My story of this White Running Mare is not controversial, yet it might be a confession: It's a How I did this. Every year there is at least one horse who rises into prominence during the week of BreyerFest, through some combination of desire and/or work (are these that different?!). This time it was her, by virtue of work done. I returned a beat-up old model to a cleaner, less-damaged state; and then sold her at a small profit. The profit was definitely not the point: I can't over-emphasize how wonderful it was to succeed in the clean-up effort, and then to have her go to an equally wonderful new young tackmaker. O. A., this one's yours.
My very first night at BreyerFest, Monday the 8th, I picked up a $5 carcass from a body box in the 100s (it was Karen Dietrich's).
There was a matching foal in similar shape, but, alas, "it got away." I've always loved this model; my own White Running Mare at home, Conquista, has a long and glorious history dating back to 1973. She is a spiritual replacement for my dimly-remembered first one, which was named Misty. (My early horse names were clearly book-influenced, although the name Misty also belonged to my sister's pony, my family's actual first horse.) In her honor, I mentally tagged this body with that name. I find I need reference 'handles' for models I work with. (I also sometimes do this with models I'm judging.)
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| Note the black marks all over the body |
I was impressed with how good a shape she was in, despite the black marks. I felt sure I could clean her up, and soon. As it turned out I was right. Misty became my project of the week. The black marks disappeared within an hour -- it is wonderful what Q-tips and rubbing alcohol can do! But the red paint on the neck was a defining challenge. Because I happen to be fond of the actor Eddie Redmane, I couldn't resist naming this horse Misty Redmane, although (here's a confession) this name appeared considerably after the fact.
Here you can see the start of my attempts to de-paint her. The stuff responded very little to rubbing alcohol. It was hard, stiff and thick, probably an enamel. The mark looked to me like an accident: either a paintbrush fell on this horse or this horse fell on something newly painted. My friend Heather opined it might be nail polish. (!)
Slowly, gradually, over the course of 2 days, I worked on her. It is always a great pleasure to be doing something with your hands during this most wondrous week. My secret weapon was my Needle Chisel, which of course was part of the mobile tack shop I always bring with me to BreyerFest. This one is my "medium" size and happens to be the oldest and the first one I made.
When alcohol failed, I turned to physical scratching with the X-Acto. When that proved too damaging, I picked up the Needle Chisel; and here I met with success. Although it's hard to believe, what worked was the combination of a very very light touch and a tool so sharp and yet so light that it flaked off the paint bit by tiny bit. "One pixel at a time," was my irrelevant thought. The blade really was too light to scratch the horse if it merely touched her.
It was in the middle of those 2 days that I picked up my camera and tried to capture the full moon outside my window. No one's going to believe it, but the famous "ghost horse" photo was a complete accident.
I swear I had no idea the reflections were going to do what they did! I snapped the shutter twice, finally capturing the moon.
Here are the elements of what was being reflected. You can just make out the shape of the lamp, above and to the right of the horse in the parking lot.
Later on, when the mare was finished, I took her back down to Karen's to show her what had become of the body-box case; and I showed her the extraordinary photo. She was pleased!
Incredibly, the flaking proceeded without damaging the underlying gray too badly. I thought it was a miracle. It took forever. The weight of the Needle Chisel itself was mostly enough to do the work; all I had to do was manipulate, and keep at it. I kept washing the site with rubbing alcohol, which would soften and clean things up a bit, but is dangerous because when used to excess it dissolves the Breyer paint. On the second or third day (I honestly lost count), she was done. What I hadn't counted on was that the red was so intense it would stain the plastic underneath.
So if you look closely enough, you can still see the mark. In addition, the gray was lightly scored and scratched. But, overall, I was well pleased with this little foray. The age of the mare was great, and her condition was not perfect: she was able to forgive this level of injury. The Black Art of O. F. Enhancement I was practicing was just that: Enhancement. I had returned her to a younger, cleaner condition, and removed a nasty accident. Would that we all could do this in areas other than models,...
I put a sales sticker on her and added her to the room line-up.
To support a young tackmaker on top of finding a good home for her was just about the nicest thing that happened to me this year!
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