NaMoPaiMo and nail polish horses

Friend Tracy encouraged me to sign up for the National Model Painting Month, so I did, with no real plans.  Stopped in at Becky's Breyers, and Tracy was there painting, so I, on a whim, bought one of the paint-your-own SMs and had a go.  He was started as a buckskin, but that didn't happen. 

Not bad for my first realistic-colored custom, done with craft acrylics.  The shading on the face could be better, but matching the paint colors is an issue.  I think he might look better glossy. 

Then I did a nail-polish pony for my niece, who is lobbying to appropriate all my old Breyers in Mom & Dad's basement.  It's intended to look a  bit like Minnie Mouse. 

Pink and purple are nail polish, the white dots are craft acrylic.  I meant to clearcoat her, but was out of gloss. 

New horses

This is Trailblazer, with his grooming blanket and then the normal saddle.  That color is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the gloss.  Wow.

I need to work on it a little, the grooming kit has a snap girth, but it seems a bit too short to me, unless it will stretch a bit.  

 

Club horses

The Club horses are here!  Two Klauses (because darn it, the Alborozo enticed me to get a second SM Club account), and Trailblazer. 

The Klauses have turned out pretty well.  Not as gorgeous as Wolfgang, partly because of the gloss, but I think Wolfgang also had a bit of mapping on the spots.  But still pretty nice.  My only issue is the hoof striping, but at that scale, I'll live. 



Trailblazer is gorgeous and wowza.  Beautiful chestnut, and the gloss makes it pop.  Very nice packing job - the reins were bubble wrapped, and the toiletries kit was bubblewrapped in two separate chunks.  I can't get mine to snap around the barrel, but it may need a bit of finessing. 

New Unicorns, and Fairfax

The local Breyer dealer got some of the new 2020 horses two weeks ago.  I meant to go last week and pick up a few, but we had weather.  So I was going to go Wednesday of this week, until I saw the forecast (more weather on Wednesday).  Instead, I went today.  Came home with Fairfax, the new Classic Morgan, and the 3 new Unicorn SM mystery foal sets.  I also want High Tide and the anniversary Saddlebred and Fighting Stallion, but didn't get those today.  Becky didn't get many High Tides, the one Saddlebred had iffy masking, and the Fighter, as it turns out, has overspray speckles around the pinto spots, which I don't care for, so I'll wait for a more subtle one. 

But.  Fairfax is a really nice mold, he reminds me of the UVM Yesteryear resin.  The ones I saw today had iffy paint work on the mane, but I bought the best of the three anyway.  Can't wait to see some of the customs that people do.  More affordable than another Yesteryear.  The new unicorns are good, and at least a few more molds have been 'corned - the cantering WB and Prancing Morgan.  The new foals are great - I like the cantering one the best.  The other one (prancing?) is nice too, but the front legs look too long in comparison to the hind legs. 

And I paid for both Klauses and Trailblazer, so hopefully they'll be here soon. 

Carter, Trailblazer, and Klaus

Breyer put Carter, one of the Collector Club models, up for order last week.  It's a new mold that I don't have, so I was tempted.  But, after seeing the dapples on the demo model, and remembering that I've got one Vintage and two SM Club memberships this year, I decided to pass.  And then the local dealer posted about getting the new shipment, which has High Tide, Fairfax, and bunches of new SMs.  Helps me stick to my decision to skip Carter, and also to not bite on Breyer's 20% off the "Freedom" (aka Classic) models.

So, Trailblazer was released for payment earlier this week, and today Klaus was.  Wonder of wonders, I can pay for both at the same time, and save a bit on the shipping.

And then today they announce a BOGO sale on blind bags.  And the Starry Skies SMs are included.  Which irks me a little, since I paid full price for all 4 of mine, plus the postage to swap my two duplicates.  But oh well, can't grump too much - my silver chase Alborozo last year came from another one of their BOGO sales.

2019 Model Wrap-up

I did a little work with the model spreadsheet last night, after people on Facebook were sharing their favorite 5 models of the year. 

Based on my numbers, I bought or otherwise acquired 208 models last year.  That includes

• 12 Traditionals
• 15 Classics
• 3 Mini Whinnies
• 2 Porcelain Breyers (the white Circus Ponies)
• 2 Marx
• 1 Gladys Brown Edwards trophy
• 3 Hartlands
• 1 awesome Hartland clock with horse
• 3 CollectAs
• 5 Lakeshores
• and a whopping 153 Stablemates

The Stablemate flood is all because of the darned blind bags and trying to find the silver and blue Albys.  Which I finally found.  But there are 7 of the pink and green Clydes, 6 chestnut ASBs (I was trying to find a flaxen-mane variation) and a dozen each of the teal Alby and purple Magnolia.  One of the goals for 2020 has got to be thinning out the duplicate SMs, because sheesh.  

Some of the highlights:

The Christmas Candy Cane

Purple unicorn, and unicorn foals

A Lakeshore Status Symbol SR

Corbin, from the Stablemate Club (can't wait to see him in a color with some face color)

Another Lakeshore SR, 1 of 4, that I got in a barter deal (i.e. practically free)

I finally got two of the Tartan Ponies from 10+ years ago, thanks to a lovely Blab member.

This year's Halloween Horse, the lovely glow-in-the-dark Samhain

The Spooky Stablemates - I got all three!

My luckiest day - I took a chance on the Stablemate Club grab bags, and got a Fylkir!  And even the color I wanted most.

Bought a lovely deco Iris, to go with the silver-bay Iris I got.

Hagen-Renaker Drunk birds SR

Found a second curio cabinet, and have it pretty full.

Candy Cane and Clubs

The first horse of 2020 (*) is Candy Cane.  Who technically isn't a horse, but an equid. 

My blue horse herd continues, because I got the blue Candy Cane today.  Was kind of hoping for the 1-of-12 random Licorice, but then I'd feel guilty and think about selling it because that's a lot of money.

I was a little surprised to find the box in the mailbox, not on the doormat.  This is the first Zebra I've seen in person, and it's smaller than I realized. 

(*) Technically, Candy Cane was paid for on Christmas Day, but it's the first horse in the door for 2020.  And usually I date my spreadsheet by the day the critter is actually in my hands. 

In other news, I was sucked back into the Vintage Club for 2020, mostly because of the In-Between Mare.  And then Breyer announced the horses for the Stablemate Club, and the darn Mini Alborozo is the Gambler's Choice model for this year.  So after much waffling and calculating numbers, I signed up for a second membership, because I figure (as do other people) that the secondary-market prices for Alby are going to be high enough that the second membership will be cheaper than buying one on eBay or whereever. 

Figuring that the club, plus the Collector's Club membership, will run about $180, and guessing that I can sell 4 of the duplicate models for about $20 each (a loss of $5-10 each), that makes the Alby portion around $100. 

Gah.  I'm actually talking about $100 SMs without cringing.