Fantastic Finds: Oddball Shire Mare

We’re going to interpret the word “Fantastic” a little differently today. Instead of using it to mean “great, wonderful, awesome, excellent,” we’re gonna shift toward the “strange, different, odd, outlandish, weird” end of the definition spectrum.

At the end of April in 2014, I went to a local large weekend flea market to poke around. I hadn’t had any great finds there (up til then or since!) so I wasn’t expecting much. Then I came across this weirdo #95 Shire Mare, produced from 1972-1976, for only $5 and had to bring her home with me.

 

 

Your first thought was probably, “Oh, she’s chalky!” That was my first thought, too. But she’s not chalky in the truest definition of the word (either having a white basecoat beneath the paint or being made from a more-opaque-than-usual blend of white plastic). Instead, she has a weird chalky-like finish overtop of her OF paint from head to toe, including her belly and underneath her tail.

 

I posted her on Blab the day I rescued her, trying to tap into the hive mind to see if anyone knew what could be going on with her. A lot of theories were thrown around:

• She was left outside in the elements and that damaged her finish
• She was washed in too-hot water and clouded up (like woodgrains tend to do)
• She was originally glossy and the gloss went bad
• There was a reaction between the paint and the sealer
• Someone forgot to clean off the "mold release" at the factory before painting her and it caused a weird reaction with the sealer
• The cloudy finish was caused by active mold/mildew
• She was sprayed with a light layer of primer or white gesso

We (happily) ruled out mold/mildew - she looked exactly the same after a thorough Dawn dish soap bath and a test with a Lysol wipe underneath her tail. We also ruled out a primer or gesso coat overtop of her OF paint, as she looks like a normal, non-glossed dapple gray Shire Mare when she’s wet (see photos below, where I swiped her with a wet paper towel). The hazy, chalky-like finish only appears when she’s dry.

 

 

 

The theory with the most credence for me is weather-damage or heat-damage to the sealer. You can see it on her face the best, but it is over the entirety of her body.

 

 

 

 

The craziest part for me is that her eyes are completely normal. I wonder if the eyes are painted on after the sealer and that's why her eyes are immune to the cloudiness? Does anyone know?

I thought about Lestoiling her, but I was advised against that by most of the Blabbers who responded to the thread, even though I had an entire bottle of the old (safe) Lestoil back then. Dapple gray paint jobs are notoriously fragile and it didn’t seem worth the risk of damaging the OF paint underneath the weird chalkyish film. 

She’s an odd bird, but I have a soft spot in my collection for odd birds, so she’s got a forever home here.

Show Stoppers: Custom Mini

Back in January, I talked about the handful of Traditional customs in my collection that have made the show ring. I have a few more custom minis than Traditionals - 19 to be exact - but most are either decorators (13 of them, can you believe it? I’m just as shocked as you are) or my mostly-not-great attempts at painting things. Only five of my custom minis have made it into the show ring with any regularity. Here they are, in no particular order.

 

 

This little cutie is a Breyer G2 Trotting Foal Stablemate. I got her in April 2015 through a Model Horse Blab Stablemate swap. 

For those unfamiliar, every few months in the mid-2010s (and maybe before that; I wasn’t a Blabber until 2013) you could sign up to participate in a model horse swap, where you’d paint a Stablemate for another Blabber and they’d paint one for you. All you had to do was fill out a quick form with your model horse (and candy/snacks/real life things) likes and dislikes. You’d get someone else’s form in return, paint them a model, get them something from their likes list (within a certain dollar limit), and ship it off. 

I participated twice, Halloween 2014 and then spring of 2015. In 2014, I painted a champagne G3 TWH for my partner, and received a really cool G3 Cantering Warmblood painted like a pumpkin - a bright orange body with a green mane and tail. He even came with a pumpkin costume! He’ll be featured sometime in the future in a Full Spectrum post. 

I ended up with two partners in 2015 after another member had to back out. I painted Legos onto a G3 Warmblood Jumper for one partner, and did a realistic buckskin G3 Cantering Warmblood for the other. In return, I received a blue roan splash pinto etched G3 Rearing Andalusian, a super cool Game of Thrones-themed red splash pinto G2 Thoroughbred complete with a wooden base with painted dragons and three house banners, and the little pink pegasus filly. She was painted by Evelyn Lauer and has a ton of detail in her wings. Her show name is Paige. She has placed at three of the four shows she’s been to and has one NAN card.

I visited Blab on a daily basis from 2013 through around 2018-2019; more sporadically after that; and then stopped almost entirely when the site was compromised and went poof for awhile in 2022-ish. I still check in every year around BreyerFest to see if the famous DooWiki is keeping a blog, but that’s as far as I go. It’s just not the same as it was.

 

 

 

I bought this custom G3 TWH from a fellow hobbyist at a show in March 2015. I am not sure who painted her. Her show name is All Ahead Full. She has been temporarily retired due to a large hoof rub that I need to repair.

 

 

For many years, the SE Ohio Model Horse Show was a fixture in Region 7. It was run by friends and fellow hobbyists Mandy and Tonjia, and was one of my favorite shows of the year. They always had a nice raffle, and in September 2013, this custom CollectA Hanoverian was up for grabs. I put a metric ton of tickets in for him and probably squealed out loud when my ticket was picked. His show name is Lucky Draw.
 

 

These last two horses are my own creations. This one, a G2 Thoroughbred, has been the most successful of all my custom minis. I painted her over the summer in 2010 after rejoining the hobby. She was my second attempt at pastelling and was based on a reference photo. If I had a do-over, I'd make the dapples a bit smaller, less uniform, and more well-blended.

 

I took her to my first ever live show, CRAB, in October 2010, and entered her in one of the fun classes - Custom by Novice Owner (over 18, never sold their work). I was hoping for a ribbon of any color, but she won her class! That was the highlight of the show for me.

Since then, she’s been on the table 25 times, has 17 breed ribbons (9 NAN cards), and 5 workmanship ribbons (2 NAN cards). In spite of her flaws, I’m super proud of her. Her show name is Occlusion.

This fun decorator G2 Andalusian was borne of a hobby night with friends. I’m pretty sure it was 2015 or 2016; I do remember beer was involved. I started him that night and finished him later on (when I was sober, lol). His show name is Vitral, which is Spanish for stained glass. He’s picked up a few ribbons here and there. I had a really fun and stress-free time making him.

Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: A Supportive Sham

Apologies for the incredibly short post today - I had a busy weekend with Are You Kitten Me Live and commitments both Monday and Tuesday after work, so writing time was slim pickings.

Everyone knows by now how much I love Sham. He didn’t start out as an intentional conga, but by the time I had four or five of them, standing on a shelf in my childhood bedroom looking all proud of themselves, I was in love, so then I intentionally started buying all the new releases when they came out. By the time I started to cut back on collecting in 2001 after graduating from undergrad, I had nine of them. When I jumped back into the hobby with both feet in 2010, I started grabbing the missing ones up like hotcakes (and a whooooooooole bunch of duplicates, because for awhile, my motto was, No Sham Left Behind). My collection of Shams stands at 49 right now; the only one I’m missing is Niagara.

In early 2015, I was struggling with all the ways my life had changed since the previous May. I was in an apartment, living totally by myself for the first time - up to that point in my life, I’d always had a family member or a roommate or a pet living with me. But Chloie’s heart got the best of her in May 2014, and Chris and I had broken up, so I was on my own and horribly lonely. I reached out to a few friends for support; Heather B (who features in every post, I swear!) was one of them. 

On March 24, 2015, I came home from work to a box on my doorstep. I knew I hadn’t ordered anything, so I wasn’t sure what it could be. Inside the box was a note of support and encouragement, and this:

 

 

This Sham is from the #3162 Arabian Stallion and Frisky Foal set, produced in the first half of 1994 only.

Heather’s note mentioned that this particular Sham had been from her childhood herd, and she knew that Sham was my favorite and wanted him to live with me, and hoped he’d put a smile on my face during a tough time.

He did.

He still does.