FriesianFury Studio Blog

Start to Finish on dragon armor

2012-02-12T18:31:00.000-08:00

I decided to show photos of the steps I take to make dragon armor on medallions (or the model horses). I wont go into to much detail since the photos kinda speak for them self's :) I made a slideshow and then photos are below the slideshow so you can enlarge them to see more.

Romeo make over - slideshow dvd

Doh....for Play-Doh

2012-02-01T18:24:00.000-08:00

Some of you know this little trick. Others are just finding out as they read this blog. Did you know Play-doh is not just for kids or kid-like adults? Artists, like myself, use it for other things besides playing. Here are a few things I use Play-doh for:

*I need two colors of primer on one horse.

First I prime the medallion all white. Once dry I place play-doh over the horse leaving the armor exposed. The reason for this is the kind of paint I'm using needs a darker base coat. I could use the white primer as the armor base coat, but it will take more layers of paint while the dark does not. Photo below is horse parts covered.

Then I use a nice black primer to spray over the armor as seen in next photo.

I wait for the primer to dry before removing the play-doh. The reason why I wait is that I don't want to touch the wet primer by mistake or, when removing it, have the play-doh rub it when pealing off the horse.

The Play-Doh has been removed and the horse area is still white, while the armor is now black! There is some areas where the play-doh covered over the armor (around the edges) that will need to be touched up. I can go over that by hand with a brush and some black base color.

*Don't ruin the paint job!

I have a horse that has been primered white. I started by painting his armor first. Just in case I get some paint on the horse, I wont damage the horse paint work and then have to go about repairing it. Once the painted parts of the horse armor dries, I cover the armor in Play-doh to protect the paint work as I paint the horse.

At one point, I wanted the horse to be white. His new armor colors conflicted, so I primed him white again with the play-doh, protecting the painted armor. I had a change of heart and ended up painting him black so he would fade into his armor better. That's the reason why he is black in the photo. Here is a photo after I removed the play-doh:

I now do finish detail work and touch up on the horse and armor. This is how he turned out in end:

*Tipsy little horses

Play-doh can be a great handler on horses that like to tip when your waiting for the paint or sealer to dry. When you need to put the horse down, you can place the horse feet into the play-doh to hold it in place till it dries!

Dragon warrior horses

2011-12-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Romeo Medallion:

What should one do with a medallion that to much pinholes? GO WILD or in this guy case go with armor and lets make it fun, lets go dragon style!!!

Pinhole stage

Sanded down and drawing where I want the armor

Armor on and primed

the fun part COLOR!!

Next medallion was just as fun but with no faults, till I did some chopping.

Khronos Medallion:

This guy is just beautiful the way he is but why not have some fun and I was given that chance by my costumer.

Before CM work (photo by Amanda Brock)

Removal of mane and sliced open the mouth

Lets fix his mouth and add a ear shall we! (humm keeps going in side ways)

With his beautiful mane gone which helped balance him out he is now odd looking :/ lets shorten his neck and move his shoulder some to fix that.

oh thats better, now lets add armor, and prime him.

now color to make him come to life!

wings of wire

2011-12-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

Well I thought for the first time why not post me doing something from scratch! I'll be posting on how I am making my very first dragon (bat) wings on a trad size resin horse. This is no easy task for me and I hope that in the end it all comes out ok and that you and I have learned something :D.

So understanding and knowing the anatomy of the dragon or bat wing (there both kinda the same). Try and think of the wing as your whole arm and hand, since its pretty much that just with very long fingers. you can move and shape the wing the same way you can move your hand and arm. If you cant move your arm one way then its safe to say the bat wing cant either. In my case im making my wing have a fold. So even though I may look funny I place my arm in the pose I want the wing and then do the same with my hand and this shows me how I need to shape the wire.

here I am using my son arm to show what im talking about.

Here is a drawing of bat wing anatomy (this is not mine)

Things I will be using.

17 gauge aluminum fence wire
9 gauge utility wire
Wire clippers
Needle nose pliers
Super glue
baking soda

Here is a photo of what the two wires Im using look like. Im sure you could use other types of wire but theses are what I could find and seem work well with. The thin/small one is the 17 gauge.

First I cut 2 12inch long wire from the 9 gauge using wire cutters. This will make a good strong base and arm for the wing. From here its playing around with the wire to form the shape of the arm. This is the out come of my wire after playing with its form for about 10 mins

Next step I did was cut about 24 inches give or take of the 17 gauge and fold it in half to make a loop on one end. I place the loop on the 9 gauge wire right below where the thumb would be on a bat and start to twist the 17 gauge wire together so it would make one piece and help it stay on the 9 gauge wire, this part will make the fingers. If you doing this your self I found using the needle nose works well when you hold the wire just above where you twisting. This is the turn out of it.

Forgive my glob of glue mess on the wire, I was trying to see if hot glue could hold it in place and it was a fail lol. Once I got all my bat fingers all twisted I grabed a long 17 gauge wire and started to weave it in one wire finger at a time towards the middle where the knuckles would be. What I mean by weaving was I put the wire inbetween one of the twist on finger so it would stay in place. Once I had the wire through all the fingers I twsited each end to go over the top of the first finger and the pinky finger and twist around it self and cut off an extra wire.

At this point I can move the fingers to where I want them and have them stay in that place. Once I was done moving all the fingers all around I glued the knuckle/joint area by the thumb close together. Though in my photo I failed on that a glued it to far down arm which I have to fix :/

Some time next week I'll post more of me adding to the wings, so stay tuned!!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T01:08:00.000-08:00

I wont have time on Christmas to do this so Im posting it a few days early. Merry Christmas to all my family, friends and fans :)

Painting Blue eyes

2011-11-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

Im still learning to paint blue eyes but why not share how I paint mine for right now.

Understanding the horse eye. There are 5 things on and around the horse eye. Eye lid, Puplil, Iris, Sclera and the Third eyelid.

My ref photo

Colors Im using for this horse.

Flesh
Linen
Blissful Blue
Coastline Blue
Pinwheel Blue
Phthalo
black
clear nail polish

* I didnt take a photo of it, but I painted his eye a real dark color so I could use that to build the eye color. Once it had dried I had mixed Linen with Flesh color and applied it where the third eye lid would be (the corner in front of the eye closest to the nose). I then water down the mix and added more linen to the mix of fresh/linen color so I could paint that color for the Sclera area and to the rest of the eye.

*(you dont have to do this step, I did cause my ref had this) I left a little of sclera area shown in the eye when I went back over it with Blissful blue to make the horse Iris color. You decide how much you want the sclera to show in the horse eye.

* I add black to the rest of eye and only left very little of the Blissful blue showing at the edge of the iris

* I now go back over the black with Blissful blue again and only leaving very little of a black rim showing. I also started to use the coastline blue color (while the paint is still wet) towards the center of the eye and leaving the blissful blue more on the outer edge.

* I wait for it to dry and then add a water down color of Pinwheel blue in the center of the eye. I paint this is up and down strokes and try to make it look like zig zags and not just an all solid color.

* I go back over but smaller with Pinwheel blue in center again so that its darker where the Puplil will be, wait for it to dry and go over that in an up and down motion leaving very small lines with the color Phthalo Blue.

* I then paint the Puplil a water down black mixed with Phthalo and wait for it to dry so that I can now gloss the eye. MAKE SURE your eye is dry before you gloss it or you could smear the colors.

* Here are the photos with his eyes glossed! I like to gloss my eyes with clear nail polish, but some people use a glossy of acrylic paint or something else. I like the way the nail polish works for me but this does not always work for everyone else.

Repairing wire legs

2011-11-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Im just going to blog me repairing a wire leg on a Eberl. This guy was damage in mailing and was mailed back for repairs. First thing I do is look at the damage area as seen below.

I went in and remove right above the damage area and just below so that I made sure all the bad area does not cause a problem in the future with the repair. I also left the wire intact in the leg as you can see in the photos.

Now I like to use Super glue and baking soda mix to fill in around the wire and to thicken out the break. You can do this by putting a little bit of the glue on the area and then sprinkle baking soda over it. This hardens right away and is more stronger then just using apoxie alone when it cured. I have the horses setting on a towel in my lap so they are not standing on there break when Im fixing there legs, this helps to make sure you keep the leg in the place you want it as you glue it.

This is a photo of the first few drops of glue/soda mix on the leg.

another photo with most of the leg field in with glue/mix

Once I get most of the area I wanted field in with the glue/soda mix I will fill in the rest with Aves Apoxie. Some people use different clay but I like apoxie since Im use to using it. I also use Aves Safety solvent to help smooth it out flat in the area of the none damage parts of the leg above the breaks. Before applying the apoxie I let it set for 15 mins to harden so its more easy to work with when putting it on the horse

Now that I have the Ave's apoxie on I need to do the detail where the tendons are and give it more shape. With this horse I also need to add the tip of the tail that was also broken off. To do the detail I use a clay shapper size one

I leave the horse alone for the rest of the day and tend to him the next day. This lets the apoxie to fully cure. I use a fine sand paper to smooth out any areas on the leg that I have missed and then wash the area off with ajax and let it dry, before I do the paint touch up.

Here is the legs fully fixed and painted back to his glory.

Feathers on a horse? The how to sculpt them

2011-09-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

Feathers on a horse? The how to sculpt them

Are you tired of having your feathers come out looking like they are mops? Then give this trick a try!

Some horses have little tufts of hair on their fetlock area of there legs. For some odd reason they're called feathers, even though they're not feathers we see on birds. They come in all amounts of sizes, from none at all to ... holly molly is that a horse its stepping on? Just kidding lol. I had found a way to make it more easy to create and sculpt them on our little model horse legs and from here I will show you.

Find references of horse feathering on a pose that your model is doing or if you know the area the leg is going and the hair then that is not a big deal. Here are some photos showing different type on hair length and movement the hair flows on horses. You really want to know the right way to put the horses feathers on its legs and feet so it doesn't look to odd. Here are some reference photos:

Click on the image to make larger

Click on the image to make larger

Once you have the idea of where the hair is to lay then you are ready to start making the feathers on your model.

Things I use

Bowl of Water
Colour Shaper Size 0
Apoxie

We are going to start by making a base on the legs and then letting it harden before adding details. Start by making your apoxie a thick noodle shape as shown the photo.

Place this on the back of the model's leg and then flatten it out away from the horse leg so it looks something like this.

You don’t want to see any part of the flat base on the front of the models legs so make sure to look at the front of the legs and if you see if its poking out on the sides, if so remove some so it stays thin. If you like you can add some curves to it so its not just a flat line going down the model legs. Once you have this done wait for the apoxie to dry.

Once dry and hardened, roll out another noodle and flatten this on the base that’s on the legs we did earlier. This is going to be the hairs so make sure to smooth out apoxie thin that is on the horse legs so you don’t have globs on the legs that you sand out later. You also do this step on the front of the leg around the hooves area.

Once you have the leg area smoothed down, I use a color shaper to help make a few divots on the new apoxie I just laid on the base. Just a few random divots and not to deep either. (as shown in the photos). (as shown in the photos)

Once I have the divots in place I then take a color shaper pointed tip (as seen in the photos) and lightly go over the entire hair area in a up and down motion. I am only using the tip of this tool for its enough to give me the effect I’m looking for. I keep doing this until I have blending in the divots and give the leg a more feathered hair look.

Sometimes I have to use my fingers to water down any apoxie that might have came up when I stroke it with my shaper.

You do this with the other side of the leg and you will be able to blend in the back of the hair together to. Giving yourself a base makes it easy to not have to touch any part of the feathering when you work on it and to give you a more real look then a mop look.

You repeat this process with all legs. Once done you might have to so some sanding to smooth any that you didn’t get fully smoothed into the leg and then prime! You know have a beautiful feather looking legs on your horse and less of a mop legs.

This is one of the outcomes using this technique. The photos above were done on a different Vincenzo.

Finished horses

2011-03-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since i posted horses that have been finished on here by me. So I'll just post the photos and leave it at that, short and quick. Note that all the horses that are being posted have owners :D

CM Vincenzo

Stormwatch

CM Breyer Esprit

Oliver

Unknown

Saoirse

CM Breyer Keltic

CM Bailador

Supernova

making rose

2011-03-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

I will show you how to make a rose but remember a rose come in all shapes, sizes and different colors so do some research. I just started making flowers so I am sure many other artiest out there has found other ways to go about making there.

Things I use

bowl of water
Colour Shaper size 0
Apoxie
Pointed knitting needle

This is a color shaper size that I use to place a rose on a trad size model horse

I start by rolling a very small ball of apoxie to have as the rose bud, plus to give me somewhere to start on the flower, and place it where I like on the model.

Round ball for the bud of the flower

Once I have the ball in an area that I like the flower to be, I take another small piece of apoxie and flatten it out (make sure your figures are wet). This will be a petal and the very first one so make sure its small since the petals on rose are smaller in the middle and open larger further away from the center of the rose. When making the petals, you dont have to make them perfect. It will make the flower more real looking if you leave flaws in.

Flat petal

Once you have your first petal ready place it on the side of the ball and take your colour shaper and push the bottom part of the petal towards the base of the bud/ball but dont smooch the top part of the petal, just leave it ticking up.

Very first petal of the flower

With your next petal make it just a tad more bigger the first petal. Remember with Rose the petals over lap each other so with your next petal place the end of it just a little over the first petal end and start to curve it around the bud. To help you, use the colour shaper and then push the bottom part petal down wards again towards the base of the bud leaving the top part untouched.

Couple of petals on bud

Once you get to a point that you dont want the rose to be any larger you can now start pulling back the petals again by using your colour shaper. Start from the outside and work in. I sometimes had to use my fingers at times (make sure your fingers are wet) to unfold the petals. Once you unfold all your petals and move them the way you see fit, you take your knitting needle and water it down and go in and touch up the middle (round part of the ball) so it no longer looks like a ball and then you now have a rose!

Finished folded out rose

The rose

Im sure I can make a video if its something everyone wants :D

Size of the rose on a dime

Horse pupil

2011-02-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

I had someone ask a very good question and it made me wounder about horse pupil. When painting a horse eye how large or little would you paint the pupil? Is one size of the pupil to much or to little? Could painting the wrong size pupil hurt the sale on the model?

Im no horse owner but I would guess that a horse pupil dilates just like any other animal and our own eye depending on the light. So in my search I found many different size pupils and colors for reference and thought I post it here for you all to use

BTW none of theses photos are mine, theses found where found using the google image search
Blue Eye

Brown eyes

Half colors

and a very cool chart I found with the top two eyes as normal and the bottom two eyes with a eye problem

How to add wings

2010-03-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

This is one way to apply wings to a breyer horse.

Things you need
* Horse or any object you want to apply wings
* Wings
* Crazy glue
* Baking soda
* Drill

I all ready made my holes in my horse where I want the wings to go, but use a drill to make your holes. Make sure before you glue the wings in that the wings are even with each other. Also make sure the hole is large enough to fit the stud of the wing before gluing. Add a little crazy glue in the hole of the horse and slide the wing into the hole on top of the crazy glue. I have to use a little elbow grease to force the wing in since i like them to slide into tight fittings. Once in, take a little more glue and dab it into the hole and base of wing, then apply a pinch of baking soda on top of the glue. Blow off any extra baking soda and repeat the process till the hole is filled in. When on the next wing add crazy glue into hole then wing but before you add the baking soda make sure the wings are even with other wing. If even then add baking soda and repeat whats been written above!

I dont normally tug on the wings or move them till about 10 to 15 mins after I applied the wings, but they harden once the glue and baking soda touches. My way of thinking they are setting in and are more sturdy if i leave them alone for a few mins. Once they are on you can sand around the wing to make the area smooth.