Breyerfest Day 3: Could the Stress Level get any Higher?!

Yeah, like seriously? How can these two old guys cause so much trouble? All they do is eat, sleep, bark at people and bikes (and the mailman, and the UPS guy, and the FedEx guy), repeat. Sure, yes, Henry (the red terrier) barks at any given sound, in which stresses Sam (black and white Basset Hound x Queensland Heeler mix) out so much that he whines and trembles. But they usually sleep through the night with no trouble. That is until 1:30 a.m. on Sunday. They were sleeping in my brother's room with both the ceiling fan and the box fan in the window pointed in running. I was suddenly woken up by Henry scratching like mad to go outside. I realized that perhaps a deer ran through our yard and its scent blasted through the window. When I let them back in, Henry was so crazed (he's Jack Russel and Border Terrier) that I had a hard time getting him back to bed. By the time I got back to my bed, from Henry's amped-ness, I didn't fall asleep until almost 4!!! Does it end? No! At 5, Henry wanted out again. He sounded like the cat with the amount of scratching he was doing. I told him stop it and he eventually went back to bed. Then a few minutes before my alarm clock went off, I was thrown out of sleep with a weird dream that I missed my allotted time to buy my Breyerfest SR model. Yeah, I freaked out the cat - but I didn't miss my time. Whew! And that was the start of the last day of Breyerfest! I did eventually tried to get caught up on sleep in the afternoon, but it felt like it didn't do anything. (It's taken this entire week to get my energy back!)

 With the Three-Day ticket, you are allowed to purchase two Special Run models. My top pick were Brighid and Beltane - the American Kerry Bog Pony mare and foal set on the new Welsh Pony molds. Lugh (pronounced lou) was my second choice not because he was a Celtic breed (he's not), but because of that plume in which the name escapes me. It begins with a "G" and I can never pronounce it or spell it correctly. I ended up not getting him, due to lack of funds. Plus, I could always do a custom exhibiting that phenomenon.

 I made sure I was early to the page. They had this awesome countdown to make things less stressful. However, it didn't show my models. After a call with customer service, I found that I needed to re-login instead of staying logged in from the day before. It worked! The lady and the people in the background on the other line also rejoiced, since it had been a stressful weekend of the site crashing several times from SO many Breyerfest participants.

 In the late morning, I checked my paint pallet to see if all the previous day's paint soaked off. Apparently, tube paint isn't as water soluble as craft paint. I had to scrape most of it off and the pallet still didn't come out clean.

 After that I decided really quick that for model horses, I'm going to be using craft paint for the rest of my life.

 I also discovered that color matching is not my cup of tea. I may be really good with color theory, but color matching is too frustrating. If I need a model touched up, I'll have to find someone else who can do it for me.

Porter my Peter Stone TWH was much easier than Seabiscuit, but I still had a hard time getting the color to match just right. At least, his rubs were very small and hopefully they don't show up in a photograph.

Breyerfest: Day Two

Day two was consisted mainly of grabbing materials together to participate in the Color Matching Workshop, checking the results for the Best Customs Contest, and watching some shows.

I didn't win either of the sections for the Customs contest. Which is a bummer, because I was totally banking on one of my most recent customs, a fuzzy Shetland Pony. He didn't even make the photo collage on the website. However, Sonya did.

The workshop was pretty cool. I went in all confident that I was going to gain valuable knowledge and quite possibly offer the services to other collectors who want their beloved models repaired or touched up.

I decided that I'd take both Saturday and Sunday to touch up Seabiscuit, Cupid, and shhh!...don't tell Breyer I touched up my only Peter Stone model, Porter. On my oldest models, I leave the hooves as is because that shows they were played with once. Cupid was my very first adult Traditional and Seabiscuit was by second. I got them in the same year: Cupid for my 11th birthday and Seabiscuit for Christmas.

I got pretty spent after the workshop - probably from eyestrain. Either way, it was time to feed the goats. I felt like my energy returned for a little bit afterwards.

In the hallubaloo of Breyerfest preparation, I completely forgot to check on the raspberry bushes! We usually have a few handfuls each year, not enough to can jelly. Glad I walked over there - or I would have missed it!

Over dinner and washing dishes, I watched some of the pre-recorded shows. Most of the horse stuff was all similar to Cavalia. The tack was interesting in this one.

They also featured my favorite breed: the Friesian!

So, that was the end of day two.

A weird, tiring day that always feels better when finding your cat looking like he owns the place...and the next door neighbors on all sides'yards....and the three neighbors across the street's yards, too...(we don't like him crossing the street - it's pretty busy!)

One day left

With many more surprises?

I'll leave that story for tomorrow.

A Merry Find!

Back in May, I saw a post on Model Horse Customizers FB group of body grade model horses for sale. Of course, once I saw that there were two Shetland Ponies (plus a few others) - I knew I had to grab them as soon as possible due to their decent price. Once everyone came in the mail, I usually go onto Identify Your Breyer to see exactly who these ponies really are. And boy, was I in for a surprise! Not to mention that I felt bad for wanting to customize a vintage dappled grey model whose whites were still fairly white, but he ended up being none other than a darker variant of the original Merrylegs from the Classic Black Beauty set! Nope, not customizing this one!

But I did have to repair his hindleg. Matching colors is always stressful for me since there aren't very many guides out there for repairing model horses. My dad helped me see some of the influencing colors. The other side of his leg isn't that good, so I decided to have him only for Photo Shows.

Protective covering for spraying the matte and gloss finishes. I think he is a Glossy, so matching the sealant was another sketchy challenge.

I admit that it was probably too hot to leave these precious plastic ponies out in the sun. I checked them, and they were not harmed by the sun's burning rays. I moved them into the shade once I realized this.

 All ready for her first show! Yes, I say "her" for three reasons. One, the mold's a mare and this was a common occurrence for many of the guy Breyers of that era. Two, judges advise against labeling a mare mold a stallion or a gelding and vise versa. Unless they have a hindleg that comes far enough forward to hide the area - then label the model according to the gender of the mold. Lastly, to be honest, when I look at her face, she looks like a mare to me.

And here she is, Merrylegs the Welsh Mountain Pony coming over to get a treat!

What an awesome find!