Stephanie's BCC entry

Somehow we have arrived at the second week of June, which means BreyerFest season is upon us. 

The annual rollout of artist entries for Breyer's Best Customs Contest and Diorama Contests and Stone Horses' the Art of the Horse have begun in earnest on the various social media platforms. As per usual, I will be showcasing as many as I can here on the blog, and who better to start with than Stephanie Blaylock! Here's the story of her 2025 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest entry, Freefall.

The Making of Freefall 

by Stephanie Blaylock

The BCC (Breyer Best Customs Contest) is an event that Breyer holds in July where artists compete in different categories with a panel of judges critiquing and picking finalists. The finalists get to display their works during BreyerFest. I took a break last year as it can very time consuming and somewhat stressful, but this year I decided to try again with a color I have fallen in love with. 

What I’d like to say most is that this is a classic scale Breyer body bought for less than thirty dollars and painted mostly with craft paints, including Breyer’s stablemate painting acrylics, which I used when I worked on this horse during Breyer Midwest! 

I love that model art doesn’t have to be expensive to be enjoyable. This model was also base painted in acrylics which is a bit different for me as I usually pastel my base layers. I used one brush pretty much for all of the hair detail. 

The base was a new addition after I entered and fun for me to distress like old barn wood. It makes him very stable but he stands fine independently of it. I had to do a bit of a tail touch up during the process of fitting him on to the base but hey, it’s not a project until it becomes more of a project.

And fun fact, he was also sculpted by another NC artist, my friend Maggie Jenner-Bennett. You may recognize her style.

Another fun fact, this guy has Calabash's belly, just in a different color.

Without further ado and after many, many months here is my 2025 BreyerFest Best Customs Contest entry in the Finishwork catergory: Freefall, American Mustang painted with acrylic craft paints, pastels, colored pencils, and metallics.

This week is the last week to submit entries and beautiful horses will be popping up online. I know some folks are still pushing for that deadline. You got this! I wish everyone luck!