be performing. It is science and art combined.

Along with more than a bit of maniacal laughter.

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