Here is an article on painting horse by Rodrigo Hernandez Chacon from the book euro Modelismo Painting: Overhead Lighting.

And thanks for the vid's Tommy!

Recent replies demonstrate the vale of re-asking a question.
Let's face it, sometimes the replies you get back can be either rubbish or non-existent.
Plus other people get to join in.
Well worthwhile asking again mate.

Just found this topic

If the horse has not been clipped you will see hair. If it has the hair will be very short or not there at all and you will not see it.

I've attached a picture of the head of my pal Chester, a very large Irish Draught horse I ride taken last week.

His coat has just started to grow and in a few weeks he will be quite shaggy for the winter in which case you will see the hair even from a distance.

I think if you want to be accurate you have to find out if the horse is clipped and in what way, i.e. Leave the legs hairy. Horses that are very active will be clipped to avoid overheating and ease of washing sweat off and drying after gallop.

So to summarise. Summer horse very short hair. Winter horse long hair. Cavalry horse if clipped no hair.

Old topic I know


I just took a few photos of an unclipped horse I ride regularly in his summer coat.

You decide if it's worth painting the hairs or not!

The late Eugene Leliepvre once published a highly useful article about painting horses in the early Historex catalogues. Very
comprehensive and most fascinating, amonst other things he emphasised the importance of following the direction of the actual
hair growth. He also showed areas about the horse where the hair is thin and its subsequent effect on the perceived colour. I follow
his techniques still and find them most satisfactory. Personally, I agree with those who don't feel it appropriate to enhance the texture
of the horse's coat, but don't let's split hairs ....

@ Fogie: I know that article but I can't find my old Historex catalogue!

I can send you a scan if you like

Obliged Fogie! I am going to give it a last shot: there's a big pile of paper in the shed. Might be somewhere in there.

If it isn't I'll gladly accept you offer for a scan.

Just sent off a set to Martin (don't know if they turned up because I'm a bit of a techno idiot) but I'll
gladly post them here too. Here goes ...

I'm not too sure of the drawing about the direction of horse hair. The pictures of Chester are high enough resolution to see individual hairs. Chester is a ten year old Irish Draught and is typical of a heavy cavalry horse.




Merlin above has a shorter summer coat.

With grey horses I would avoid putting too much grey/black on turn. They are born almost black and fade with age. A young cavalry horse would have dark legs and some drooling on the body. By the age of ten most are generally " white" .

I think the best idea is to find a horse. Take pictures and copy.

Some pictures of Andalusian greys. Probably about 8-10 years old.

Add "stripe" extends down from "star" and "snip" extends over end of muzzle, to face markings.
"Pie" means black and white as in Magpie. Piebald is black and white. Skewbald is brown and white.
"Coin marks" are dappling on non greys.
"Stifle" the most ticklish part of a horse. Almost guaranteed a kick!

Add Horse with his P J on.


Mick

Whatever our choice of reference material, the hard part remains ... how do we render a two dimensional beautifully
lit and pin sharp photo into a three dimensional miniature scale model horse. If we match the colours on our picture
and apply them to our model, those colours will be too intense and inevitably look completely wrong. We have to 'scale'
them down as it were. As I said - that's the hard bit.

If we choose to 'texture' the horse coat as well, then after mastering the difficult part we must painstakingly overpaint
ultra thin individual hairs. If this is the way you want to go, the only thing I can recommend apart from some Valium
is an old trick I learnt a lifetime ago. Fine pointed brushes, say No.1's with enough bristle length to make a decent reservoir
for carrying the paint, come with a plastic tube cover as a guard. Snip off a bit of it - enough to allow the brush tip to poke
out - and this will prevent the brush hairs from bending too much as you work and allow you to control the thickness of
your paint line more easily. I don't use it for horses, instead it's something I do for painting the central coloured line on
British Napoleonic Infantry lacing

Not a fan of this technique , but it is a skill just like painting fabric on a garment in 54 mm .
At one time a long time ago i remember even adding shadows and highlights was considered over the top