Making a scene

In the last post I promised you a look at how some of the projects I was working on turned out. Well, only one is finished, and ironically that’s the one with the least Milliput involved, but here are some pictures to show you what I was working on.

It’s a strange fact that most of my favourite British horse and pony breeds are rare and to some extent endangered, and because of this, I have for years been aware of the work of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Several years ago I had the idea of creating a scene which illustrated an RBST Stand at a county show, but I’d never got round to it. However, the Scene class at A Show Of Two Halves (ASOTH) held last month provided a catalyst for me to get on and do it.

Here you can see the scene as it eventually ended up at the show. The base is a piece of hardboard covered with railway grass (the sort that comes as a sheet, not the scatter). The animals and people are all Britains or similar makes, and most of them date from my childhood forty years ago. The two equine representatives were already painted up as part of my collection, but the rest of the animals I repainted as specific rare breeds for this scene.

The metal hurdle-type fences are also vintage Britains, bought on eBay with this scene in mind, but the mesh stock fencing is modern, part of a range now produced to complement Britains farm pieces, and again available on eBay.

The Milliput in question was used on the human figures in the scene. The lady behind the information desk is Britains, but she was originally wearing overalls and carrying a tray of some sort. I used Milliput to fill in a hole in her belly and give her a smart dress instead of overalls. The other two figures, picked up separately at car boot sales and the like, I think started life as some sort of firefighter figures. The man nearest the camera needed no work but a repaint, but the figure approaching the desk has had a sex change! To begin with it was a male carrying something really obviously inappropriate like a fireman’s axe; I managed to remove most of this but left a lump which I decided could pass for a handbag, so it seemed sensible to make her a woman! Cue long hair and an addition to her chest area: in actual fact, in comparison with the other figures she is much smaller and should probably go as a child or young teenager, so I may have overdone her chest a bit! Shall we say she is well-developed for her age… why else do you think she is facing away from the camera?

My favourite part of the scene is the information desk itself, with tiny posters and booklets on it, and the posters on each pen identifying the breeds. I spent quite a while researching these on the internet and shrinking them to tiny sizes to print out.

The scene attracted plenty of attention at the show, as I had hoped it would, being something novel and a bit different. I was delighted when it won the Scene class and then went on to be chosen as Performance Champion! Look out for it at a few more shows next year.

European excellence

Oh dear, posts this year are proving even more erratic than last. I won't bore you with the full list of excuses, but one is that I was organising a live show, which was held in April. Having held a show for British breeds last year, this year I thought we would go for European breeds.

There was a wide range of In Hand classes catering for all European breeds and for many makes of model. However, as usual, I was most impressed by the quality and ingenuity of the performance entries on display. So I thought I would share a few of them with you here.

Here's a lovely Akhal-Teke costume entry by Suna Akiah:

while here's a medieval French knight by Ann-Marie Potrell:

This Spanish lady by Laura Ibbitt was Reserve to Reserve Ridden Champion:

and here are two lovely Spanish Riding School entries, by Catriona Burt and Lynne Howberry-Gale respectively:

This really cute milk-float turnout was by Suna Akiah:

and lastly, Lynne Howberry-Gale's dressage entry, MHEC Danzig, was the Performance Champion:

Live show highlights and musings

I don’t know if I’ve ever been to two live shows within a week before, but that’s what I managed to do recently, and very nice it was too.

First up was the Mini Manes Live Show organised by Sarah Hindmarsh. I’m very flattered that my British Breeds Live in April inspired Sarah to hold this show! When she announced a show containing 4 in hand divisions for mini models only, along with mini performance and open British workmanship, I knew I had to go. The great majority of my collection is minis, and also it was nice to be able to compete my repainting against other British artists.

I was particularly pleased to see the minis-only performance classes, as mini performance really is a discipline all of its own! It’s been a long time since I’ve entered many performance classes at live shows – it’s too much hard work! – but duly inspired, I set out to resurrect some of my set-ups from the past, and was pleasantly surprised when all of them placed and received MECS/LEMS qualification! I was particularly happy to bring this chap out again:

I first made this set-up almost 20 years ago; the gig I assembled and painted from a white metal kit, the horse was customised by me, I also made the harness, and the base was made by my brother-in-law. It did very well for me in the 1990s before being consigned to the attic, where it fell to pieces in a box and was ignored for several years. However, the week before the show I got it out, fettled it up again, and was delighted when it was placed Reserve Performance Champion!

I forgot my camera at this show, so for the photo I’m indebted to Clare Goss. Congratulations also to her for taking the Performance Championship with this Indian costume entry:

 

The second show was Equifest, organised by Debbie Davis and Nicki Collins, and was quite different. Here the performance ‘big guns’ were out in force, with the Performance Championship being taken by this stunning dressage ‘pas de deux’ by Angela Docherty:

There were in hand classes for custom-glazed china, Animal Artistry, other artist resin/china, and customs. With so many stunning models on show, mine didn’t do so well here, but it was still a good day out for the eye candy, the chance to meet friends, and the shopping, with several ‘artisans’ having stalls. I sold several minis and bought a couple of resin seconds and some fascinating second-hand books, which I might review here sooner or later. The eventual In Hand Champion was this cold-painted bisque Valentin owned by Ann Sheppard:

I’m moved now, though, to offer a few musings on trends in live show judging – the culmination of some things I’ve been thinking about for a while now. Please don’t take this as a criticism of the judging at any live show I’ve attended – it’s more a reflection on impressions received over the last twelve months or so, more from conversations I’ve participated in, than any actual judging.

What’s struck me is that when judging has been discussed at the shows I’ve been at, it has been overwhelmingly about the finish-work on models: for example, does a particular OF have moulding seams showing, or paint overspray from one part of the body onto another? What is the quality of painting on a custom or resin? Does it have ear-tip rubs or other damage? Now while these things should undoubtedly form a part of judging, in my opinion they should take second place to the more fundamental questions of conformation and breed type. In a breed class, those are what I would look at first, to determine my basic order of placings – then I would take finish-work into consideration to decide between horses that had little to choose between them in terms of conformation and type. And yet I hardly seem to have heard conformation discussed at live shows. I wonder why? Is there a newer generation of judges who see the priority differently?

It’s true there is a lot more awareness of what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ for various breeds these days, but often that seems to be limited to ‘does it come in this colour?’ rather than actual knowledge of what the breed looks like in real life. Again in my opinion, by far the best way to study this is to go to some real horse shows and/or studs and actually immerse yourself in looking at the animals, taking in their make and shape. Seeing a group of the living animals like this tells you much more than looking in a breed book, which will often only have one or two photos of each breed – bear in mind that those could be atypical or out of date. I know of at least one breed book in which the same pony poses as both a Dales and a Highland!

Of course this is not to deny the usefulness of breed books – I frequently consult them while judging, and have no problem seeing other judges doing the same. I’m just pointing out their limitations. I realise also that a model horse judge has to look at a bewildering array of breeds and crossbreeds, not all of which could you ever find a real example to look at. However, by the same token, many more breeds have been imported to the UK in the last few years, and I’d venture to say that there can’t be many breeds of which you would be unable to find a living example somewhere in the British Isles!

To end on a positive note, in contrast to what I’ve heard at live shows, it’s been really encouraging to see the use of this Facebook group launched recently by Jan Sedrati. Here there’s been lots of discussion of conformation and breed type in regard to various model moulds, with examples of real horses also being posted. Granted, it’s a shame the arguments have occasionally become a bit antagonistic, but at the end of the day, at least these folk are arguing about the right things.

Rule Britannia!

At last I seem to have recovered sufficiently from the British Breeds Live Show to be able to blog about it. Or at least to show you my pictures, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.

We kicked off with the Ridden and Perfomance classes, which produced these worthy Champions:

and I was delighted that the little hunting scene which I had been tidying up last time, won its class and was Reserve to Reserve Performance Champion!

We had loads of generous donations to the raffle, from the BECF and many of the entrants:

No wonder the concentration was intense:

Here's a happy woman with a class of Rydals to judge - how many of my readership know what Rydals are, I wonder? We were originally hoping to have more.

Here's the line-up for the Custom Championship:

and one of my own repaints taking another Reserve to Reserve, which was great!

Here are the OFs - lots of Border Fine Arts!:



And here are the Artist Resin/Chinas:

The show seemed to go well with a nice atmosphere, but brought home to me yet again how much of a team effort it was. It couldn't have happened without Smurf and Rob's brilliant stewarding, everyone who judged, Jay of Starfire Rosettes who donated centres so that I could re-use old rosettes, an many more people. My sincere thanks to everyone.

It was great, too, that a couple of people could make this their first live show - I hope they had a good time. Hope also that this has been of interest to  my readers - as always I'd love your comments, thoughts on how this compares to other live shows, and so on.