Help with Custom breyer

[Nina]

[Nina]

Ok so I’ve wanted to do a custom breyer for ever! I noticed alot of people on here do them so any tips, websites that you like anything? I have no idea where to even start…I’ve been looking online and no help. I have some magic-sculpt and a few breyers that need help but that’s about as fare as I’ve gotten.

[Chessapeaka]

Well, I’ve never actually CUSTOMIZED one yet, but I’ve found that you can use heat to soften the plastic. This comes in handy for tweaking the legs into different positions. I had a Carinosa model that wouldn’t stand straight, so I boiled water, dipped her front legs in, and was able to bend them back into shape. It could probably be done to a much greater extent…

Anyway, customizing sounds like loads of fun. I’ve always wanted to try it, but never gotten my hands on a model that was banged up enough. Good luck!

[Nina]

thanks that might help a few of the plastic toys I had in storage. After I unpacked I found that alot had melted from the heat, not to bad just to the point of not standing. Does anyone know if you can us a heat gun on breyer to change the pose?

[SPark]

You probably can, I’ve used a heat gun to mess about with plastic before, but… I’m not sure I’d risk it. If you’re not VERY careful, you can get bubbles in the plastic, or scorch it and ruin the texture and color.

[mikki]

Yes you can use a heat gun, in fact I much prefer it to the boiling water method. Just make sure that there is an airhole somewhere so that you don’t bloat the body. Make a small hole (with a small drillbit in a Dremel, or some people use a hot needle held with a pliers) somewhere where it won’t be obvious like under the tail or between the hind legs 😆 Start with a low heat first, don’t get too close, and keep trying carefully to bend it. After you heat and move the leg, hold it in cool water to “set” the change.

It’s best to practice a bit first, if you have one that’s in real “body” condition. Or, start with simple changes before moving on to more drastic. Use a soft cloth or something to hold the leg so that you don’t burn yourself, the thicker more solid legs can get awfully hot before you can move them. If you are doing simple bends, heat the leg and try to bend at the top of the joint, so that the “bones” stay straight and you don’t end up with “spaghetti legs”.

If you want to make much more drastic changes in the legs, you’ll need to cut and then heat/bend. Depending on what you want to do, you might just make small cuts or you might remove the leg completely. If you do remove the leg, you’ll need to put pins in to make a secure joint when you re-attach it. Of course, if you’re changing a standing horse to a galloping horse, you’ll need to do a lot of cutting and resculpting on the whole body.

I don’t know what size you intend to work with, but a heads up on the newer Stablemate (smallest) scale horses : the plastic that they are made from has a “memory” so if you heat a leg and then move it, then try to heat and move another leg, that first leg might get warm enough to return to its original position.

I tried to find a couple of the sites I knew about, but they no longer exist 😯 There is a forum called Model Horse Blab, but to get to the subforums on customizing you need to be a paid member. There is a Beginners Corner that might be of some help.
http://www.modelhorseblab.com/forums/

I haven’t tried the Magic Sculp stuff, I use Aves Apoxie Sculpt – available through Aves Studio and a few other places.

I know Lady Brooklyn does painting and pasteling, I don’t know how much resculpting she does ??

[Nina]

wow thanks! I would have never thought of cuting the leg first. I plain to start big, maybe traditional size, before moving on to smaller horses. I do have a few stablemates and padlock pals but thougth they might be too hard to work with. I have one running foal that I plan on turning into a Kirin, that’s if I can figure out how to do it 😀 The one I plane to work with is “footlose” http://www.modelhorsesktm.com/detail.php3?c=2&p=3&t=3
I might just keep the pose the same and redo the tail.

[Arlla]

Fallen Leaves (http://fallen-leaves.net/index.php) Is a really great forum with a customizing and a sculpting forum – when I was a newbie there they were really nice to me, and many of them can be VERY helpful with critiquing and suggesting handy tips.

I’m not sure what clay you’re using, but all I ever hear about is Apoxie-sculpt and other things like it. They are expoxy clays that harden to resin strength in a matter of hours. You have to be quickish when you work with it, and I personally hate the texture and workability of the stuff, but it means you don’t have to try to bake your horse when you’re done with the customization like you would with sculpy. You can sand it and drill it after it sets, too. Apoxie-sculpt is what I used on my quagga, both for sculpting the new mane and tail and for sticking his body parts back on. ^_^ I cheated and didn’t use any pins or anything like that…but it worked out alright.

A dremel is a really handy tool to have for customization work…helps cut through bits of hors and sand rough spots and carve out hooves and ears…very handy.

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R Tolkien

[Nina]

thanks! I’m using magic-sculpt and it’s really sticky like glue. I can see why you don’t like the texture. so will the apoxi-sculpt, ie. magic-sculpt just stick to the horse or is there any prep work that I need to do, like remove the paint or anything? Thanks for the link!

[Arlla]

according to some of the litereature I’ve read, you don’t need to remove the paint from the horse…and others say you absolutely have to! LOL! I did on mine – soaked it in a container of bleach and water, 1 week for one side of the horse, turned it over and another week for the other side. Paint came right off with a light scrubbing with a sponge. You might want to sand it to help the clay and paint get a grip on the surface, too. And it’s always nicer to have a CM with the seams and logos sanded off of it.

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R Tolkien

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