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 :)