British Equine Collectors' Forum
For All British Model Horse Collectors
Basic Model Horse Tutorials
These tutorials will hopefully show you some basic ways to customise your models.
Remember some if these techniques can be irreversible, so before you proceed with that expensive or rare model horse you have, practice on some cheaper, more common ones first.
Follow safety instructions and exercise common sense when it comes to safety.
The BECF is not responsible for any damage you may do to yourself or your models.
Straightening a Bent Leg
CAUTION - This tutorial involves boiling water. Please ask an adult to help you if you are a younger collector.
In this tutorial, we will be showing you how to straighten a bent leg on a Breyer horse. Out of line limbs is a common problem with model horses. This technique should be fine for tenite based models, but do not try it on models that are made from other substances, such as rubber or latex (ie Julips) as this will ruin them.
As you can see, our horse has a wonky leg. This is very easily corrected.
- Boil some water in a kettle, and let it cool down a little bit. Pour the water CAREFULLY into a pyrex bowl. Carefully immerse the leg into the water and hold it there for a while. This softens the plastic and will make it pliable. To prevent the orginal paintwok becoming 'damaged' by the heat of the water it is advisable to place the leg into a clear plastic bag (such as a freezer bag) first.
- When the plastic has gone soft, take the leg out of the water, and gently bend it so that the leg is straight. Hold it straight whilst the plastic cools down. You find it speeds up the cooling processs if you run the leg under the cold tap.
- If all has gone well, your horse's leg will now be nice and straight. If it is not, you may need to repeat this procedure. You may find you will need to angle to hoof/pastern area as well so the model stands better.
Painting a sock on your horse
Small embellishments to your model, such as a sock, can make it more individual and interesting. Please Note: Adding socks to your OF model may make it uable to compete in Original Finish Classes!
- If you look carefully at your model's leg, you may see a fine line running down the front and back of it, t. This is called 'flashing' and is something that the molding process may have left behind. As you are painting your horse's leg, you will be drawing attention to it, so lightly sand this down so that the leg feels smooth.
- Now, using the small brush and the white paint, paint a sock on the horse's leg. Let it dry. You may need a second (or even third) coat of paint if you can still see the horse's original colouring throught the white. Don't be tempted to slap on thick layers of paint - a few thin coats should do the trick and give you a much better finish!
- Don't forget to do the back of the leg too!
- The finished leg with a sock on it.
Painting a blaze on your model horse's head
Small embellishments to your model, such as a blaze or star, can make it more individual and interesting.
Please Note: Adding a Blaze to your OF model may make it uable to compete in Original Finish Classes!
- You will need a small paintbrush, some white acrylic paint, some water to wash your brushes out and some newspaper to work on.
- Here is our horse with no blaze on it's face. We'll be adding one.
- Using the white paint, put a small oval type shape of white paint on the horse's forehead. This is called a star, and you could quite happily leave it at that if this is the effect that you want.
- Extend the line down the nose of your horse to make a blaze. You may find that you need more than one coat of paint to get a good coverage. Don't be tempted to slap thick layers of paint on the model - it will look clumpy and messy.
