Athenian Lady Unboxed!

 Second Post of the Day

There's nothing like waiting until your home is in total Feast chaos to start opening Breyer boxes.

I don't know about you, but it takes me a while to free the pony from the box - there are a lot of things used to secure models in Breyer's boxes nowadays. (Not that I am complaining.)

And after the model is free, there are wire clippings and plastic holders, sometimes clear inserts, plus the box to clear away afterward.

But it's worth it to pull out a lovely model who has arrived well protected as a result of all that detritus.

I love the Dundee mold. And while mine does not seem to be made from the glow in the dark plastic that some folks received, check out those forelegs. Do they look odd to you? They do to me.

It's difficult to tell in these photos, but there is a definite pearly aspect there. I don't mean the shine you can also see, I mean the the glow that emanates from her forelegs. Like I said, it's hard to see, but it is there.

Just as there are chalkies and partial chalkies and swirly plastic and partially swirly plastic that is found in models, this is not the first time a pearly shimmer has caught my eye and gotten me to wondering. 

We already know some of the Athenian Lady models have glow in the dark plastic in them; is that what I am seeing? (I've checked that briefly; it doesn't appear that she does.) Or has some pearly plastic been reground and added to the mix?

I don't know, but I have enough pearly models to recognize what I am seeing. This is definitely a mystery I am going to pursue. (When things die down around here. Like in January. Hah!)

Anyway, she is a lovely model and I am happy to have her. 

She was the "last straw" for my Dundee conga - because they are shelf eaters, I've kept them sideways on the shelves behind my desk. Not anymore. There was no more room on their shelf! 

So, I moved them into the sewing room. Those shelves are deeper and this mold can fit facing out rather than head to head sideways. The Dundee conga is right next to where I sew so I can just look up to see them.

There are two more BreyerFest models to show you, so stay 'tooned!

Scales within Scales: The Myth of "One Size Fits All"

This is a long beginning, but bear with me. It explains a shift in my thoughts and focus.

Midway through this project of looking at Breyer's scales, I realized that I was actually thinking more about size, particularly length, and not the scale of the models. Their length affected how a haversack fit. And while I did find a lot of interesting scale differences within the Traditional and Classic models Breyer produces, that doesn't affect me as much as the length of the models do. Here's why.

When I began sewing haversacks to sell, I blithely stated that I was sewing for Breyer's three sales: Traditional, Classic, and Stablemate. I listed prices for them, bought a lot of fabric, and got to work.

Well, it didn't take long before I had a problem. Someone wanted a haversack for a shelf eater model. So, I created a new pattern that would fit, and added XLT to my list of scales I would make. But "scale" was a misnomer. What I was really accommodating was length.

Not too long after that, I was asked to make haversacks for some models that were bigger than Stablemates but would swim in a Classic haversack. As I was familiar with Curio sized models from china collecting, I started creating smaller haversacks for non-chinas that fit the Curio size. A couple of older Little Bits (now called Paddock Pals) that were in my collection were the models for that pattern. 

Then there came a need for Stablemate Foal haversacks. A discovery that many Traditional foals would fit into Classic haversacks. A special section created and called "Odd Sized" that was necessitated by pieces like the new Classic Rearing Mustang (needing a long and narrow pattern), Brighty (a tall and narrow pattern with a wide bottom), the Kathleen Moody foal, Le Fire (those splayed front legs!) and so on.

I discovered that, while I could make haversacks that fit most models in a scale, there were always outliers within that scale who would need something different.

Today we will look at the XLT outliers. These are the shelf eaters who don't fit standard shelves. We'll begin with Breyer's earliest and then proceed to current ones.

Early Long Models

Depending on the shelving I've used, the Running Stallion was on the verge of too long for most of them and, for safety, had to be canted at an angle a bit.

Same with the Running Mare - a nose poking out and two feet outstretched front and back made for caution. (And still do.)

John Henry - a lovely pleasure horse but long and barely fitting on my shelves if he was facing forward.

But equines were not the only early shelf eaters.

The Fighting Bull's legs do fit on my shelves but his head and horns hang over. I move carefully when I am by his shelf so that I don't catch those horns and pull him off.

Tatanka, the White Buffalo, hangs over, too, but his horns are further back on his head and his face is flat so he is far less likely to hook something and take a tumble, despite being a shelf eater.

The Brahma Bull's horns are upright and curving back. A shelf eater but one less likely to have a disaster.

Later Breyer Shelf Eaters

Sugar Maple (Show Jumper)

Dundee

Flash

 

Andalusian Stallion

Hamilton

Andalusian Mare

And Breyer's Longest Ones (at least, of those in my collection)

Shagya Arabian

Cleveland Bay

Shannondell/Shire Gelding

Standardbred Mare

Nemea

Of course, there are others that could be included in this list. Cigar, Bristol, the original Jumping Horse, and the original Pacer, among others.

Every one that I have shown here requires a much longer haversack than the Traditional pattern I originally made. (Hamiltons are in a class by themselves; they only need about another inch more in width and then are good to go.) But this is due not so much to scale differences, but to the length of the model caused by the position of the model and/or a long tail. And length is not scale.

So, where do I go from here? I still haven't done any comparisons of those Curio and Stablemate scale models, but when I realized I had not really been talking so much about scale as I was length, my focus changed. Having said that, the scale differences between the Traditional scale models I pulled out and compared were pretty big and even impactful, depending on what you do with your model horses.

Stay 'tooned - I do still have some things to say on the topic.

Advent Calendar Reveal December 15

A Western rider (who has a wonky eye)

I've got her set up and doing some training in the arena.