Off The Edge of Silence

I am terrible at keeping up a blog. Not going to lie. The length between posts here is a dead giveaway of it despite the fact that I have still been in the loop of the hobby. Alot has happened, the end of Copperfox, the revival of Hartland, the amazing podcast Mares In Black are a few that come to mind in the hobby front. In the feline department, Gizmo and DeEtta are big, Spot and Bear both passed away, and Sabbat is currently in South Carolina with Kate. In the next few months Jason, the sisters, and I will be down there too, which is all kinds of exciting and terrifying for me. The opportunities down there will be amazing for the model horse hobby and my vet assistant schooling (I am a student again) and new career path.

This is a very short blog, but I hope to revive this again and to link it to my Facebook page I have made. For now here is Deadpool and Alida.

2018 Is Upon Us

New Year, new attempt to not abandon my blog! The cats are all doing good, I have acquired more models since General, and I'm still trying to contact a restoration artist for him. I also have Icicle who needs a few chips in his paint and gloss that I want repaired and too afraid to try myself...

Some of my customs are ever closer to being completed, like Speaker Pony is almost complete and Bengals Find Me Tasty is waiting on her hair. I have a few other active customs in working on in tandem with the other two, which I found helps me keep the motivation to complete them. What also helps is the fact that we moved this fall, and there is an arctic entryway that I can spray primer and sealant in.

The sisters are still growing, and DeEtta has been fixed. We were going to spay Gizmo also, but then income got tight shortly after DeEtta's procedure. We are hoping in the next couple months money will be more cooperative. To my relief DeEtta is herself, but more cuddly and cooperative. The downside is that it didn't get rid of her foot fetish...

Here's to a new year of misadventures!

(And hopefully getting around to blogging it!)

Sad sad thing

So...remember my Albino Five Gaiter I was talking about last time? Well....he had a bad tumble when the squirrels were harassing DeEtta one night a few days after my last blog post.

 

General is a casualty of the "Squirrel Wars" that have been going on this spring. On the plus side the sunning is doing well for him! I was disappointed that it happened at all, but I didn't expect DeEtta to have a meltdown over it. She cried all night because he was absent from his spot, so I put Buddy up there. It somewhat cheered her up. A couple weeks later the Quake Hold that I ordered in March finally arrived, so I put him back at his post. My plan is to finish sunning him and  then send him to a restoration artist to fix his leg and some scuffed up shading.

 

(I had to be creative with standing him back up)

Neat Acquisitions

As I said in my last post, I have gotten quite a few vintage models for my collection. So this will be a photo dominated post with some words about each one.

First up is my Classic Arabian Family, who came with their original photo box. They are in nice condition, and the stallion and foal have some neat variations. The stallion's star is crooked, while the foal has some over spray on one eye and half of a hoof unpainted. I was pretty stoked about those quirks, don't ask me why.

 

I also got the Classic Andalusian Family with their photo box too, which has a few water stains and the handle disintegrated in my hands (I did not expect that one!). Despite the box flaws the family was in lovely condition, and to my knowledge has no obvious variations. It's really nice having and seeing older models in their original release colors and with any ephemera.

 

 The two boxed families came from the same seller, who sent me a message making sure if I was fine with them putting in an extra model they couldn't sell. I agreed, and was curious. Will it be a loose classic, an uncommon Stablemate, or maybe a body quality model? To my pleasure it was the bald face black Stretch Morgan. I have a soft spot for not only Arabians, but Morgans, so he was a beautiful bonus. I understand the reason they couldn't sell him, there are a bunch of him and his more common masked star counterpart on eBay all the time. Despite that fact he's in rather nice condition, with minor ear tip rubs and hoof rubs.

 

This next guy is a proud find of mine. He is a common one, but I am still thrilled to own an albino Five Gaiter. He is yellowed, so I am attempting the sunshine treatment on him. He looks awesome as the light shines through him and the girls take care to not knock him over.

 

 

That's all for this entry! I have others I need to photograph when DeEtta isn't in my lap trying to send me to bed, but it is bedtime for this cat mom.

Too Long, Too Long

Welp, that was a very long hiatus! I am alive still, I promise. Despite the silence things have been productive...ish. DeEtta Hope is 3ft long from nose to tail, and still thinks she can fit in my palm, which makes bedtime a little awkward for this Bengal momma.

 

My face was sweating, and she was very very very smug about it.

 

She also tried to gift herself to me for Christmas. I still have no idea where she found that bag.

She has become quite the cat, one moment acting like a rebellious teenager and before I can react she's being a clingy kitten the next. I am honestly surprised she isn't in my lap trying to help me type this very second, it has become her favorite hobby. Gizmo is not as flip-flop with her behavior, she spends her days acting like the happy puppy cat she is unless her younger sister is antagonizing her. They both really enjoy being around what I do which really helps me with getting bored. 

 

I finally put a shelf up in my room last month, and they love the perch quality of it. 

In the world of Starshore Studios, things have been slow but steady. I acquired some neat vintages over my absence from here, along with more micros from Maggie Bennett's monthly subscription. Best. Drunk purchase. Ever.

(I do not endorse drinking and browsing the Internet, or drinking and prepping models. I was miraculously lucky in both cases and also learned a lesson) 

I also remembered to sign up for the Breyer Collector and Stablemate Clubs this year, and pretty happy with what it has given me (once I dish out the cash of course). I got the green Christmas Sherman Morgan with only one minor flaw in his gloss, and got my Coco the other day with one gloop of lint on her off side. In my opinion they're both really nice since I live where there's no live shows. 

Despite no live shows I have been participating more within the hobby. How, you may ask? Well for those who are on Facebook and follow Jennifer of Braymere Custom Saddlery, you would have either been caught up in, or observing, the National Model Painting Month event she kicked off in February. I missed the sign up deadline, but she still encouraged folks to take part in the spirit of the hobby getting together and helping each other. I normally don't paint in the winter since I can't use the matte sealant outdoors but I decided that it shouldn't be too hard to guard the model's paint job until break up season; and I was getting rather bored of going to work, coming home, sitting on the computer gaming, go to sleep, repeat routine. Around this time I got an unpainted Peter Stone Morgan (the 1997 one, or "old mold" as I've heard some people call him) and as soon as I laid eyes on him he wanted to imitate the Vintage Appaloosa Performance Horse (Breyer #99) coloring. Of course I couldn't say no, so out came the paints and frisket!

As you can guess, there were mishaps. First it was the frisket/sneeze incident. I had the jar in my hand and didn't put it down when I felt the sneeze coming. On the plus side, some of it splattered on the horse nicely; as for my nose and desk...well I lost alot of fine nose hairs getting that out of my nasal cavity and I'm still finding specks of the latex doom on my computer monitor this very second. Second mishap was color choice. The frisket dries orange, and my base coat I chose was an orange based burnt sienna. I was hating myself for that, along with the third mishap which was painting in too thick of layers. This meant that not only was the frisket hard to find, it also was taking off too much of the paint surrounding it or just stretching it out like a limp noodle. There was also the heated discussion with DeEtta who was thinking it was okay to sit above the desk and droll on me and the horse's freshly laid down paint...

Despite those blunders (and mild hypothermia from an ice fishing day) I got him finished! I will admit the Traditional scale is intimidating to paint but it was a fun challenge. There are some things I need to improve on, like fading the color into the bare plastic and not using a stiff bristled paint brush. I also need too improve on color matching but that will get better with time. Next post will feature some of my new additions, but until then enjoy these progress photos of Sharp Dressed Man!

I have returned!

Very very long absence due to the brain in my laptop crapping out on me and saving up for a new computer. I decided to go with a desktop this time, and I'm slightly intimidated by the large monitor. I have been doing some hobby stuff, mostly experimental painting, and of course spending my waking hours at home with DeEtta and the others. I'm not too sure what else to put for the night so I shall entertain you with a few pictures from my few months of silence.

 

After a trip to Anchorage for medical testing I made a shelf for Stablemates

 

DeEtta was heartbroken that Bengal Buddy couldn't fit in the box with her

 

One of my grails achieved thanks to Chelsea's Model Horses!

 

Somebody loves paper bags...

 

...really really loves paper bags

 

The sisters are the same size, and DeEtta keeps growing and growing

 

One of my many fails, but it has helped me get a better idea on what I'm doing

Daring to decorator

Small while again, but alive! Have been gradually working on some of the many projects at once, and really wanting to try non realistic, but popular vintage decorator colors. I figured I have the best victim, a G1 thoroughbred mare who I decided to try and prep after a few beers. Bad idea. I have her mostly fixed but decided that her fate is to live on my desk as a lesson pony about adult choices. I also tried to primer her while intoxicated (ugh!) and had to sand off half of it trying to fix her.

I have been driving myself mad with realistic colors not turning out as expected so I decided to find a new definition of insanity. Decorators. I have noticed that non-realistic colors really help me relax from the stress of making things look realistic. I even went as far as buying my first custom! She is a G2 running thoroughbred that I decided to name Tiger's Eye; and her color really resembles the Bengal girls. But when I tried getting a comparison photo of her to DeEtta's fur, the girls decided to be...."helpful."

 

"What'cha doin' momma?"

 -DeEtta

 

"It smells funny..."

-Gizmo

 

"It also tastes funny!"

-DeEtta 

I love the marbling on her, and I can't figure out how the artist does it. I got her from the eBay seller abcrv; and they have some rather gorgeous customs every week on auction. I want to get a couple more of their lovelies, but I'm also trying to save up to potentially go to next year's Breyerfest. I was considering doing a bunch of decorators on the models in the body box and selling as shelf sitters, but at the same time I'm still learning how to make my personal models look nice.

Too early for a New Year's Resolution, so how about I make it my Breyerfest Resolution?

 

And while talking decorator, I want to share a sneak peek of a WIP before calling this blog entry good.