The light box project

 At one of the recent online BreyerFests, there was an online workshop on making your own lightbox for photography.  Fairly low budget - you need a cardboard box, some parchment or tracing paper, and posterboard or something for a background.  And tape.I made a fairly large one, but thought a small one for Stablemates and similar things would be useful too. So, off I went. 

 

I made some upgrades yesterday - the edges got extra layers of cardboard for reinforcements.  Today I cut the posterboard for the floor and back.  Turned out pretty good.  The lighting is a work in progress.  Right now I've got an Ott-lite on one side and a small lamp on the other side, and a reading light that you wear around your neck for a moveable light.  I think the workshop version had an open top, but I did a window top for more stability.  I need to find the tracing paper, though.  Parchment paper was barely large enough, and the tape doesn't like to grip the parchment paper very well. 

 

But it does a pretty good job so far.  

 

Comings and goings

 A new animal in the herd - no picture yet.  The consignment auction had a few Breyers - Xena's Argo, the vintage buffalo, and the white Tatanka buffalo.  I won the bidding on the vintage fellow for $35 with fees.  He's missing a horn tip, but that's fine. 

Sent two horses out to Midway for the sale case.  One is the palomino FAM that came in the lot last spring with the chalky PAS and Clydesdale mare.  I've got at least three other palomino FAMs, so this one's going out at the body price of $10, since she's well-loved.  The other is one of the pair of Belgian Wixoms that I got from Amazon about 20 years ago.  They had some Breyers at amazing prices for some reason that I can't recall - clear-out prices for stock from a brick & mortar store they bought, I think.  Anyway, they had the Belgians for $10 each, so I got two.  Not sure why.  Wixom is a big solid mold.  So, I picked the one I liked best, and the other is going out to Midway. 

And the sorting and tagging project continues. 

I found a PDF book for Libre Office's database program.  500+ pages, yikes.  It's been a long time since I worked with any kind of database, but I'd like to be able to search my collection and see, for example, how many Fjords I have, or models sculpted by a certain person.  Chalkies, shrinkies, glossies, customs, etc.  So I'll have to see if I can put this on one of the Kindles, or an iPad, and start reading.  

New horses - Vintage Club Echo & Sentinel

 The first horse of the Vintage Club is here.  Well, horses plural.  We got a stallion & foal set this year, with a split of the foal - Running Foal or Scratching Foal, with the Running Stallion.  Breyer tried out the blue roan version of the old-style red roan, and it looks pretty good.  

 

The look has been compared to monochrome - they do look very black-and-white - and Oreo cookies in milk. 

 

The first Breyerfest post of the year

 Breyer has released most of the SRs and LEs for this year's Breyerfest.  And this year, the two SRs at the top of my list are both in-person only - the red deer (Elk mold) and mule (Winnifred mold).  

 So, I've looked at past prices, added a bit for inflation, and getting Chelsea's Model Horses to pick them up for me will only cost me about $20 extra per horse. That's an estimate, since Breyer hasn't released prices yet.  But, a $115 ticket is approximately $60 per horse.  Last year the SRs ranged from $75 to $90 I believe.  So, go on the high end just for safety, and that's $150 per horse.  Pickup pre-orders are $170 each.  I'm okay with that.  

 Still gonna get my online ticket, though.  Gotta do the workshops and buy LEs and such.  And yeah, there's the second-chance sale with leftover SRs, but the non-horse molds usually sell out, and the mule is a new mold so people may want them to repaint.   

Wildlife

 I've finally accumulated most of the Wildlife molds - all except the bears, I think, in vintage colors.  I've actually had pretty good luck with the online Special Run wildlife - I've been drawn for the space-panda bears, Elsa the cow, the Disco Ram, and now the piebald Moose.  

 My Roddick Moose was delivered last week, and I love him.  I need to put him next to my vintage Moose.  

 

 I also need a better photo spot.  

Breyer Black Friday

 

 Breyer started Black Friday early for Club members.  I gave in tot he temptation and bought the Premier Club Adonis (which is still available four days later, and apparently easy to find at a better price on eBay but oh well).   This is the original-tail version, and my Breyerfest horse is the modified tail. 

 

 

 I also ordered the friendship-bracelet set with the Classic Arabian Mare, because Love molds are not to be missed.  And she's a beautiful color. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Collector Club Premiere version

 So, I went with my usual two Collector Club memberships for this year, and with the promise of a mini version of the Semi Rearing Mustang, I apparently went with Premier levels for both.  So I got two of the mini Mustang sets.  Luckily,  not duplicates, and both blue versions - Wedgwood and Copenhagen!!  More ponies for the Blue Herd.