Steve Ski
Well-known member
In keeping with my latest trend in this Sport of “sniffing paint and gluing my fingers together,” I’m headed into another area that is completely out of my norm, painting Big Dogs, aka, horses. My last venture took me into the realm of aircraft kits where I learned a lot, all while still having fun. So, I see no reason not to expect the same here. Preliminary research has indicated that this is not rocket science, and with a little practice, i.e., crash and burn, scrub and redo, I should be fine, right? HA!
I’ve had these kits on the shelf for a very long time, over 15yrs, some of them close to 20yrs. So, when your better half tells you it’s time to get it done, ya tend to listen with a more attentive ear. This is the perfect opportunity to not only learn how to paint horses, but also darker flesh tones, all of which I will approach as I always do, carefully. I will post any sites used for research that may be of help to others, mainly how to paint these Big Dogs and make them look more than halfway decent. I’ve scoured YT for decent tutorials for painting horses in oils and have found that most of them tend to be more towards the less realistic side of painting. Some of the major models sellers have decent tutorials, but they weren’t in the direction I was looking to venture. My search is proving frustrating, so if you find any links, please let me know, I’m all ears and I’d greatly appreciate it.
During my search I have dug into countless photos of finished work just to get an idea of what the artist has done to arrive at the effect portrayed. This is the difficult way to go about this research, but since I don’t have a boat load of magazines from an almost gone-by era to draw from, I have to interpret what I’m looking at and go from there. Well, if it wasn’t a challenge, this would be boring, right? We Ruck On!
On a side note, I’ve seen quite a few vids where some gals have used chalks, or pastels, to create a dapple effect, and the results are stunning. I just might be adding that to my quiver, pun intended, because the end result is, IMHO, very realistic. One link I found useful, but still searching for more; https://www.youtube.com/@juliamoshura129/videos I have mentioned Julia’s work before, she’s got an incredible talent. I’ve also grabbed photo references to numerous Mustangs Paints, US Cavalry horses in general, and a lot of reference pics for Sioux Indian dress and typical horse outfitting for that era. And lastly, I’ll be taking numerous photos of the Big Dogs we’ve got out in paddock. Nash and Story will be my main focus, Story being a pup, but has an incredible color to her; she’s a paint. More on them later.
So what’s in the line-up?
Andrea Miniatures: The Golden West, 54mm;
Shot Down, 1876 - S4S07
Sioux Chief - S4-F01
Sioux Warrior Loading Carbine - S4-F02
Sioux Warrior Shooting Arrow - S4-F03
Sioux Warrior Shooting Carbine – S4-F04
Sioux Warrior Falling Down -S4-F05
https://www.andrea-world.com/en/1/a...logue/104/the-golden-west.html?p=5&tamanio=12
We’ve got six Big Dogs to work with, so I recon we should get some halfway decent results before this is all said and done. But yall know me, if it ain’t up to speed, it gets and Oven Cleaner bath, and we start over, till it’s right. So, this won’t be going at any neck breaking speed, but more like slow and low, no rush, just learn and have fun while I’m at it.
I’m impressed with the figures in these kits, and every one of them has a Quality Control tag included inside each box. Not having worked with white metal before, it’s been a messy experience in one sense, but not so bad in dealing with fitting. I figured since I was going to paint one horse, get em all ready, run a production line, keep the process flowing, and adjust my techniques as needed.
More to follow soon and thanks for watchin. Cheers, Ski.
I’ve had these kits on the shelf for a very long time, over 15yrs, some of them close to 20yrs. So, when your better half tells you it’s time to get it done, ya tend to listen with a more attentive ear. This is the perfect opportunity to not only learn how to paint horses, but also darker flesh tones, all of which I will approach as I always do, carefully. I will post any sites used for research that may be of help to others, mainly how to paint these Big Dogs and make them look more than halfway decent. I’ve scoured YT for decent tutorials for painting horses in oils and have found that most of them tend to be more towards the less realistic side of painting. Some of the major models sellers have decent tutorials, but they weren’t in the direction I was looking to venture. My search is proving frustrating, so if you find any links, please let me know, I’m all ears and I’d greatly appreciate it.
During my search I have dug into countless photos of finished work just to get an idea of what the artist has done to arrive at the effect portrayed. This is the difficult way to go about this research, but since I don’t have a boat load of magazines from an almost gone-by era to draw from, I have to interpret what I’m looking at and go from there. Well, if it wasn’t a challenge, this would be boring, right? We Ruck On!
On a side note, I’ve seen quite a few vids where some gals have used chalks, or pastels, to create a dapple effect, and the results are stunning. I just might be adding that to my quiver, pun intended, because the end result is, IMHO, very realistic. One link I found useful, but still searching for more; https://www.youtube.com/@juliamoshura129/videos I have mentioned Julia’s work before, she’s got an incredible talent. I’ve also grabbed photo references to numerous Mustangs Paints, US Cavalry horses in general, and a lot of reference pics for Sioux Indian dress and typical horse outfitting for that era. And lastly, I’ll be taking numerous photos of the Big Dogs we’ve got out in paddock. Nash and Story will be my main focus, Story being a pup, but has an incredible color to her; she’s a paint. More on them later.
So what’s in the line-up?
Andrea Miniatures: The Golden West, 54mm;
Shot Down, 1876 - S4S07
Sioux Chief - S4-F01
Sioux Warrior Loading Carbine - S4-F02
Sioux Warrior Shooting Arrow - S4-F03
Sioux Warrior Shooting Carbine – S4-F04
Sioux Warrior Falling Down -S4-F05
https://www.andrea-world.com/en/1/a...logue/104/the-golden-west.html?p=5&tamanio=12
We’ve got six Big Dogs to work with, so I recon we should get some halfway decent results before this is all said and done. But yall know me, if it ain’t up to speed, it gets and Oven Cleaner bath, and we start over, till it’s right. So, this won’t be going at any neck breaking speed, but more like slow and low, no rush, just learn and have fun while I’m at it.
I’m impressed with the figures in these kits, and every one of them has a Quality Control tag included inside each box. Not having worked with white metal before, it’s been a messy experience in one sense, but not so bad in dealing with fitting. I figured since I was going to paint one horse, get em all ready, run a production line, keep the process flowing, and adjust my techniques as needed.
More to follow soon and thanks for watchin. Cheers, Ski.
