I’ve hit artistic gridlock on the workbench and it’s time for me to take a step back.

I’ve had quibbles with the Breyer Stablemate G1 and G2 molds before, but every time I pick up a G3 and G4 all I can see is things that need to be fixed. Hooves are misshapen, ears are wonky, faces are out of scale and deformed, legs are too thick, and backs are too short—every time I touch a body I want to break out the epoxy.

Thanks to the internet there are hundreds of photos of customs and resins out there that I can hold up in comparison to what a mold could be, or should be. I know that they look wrong and I’m slowly figuring out why as I build up my reference library… so I don’t want to start painting until everything’s fixed.

Only I’m not that good a sculptor yet.

So I pick them up, start making a list of flaws, put them down, pick up a different one… and lather-rinse-repeat. I’m unwilling to put a realistic paintjob on something that’s going to look wrong and that’s killing off my desire to paint at all.

Starting in March I’m changing things around. I’m going to be focusing on making small tweaks to the mold—but with fantasy paint jobs. That way I can learn how to sculpt ears and hooves and noses and backs… but without the impossibly high bar that I’ve set as comparisons.

Blue appaloosas can look awesome with slightly squished noses and shamrock green and gold marble quarter horses don’t need perfect ears. I have room to learn with a bright purple horse that I don’t with a bay and I need to start taking advantage of that.

None of the other customizers started out perfect, so I need to stop comparing myself to the hundred dollar resins and thousand dollar paint jobs.

At least not until I’ve have a whole heck of a lot more practice…

So here’s the workplan for March:

• Finish the Bay G3 Warmblood (without resculpting with his hooves!)
• Finish the Teal Doodle Horse (G2 Throughbred)
• Finish the new mane, new tail, new ears resculpt (G3 Warmblood), but paint him a dappled red/orange gray
• Finish the black roan splatterpaint (G3 Mustang)
• Finish the extended blanket bay roan appaloosa (G2 Throughbred)
• Turn the G4 Driving horse into a Drafter-cross
• Finish the Troll Druid horse (personal collection, G3 Arabian)
• Finish the Gold and Copper G3 Highland Pony
• Work on the G3 Belgian resculpt (focus on realism)
• Find the fun again!