NaReViMo week one

Today was the last day of the first week of NaReViMo.

My horse looks almost exactly like she did when the month started.

In my defense, I've been really busy.

Also, I've sustained a minor but still significant injury.

Don't blame Sage.

This is one hundred percent work related.

My model doesn't require a lot of prep, but she needs some. I'm picking away at it, but progress is slow.

Hopefully, next week will be more productive. Only time will tell!

Winging it

The NaMoPaiMo Facebook page is a treasure trove of wisdom in regards to the art of model horse. While most of the information revolves around finishwork, nothing off limits. Today's guest post come from Lupa, a multiyear NaMoPainter who has been collecting model horses since the very early 1990s. After returning to the hobby several years ago, she focused on customizing vintage Breyer and Hartlands using primarily earth pigments. Some of these models end up with real taxidermy bird wings, which is the subject of this piece. You can find more about Lupa’s work on her webpage. 

Thoughts on Winged Horses

by Lupa

Hey, folks! I’ve been making Pegasus customs with real taxidermy bird wings for over a decade. I want to offer some tips for adding wings with an eye toward both equine and avian anatomy. 

Yes, we are trying to turn a quadruped into a sextuped, but for the most part, artists depicting Pegasus in 2-D or 3-D are trying to emulate a bird’s wings as attached to the upper point of the horse’s shoulder. Placing them in the middle of the back is usually seen as imbalanced; placing them too low on the shoulder interferes with the forelegs. So while we have to take some artistic license given these are fictional beings, we can still do our best to create a believable hybrid.

The first thing to consider is comparative anatomy between horses and birds. Both are vertebrates, and while there are certainly differences in their skeletal structures, they have quite a bit in common, especially with regards to the general overall shape of the skeleton. What we often refer to as the “chest” of a horse is really the anterior end of the ribcage; the entire ribcage is really the horse’s chest in total. You also want to consider how the spine and sternum are more or less parallel to each other in the three example species in the first and second images—the American robin, the ostrich, and the horse.

Now, the thing that sets birds apart from most mammals is that the forelimbs have evolved into wings. Whereas legs primarily use a forward and backwards movement parallel with the sides of the body, wings primarily use an up and down movement perpendicular to the sides of the body. While wings certainly do have some range of motion forward and backwards, it isn’t nearly as pronounced as in a horse’s forelegs, or our arms. This video of an eagle swimming shows a pretty decent range of motion, but a lot of the movement we see in more extreme wing positions has more to do with the spread and bend of the feathers than of the skeletal structure itself.

The same goes for rotational movement in the wings—and forelimbs in general. If you draw a line along the inside of your arm from the shoulder, to the inside of the elbow, and to the inside of the wrist, and then twist your hand forward and backward, most people can twist their hands back about 180 degrees and forward about ninety degrees. However, not everything along that line pivots that far; the line close to where your humerus connects to your shoulder doesn’t pivot as far, and the joint doesn’t have as much range of motion. The part of the forelimb between the elbow and the wrist can twist more than that between the shoulder and the elbow due to the twisting of the radius and ulna. In short, the human arm—and the bird wing—are not like the stiff arms of Barbies and other dolls where the entire arm has to move as one uniform piece when you twist the ball and socket at the doll’s shoulder.

Most of the time, the wing is moving in an up and down motion that is perpendicular to the spine and sternum. Even hummingbirds, which are among the most agile of their kind and have particularly mobile wings, still do not deviate too much from that up and down movement of the skeletal structure. This imagae is a good illustration of hummingbird wingbeats, 

while these photos show hummingbirds at various points in their range of motion. Notice that even when the undersides of the wings appear to be facing forward, they are still more or less parallel with the spine and sternum of the bird—NOT the same as the “chest” (anterior end of the ribcage) of the horse. Notice also that there is significant bend in the feathers that exaggerates the appearance of torsion in the wings, and also when the bird has its head bent down to drink that also creates a greater illusion of torsion. Make sure you are looking at the skeletal structure of the wings in relation to the spine and sternum!

Let’s look more closely at how a lot of the more extreme bending and torsion in bird wings is from the deformation and spreading of the feathers, not the muscle and bone of the wing. Look at this video on how bird wings work and this one on realistic structures for craft and cosplay wings, It’s also SUPER important to watch slow motion videos of birds in flight like this one with birds of many species or this one specifically of hummingbirds. Look closely, and you’ll start to see the difference in the range of motion of the skeletal structure of the wing, and the change in shape of the feathers. But even then—there is a LIMIT to how far those feathers can bend. Primary and secondary wing feathers must have a certain amount of stiffness for the bird to be able to fly. While they have flexibility, they are nowhere near as soft as the rest of the bird’s feathers. If you are depicting a secondary or especially a primary feather bent into an acute C shape, that’s not realistic.

An example of a really unrealistic wing movement is the TriStar Pegasus.

Here the entire underside of the wing from the shoulder to the wrist is turned entirely ninety degrees upward/forward, and is more or less flat. While it makes for a dramatic stylized logo, it isn’t realistic at all. No bird can turn its entire wing that far upward/forward like that. Look these photos, which compare the TriStar Pegasus with one of the upright hummingbirds with “forward facing” wings—the chest of the bird is still analogous to the underside of the horse’s barrel, where the sternum is. The upper surfaces of the hummingbird’s wings are facing the bird’s spine; the upper surfaces of the Pegasus’s wings are facing its butt. Do you see the difference?

Now a good example of realistic wing movement is Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion Pegasus sculpture from Clash of the Titans. He faced the same conundrum we do in equine modeling—how would a quadrupedal mammal sprout a third set of limbs in the form of wings? We already know that it would be physically and evolutionarily possible, but it’s fiction, so we can suspend disbelief. However, we’re also trying to consider some realistic placement and movement of the wings. I mean, I suppose Mr. Harryhausen could always have Pegasus make big “arm circles” with his wings like a couple of tornadoes on their sides, but he chose a more natural bird-like movement, along with a gentle horse-like gallop, which I think is a nice touch. While there is a slight tilt to the wings, their motion is still largely up and down, perpendicular to the spine and sternum.

The last few pictures show a few of the Pegasus customs I’ve made. 

With real wings it’s easiest to dry them flat, and you can’t easily make the individual primary feathers permanently bend beyond their natural “resting” shape, so there’s not as much dynamic motion as in live birds. But you can see the different ways I’ve positioned the wings to give them some variety in response to the horse’s movement, and some wings, like those of domestic chickens, naturally have more bend. 

Notice, though, that the wings are never rotated ninety degrees away from the spine/sternum the way the Tristar Pegasus’ are. The underside of the Fighting Stallion’s wings, for example, are more or less parallel with the spine and sternum, and while the Gem Twist’s primary feathers have some natural curve, they’re not in an acute C shape and the undersides aren’t facing ninety degrees forward.

Anyway, I hope this all helps! Just as we study equine anatomy for our customs’ accuracy, it’s also important to look closely at avian anatomy for our winged models. Just keep repeating to yourself: spine and sternum! Spine and sternum! Spine and sternum!

Disclaimer: This article mentions the author’s use of legally acquired bird wings for customs; these birds either died of natural causes, or were raised as food on small farms, and none were killed just for their feathers. 

Piece be with you

Fourteen and a half years ago, I went to a hobby party and came home with a bag full of resin body parts.

Some of them turned into Dhaulagiri.

I tried to reassemble the others into a piaffing dressage horse. 

I thought it would be easy.

It was not. 

I tried and tried, but it only got worse and worse. Eventually, he was banished to the bottom of the body box.

Six and a half years ago, I went to another hobby party and came home with another broken Caprice resin.

This one was one of Karen's original artist proofs. I felt honored to be entrusted with him, especially considering what I'd done to the other one.

I fixed the damage and gave him a new coat of paint.

His name is Proof.

A couple months ago, Teresa came over and helped me sort models for the BreyerWest Swap Meet. I  uncovered the old, bad Caprice - now with only three legs - and threw him on the pile. Teresa laughed, but I told her, "There's going to be someone like fourteen years ago me who looks at that and sees a challenge."

I brought him the swap meet and put right in front of my table. He got a lot of attention, and someone did buy him. 

"Do you have the other leg?" She asked.

"I'm sure I have it somewhere," I told her. "If I find it, I'll let you know."

Yesterday, I found it.

Unfortunately, although I remember the conversation, I no longer remember who I had it with. If this is your Caprice, please get in touch. I have a leg to send you!

Hair sculpting with Amanda Brock

Saturday at BreyerWest is workshop day. I signed up for two classes, the first was 1:9 Scale Leather Tooling with Erin Corbett. The second was Hair Sculpting with Amanda Brock.

This time I shared a table with Missy Shaw, Kylee Parks and Lindsay Diamond who was observing only.

photo by Lindsay Diamond

The supplies for this workshop included a classic scale Breyer, masking tape, scissors, baking soda, super glue, two part epoxy, paint brushes and a variety of sculpting tools.

The first step was to position the model's tail using a heat gun. I chose to swish mine to the left. This turned out to be a very popular choice.

Next we were instructed to attach masking tape to the tail bone and used it to build an armature of sorts. 

Once the tail was the right general size and shape, we stiffened it with baking soda and super glue.

Here's Kylee's horse in the backing soda/super glue stage.

After that, it was time to start layering on the epoxy. I didn't take pictures of this stage, but here's Kylee's horse, my horse and Missy's horse with epoxy. Three left side tail swishes!

Amanda checked in periodically to see how we were doing and answer our questions.

Other people stopped by, too. This is Bobbie Allen...

and this is Kenzie Williamson.

Both their horses had tails swished to the left. So did Angelo Žunić's...

and Lisa Smalley's.

One thing led to another and we started gathering left swishes for group pictures.

The conga grew...

and grew!

It was so fun to see all the similar but completely different horses created in this class.

The Left Swish Club.

I still can't sculpt hair like Amanda - or Kylee - but boy, did I have fun trying! The workshops at BreyerWest were really great this year. My only regret is that it was impossible to attend all of them.

Sculpting chestnuts with Aleksander Freda

NaMoPaiMo is all about painting, but there's a certain amount of customizing that often comes with prepping. In today's excellent guest blogger post, Polish artist, Aleksander Freda shows us how he adds chestnuts to his model's legs. Thank you so much, Aleksander. I can't wait to read Vol. 2!

Horse Leg Chestnuts Tutorial, Vol. 1

by Aleksander Freda

So I have been thinking about a useful tutorial for a long while, and I think this is one the hobby needs a whole lot. Not pointing it at anyone, but hobby’s standard for a leg chestnuts are most commonly just a single coloured blob around the leg joint area. Let’s change it!

I have prepared a little photo story, showing (hopefully) how I tackle the topic. This is a sculpting tutorial, but I plan to publish a second part of it about painting soon.

Let’s kick off with some theory. What is a chestnut?

According to Wikipedia: The chestnut, also known as a night eye, is a callosity on the body of a horse or other equine, found on the inner side of the leg above the knee on the foreleg and, if present, below the hock on the hind leg. It is believed to be a vestigial toe, and along with the ergot form the three toes of some other extinct Equidae.

Chestnuts vary in size and shape and colour, not only between species (donkeys have different type of chestnuts than horses, so do Przewalskis or zebras), but also among specimens of the same species. Today let’s focus on horses.

Here are some examples of different horses’ chestnuts. Polish Coldblood foal as well as a Finnhorse’s are back leg chestnuts and rest are front legs. Note: some horses don’t have chestnuts on the back legs at all! It is important when sculpting to work with references. Try finding as many photos, from different angles of the item you try to reproduce.

Of course, we need our victim. My tutorial is shown on two models, Pusteblume and Beatrix, both sculpted by the very talented Brigitte Eberl.

What all will we need? Here is a short list of things I most commonly use:

• sculpting putty (I use Aves Apoxie but any epoxy putty will be fine)
• a bit of water (in the little very dirty jar)
• sculpting tools – for me a rubber brush, hobby knife and a sharp metal stick
• sawblade
• gloves

Before you start sculpting, it is important to clean the area beforehand removing any previous chestnuts, as not to add too much bulk. For this you may cut them off, use dremel, sanding paper – I dunno, be creative!

First thing is to wound the area well enough, for the putty to adhere. This is one really important step. It prevents the future possible lifting of the putty. It is important to do it really well. Better to be safe than sorry.

Next, I put on gloves. Apoxie is extremely allergenic, and it may turn into really nasty business quickly, so PLEASE wear gloves when sculpting. I take even amounts of the two compounds and mix them really well. A small tip, they will mix much easier if you add a drop of water to the mix.

Once the putty is mixed, I take a small pinch of it and place it on the designated and wounded „chestnut area”. The amount of putty here will depend on how big you wish to make them. It also partly depends on what kind of model you are creating. Foals will have them very very small, older horses tend to grow them bigger, sport warmbloods often have those trimmed, draft horses tend to grow them really big, etc.

I smoosh the putty into the wounded area with a soft rubber brush and my own fingers. Again, water helps to spread it around, just try not to drown it completely because then the putty will become too mushy and will be difficult to work with. 

The important part is to smoosh the putty into the wounds, into the cuts of them, so that it sits tightly and there is no air in the crevices.

Once I have it nice and smooth, I use a sharp stick to cut out the general shape of the chestnut.

Then I use the rubber brush, to push the outer edges a bit closer towards the chestnut, this creates the skin and fur around the chestnut. A nice touch to it in my opinion.

Finally I cut the chestnut with a hobby knife, to add it textures, cracks and more a realistic look. And that is it! The chestnuts are sculpted!

The next couple photos are just examples of different chestnuts sculpted by me. 

This is a draft horse, with bigger, longer chestnuts.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I’d love to see what nice chestnuts you have created with it!