gifts to my girlfriend...for horse lovers

Modeling Subjects Figures and Misc.
1

Hi all–you know, normally, it’s all I can do to build the armor kits that I want on my shelf and to find time to complete them all (there’s never enough time!), but occasionally I’ve taken a sharp tangent from my usual panzer obsession to build some surprises for my girlfriend. I thought I’d share them, as they’re a little unique and not something you’d see everyday. I hope you like them!

The first is a 1/32 little viginette called “Breaking Free”, and includes three Historex horses, painted freehand in acrylics and oils. The fence is made of balsa wood, and the groundwork from celluclay and grass from the railroad aisle of my LHS. The flowers are also railroad stock landscaping stuff. The horse in the front is painted as “Axel”, my girlfriend’s horse who had to be put down…[BH]

The second scene was built inside of a model car display case, and has to do with that old Michael Martin-Murphy song “Wildfire”–you know, about the pony that “busted down his stall…in a blizzard he was lost…she ran callin’ ‘Wildfire!’” My girlfriend loves this song, so I wanted to do a hypothetical answer to the question of why that pony ran off…well, wouldn’t you too for a “hot blond”?![(-D]
The unicorn “Epona” is a Historex horse again, with a horn added of plastic rod, filed into a spiral horn. The bridles were carefully filed off, and oils were used to paint. “Wildfire” is a Tamiya horse. The photo on the rear wall was taken from my deer stand, and the snow is talcum powder.

The Two walk in a frozen stream–a channel was built, filled with epoxy, and a sheet of clear plastic cut into “ice” covering the bed. This was cut to look shattered, and epoxy and talcum used to simulate the water dripping from the hooves and the snow on the ice. The wild rose bush of “blooming love” (all together now–AWWWW!!! [:I]) is a small piece of steel wool with a crushed tissue paper “rose”.

I presented these to my girlfreind for both Christmas and Valentines Day, respectively. The hardest part was building them in complete secrecy! It was a bit unusual to build something and not keep it, but WELL worth it![swg]

Comments or questions welcomed!

2

Excellent work. I often find that friends and family don’t look at my hobby as quite so weird once I give them a nicely painted miniature.

Good use of the car model base. I used a clear plastic Chessex dice box for a single 28mm showcase, that’s what I call smart recycling.

3

Thanks for putting “Wildfire” on continous loop in my head, Doog[:(!]

I really like the paint jobs on the horses. Especially #3 in the first series, the one not yet free. Real nice touch.

Steve

4

I love the appaloosa in your first dio. They’re all very well done, but that one just begs for a Sioux on his back!

5

Hey guys, thanks for replying, and for the kind comments. I know what you mean about that Appaloosa, ajlafleche; I could see that being “commandeered” by a “Wind-in-His-Hair”—but the little misses would kil me![(-D]

BTW, I should mention that she’s thrilled that some comments actually were posted–she’s as proud of these builds as if she did them herself! (I had to explain to her that photos of her Cross-Stitch works weren’t exactly appropriate for this site! [sigh])

Thanks again!

6

Doog,

Now, this is something we don’t get to see all the time. Nicely done and I’m sure your GF will love it as well.

7

You did a great job there. She will be proud of it I’m sure. Nice to see something different every now and then.

SST

8

god, I hope my g/f doesn’t see this post—she is wanting a pink and purple airplane…