A Late-Night Horse Update. . .

Just the bridles, reins, martingales, and 'cruppers' (that funny strap between the back of the saddle and bases of the horses' tails) to do next.  Thank you for the information on the correct terminology, Steve!

Today was unseasonably cool for late July -- mid-60s Fahrenheit, overcast, and damp. . .  My kind of day actually -- so why not spend the afternoon and evening here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk II teasing small dabs of paint onto even smaller areas?  

During two, or perhaps three (I really cannot recall at this point), sessions at the painting table, I took care of the white markings on muzzles and fetlocks, painted in the hooves, and finally applied more thinned Ivory Black, this time to the lower muzzles of all but two horses in this first batch of 16.  Not too many mistakes to fix, which is always nice, although these days I have become a pretty dab hand at wicking away misapplied bits of still damp paint with a wet brush before anything dries and requires painting over later.

I might take a well-earned break tomorrow (Monday), and tend to some flowers and other things in the yard outside, but when next I sit myself down to paint, it's all of those blasted leather straps and then metal buckles, bits, and things on those leather straps: reins, bridles, martingales (attaches to the girth and runs across the horse's chest to keep it from crashing its head into the rider), and the 'crupper,' which keeps the saddle from sliding forward and runs from the rear of the saddle to and around the base of and around the horse's tail.  Thank you for the link on this Steve!  

Somehow, I had the presence of mind, this time, to paint the girths and stirrup leathers very early in the painting process earlier this month, when I returned to these figures after a year away, and before there was too much else painted, which might get in the way.  It occurs to me that addressing all of this stuff -- tack and related horse furniture -- in bits and pieces, rather than all at once, might be one way to reduce the sheer tedium of painting it.  Spread it out and around in other words.  Not an ideal solution, but, as with so much that involves figure painting, one possible compromise to losing the will to paint at all.

No doubt about it.  The Tedium Demon does his level best at this stage to bring painting to a grinding halt.  Painting all of this horsey gear is not the most riveting part of the hobby, but, as a rock and roll guitar friend  once remarked to me about recycling plastic, glass, and cardboard/paper, you've got to do it.  Thank goodness these are not artillery or transport horses!  Those just about did me in two years ago when I painted 12 limber teams of four horses each, six Prussian and six Austrain.  And then there were the pontoon and transport trains back in 2013 or 2014.  What on Earth possessed me??!!  Well, Mom always said I was easily entertained.  

Still, we're getting there.  These figures and their mounts are really beginning to look like a small unit of cavalry.  Not too bad if you'll excuse a slight case of smugness.  I think it's safe to say that the back of this particular project has been broken, and we're on the downside of things.  Still much to do, but there is light at the end of the cavalry painting tunnel.  Isn't there?

-- Stokes