Erika's BCC entry

All the finalists in this year's BreyerFest Best Customs Contest were amazing, but one literally stood head and shoulders above the others. Here's the story of Erika Isbell's life-sized pony, Athena

The Making of Athena

by Erika Isbell

To tell the story of Athena, I have to go all the way back to the fall of 2021. My sister, Carleigh, was helping me with size dimensions for the BCC contest and jokingly said, “You should totally make a life sized horse.” I was like, “Absolutely not, that’s not possible.” But after thinking about it and feeding off each other’s craziness, we realized it indeed was - I could make a life sized mini donkey foal! I started this in the fall into December. After I made the armature (which sadly I don’t have a photo of her not covered in foam) I showed my other sister, Amanda, who promptly stated “I thought it was suppose to be life sized?” ….So I knew we had to go bigger. 

The second monster (but first adult pony) was made in March. This was my plan for him.

Here's the actual armature.

Covered with lots and lots of foam.

This was the first time we saw his size on the table.

But I restarted, and by May, the third was in progress. 

My construction was better this time, but there was still a lot of foam.

This picture shows the original foal (never carved so just a creepy monster), original unfinished pony on the right and Titan on left.

I entered Titan in last year but he was half painted. 

I knew he didn’t stand a chance - and looking back - I’m so glad he didn’t get in. Boy, he is rough!

For the 2023 contest, Carleigh really wanted me to redo Titan and try again, but that project was terrible. I took the fall and winter off for my surgery and kept thinking about what I wanted to do for BCC. By April I was convinced, one more time- I’ll do the monster, but that’s it. 

Once again, I started with the models and a cardboard outline base.

This was covered in insulation foam, which was then carved and shaped. 

The first real view of her.

In May, I realized I didn't like her shape, so I cut her up and restarted... again.

Much better and very worth the effort.

Dog for scale. 

This is after the plaster and joint compound layers.

I sculpted her head once and it wasn’t good.

After I cut her up  and moved her, I dremeled it all off. I drew a grid on the horse and overlaid the original drawing to help me.

Now it was time for the hair. This is where Titan went downhill. Titan’s fur was made out of apoxie sculpt… a lot of apoxie sculpt. He weighs about eighty pounds and doesn't stand well. I loved the hair, but I just couldn’t do it that way again. I realized I had to get rid of the apoxie to make it work. I thought real hair might be the most light weight option. I talked to a friend from college who had made pieces for furry suits, and she was fantastic giving me some options for fur. I wanted to blend the colors together - because of course we had to do a complex appy! -  so I decided to go with brushed yarn. I laid out the pattern in a very quick underpainting.

Then the hairing began!

The hairing took about one hundred forty hours total. 

Basically, I cut yarn into one to two inch pieces, took apart the four strands and then mixed the colors of strands I needed for the spot I was working on. For example, the legs were a lot of: two dark, three medium, one light. I held the strands together and brushed out the shed (and she shed a LOT!). Then I put glue on both sides of the group and stuck it in place. Closer to the deadline I stopped brushing out the whole strand, just the glue part- and then I brushed it all once it was dry. That was the saving method I did to make the deadline. 

Titan and Athena together. She was supposed to be smaller!

So that's how Athena was born. She’s made from the same models, cardboard, foam, plaster process that Titan was, with a mixture of joint compound and glue over her plaster and apoxie for all of the detailed/no hair areas. She is better conformationally, and weight wise (28ish pounds). I was over the moon when I got the email that she was a finalist. It made all of these many months worth it, and I was so happy just to go out on a good note! 

Of course, getting her to Kentucky was another issue. I wrapped her in the large shipping bubbles...

then taped her up in large trash bags. 

I put two moving boxes around her to protect her in the back of the truck. 

The 2 AM unloading.

Third place! 

Athena now belongs to my ten year old neighbor. She is very, very loved, and I'm glad she gets a happy ending.

Athena is truly something else. I adore her for the fact that I figured it out, and finished her - a huge personal accomplishment. She is by far not the most perfect and lifelike model, but I think she is so fun and so different. I’m just so glad people were finally able to meet one of these creations in person. I know some people think she is creepy and not actually a custom, That is completely fine, everyone is welcome to their opinions. She is definitely out of the ordinary and scares me half the time. But I hope people enjoy her wackiness and her ridiculousness. Again, she’s an incredible personal accomplishment to me. Now I’m excited to have this behind me and get back to normal horses once more!