A shout out to Triple Mountain Model Horses for their wonderful service, fast shipping, and pop rocks! I purchased several Cantering Morgan (Charleston) and Irish Draft (Corbin) Stablemates. While these debuted in 2019, they are now regular runs which I like for customs.
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| Cantering Morgan in black and Irish Draft in Appaloosa |
The Cantering Morgan is a stallion sculpted by Laura Skillern Sailer. He has nicely shaped twitching ears and an adorable face that might remind you of a Kathleen Moody sculpt. His forelock is centered and not wrapped around his cute ears. I love this about him.
His mane and tail are long and full, move with the motion, and they do so without dominating the model.
Now, this pose in a collected canter or lope has me a little confused. It isn’t a stage of the gait I see very often—especially with this breed. And when I do see a picture, it feels just a bit different than the model. The hind legs are underneath the model, almost like a canter pirouette, and the front end has the right knee higher than the left. I’ll be on the lookout for customs that incorporate a base or pegs. Maybe this guy needs a little air under him.
Overall the sculpting is smooth and not overly complex. Little details on the face and wrinkles on the neck and inner leg are sweet. The pasterns might need a little cleaning up and the left stifle might need attention. The hooves lack detail and are not carved, but the basic shapes are there. The seam to watch out for is on his chest.
He is nicely scaled to the Stablemate line as a smaller breed.
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| Even though he is leggy, the Morgan is petite compared to Rivet. |
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| For my first CM I've moved the right fore and left hind, plus added a peg. |
The Irish Draft mold is a gelding sculpted by Eva Rossiter. The first thing you might notice is his sweet face with a Roman nose. He looks like a hardworking kind of horse.
This guy is big, but not out of scale for the Stablemate line. He’s got the build and height of a Warmblood. This will be an advantage when showing mini performance. (Even if you need to make a longer girth.)
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| He’s got a hand or two on Rivet, a stock horse. |
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| He is similar in height to the Walking Thoroughbred, but has more bulk. |
Under the splotchy paint, his sculpt is filled with lovely details, from the muscles of his chest to the little wrinkles at his shoulder. All of his feet are 100% there—they just need to be carved. His legs have nice joints and tendons. He has a fine, short mane that is detailed enough to to paint or easy to sand away. His forelock is simple and not in the way. One of his ears can go a little bear-cub-ish, but the other seems fine. His tail is simple and elegant. It doesn’t touch his legs or body for a customizing win.
Like the Walking Thoroughbred he stands on his front feet and left hind with his right hind off the table. Placing him down wrong causes him to tip.
Watch carefully if you choose to remove his roman nose. His eyes are ever so slightly in different places in relationship to the forehead. At first this appears to be part of his position with the slight right turn, but too much sanding could possibly bump into his left eye because it sits a little more forward.
I think I’ll look at the point of his buttock on the left side when I customize him. The left side (on the right in the picture below) seems to fall shy when compared to his right side. Note how the Walking Thoroughbred’s hindquarters are even on either side of the tail.
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| Walking Thoroughbred on left, Irish Draft on right. |
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| Here he is with a little epoxy added to his left hip. |
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| I'm also trying a braided mane and shorter tail. |
The Irish Draft can be customized to a variety of breeds and I am looking forward to seeing what artists create with him.
Happy customizing these two cuties. Oh, don’t forget to sand off the spots before priming!
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