Who I Am

I’ve been painting and resculpting model horses since the late 1990′s. I’d like to think my work has improved over the years, but since this is a cyclical hobby for me a lot of my time is spent relearning the techniques. (Which, arguably, is half the fun so it works out well).

I have been out of the hobby for quite a number of years, but am starting to dip my toes back in the CMing waters. I am currently working on reposting all of my older work, as well as some new horses that I have recently dug out of storage and finished off. If I owe you a free custom from back in the days when I did show donations– please let me know and I’ll get things sorted out!

Who I Was

I have operated under both the SunRunner Stables and Custom-Models.com names and used to help run the Hampton Roads Classic model horse shows. I have also sold my work under Martha Bechtel and Martha McMahon. You may have seen me posting under any of those names, although I’ve primarily used Martha Bechtel since 2002 when I got married.

What I Paint

I work primarily in Breyer Stablemate scale (1:32) or smaller, as you can see by the little guy to the left. Working in the smaller scales lets me finish horses faster, which works well with my hobby attention span, and takes up less shelf space when I decided I can’t part with them. The amount of space taken up by art supplies after the downward transition is sadly the same.

Many of my horses end up in rather non-traditional colors. I blame this on the fact that I grew up with My Little Ponies and the books The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and The Gift of the Sacred Dog. (The later of which has the multicolored horses I love to paint!)

This sub-blog will focus primarily on my own customs as well as various how-to’s on how I make the silly little psychedelic horses that more or less become my calling card. (Blue Appaloosas, Orange Tobianos, Purple Line-back Duns…)