Diary of a NaReViMo horse

Last month, a whole bunch of hobbyists, including myself, signed up to remake, repaint, rehair a model for Sarah Minkeiwicz's National Retro Vintage Month. I worked on my horse - on and off - for the entire month of August. Tina DeCaussin took a different path. She waited until the last week of the month and then powered through from zero to one hundred in what seemed like the blink of an eye. In her own words, here's the story of Tina's 2026 NaReViMo experience.

NaReViMo 2026

by Tina DeCaussin

August 1: My model just arrived. I had planned to use a different horse, but this was on sale so it was clearly the one. I just need to decide on color. Will be fun!

August 2-23: No updates.

August 24: Art happened today! I could not find my hacksaw and I do not have a good cutting bit for my Dremel, so ground everything down/off. 

Other than sounding like being at the dentist, it went well enough. I do not think I am going to do a full prep, but there are a few spots I want to tackle. Then, I want to paint!

August 26: My takeaway for today is don't get distracted by kittens while mixing your epoxy! I usually put the kittens in another room while working because they are so busy. This time I didn't, and things went about the way you would expect. I should have just started again. I was suspicious so checked this morning and sure enough, I had to scrape it off and start over. 

I am already doing more prep than I planned. I was going to just sand and not worry about the area under the mane.  Then last night, I decided to go ahead and do some fill because the horse required it. Lol.

August 27: Today is paint day! There are a few prep spots that I may - or may not - address later -  but today I want to paint.  And I need to paint when I want to.  Prep stuff just will make her more authentic. Vintage me would not have done this much!

August 27, a few hours later: She's reminding me how me and acrylics fight.  

August 27, another few hours later: Six layers in. She is coming around, but I am breaking for dinner. I need the break to freshen my eyes.

August 28: After I sprayed her this morning,  I thought I  may regret not prepping her better, but decided it's okay. I can make her a sister later when I am in the mood to go more for perfect.  For now, I am just enjoying painting.

I decided to start some markings to see how I like her pulled together. I was going to do higher whites - and I may still - though this height may be what she is asking for.

Still August 28: I am not sure anything has come together this quickly for me before. Four days ago, she had just been released from the box. Now she's ready for the tricky part - hair.   

I am so happy we have this Retro Vintage month to create together. I guess all it takes to get me motivated is a pretty, bay model, not worrying about being perfect and an impending deadline!

August 30: Time to start working on hairing! I was going to try to mix some brown into the black, but my brown is bamboo, not viscose, so straight black it is. I am a little intimidated by the flagged tail. This is only my third haired horse and I struggle a bit with tails.  But it will fine! I brought out my first haired horse from NReViMo 2020 for moral support.  

August 30, a couple hours later: And we have a mane and forelock!   I think it's made me love her more.  

Letting it dry for a bit. Then I'm going to tackle the tail.

August 30: Hairing tails is hard!  

I tend to end up with very hairy horses, just my style apparently. I have put her up to dry overnight.  Then, clean up the glue and style it. I am quite pleased with her.

August 31: And she is signed as complete!   

It's been cloudy rainy and grey here, so getting photos has been a challenge.   But she got some glamor shots today.  

I was not sure I was going to even start her and now I have the little bay Arabian of my dreams. It felt good to just get kind of lost in creating

Congratulations, Tina! That was so fun to watch you work, and your little mare truly is a vintage style dream. Thank you so much for sharing her creation with us!

NaReViMo wrap-up

Yesterday was the last day of Sarah Minkiewicz's National Retro Vintage Month.

I knew August was going to be an extremely busy month.

I signed up to paint anyway.

It took me a long time to get started.

But once I did, things progressed pretty smoothly.

Slowly, but smoothly.

In the end, however, there just wasn't enough time to get this over the finish line.

That's okay. I'm really pleased with the work I did do, especially this mane!

Thanks for the fun event, Sarah.

I didn't finish, but I definitely feel like a winner!

Loitering with intent

In addition to riding my horse, one of the things I want to do during this period of unemployment is sell some model horses. To that end, Alexey and I drove up to Northglenn yesterday to attend Fabian's trunk swap meet.

These informal events have been a semi-regular part of our local hobby scene.

The format is simple. We meet at a big, empty parking lot, open our trunks and display our wares.

Pickups are perfect for this.

Cute truck dog picture for tax.

My trunk was filled with horse food and unnecessary, bargain basement, real horse tack purchases - don't judge me! - so Alexey and I stacked our horses on the car itself.

The overflow was stacked on the totes on the ground. It's all good!

Even though I was definitely not shopping, I spent some time checking out everyone's sales pieces.

This cat has seen things.

If I was going to buy something, that Anne Field doll would have been it!

The weather was nice, and I would have been happy to stand in that parking lot and talk to my friends all night.

Unfortunately, the parking lot police took notice of our little meet up.

Perhaps they heard we were selling boxes of bodies?

In any event, we were told to disperse.

Unlawful loiterers.

Since we weren't quite ready to go home, a few of us ended up at a nearby restaurant for a post-event meal. 

Alexey, Jennifer, Karin and Regan

I didn't sell a single thing, but this was still a really fun day. I can't wait to loiter with my friends again!

Riding my horse

All summer long, people have been asking me what I was going to do after Dover.

My answer for the first month was, "Collect some (f)unemployment and get my horse broke!"

Partly, I was being funny, but also, I really thought I needed a big block of time to push Sage - and myself - to the next level.

Happily, that turned out not to be the case.

In June, I started riding Sage in the roundpen little turnout.

In July, we ventured into the outdoor arena.

August has brought more and and more varied rides.

At this point, I would say Sage is broke.

Green-broke, for sure, but that still qualifies.

Yesterday, was the last day of Dover.

Today, I went riding.

Eventually, there will be another job, but for right now, this is what I'm doing.