mistressofmuses

Weird hobby time!

There is a surprisingly robust hobby scene for people who take tiny plastic horses very seriously.

One, though by far not the only, aspect of this hobby is artistic: people who do custom paint jobs for these tiny plastic horses. Some people are also sculptors, but many people just do new finishwork on existing models. These existing models range from cheap toys (Breyer being the most common mass-produced brand, because they're mostly relatively inexpensive but also often very good sculpts that are very realistic in terms of biomechanics), to extremely high end artist resins (often extremely finely detailed sculptures, sometimes priced in the thousands of dollars for extremely sought-after ones.)

One very well-regarded hobbyist (who also lives in Colorado), started an event called "NaNoPaiMo" several years ago. In the style of NaNoWriMo, NaMoPaiMo stands for "National Model Painting Month." The rules are pretty simple: in the month of February, use the artistic medium of your choice to customize the finishwork of a 3D model equine of your choice.

I've participated for... some number of years. 4? I think? 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 sounds right to me. The event was held only informally last year, as Jennifer had too much going on in her real life to run it. I'd intended to participate in the unofficial "International Model Painting Party" replacement event, but I crapped out majorly and never even finished prepping a model to *be* painted.

So I'm giving it another go this year!



This guy is partially prepped: the white areas are where he's been sanded to remove seams and such. That's usually the first step for customizing: sanding the model down, removing seams and logos, so you have the "cleanest" model to work on. The next step after that's complete will be a layer of primer, and then the actual painting!

I am planning to use paint: acrylics, applied with a brush. Other people use oils, or use acrylics with an airbrush. Alex is also doing one this year, and he'll be using pastel pigments.

My intent is to do this one as a "decorator" (an unrealistic color.) My plan is to do a peacock stained glass/mosaic pattern. (My horse in 2022 was inspired by Tiffany's wisteria stained glass patterns.) This time I want to do a similarly-styled peacock, and I have NO idea how well that will turn out!

(I'd waffled on whether I was going to try this year or not. I already lost a huge chunk of January to being sick, and I know this will take up a good chunk of my free time for February. There are already other things that feel neglected! But it's also a fun chance to do artistic/creative things OUTSIDE what I ordinarily do, so I'm hoping I'll be able to do it!)