Racing Set -- DONE!

I'm finally done!  Well, I was done yesterday, but then I was tacking up Valor to take some pics and the overgirth buckle broke :-/  Darn leather.  I really put some time into making the overgirth neat, so I'm going to have to improvise unfortunately instead of remake.  Normally super glue is really strong, but this set is going to have the overgirth buckled forever, so there will always be the stress of the elastic girth pulling on the strap.  I'm wondering if I should sew the joint....yep, that's what I should do.

Ok, so I took care of that now so here's the finished set photos.

More Racing Set Updates -- nearing completion

I am doing work on the girths now.  The undergirth will be a glue-only type of deal, and the overgirth will have a working buckle but should be glued in place to reduce stress on the leather parts.  Undergirth is done.  The overgirth just needs a strap & the strap keepers.   

The hood is done.  It has those long straps on both sides so that Lisa can glue them down to her horse.  Glue and trim off the remaining pieces.

I have the saddle mostly done, though I am debating on whether to create a bottom to it or not.  There is no need really since it'll be permanently attached to the horse.  I'll figure something out as I have a little tweaking on the front end I want to do.

The bridle also mostly done.  I have a buckle keeper to add, and just some sheaths over where the rubber meets the leather on the farside rein.  Otherwise, that should do it.

Lastly, I have the black #2 saddle cloth to start.  Since I'll be making it myself instead of outsourcing like I usually do on the saddle cloths (and I have no idea how to use a sewing machine), I think I'll be using the iron-on hemming adhesive.  I used that once before and had good results.  As for the #2 in white, I'll do an iron-on transfer if Kinko's can print something in white ink for me.  I liked how it turned out on my previous saddle cloth that I made.  I think Secretariat also raced with a chamois and possibly a foam pad under his saddle.  I think I'll include that too, since you'll be able to see part of it when the cloth is flipped back.

And that just about does it for today.  It's going a little slower than usual, but I'm putting more time into making this a great set.  Too bad it won't be for the show ring! 

Racing Set Updates

I'm finally coming down the home stretch for my racing set.  I have the bridle & hood done, I'm just currently waiting on my leather clearcoat to dry on the saddle before assembling the whole thing (killing some time online while I wait), then I just have the girths & blanket to make.  Then we should be all good.  I'll edit this post later in the evening when I get the saddle assembled.

Edit (sort of):

 The saddle isn't fully assembled, but I hand-stitched the Ewalt brand logo on both flaps.  The overhang there will be factored in there when the flaps are actually glued down, the stirrups glued in, and the stuffed panel added.  That should about take care of it!  It's a brown saddle with glossed finish. 

Valor's Racing Set

My Valor just came over the weekend, so I'm taking a pic of the bridle so far.  I'm finally through with my dog shows, dog training (for a week anyway), and I'm taking a vacation from work!  YAY! :)  It should be a good week.  Anyway, I'll be doing more work on the set this week but I wanted to post a good pic of what I have so far.  I remembered to bring my digital camera + Dolica photo studio home from work, so you can see more details.

EDIT:  I started on the race hood and I'm posting progress below.  I need to add blue eyecups, some cheek straps, little leather bits like the real hood from the '70s, and then trim out the rest of the border in while then we should be good. 

Reference for me so I don't have to keep finding the files buried in my computer:

Racing Pix & Dewey

Ok, I think Valor will be here tomorrow but I feel like posting a little something now.  I realized that blogs are pretty boring without some pictures to look at!

We'll start with a photo of Secretariat, and the main inspiration of what I'm doing.  This is essentially what I'll be making.  It's hard to find a photo of his saddle without a Ron Turcotte sitting in it, so I think that gives me a little creative license to make something neat!

Here's just a quick shot of my bridle so far.  The white cheek strap will be hiding under the racing hood, so there's no need for buckles.  If it were for someone in the hobby, I'd be doing it a little different but it's just going to be glued to the horse in this case.  The blue straps are working buckles, and I'm doing loop end reins with orange rubber grips.  I've taken the dimensions from a particular brand of rein that's 56" long in real life, or 12" bit to grip x 24" grips x 20" grip to end.  I know it's a little different than his photo dimensions, but the rubber is pretty resistant to glue!  It's better if just the leather can be glued down instead.  He'll have a white browband, brown-ish saddle with some type of embellishment, blue checker hood, and everything else you can see in the photo (tack-wise).  This is a very handsome set in real life, so I sure hope my scale version turns out just as nice!

And of course there's Dewey who thinks he's the "other" kind of show dog and not just an obedience dog  :)

Secretariat Racing Set 1st Updates

Nothing major to report today.  As I mentioned previously, I'm trying out some new techniques for this set.  For the rubber part of the reins, I actually cast some rubber pieces from a mold I made to look like the real thing with grips and all.  It's been quite a challenge so far (lots of castings before I found something I thought looked good enough), and I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but what I made isn't bad.  I'll keep experimenting and perfecting on future sets but its time to move forward. 

The bridle has been a little slow going since I have to paint everything blue, but its looking sharp so far!  I also have my checker pattern created for the blinker hood in a scale that I think looks good, so I'll be getting to that shortly.  I just ordered the last solid cast Valor from Rio Rondo, so once he arrives I'll take some pics on him.  Yay!  He's a cool model.   Anyway, that's about it for now. 

Oh yea, my dog and I did get our title this past weekend.  We got a 98 out of 100, which was a tie score for 1st place but the person who got first was 2 seconds faster...so I got 2nd. Still a good showing and I'm proud :). Next up is Advanced Rally (RA title) and Novice Obedience (CD title).  We shall see!

End of September Updates

Happy Friday to you!  It's the last day of September, and finally we're into my favorite season.  Weather has been crazy rainy and windy (blew pieces of my neighbor's chimney right off her house!).  Anyway, it's been a little while since I posted.  I've been quite busy with some other things in real life, but I do have a new project that I've started working on.  The very talented Lisa Bickford was looking for someone to create a Secretariat set for a non-hobby person.  She's painting a Valor to look like Big Red, and I contacted her asking about doing the commissioned racing set.  Very exciting!  It's going to be displayed along with a piece of real Secretariat memorabilia.  I'll be sure to post some updates along the way.  I'm currently experimenting with some new methods to really capture the realism of the tack, so I hope it turns out!  Photos to come soon.

I do have some other news from real life, both good and bad.  The good first -- I've been competing with my dog at some local AKC shows, and we're doing quite well.  We earned a Beginner Novice (BN) obedience title in July.  BN is just an optional titling class, it's not the same as an official title because it was earned in a non-regular class.  It is a title, but it doesn't have the same prestige, if you will, as regular titles.  It's good for people who want to get their feet wet in showing.  Anyway, that was quite fun so I decided to also try Rally classes.  We've only been training for 7 weeks (as of yesterday), and I decided to try our hand at showing already.  Last weekend, after only 6 weeks of training in Rally Novice, we competed in 2 trials.  On Saturday, we earned a perfect score of 100 and 1st place out of 8.  On Sunday, we earned another perfect score of 100 but 2nd place out of 10.  Someone else who got 100 did it faster than Dewey and me, but I can't really be disappointed with a perfect score.  Tomorrow we're going to our 3rd trial in Rally Novice, so I'm pretty confident that we'll at least qualify.  I'm hoping for but not expecting 100, but a qualifying score will earn us our first regular AKC title -- RN.  Yay!  He'll be known as Newsflash Let's Make a Deal BN RN. 


As for the bad news, I just found out on Tuesday that my parents' house is being foreclosed on.  I guess that makes us another statistic in the wonderful state of IL.  My dad has apparently known it was going to happen for at least a couple months, but didn't bother sharing it with my mom or me.  Yet another aspect of our lives he's been able to muck up in the last few years.  Ugh!  Luckily for us, we do have a place to go -- my house!  Half-hearted yay.  My mom is quite stressed out over the whole situation which I can understand, but I'm oddly at peace with it.  Even though my house is still a construction zone from the remodeling, having this looming deadline is a little more motivation to get things done faster.  My house is like 1/3 the size of their house, but at least they don't have to seek out a real landlord with all the stipulations that'd go with it.  I had been excited at the prospect of living at my house alone, but if I can help my family out like they've helped me over the years, then I'm glad to do it as much as I'm not looking forwards to living with them in such close quarters.  Oh well.  I think my biggest worry is the fact that they're messy people -- they can come over but their clutter cannot!  We'll see.  I don't think they're going to appreciate abiding by the rules of their child -- mom might be, dad + rules = don't mix.  It's nice to have a place to share this with people who don't know me!   

Micro Mini hunter jump

I was in the mood to change my crafting up a little today.  I started in on a micro-mini jump.  It's natural wood, so I guess it would be a hunter jump.  Sorry for the crude editing job, I only have half of the jump finished so I didn't want to spend too much time editing an in-progress photo.  I'm pretty happy with it so far.  The bottom photo is the inspiration for my jump.  Not an exact replica, but a similar type.  I did jump feet a little different because it's tipsy otherwise.  Needed some extra stability.  Can't wait to show it!

More photo updates - done with the saddles!

My shipment from England finally arrived today so I could finish the stablemate saddle.  I think the HA stirrups look pretty good.  They seem to be made of pewter, and I like the shape of them much better than some of the other choices available for SM stirrups.  I'm going to be working on different accessories for these saddles as I go along (might as well, right?) so I welcome any input on types of breastcollars, bridles, etc.  I will say that the Micro Mini bridle set is going to be limited to what I already have.  That scale is just too small!  But, let's get to the photos and I'll explain as I go.

This will be the Little Bits, Stablemate, and Micro Mini English saddles together:

Micro Mini English Saddle (1:64 scale):
It's really hard to get the detailing with my dim lights & cell phone camera.  I get that it looks like a little black blob, but there are knee rolls, little metal stirrups that I made (very delicate), stuffed panels, etc.  I even had some faux stitching around the flap, but the leather was so soft the detail didn't last when I was handling it more.  Oh well.  With the ruler, you can see just how small it is.  The little gap under the back will be filled with a saddle pad once I figure out what it'll be made from.  I didn't intend on having the gap, but no big deal either -- that just means there's room for a saddle pad right? :)

Micro Mini Snaffle Bridle (1:64 scale):
For accessories, I've started with the bridle.  The cheek straps move around on the noseband, but I'm wondering if I should have just glued them to a permanent spot.  I had a heck of a time with the browband, and this is actually #2.  I had a nice one with some silver metal detailing, but the silver decided it wouldn't stick with all my manhandling.  Now that I actually have something attached, I might try the silver again.  It did look pretty sharp!  I have a D-ring type of snaffle that I'll be featuring, but just plain reins that I will have with a non-working buckle end.  This is actually the 2nd noseband too....my first one kept ripping because the leather was so fine.  This one is a little more sturdy.  

My breastgirth is something that I'm going to reformulate I think.  I have it where it slides over one side of the girth and then attaches with sticky wax on the other.  Not liking that so much.  I *might* just cut out the loops and have it where you'd attach with sticky wax on both sides of the girth.  I'm still experimenting.

Lastly, I'm going to come up with a generic saddle pad that's contoured to the saddle flap shape.  I don't think I'm going to have the square edge type for this model.  I want it to be a universal set that can be shown both in flat & fences classes.  I'm also toying with the idea of open front jumping boots, brushing boots, and some bell boots.  

Stablemate English Saddle (1:32 scale):
As you saw from the beginning, this was the 1st of the saddles.  It features stuffed kneerolls (the detail is visible in the first pic of this post), nail head detail, cast metal stirrups, stuffed panels, a contoured girth with some faux stitch marks, the flaps have faux stitching...I think that's all.  I really like the look of this one.  I don't like it on this horse all that much, but i did pick up another horse at the Hobby Town USA tonight (they have a nice Breyer selection!).  It's a cantering WB -- Elvis' Graceland "Bandit".  That part's dumb, but the horse looks like a decent candidate for a flat class.  

Little Bits English Saddle (1:24 scale):
Ah, and my stock horse is morphing into something else.  I think I got his feet to look pretty good, now I just need to fill in the gaping neck hole, maybe lengthen the back and/or legs a bit, and try to make a prettier face.  I picked up a LB Unicorn from eBay recently, and I tried to CM him a bit.  He's something else.  Initially he looked like he'd be barely any work, but I come to find that his back is WAY short, his face is funky from the beard, and his rump doesn't have much muscling at all.  <sigh> So, he's in rough shape too.  I figured these 2 models would be good practice runs for my foray into that aspect of the hobby.  Ok so on to the saddle.

It features stuffed knee rolls, stuffed panels, nail head detailing, cast stirrups, saddle dee-rings, and 2 billet straps.  I haven't decided if the girth is going to have working buckles or not.  It's a possibility but I'm undecided at this point.  Again, this size looks a little long for this horse (but it'll look better once my unicorn becomes a real horse with proper proportions!).

I'm planning some kind of snaffle bridle (maybe I'll do a flash noseband), laced reins, martingale (or some kind of breastcollar/martingale combo) -- I have those mini hooks I figured out how to fashion just waiting for something cool, girth, and maybe the jumping boots + bell boots if I wind up going with the CM'd unicorn as my model.  Oh yea, and some kind of fleece saddle pad.  Nothing out of the ordinary here.  I think this model will make a good huntseat horse, so the saddle set is going to again be tailored to be universal. 

More updates on Micro Mini tack

It's Labor Day weekend, and I'm a bit bored.  It's a gloomy, rainy day here in northern IL....I really don't feel like doing anything in particular, but I'm a little restless at the same time.  Ugh!  I wasn't really in the mood to work on my saddles, but my boredom got the better of me and I did some more work to the Micro Mini set.  The saddle itself is nearly finished, I think I just need to add the tail end of the stirrup leathers.  It's so small, there's really not much more I can do to it....or at least not what I have tools small enough to do.  I've found that I can really only work on this scale for maybe an hour at a time before I get a headache, so I'm taking a break for now.

So, what did I do...I made my girth which is permanently attached on one side, and then it just attaches with sticky wax on the other.  I made a faux-elastic breastgirth.  I even found a little silver piece of hardware nearly small enough to work on this...it's on the far side.  The strap is not adjustable.  I'm also starting the bridle.  Again, I found a little hardware that looks like a D-ring bit, and the noseband just attaches with stick wax under the jowl.  It's much easier doing it this way rather than trying to slide the strap through more mini buckles if you're at a show.  I'm probably going to do the same thing for the throatlatch.  The way I'm putting it all together still allows for quick removal of the tack if you're at a show and need to switch between halter & performance.  Putting on, not super quick but again it's easier than the alternatives.  For what it's worth, this set is quite a challenge...I really don't think I'm going to do many more Micro Mini bridles anyway. 

Ooh, and I have a crafty idea for a saddle pad.  There's this scrapbooking stuff called flocked paper, and I think if I can find it in white, I might have a winner for a saddle pad :)  I have no idea though, We'll have to see!

Please drop me any comments if you have them.  I'd like to know someone out there is reading my blog besides just me! 

Quick update on Micro Mini 1:64 scale saddle

I'm posting this from my new Blogger app.  Bear with me here...I'm discovering all this new stuff my phone can do :).  So I did a little more work on this tonight.  Maybe about an hour to do the far side pieces and part of the stuffed panel.  I'm nearly done with construction, but I do need to check it over for final cleanup.   Anyway, for those of you interested here's the photo:

Micro Mini (1:64) scale English Saddle

Oh have I been busy lately!  I'm having more fun doing mini tack than I thought I would.  Maybe it's been such a long time since I made anything, I'm just enjoying myself.  I started work on my micro mini set today, but I have a bit of a headache so I'm done for the night.  My newly painted MM jumping mule, who is now going to be a sport horse of color -- breed undetermined for now, just arrived from Jessica Funk.  He's great!  My first painted MM, my first horse of color...very exciting, at least to me.  Below is the horse + a pic of what I have of a saddle.  Sorry for the low light pix...my craft room is lacking in the light department.

This is my smallest English saddle, to date.  I just have the one side & flap done for now.  Enough for a photo.  Well, that's all I have to report on that tonight.

To celebrate the completion of my LB saddle, I gave my stock horse a quick heat gun makeover last night :)  Don't pay any attention to his lumpy neck.  I was performing a tracheotomy on him, and so he doesn't look so pretty right now.  I haven't gotten into CM'ing my own horses yet, except for hack jobs like this!  We'll see what happens.  He looks a little better, doesn't he?  I need to fix his right rear hoof, but he can't stand up otherwise.  I think I need some clay to patch it all up :)

LittleBits/Paddock Pals/Pebbles scale (1:24) saddle -- completed!

Ahh, I can breathe a sigh of relief now...I'm finally done!  Ok ok, no need to be over dramatic.  It's not a relief since there was no pressure, but whatever :)  Let me just post some photos and descriptions.

In the last post, you saw some LB stirrups that I found in my tack box.  Well, my non-UK supplies order came in yesterday and I got a different set of stirrups -- Sulser ones this time.  Normally, I don't like the Sulser hardware all that much, but I like these particular ones *much* better than what I had.  They look to be a good size for this saddle.   Tonight, it looks less off-scale than I did before.  Go figure!  Maybe it's all about photographing it at the right angles.

Also, here's a close-up of a hook that I'm going to use when I actually make some accessories for this saddle.  It'll be for some kind of breastplate, but I don't know what yet.  Nevermind the fact that it's brown leather, not cut well, and sits all high on the horse's neck...I just have it there so I don't lose that little hook!  I'll work out something creative.
 

BTW, all these photos are shot with my cell phone's camera.  Pretty decent minus the grey bar thing at the bottom, eh?  Maybe that's for captioning...I don't know!

Also, I'll post some other items on my workbench.  I have a brown traditional bridle with flash noseband in the works.  I'm trying to make a nice set for my mom so that when I go to a show, she'll have something to show too.  I'm trying out a few new elements:  braided reins (not laced like you normally see...really plaited), inlaid metal detailing on the browband, and raised noseband.  I don't like the braided reins...the braids are not even, but they start looking better towards the right side of the photo.  It's hard to cut a 3/32" piece of skived down leather into 4 tiny little strips, and then actually braid them.  I'm going to try something else.  Maybe just the regular laced reins.  Hmm, I don't know.

That's it for now.  Time for some dinner -- yummy zucchini pie!  Take care and have a nice weekend :)

LB & SM saddles

I'm coming down the home stretch for the LB & the SM saddles.  I don't have the stuffed panel attached, but it's made so I can at least see how things are going to pretty much look when it's glued on.  This saddle is really looking too big for this model.  So, I guess we could say this is Lg. Little Bit, or is there actually a technical name for the scale that's a wee bit bigger than LB?  Curio?  I don't know.  I really like the saddle though, regardless of whether or not it actually fits this horse in particular.   

Next up, the SM saddle + girth.  Again, I'm not 100% pleased with how it looks on this particular model but the saddle shape & detail looks good for this size.

My main goal of creating the same or a similar saddle in all scales is to see if I can at least accomplish a high quality level of detail, even in the smallest of scales.  I think I'm accomplishing that goal for the most part.  If I'm wrong, do let me know!  Anyway, I'm tired of working on saddles today so I'm going to take a break.  I'll be back sometime soon!

LB saddle flap detail

I've made some more progress on the LB saddle.  I'm waiting on some stirrups for this saddle too before I completely attach the flap.  These small scale saddles work a lot better just to not have adjustable stirrup leathers.  What you see is a completed flap.  I think it looks good after the last wave of modifications.  Scale looks good enough.

A side thought...is Breyer no longer making Paddock Pals/LB models?  I tried to find some on their site the other day in hopes of finding a better model than this old stock horse, and I couldn't find any current models.  Hmm...interesting.  Thanks to the folks at www.identifyyourbreyer.com, I could see all the available molds in this size...not very many at all!  I think if I could get my hands on a LB Unicorn, he'd make a nice looking huntseat mold after a little CM'ing.  Or, maybe a nice resin.  I was going to try and stick to a jumping horse theme, but doesn't look like that's going to happen!  I don't have a jumping LB or jumping classic.  Ah well.

LB 1:24 saddle -- minor updates

After posting something on MH$P to gain someone else's perspective on the saddle, I guess the flap was too big after all.  I cut off quite a bit and I think it looks better now.  We'll see -- I post pix here so I can get another look at the creation.  In person, they always look pretty good but it's not until I see them on a computer screen that I can tell what needs to be improved upon.  Anyway, below is the fixed flap.  Better, right? 

Does this saddle look too big overall for LB?  I looked up some other hunter QH's and they have such long backs....the end of the saddle winds up about mid-back.  This guy has the saddle going almost to the flank.  He's either short-crouped or my sense of perspective is off.  I don't have any in-between sized models....maybe this would look better on a curio sized horse. Ugh, maybe I should scrap it and start over. 

 

Start of Little Bit/Pebbles scale (1:24) saddle

I figured that while I'm waiting for my SM stirrups to get here from England, why not start the next saddle.  Next up is the LB 1:24 scale saddle.  I've got a little less than 2 hours of work (some breaks in between) so far into it, but I thought I'd post a picture.

My flap isn't attached yet...I just have it placed so I can check out proportion.  Also, I haven't started the cutout for the stuffed knee roll.  For now, I just want to be sure all looks ok before investing more time into it.  I did a little faux stitching detail to see how that would look.  That's about it so far.

 

Stablemate 1:32 scale English Saddle

I'm trying to post something from my cell phone now, so pardon any typos!  I'm excited for all this new blog stuff (new to me, old hat to everyone else I'm sure), even though I don't think anyone is reading my posts.  Oh well.  This weekend I got the idea to make the same English saddle in all scales, to test my diversity in different scales. I've really only worked in traditional and a teeny bit in stablemate. I dabbled once in micro-mini but it was a western saddle and I still haven't finished. It's a little too small maybe! I've never tried classic or little bits sizes for anything, and I haven't tried MM in english. 

So, here's my progress so far with the SM set. I'm waiting for my stirrups to come from England, as I'm trying a totally new stirrup this time.  I tried a "fancy" stuffed knee roll, but that's hard to translate in 1:32 scale.  I think it looks alright...good enough anyway!  I did a soda can tree, padded knee rolls, nail head that's actually metal (not just dab of silver paint), faux stitching around flaps, and stuffed panels.  I don't have any billets on this for a girth.  I'm contemplating a sticky wax attached girth instead of something with a buckle.  One side will be glued down, and you will only be able to attach the other side with wax.  It'll make it a lot easier for tacking up at a show.  What about a saddle pad?  The last SM saddle I made, I permanently attached the saddle pad.  I like that idea again for ease, but this saddle could be a versatile flat saddle or jumping saddle.  Maybe I'll keep the pad separate in case I want to change out with something else.  Hmm, thoughts?

P.S.  Can't load images from the phone, but this whole Evo4G Google phone + Blogger + Picassa web album is pretty nifty!  I can just upload pix from my phone right to Picassa!  This is new to me :)