Category Archives: 2 – Custom-Models.com

Customised Model Horses

Feuertänzer

Posted on February 6, 2012 at 10:00 am
Feuertänzer

Feuertänzer

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Standardbred/Pacer (G2)
Color: Red-Orange Chestnut Doodle
Gallery: Doodle Ponies
Medium: Liquitex Artist’s Color Acrylics (Ivory Black, Gesso, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue/Brilliant Yellow, Naphthol Crimson, Brilliant Orange, ACRA Crimson/Primary Red, Cadmium Orange)
Status: Painted February 2012 and For Sale

Feuertänzer is German for Fire Dancer, which fits this little guy to a T. He’s a shaded red-orange faux-chestnut with orange, yellow, and red doodle pony markings. Since the markings use the same colors as his coat, the shadings are now a little hard to see. He’s definitely one of the models that looks better in person! Continue reading →

D’Lembrança

Posted on January 29, 2012 at 6:00 am
D’Lembrança

D’Lembrança

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Paso Fino (G2)
Color: Golden Bay
Gallery: Bay
Medium: Liquitex Artist’s Color Acrylics (Ivory Black, Gesso, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna), Sargent Art Chalk Pastels (Earthtone), and Prismacolor Pencils (964, 1056, 1052, 1074)
Status: Painted January 2012 and For Sale

D’Lembrança means Of Memory in Portuguese and she’s one of the few fully prepped bodies pulled from my old body box. It’s amazing how well gesso holds up over the years! Continue reading →

Money to Burn

Posted on January 28, 2012 at 10:00 am
Money to Burn

Money to Burn

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Saddlebred (G2)
Color: Dappled Red-Buckskin
Gallery: Solid Color
Medium: Liquitex Artist’s Color Acrylics (Naphthol Crimson, Ivory Black, Gesso, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Green Light Permanent, Emerald Green) and Sargent Art Chalk Pastels (Earthtone, Colored, Neon)
Status: Painted January 2011 and For Sale

Originally painted back in the early 2000′s this little gal has gone back under the brush to fix some rubs and bring her up to current standards! She might have been a snappy dresser before, but this time I think she’s really nailed the look… Continue reading →

Live From The Workbench

Posted on January 25, 2012 at 6:00 am
Live From the Workbench 01-24-12

Live From the Workbench 01-24-12

Now that Poptop, Suicide Kings, Money to Burn, and D’Lembrança are off to Etsy, it’s time to restock the workbench.

Feuer Tanzer is still hanging on, but he’s the last of the origonal herd. I scooped up one more body from the old pile (blue warmblood) and everyone else is from January’s body order.

It will be so much fun to start workhng with more of the G3s! *grin* Continue reading →

Suicide Kings

Posted on January 23, 2012 at 10:00 am
Suicide Kings

Suicide Kings

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Andalusian (G3)
Color: Liver Chestnut Minimal Splash Overo
Gallery: Overo
Medium: Liquitex Artist Color Acrylics (Gesso, Brunt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ivory Black, Raw Sienna, Venetian Rose, Light Portrait Pink), Sargent Art Earthtone Chalk Pastels
Status: Painted January 2012 and For Sale

Poptop may have beat this little guy through the finish gate, but Kings is the first Third Generation mold that I’ve finished to date (as the Druid Horse is still a WiP). Continue reading →

Poptop

Posted on January 22, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Poptop

Poptop

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Shetland Pony (G2)
Color: Dark (Black) Bay
Gallery: Bay
Medium: Liquitex Artist Color Acrylics (Gesso, Neutral gray, Brunt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ivory Black), Folkart (662), Sargent Art Earthtone Chalk Pastels, and Prismacolor Pencils (964, 1056, 1052, 1074)
Status: Painted January 2012 and For Sale

This little guy beat out Suicide Kings by a nose to be my first finished custom for 2012! Not a bad way to start the year off, even if I’m running a little behind schedule… (doh!) Continue reading →

Live From The Workbench

Posted on January 18, 2012 at 6:00 am
Live From the Workbench 01-19-2012

Live From the Workbench 01-19-2012

Finally a horse is done! *pats Poptop fondly*

Now if I could just get his tablemates to follow his lead…

To be fair, Money to Burn is almost done with her touchups, Suicide Kings is just waiting on me to fix his whites, and D’Lembrança is down to a tail and details.

It’s just Feuer Tanzer that’s holding up the works– darn you lousing packing skills of 2005! Continue reading →

Live From The Workbench

Posted on January 13, 2012 at 10:00 am
Live From the Workbench 01-12-2012

Live From the Workbench 01-12-2012

This update is a bit belated, but I’m still getting used to the concept of painting/pasteling on a regular basis again. *stretches out her art muscles*

I’m keeping things to once a week posts on the blog, but I’m going to try and get daily update photos posted over on the Facebook page. Things will be a bit sporadic to start, but by the end of the year it should be a consistent habit. Continue reading →

Herds and Herds of Horses

Posted on January 6, 2012 at 9:00 am
Ye Olde Shoebox of Wonder

Ye Olde Shoebox of Wonder

Last year was an interesting year in terms of horses.

I finished two customs (Elmhurst and Gesundheit), started a few others, and basically spent the year uploading horses that I had painted in 2005 and earlier.

So there were a LOT of horses, some backdated to 2010 and thus not appearing in the list, but not a lot of new stuff. You can see the non-model posts in green below, which are pretty darned scarce.

Still, it was a fun year and having the horses to fill in the posting gaps allowed me to have something posted every single day of the year—not bad eh? *grin* It remains to be seen if I can pull that off without the horses this year… Continue reading →

Live From The Workbench

Posted on January 4, 2012 at 6:00 am
Live From the Workbench 01-04-2012

Live From the Workbench 01-04-2012

The new year has begun and now it’s time to start getting some of these horses out of the body box and onto the shelves!

The brave five in the pic are this week’s ‘volunteers’ to go under the brush.

And if all goes well all of them will be on Etsy before the next Workbench update rolls around. *crosses fingers* Continue reading →

Gesundheit

Posted on January 2, 2012 at 10:00 am
Gesundheit

Gesundheit

Make: Breyer
Scale: Mini Whinnies
Mold: Running Walk Tennessee Walking Horse Mare
Color: Metallic Purple Pintaloosa (Tobiano, Appaloosa)
Gallery: Other Color
Medium: Folk Art 668 Metallic Plum, Liquitex Gesso, Artist Color Ivory Black and Burnt Sienna
Status: Painted 2011 and For Sale

This little gal is the first horse painted from scratch for sale in the new year. Now I just need to get the rest of these guys polished off and onto the shelves as well! Continue reading →

2012 Commission Slots Open!

Posted on January 1, 2012 at 11:30 am

Etsy Store Banner

Pretty much what it says in the title– now that I’m officially a business I can start taking orders! *grin*

For 2012 I will have two concurrent slots running (plus a donation-only slot), since I’m not sure how long they will take me to do. You can place an order either by contacting me directly or by putting in a custom order request through my Etsy store (aptly titled MarthaBechtel). Continue reading →

Keno

Posted on December 31, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Keno

Keno

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Paso Fino (G2)
Color: Black Tobiano
Gallery: Tobaino
Medium: Acrylics
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This little guy is a portrait of Jet’s Chief Keno owned by Sherry Foxworth of Rocking S Farm. He was one of the last portrait horses that I painted and the one I’m proudest of. He’s the best match so far from horse to model, although he wasn’t quite as complicated as Sierra. Continue reading →

Southern Fire

Posted on December 30, 2011 at 6:00 am
Southern Fire

Southern Fire

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Standardbred/Pacer (G2)
Color: Orange-Red Dun
Gallery: Solid Colors
Medium: Acrylics
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This little guy was my second attempt at the orange-red dun coloration that first appeared on Sonata Sunrise. Even though I’m not fond of orange, I really liked the way she turned out and wanted to give it another go. Continue reading →

Landshark’s Shadow

Posted on December 29, 2011 at 6:00 am
Landshark's Shadow

Landshark's Shadow

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Warmblood (G2)
Color: Bay
Gallery: Bay
Medium: Acrylics, Pastels, Prismacolor Pencils
Status: Painted 200? and Home Herd

This little guy was one of my favorite customs and I regretted selling him almost as soon as I’d put him in the mail. Amazingly I stumbled across him on MH$P a few years later and was able to bring him home again! He’s now safly ensconced in the Home Herd and won’t be going anywhere (except a photo show or two). Continue reading →

Samuel

Posted on December 28, 2011 at 6:00 am
Samuel

Samuel

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Saddlebred (G2)
Color: Black Tobiano
Gallery: Tobiano
Medium: Acrylics
Status: Painted and Sold Nov 2003

Okay, so per the paperwork the buyer’s name was Samuel and I have no idea what the horse’s name was. That’s what I get for loosing track of my notes! :P Continue reading →

Philosophers’ Stone

Posted on December 27, 2011 at 6:00 am
Philosophers Stone

Philosophers Stone

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Morgan (G2)
Color: Green-Black-Gold Faux-Stone
Gallery: Other Color
Medium: Acrylics, Liquitex Phthalocyanine Green
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This odd little guy was an attempt to recreate the look of Gold Digger, except starting from a primed body instead of using the original finish. As you can see, it didn’t work as well as intended, but I still think it looks pretty cool (and I used the same technique on Blaustein later). Continue reading →

Checkerbox Tequila

Posted on December 26, 2011 at 6:00 am
Checkerbox Tequila

Checkerbox Tequila

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Saddlebred (G2)
Color: Red Chestnut
Gallery: Chestnut
Medium: Prismacolor Pencils, Acrylics
Status: Painted 2001? and Home Herd

Ah Checkerbox, my very first attempt at a Hackney Pony custom of the Saddlebred mold (but certainly not my last!) Continue reading →

ROL Lida Rose

Posted on December 23, 2011 at 6:00 am
ROL Lida Rose

ROL Lida Rose

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Saddlebred (G2)
Color: Rose-chestnut
Gallery: Solid Color
Medium: Liquitex Venetian Rose, Acrylics
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This little gal was a custom order for Christa of RayovLight Creations and is painted in a faux-chestnut shading with flaxen mane and tail. She has the same color scheme as Kentucky Rose, but I think she wears it better. Continue reading →

Scoville’s Ghost

Posted on December 21, 2011 at 6:00 am
Scoville's Ghost

Scoville's Ghost

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Trotting Foal (G2)
Color: Bay Tobiano
Gallery: Tobiano
Medium: Acrylics and Pastels
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This little guy is quite the show-off! He’s got a rich bay base, complex tobiano pattern, and a Sculpy base that has been covered in sand and train grass. It’s models like Ghost that remind me I might possibly know what I’m doing… and there’s nothing like sharp looking foal to kick in the ego. Continue reading →

Savannah Daydreams

Posted on December 19, 2011 at 7:00 am
Savannah Daydreams

Savannah Daydreams

Make: Breyer
Scale: Little Bits/Paddock Pals
Mold: Unicorn
Color: Brindle Springbok-ish
Gallery: Unicorns
Medium: Acrylics and Prismacolor Pencils
Status: Painted 200? and Home Herd

This little guy is one of my favorite customs and he will never ever leave my home herd. He may be a bit rough in places, but Daydreams is what I picture when I think of wild unicorns—phooey on glowing white horses! Continue reading →

Chasing Down The Last Of The Herd

Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:00 am
New Gallery

Almost Done!

There’s eighteen days until the new business goes live and I still have a lot to do!

I’m finally putting the last touches on the color galleries, although there is a lot of interlinking that still needs to take place. Tracking down the last of the missing photos is proving to be more of a challenge than expected and I have a feeling I have more horses painted that I just haven’t stumbled over yet.

265 horses are a LOT of models… how on earth did I manage to paint all these little guys?? Continue reading →

Spock

Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:00 am
Spock

Spock

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Saddlebred (G2)
Color: Black
Gallery: Black
Medium: Acrylics
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

Spock is a simple resculpt and I’m not sure if this guy was the first portrait horse I did or if it was Billy (another black lightbreed resculpt)– such are the joys of doing almost identical horses! Continue reading →

Ladybug

Posted on December 12, 2011 at 6:00 am
Ladybug

Ladybug

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Shetland Pony (G2)
Color: Red and Black Ladybug
Gallery: Darwin
Medium: Acrylics
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

Bringing a new high to truth in advertising, this little guy is just what he says on the tin. Based on the Coccinella septempunctata seven-spot pattern, Ladybug is leaning more towards ‘artistic license’ rather than ‘realistic’… but you have to admit he’s cute! Continue reading →

Last Day To Bid On Elmhurst!

Posted on December 8, 2011 at 6:00 am
Elmhurst - Thumbnail

Elmhurst Donation

Looking for the perfect Christmas present for a horse-lover? Why not make a donation to Our Mims Retirement Haven, help support retired racehorses, and get an awesome little medallion in the process!

Offered in this eBay auction you’ll find a medallion sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn and painted as a portrait of Elmhurst, the 1997 Breeder’s Cup Sprint winner.

I’ve been out of the hobby too long to know if he’s LSQ or not, but I have a large selection of photos here, and I’m more than happy to provide larger ones on request.

And yes, this is way more spam that you will normally see for an auction… but all the proceeds go to charity so I’ll be darned if I won’t do my best to bring in the eyeballs!

Catbird’s Fancy

Posted on December 7, 2011 at 6:00 am
Catbird's Fancy

Catbird's Fancy

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Arabian (G2)
Color: Golden Palomino
Gallery: Dilutes
Medium: Acrylics and Pastels
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This handsome fella was a custom order along with Magpie’s Six… and that’s as much information as I have on him so far. While his mane is slightly brighter than I’d like now, I’m going to pretended it was just washed really well for a show. Continue reading →

And He’s Off! (of Auctions and Signal Boosting)

Posted on December 5, 2011 at 9:00 am
Elmhurst - Thumbnail

Elmhurst Donation

My donation to the Elmhurt Medallion fundraiser for Our Mims is now on eBay– so if you’re fond of racehorses and even more fond of non-profits who give retired racehorses a home then please check him out!

He’s only a five day auction and I’ve been hopping about trying to find ways to make sure people know he’s out there. The auctions are hidden down in the racing collectables instead of in the normal model horse section of eBay, so unless I can reach folks outside of Blab, no one’s going to know he’s there!

So how do you boost the signal? Continue reading →

Senza Sordina

Posted on December 4, 2011 at 6:00 am
Senza Sordina

Senza Sordina

Make: Breyer
Scale: Stablemate
Mold: Andalusian (G2)
Color: Bay
Gallery: Bay
Medium: Acrylics and Pastels
Status: Painted 200? and Sold 200?

This little guy was a basic custom order along with the Add-a-Foal, Baby Grand. Not a whole lot else to be said for this little guy, since he’s a very simple bay. Always nice to paint something sans-chrome now and again! Continue reading →