Busy Busy Busy

So, January happened. That was somehow the longest month ever and the shortest. Anyway, February has already started at a full gallop, so I'll try to keep up!

I'm also participating in Minis Painting Minis!

The obvious topic is NaMoPaiMo. I am doing it this year and will have a whole post devoted to it hopefully tomorrow! I'm going to try writing it out this evening and scheduling to post tomorrow morning sometime.

Now, onto some information about upcoming commission slots! I had a few slots open for mid-February through March, but they filled up before I could post them here. I wasn't expecting to be fully booked in less than 12 hours, but that's what happened! So sorry. I expect to have openings starting sometime in March, and they will be announced soon. Current price ranges will be shared as well. This time I will make sure to post here first! 💜

There are some sales pieces on the table at the moment. No idea when they'll be done, but I will try to post here first for them as well.

Breyerfest reveals were coming fast and furious last month! Such a nice line-up this year. I won't be going in person, but I will be having a pick-up person grab a Cosimo for me! Such a glorious stallion. 👀 I am probably also going to be grabbing the surprise horse and the leopard Idocus. He'll look pretty next to Chablis!

YOLO, one of my favorites. Big thank you to Equiden, who picked this guy up for me last BF!! 💜

As one might expect, I've gotten a great deal of new models since the last time I posted. In fact, my collection has almost doubled. Obviously, it would be impossible to try to do a post about everybody, but I have been considering posting a few of my favorites. Would there be any interest in that? It would just a little post with some pics and info on some of the new faces.

As I get back into blogging again, what kind of content would you like to see? What kind of posts are your favorites to read? Please comment and let me know!

Sorta Kinda New Releases

This weekend I was sifting through some photos on the new releases for the clubs and BF, and I decided a late post was better than none.

Vail! Our winter 2023 Deco. Run of 1000 pieces at a price of $185 (if you get lucky enough to be drawn).

Athenian Lady! Our BF celebration model for next year. I love the real mare, and the model is stunning. I wish they had added mapping on the nose (they proved with Adamek that that was possible), but she's pretty without too. 

Kirk! 2024 Vintage club piece, a glossy dapple grey nightlight. I think this piece is really stellar, and I'm tickled to see the concept on a modern mold. I won't be joining the club, but I know for a fact he will be popular among those who do.

Tigerlily and Firestorm! What a beautiful pair. Again, I won't be buying these, but I look forward to seeing their future colors. The foal's mold isn't really doing it for me, but I think the mare ill be very nice next to the True North mold (or the Cantering Warmblood Traditional. Or whatever we're calling him now).

Augustus! He is the new sculpt for the 2024 SM Club. I love him! So chubby! I won't join the club for him, and I probably won't buy him on the secondary, (unless I find one near to cost, and that won't happen), but I am so so excited for his first RR of BF release! Squeeee! So cute!!

The Swirls and Snowflakes, Christmas SMs! So cute, but nothing I need. They will be available to CC members tomorrow afternoon at 1pm.

Alrighty, I think that's it. :) Fingers crossed for some new BF information soon! I can hardly wait.

SDS Grandpa's War Bond AKA The Secretive Stallion

He's here! Mr. Mysterious himself. Here's a picture of him on his way out to get his photos:

Any final guesses?

A nice package from Alyssa Simin arrived at my door yesterday, and inside was a . . .

Glossy Bravour 54! I won the diorama contest this year! It was so hard not to share it with you all. I knew quite a bit in advance (I had some legal stuff to sign and all) but Breyer swore me to secrecy. I decided to wait for him to arrive before I announced it publicly. :)

Let me tell you, I was not expecting to find the glossy version prettier than the matte. I never do (I still think my matte Nikko is nicer than my glossy one). But this one is quite the exception!! That gloss smooths out all his old imperfections. My copy is gorgeous! His COA is pretty too (but I don't have a pic of it - sorry!). I love that the glossy one has a grey area on his snoot! So cute. The matte one is all black there.

I decided to name him SDS Grandpa's War Bond. He's a comforting model to have on the shelf, but I never plan on selling him. It is really nice to know he's there (and my glossy Nikko from last year).

He looks so sweet on the shelf next to the matte. On the other end of the same shelf is my glossy Nikko.

The shelf below has a Bryant's Jake, SBH Phoenix, Wells, Avatar's Jazzman, and Valentine and Heartbreaker. (I'm telling you because I know I'd be squinting at the bottom of the picture and hurting my eyes if I were you 😂)

Still waiting on my matte replacement Bravour.

BreyerFest Friday (SPOILERS BIG TIME!)

Before we begin - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TEN THOUSAND VIEWS!! You guys are the best! Not to mention, it lined up so we hit it on my birthday yesterday! What a fun coincidence. :)

SPOILER ALERT COMING!!!

I hope you all are enjoying BF! I know I am. I've filled a full page in a notebook with little odds and ends to remember to share with you all. I know some of you aren't participating and don't have social media, so I want to share some highlights of the day. If you already know this stuff, bear with me. There is a new herd member announcement at the end!

This is just random bullet point type info, because I'm too jacked up on BF energy to compose it in any other way. It's going straight from my notebook to this post. 😁

Note: HUGE thanks to Equiden, for faithfully forwarding me photos that were posted on Discord today! Thank you so much!

• Jump and Drive is the mane split
• Scurry has a variation of a perlino (??) coloring
• Wells is 50% glossy (😭)
• Speos has a colorshift variation
• Araba has a strawberry roan-ish looking color split
• Peanutine has a variation that makes him look darker, can't tell if it's deco, or black, or darker bay, or what exactly
• Surrey and Axle sometimes has the foal on the Action Stock Horse Mold
• Buggy has a color split of perlino with pink shimmer
• Studebaker has a color split of metallic blue and purple
• Studebaker is a mare, even though Jamie and Kimberley keep saying "he"
• Surprise Horse is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HAMILTON! So far he's been spotted in strawberry roan overo, greenish metallic, black tobiano, buckskin tobiano, chestnut, and grey.

Jamie said that this year's opening crowd was the biggest she's seen in twelve years! 

I was able to get all of what I wanted from the shop this morning, and was delighted to see I was assigned Wells, my SR of choice. You can expect to see a big "BF Haul" post coming later! For now, I will announce my new herd member, "SDS Just a Willow Bit" AKA Willow. I will do a full post later, but I just wanted to mention her here first!

Have an awesome rest of the day folks!

My 2023 Diorama Entry

I wasn't originally going to post about this, but after all the time I spent on it, I feel like it should get at least some blog mention. 😂

I entered this year's virtual diorama entry. The theme was, "Driving Through History". It took me all of 30 seconds to pick a "moment in history". World War I horse-drawn ambulance!! They aren't as well known as other war time vehicles, simply because of how shortly they were in use. Below is a copy of what I wrote to Breyer as a historical reference.

The horse-drawn ambulance was used in World War I. They were used most heavily in the first two years of the war (1914-1915) before the motor ambulance was available. Their usage slowed down in 1916-1920, where they were mainly used to access areas that were impassable to motor vehicles. Any horse that knew how to pull was eligible to be deemed "needed" by the army. This resulted in motley teams, ranging from horses used to pull circus caravans to horses trained to take farm children to school. The earliest ambulances were sometimes built from the remains of farm wagons. English horse-drawn ambulances typically said "English Ambulance" while the American type usually displayed a white circle with red cross. Any ambulance bearing this symbol helped soldiers of both sides. Photographs of real horse-drawn ambulances can be viewed at this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/V7TgPmTsDHLLRF4P8 .

I started this diorama the day the contest was announced on the BF blog (March 1) and finished it the day that the entries were due (June 23). For those who are bad at math (like me) that is exactly 115 days. The entire process was 2 steps forward, one step back. The top of the wagon (the "canvas") is made from a plain blue shop towel, painted and stiffened. The red cross picture on the side is also made from a blue shop towel. Moral of the story: Never underestimate what your supplies can do. The wagon base and harnesses (not the bridles/reins) came from a TSC gift set I got for the SM scale props when it was 50% off after Christmas. The flag is a shop towel on a toothpick. The driver is hand crafted (the rules require him to be either handmade or Breyer-made) from all sorts of doll parts and polymer clay connections. The bridles and reins are. . . bad. Really bad. I am ashamed to say that I, ummm, forgot about that bit entirely, until I picked it up to take it outside for photos. I had it halfway to the door, before looking down and realizing my mistake. It was 2hrs to the deadline, and I hadn't even composed my email yet, so I just made some (unbaked) polymer clay strips and connected it.

The base was one of the biggest challenges. I re-did it four times before I declared it finished. I could have kept at it forever. The base base is a square of plexiglass. The next layer is blue shop towels painted brown. The next layer is a smeared dirt and glue mix. I rolled the wagon over and over, wearing ruts in the "mud" and dirtying up the wheels. I shaped some little mounds, and glued down some moss that I peeled off the trees in my woods (thank you, faithful crab apple!). The cross grave marker is sculpted (shoddily) from polymer clay and weathered in acrylic paint.

The horses are Breyer RR SMs. The pinto is from the Pintos and Palominos gift set and the appy is an old blister card RR. I filthy-ed up their lower legs with watered down mud. 

The title of the diorama is "Hoof-beats of Help". The short description, required by Breyer, is:

In this scene, a horse-drawn ambulance carrying wounded men rattles down a dusty road. They are heading for a first aid tent located about nine miles from the battleground. Grave markers litter the trail. Both horses focus on their path, pulling courageously through the dust and hate that surrounds them. The spotted one was a circus mare, pulled into service by the desperate need for trained horses. The pinto was a rural minister's trusty mount. He had trained her to pull when she was young, not knowing that the same training would be why she would be taken from him.

I really enjoyed this year's theme. I loved the creative freedom it allowed. Best of luck to all who entered! May the driving-est entry win. :)

2023 Live Auction Models

Warning! This is such a photo-dump post! Breyer finished releasing the auction models today (some on the BF Blog, some on Bid Spirit) and I thought it would be nice to get them rounded up all together. 

These are all OOAK except for the Cancion and the Fireheart. They are our raffle models!

My top two are the Rhian and Cadell set and the Strapless. That Rhian makes me drool! I wish I had a spare ten thousand to throw around. 😂 My least favorite is the Anamar.

What about you? Tell me your favorites (or your least favorites) in the comments! 

Finally! Some Breyer News!

Hip hip hooray! Finally Breyer has given us something worthwhile to announce!

We have two, fabulous sneak peaks:

The upper one (dark and rectangular) is to be a BreyerFest model, and the lower one (pinto square) is a Collector Club release of some sort. I have no clue about the BF peek. I can not make heads nor tails of it. There is some buzz that the lower one is some sort of Maureen Love mold, which would probably be reasonable. I do not think it is a gambler's choice, however. I will only be in trouble if it's the Classic Arabian Mare, lol. I do think it is vintage, though, with that signature roughness in the muscle recesses. It could be a web special (remember Robin and Nestling) but it seems a bit soon after Sparrow.

The BF peek is set to be revealed on Monday, and the CC one will be in June.

One more tidbit of model horse gossip - we have a leaked mid-year!! And isn't she gorgeous?

Photo credit to Model Horse Madness, who credits it to an unknown person from FB

Certainly not a model I would have expected liking, but this is one I will have to get at some point. She was leaked on the back page of the most current Young Rider magazine.