Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Where is Summer?

I'm still working on prepping the "Rajah" resin, I've gotten as far as putting Apoxie over the wire that is showing through the resin, and filling in the little holes and divets that shouldn't be there from when he was cast. Even gotten as far as putting a light layer of primer on to pick up those small bumps and lumps that you miss during prepping and sanded them all down.


He is ready for a full primer... however the weather is just not allowing me at the moment. I'm used to 35-40 degree (Celsius) heat this time of year, but we're barely seeing above 20 degrees the past few weeks. Whilst it's lovely (I HATE the heat), I think my body doesn't quite know how to adjust to not having a few months of insane heat - and of course, it means priming outside and drying time is scarce.




I think that says it all! But I will keep trying to get those primmer layers on so the base coats can commence!


In the mean time, during those quiet times at work (which are rare... *cough*), I'm starting to map out some measurements for a possible attempt at my first Original Sculpture. Yes, I've said it before, not once or twice, probably more times than fingers I have on my hands... but I really want to push forward with this one this time! I've sourced myself some stryofoam for the "armature" to keep it lightweight, and have just finished working out the rough measurements.


This OS I'm planning will be a sport-pony (Connemara, Warmblood/Sport-Pony type) jumping - not just popping over a little jump, I'm talking about those amazing ponies that jump "Pony Grand Prix" which ranges from around 1.20m (3'9") to 1.30m (4'2")! They are mini World Cup Show jumpers!





Adorable right?


Now to work out what 1/9th scale of these mini Grand Prix machines are - I went with the bigger end of pony sizes, at just under 14hh (140cm in real life terms). Now, if there is one thing I am terrible at, it's maths... however I was lucky enough to find this amazing site which has a calculator which scales down sizes for you!


http://www.scalemodelersworld.com/online-scale-converter-tool.html


140cm in 1/1 scale to cm in 1/9th scale = 15.56cm. BOOM, there is my height measurement! Divide that by three to give me the "head" size (3 x horse head sizes is roughly a horse's height from ground to withers). How did I know that, check out this awesome guide on measuring out your horse's proportions:



Handy right? So now to transfer that onto my reference picture, this will give me the idea and measurements I need when I sketch out the shape of my sculpture on the stryofoam (hopefully sometime this week!).


It's not glorious by any means, but it will give me the correct base to work from. Hopefully next update with either be base coats on "Rajah" or the armature of my sculpture - or both?




Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Happy New Year!

Firstly, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone!


I hope everyone has a fantastic 2017 - and let's hope that 2017 is a lot kinder to all our beloved Celebrities this year!


Ok, so studio news, what am I doing currently? Well creative juices are flowing in my mind, it's just a matter of finding a few minutes to sit down & get the fingers working with the brain. At the moment I'm prepping a "Rajah" resin sculpted by Jennifer Scott.


This is the big boy: (photo © Jennifer Scott)



He is an absolutely gorgeous model in person, the subtle detail really makes him pop even thought he is naked.

And once he is prepped? What colour was I thinking for this model? Well... I REALLY want to make him pop, so I spent a many hours trying to see if these gorgeous horses came in bay sabino. And guess what, they do!




Once completed, I will be making up some reference cards with breed information, and these photo's to show that Marwari's really do come in sabino for the avid Live Shower (so that there is proof of the breed and colour etc). I will then be starting something new, which is to offer a certificate with each custom/paintjob I do, which will have a photo of the model, description and a blurb on there with my horrific signature. I've seen this done before, and I love the idea just to add that something a bit special to the model.

So watch this space for in progress photo's!