Dani's BCC entry

 Back to the BreyerFest Best Customs Contest! Today I'm sharing pictures of perhaps my favorite entry in what is absolutely my favorite division. Look at this gorgeous medieval set by Dani Boiko of Savvy Appy Studios.

Dani writes: This set is based on the medieval sets that nobles and knights used. I took elements from different sets and combined them in a way that would showcase the set of a nobleman or high ranking knight. Potentially a kinda guard. Not everyone would have had heavy metal plate armor. Those who wished to have protection from arrows but the ability to move at greater speeds chose to use chainmaille. This afforded the horse more agility and greater range of motion than plate mail would allow. The gold adornments show the higher ranking of the rider as lesser ranked men would not be able to afford such details and certainly not in gold. 

This set was an incredible learning experience for me that pushed the boundaries of my comfort zones. I've learned so much and can't wait to apply it to future sets! Hope you all enjoy the process!!

For those of us who like to see how things are made, Dani shared an incredible amount of photos showing exactly how she put this together. I've condensed it, but I would highly recommend aspiring tack makers check out her Facebook page. Here are some of her reference photos...

and a preliminary sketch.

Dani writes: The biggest and most labor intensive part of the set is the chainmaille. Each individual ring was opened up, woven into the pattern, and closed. There are about six thousand rings between the chest and hindquarter sections. That is about thirty six to forty hours of work just in chainmaille alone. 

Everything was done by hand with the exception of the buckles and the bit. The straps are all cut, skived, and dyed by hand out of a larger hide. 

Tiny studs were all hand set one at a time using metallic micro beads. At the very least there are about one thousand micro beads on this set. The brass adornment was cut from a larger sheet and scored by hand.

The saddle was sculpted from scratch with a wire armature and covered in suede and tooling leather. The wire adornments are hand twisted from three strands of gold wire. 

Although rider dolls are not allowed in this competition, I was glad to see that Dani had a doll on hand to make sure they fit into the saddle.

Putting all the pieces together is so satisfying, even in pictures.

Congratulations, Dani. This set is absolutely amazing. I love everything about it, and thank you so much for letting us "peek over your shoulder" as you work!