I have a couple of questions regarding the horse in the Andrea Waterloo vignette. First of all, how do you mount him on a working base to paint him? Being metal, he's kinda heavy & awkward. Pinning his hoofs for workbase mounting is a tricky-looking option. I'm hoping there might be another way. I tried holding him with a stick put in the hole where his tail will eventually go but that didn't work. The only other horse I've ever painted was an Imrie/Risley a while back but it's flat base made it easy. This is my first free-standing horse. I thought about mounting him on the actual base & painting him there but that won't work either, which brings me to question #2. If anyone else has done this vignette lately, how in the $#?! DID you mount the horse to the base? I've done some trimming to the area where the horse goes but I'm not sure if 5 min. epoxy is the only answer. There doesn't seem to be a lot of horse in actual contact with the base. I'm making pretty good progress over all but the horse is stumping (stomping) me. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Mike

I can't remember this horse offhand Mike but I think you're definitely going to have to pin the legs that are touching the ground to ensure any kind of security when you're done. Drilling for these is tricky in white metal, particularly if you're going fairly deep so go slow! Once the pins are in place you can use them to fix the horse to a working base. But some people do paint horses mounted onto the roughed-out groundwork (even the completed groundwork) on the final base. Just need to tape or wrap the wood to prevent rubbing the finish off the edges.

Another way you might consider holding a horse for painting, although I find it too bouncy, is to drill through the saddle (the hole will be covered when the figure is attached) then temporarily glue in a stout wire bent into a question mark. That way though the support is from the top you're holding from below and have the horse upright and of course you retain free access to the belly with the paintbrushes.

Einion

Mike, I have the dio and started it (SEVERAL times). Still haven't finished it yet. As for as the actual mounting of the finished horse to the base, I don't think there will be a problem and shouldn't require any extra pinning. When painting the horse, I use a soft balsa wood block for temporaily mounting figures, so I simply pushed it a little deeper in the block. I had no problems at all. As an alternative, look at Jaume's method for mounting his figure in this thread:

http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23082

Then again, I did 75-80% of my painting with an airbrush so I didn't really need to handle the horse too much.

HTH,
Jim Patrick

Einion & Jim,

Thanks for the advice. Normally, pinning the legs would be automatic but I'm leary of pinning this horse's legs. The 4 hoofs are pointing in 4 different directions because he's laying on his side. The question marked wire is an idea to remember but I'm thinking that Jaume's method might be just the thing. What exactly is that stuff he used?

Thanks again.

Mike

looks like 'Blu-tack' Mike.
Good Luck
Clinton