Custom Model Horse: Leopard Appy Sport Horse

Instructions

These are pictures of my process for creating this custom Breyer model of a black leopard appaloosa sport horse! This was my most drastic custom so far, since I removed the mane, tail, and ears and resculpted them using Apoxie clay. I then had to paint a LOT of spots to achieve this final result! 1. I started with a Breyer classic Running Thoroughbred model 2-4. This was my first time making a mane and tail out of Apoxie, so I sculpted the tail before I removed the original one to make sure I could make something I was happy with. I started with a base of twisted wire and tape that I stiffened with superglue and baking soda. Then, I added little noodles of clay and smoothed them down to create the hair. 5-6. Although I don't have a picture of this step, I used a Dremel tool to cut off and sand down the mane, tail, and ears. I then started adding new ears, and worked on making button braids for the mane (I used a video tutorial by Creative Kristen Taylor for the mane and tail) 7-8. To attach the tail, I drilled a hole in the butt and inserted the wire support. I then glued it in place. had drawn a guide line in Sharpie ahead of time to help me find where I wanted the hole to be. 9-10. Closeups of the ears and mane 11-12. This is the finished tail! I actually ended up ripping the tail off and pulling off some of the clay because the tailbone was too long. My current idea is that if I'm not happy with my project, I should undo it and fix it now because then I won't be happy with the final result. Hence why I ripped off the tail and redid it. After that, I reattached the tail and put some new clay over top to conceal the join. 13. This is the model after I finished the clay, but before I started painting! 14. I applied a base coat of gray primer... 15-16. ...And then painted on the white coat with my airbrush. It's subtle, but you can see how the white is creamier and has more shading than the primer 17-21. Now it is time for spots. Lots and lots of spots. I started by drawing on where I wanted the spots to be with a black pencil. I looked at a lot of references to get the spot shapes/patterns to be right, but it was also nice to be able to do whatever I wanted with this model! I wasn't trying to base it on a real horse, and there's a lot of flexibility in appaloosa designs, so I had a lot of freedom 22. Then I painted in all of the spots. I don't have any more pictures of the spot phase, but this went on for a while. I first colored in all of the spots I had drawn in, and then went back to make them fully opaque and add in more spots as needed. 23. Finally, I painted on details like the mane, tail, eyes, and hooves, sealed the paint, and the horse is done! 24-26. This is the finished result! I also included the concept sketch that I'd done before starting the project. You can see how some things were similar, but some things evolved over the course of the project! 27-40. Photoshoot! The spring flowers are blooming, so there are several pictures with flowers! I also included some closeups of details like the mane and tail. Overall, I'm quite happy with this horse! It was a nice change to not be painting a specific horse, and it was fun to experiment with Apoxie. It was also interesting to not have to use the airbrush that much and instead to most of the painting with a paintbrush. As always, the neatness and realism could always be improved, but for the skills that I have right now, I think that this horse turned out well. I've got more projects planned, so I will keep creating and improving!