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?