Why is my modelverse in traditional scale?

In my case, the whole craze for a modelverse, alias worldbuilding and scene making by using miniatures, started from Schleichs. I started everything by customizing them and assembling riding scenes, which I then took photos of. That was a thing until 2013 or 2014. 

I have tried many many times, and can't add more photos, so let's have this only one then.

That, exactly the Yule 2013, was when I got my first 1:9 scale rider dolls, two Breyer men. In the early 2014 I customized their heads, so they no longer were humans.

There was a time when I thought I will remain as a Schleich collector for... Forever? I wanted to specialize in them, making worlds for them. I wanted those worlds to be the kind I see for them in my head. I can genuinely say that my stuff is something I have never seen in anyone else's Schleich worlds to happen.

I knew about Breyers' existence already around the early or mid 2000's. That was when I saw them in Lahjakas, a webstore which currently specializes in animal figures. I tried hard to not get interested about Breyers, because it could have meant that I have to start a new collection, a new world from nothing. And of course I regret that a little, as I now windowshop those exact models I saw in Lahjakas ages ago from American online thrift stores. And by starting from nothing I of course mean starting a new modelverse from nothing, into a whole new scale and with new resources. At those times my Schleich collection was already rather large, and I had some tack and props for them, so it felt easier to stay at them and develop that modelverse further.

Well, as I mentioned, in 2013 I got those Breyer guys and didn't even manage to customize them before scenes already happened. I hadn't even managed to show a knife for those doll heads when I already had fun with them. I put them to ride my three traditional scale horses which I had at the time, of course. Only one of them was a Breyer. The other two were a Blue Box QH and a flocked horse. Occasionally the boys also tested riding classics (which Grand Champions and related are, to me, despite how much bigger they are when compared to Breyer classics). That looked unbalanced, so didn't happen much, I think.

There was no quality, and everything was rather rough and ancient, but still, it was totally different from what it is when I assemble scenes from Schleichs. And here we get to the whole point of this article. 

The exact reason why I prefer traditionals is because it's bigger, more detailed and more practical than little bit. Tack is easier and nicer to make. Its own aspect is of course the fact that horses by Breyer are more or less realistic no matter the scale. Plus, they come with more variety in positions, breeds, facial expressions and in just everything, when compared with Schleichs.

If a reader knows me as a collector, it should come as no surprise that I stopped collecting Schleichs years and years ago due to that worsened sculpting style. It alone does not explain why I switched to a bigger scale, but it has a part in it.

First, Schleichs have been released in a narrower selection of molds and colors than Breyers. Every "stable" has the same horses, and of course the usual unrealistic things like przewalskis or zebras (and in my schleichverse's case, fantasy equines...). I have come to a conclusion that I simply "burned out" seeing the same things repeating in every single Schleich stable I stumbled upon online. In other words, I lost interest towards reading Schleich stable blogs since story plots were too predictable. Also the humans and horses were never individuals. Meanwhile I also hated the fact that by that my own horses weren't unique neither. The only unique individuals were (are) customs. And I have a large herd of them - but I haven't seen customs in any of those story blogs I browsed... So that's it then.

So, buying Schleichs was no longer interesting. New horses didn't give me the joy and excitement they used to give, and eventually I bought them only for customizing and as something to compare customs with.

Same cannot be said about Breyers. With them I have the exact same craze and excitement which I used to have with Schleichs. This is why I windowshop Breyers for example form MHSP. I mostly hit my eyes at bodies, because I am a customizer.

One human simply cannot own a herd similar to someone else's. It's impossible even if two people had equally large collections, same molds and same eras - no, these have been produced for so long in so many molds, colors, editions and eras that it simply is impossible that someone could have all what you have. And this is why I like these and the modelverses people have in (especially) traditional scale. There is more variety in the horses. Also especially Americans customize and repaint way more than for example Finns do, and there's nothing weird or special in it.

One more reason for why I like the bigger scale is... Well... How should I say it? The fact that I get closer to it? Yes, when my horses, the tack and the riders are bigger, I see them better. I could say, I get closer to that world when so. I can get into that world much better than what I could get with Schleichs. Larger horses don't limit as much, and I also am able to see these literally from their level. Also photographing is way easier when I don't have to abuse my camera by forcing it to focus on microscopit details. (Though, my DSLR is already so old and used that he is often not into the traditionals neither.)

Since I am on the neuro spectrum (autistic), I am able to "dive into my mind" deeply and forget the rest of the world when so. That happens for example in the shower or in toilet. Years ago I liked to do this during long bus trips. Digging brains for fun is almost the best thing ever - but if I get that rich story stuff or thoughts out into a concrete form... That is the best. This is why I photograph each setup alias photo stack, alias scene. I want them to be preserved. So, only hallucinating is not enough, and I want that hallucination to be seeable also later.

It doesn't end there, into the picture level. I also like to write something about these scenes, and have a whole own text file for it. I write everything up to the degree that there has to be the photography date; usually it also becomes the date the scene happened story-wise. The photos get sorted and archived by a rider doll's name and each folder also will get numbered. That way I can see who has ridden how much and which horses. Keeping record of everything possible is nice.

So, I said what I was meaning to. What else? Hmmm, questions for the readers...

Are there any Schleich stables anymore, or did it die off when blog culture died off? Or did the phenomenon simply move somewhere else where I am not (like Instagram)? Do any Finns (else than I and Kave) hobby this kind of miniature worlds and stories based on them, by using Breyer traditionals? And since this is an international blog - if any reader has a modelverse, let me know!

Models I need

I'm not going to list Breyers I want to buy, but criterias I use to choose them to the cart instead. 

I don't go by "this looks cute, I want it" when it comes to getting new horses. That kind of logic can serve if you just collect horses and show halter, don't care about tack or performance stuff and so on, to put it roughly. If I was that kind of collector, I could already have bought models with a lot of mane, like Carltonlima Emma or the Gypsy Vanner. I like, like them a lot - but they are not tack friendly, so I've skipped. And why do I want only tack friendly horses? 

A lot of mane, but still tack friendly.

I build a modelverse, and my horses must fit in it. They're tools of storymaking to me. Okay, they have also a lot of sentimental value and appeal as itself and themselves, but I really do want them to be tack friendly for the modelverse purposes. And that is not the only aspect to take into account. 

Color is also one thing to pay attention to. And why? I'm not a person who cares that much about what my animals look like, for example cats and dogs; color doesn't matter and it doesn't make the pet better or worse. Why with model horses then? Well, there are realistic and unrealistic colors. I'm mostly into realism. My modelverse is located in Finland, and I want to loosely portray this country's horse culture in it. I think most horses in Finland are of base colors and not very strikingly marked, though this doesn't mean unusual visuals don't exist. They simply aren't as common as in USA, for example. So to put it short, I want colors which are the most realistic to find from one stable. 

Overkill, my first Breyer bay, with his rider Rämä... And some seriously outdated tack.

Second aspect about color is that I simply like the solid colors best, and base colors almost even more than dilutes. Bays are pretty and come in numerous shades. Why could I want a leopard pattern on it, hiding the delicious dappling, counter-shading or sootiness? I'm a weird person in a sense that I don't like spots. Heh. I avoid pintos and leopard complex if I can, but sometimes I can't. That is why I have some spotty horses. Though, sometimes my decision is helped by the fact that I also try to modelize my dream horses, alias horses I've met during sleep. It explains Dreamy. 

Dreamy.

I don't really hate any color, but the least interesting I can name is the frame overo pinto. Maybe it is due to how similar they look to some incorrectly patterned toy horses which are everywhere, and whose errors I've always been too aware of. They also are visually close to examples of "nice" colorations which are designed on paper by people who have zero idea about genetics and how white markings on animals actually work.

Molds. This is partially same as the tack friendliness. Some molds I just like and want to have a sample of. In my collecting criteria, mold comes always first and color only second. Or then color is one of the last aspects to care of... 

I wanted a sample of this mold, so bought a black with a blanket since it was the only option. I like him.

Breeds. Finland doesn't really have any(?) morgans, saddlebreds, tennessee walkers, american shetlands, and who knows how many other breeds which are normal in USA (obviously because they originate from there). We DO have a lot of quarters, some appaloosas and various other breeds, and occasionally one can stumble upon something rare. I'm not sure if I have ever met an arab? The most common breeds here are probably light trotters (especially standardbred), warmbloods, finnhorses and various pony breeds. 

The breeds is one fact I've allowed myself to lose control of, what comes to accuracy. My modelverse isn't a copy of the real world anyway; otherwise my dolls could be humans instead of anthro animals. I like when it's mine and recognizable as such. The Aspenly Stable can therefore have a friesian-appaloosa cross, a morgan, a show type arabian, a mangalarca, a marwari... Okay, that friesian-appaloosa could be realistic, just not expectable here. And oh, yes, some crosses I cook up are rather wild! And the fact that Aspenly Stable happens to have a 171 cm tall finnhorse, which couldn't be that common (but is possible!) in real finnhorses. 

Though, the most unrealistic find in here is the mosteasy horse. That breed simply doesn't exist, because I designed it. 

You can clearly see that I've never understood how limbs of any kind should be sculpted.

Anatomy. Still about the molds, sculpts and tack friendliness. I'm an anatomy dork, maybe due to being a horse artist for so long. I stopped collecting Schleich due to how their sculpting style changed from nice to ugly. Breyers vary in anatomical accuracy, but often even the rough ones are way better than any Schleich has ever been. This is why I collect Breyers and not Schleichs. (Now stop glaring at me with bad face, all the 150-200 Schleichs I have - you're not coming out of those plastic tubs!)

There also is just something in these older, rough molds which pleases my eye. I see their errors, but they're still lovely.

Gender. I want geldings and mares. An occasional stallion here and there is okay, but it's not realistic if one stable has ten stallions and they get along perfectly, or behave ideally. Many Breyer's stallion molds look like they could be geldings as well... I've seen stallions who behave so perfectly, but that simply is not the case in most times. And let's face it - a random horse owner usually doesn't have excuses to not geld their stallion! (However, harness racing stables can have several stallions by norm. I've seen. But Breyer doesn't produce trotters and Aspenly Stable is not a harness racing stable!)

I was positively surprised when I found out that Thunder is a gelding!

Versatility. This definitely is a thing also American performance showers pay attention to. It's nice to be able to say that horse X can do dressage, pull a carriage, be a lesson pony, be a forest walk companion, can be a therapy animal, climb up walls and change firealarms which scream due to low batteries.

Expression and position. Also gait. Even when a mold is tack friendly, I look at it's position and facial expression. Forward-pointing ears are cute and also allow tack better than other positions, but they can also make the horse appear too friendly in personality. I myself always sculpt horses with ears flattened or otherwise pointing elsewhere. 

I've practiced drawing and painting stressed horses a lot, and it finally shows.

For some reason, I've found out that horses with their heads up can be a bit problematic, when they're otherwise in a walking position. Such models don't make good "performance models", so to say. Or then they look distracted or something, just not logical for most scenes. They have their place, though. 

Offhand and Okay.

Ordinariness. Aspenly Stable is a slightly unusual riding school or a stable where people keep their pet horses. I think show stables don't exist in my country, or then internet (and my camera and eyes) is lying at me. Most people in this country (or world) do not show or compete with their horses, and more often than not the horse is not in a perfect condition and sheen what comes to muscle and coat. 

Limppu. This model looks rather real despite being old and rough.

We can oddly get back to the molds here... I recently figured out the difference between old molds (especially those by Chris Hess) and newer molds - oldies portray normal horses, while the newer ones portray perfect or ideal horses. I don't know why this phenomenon exists and if anyone else pays attention to it, but I think it's clear. Many Hess' horses are rough and sometimes weird, but they also look like your everyday pet horse. They're realistic in that sense. Newer molds may be nice in their own way, like being magnificently flashy or something, which I agree do look great (and artistic). But for a person who wants average looking horses for miniature world purposes, many Hess molds win over several newer molds. 

So flashy.

Maybe this is why I am so happy about some of my horses, for example Namu, who is by Brigitte Eberl. And while Eberlians go to the flashy category at times, they mostly do so because of the training level they portray, and not so much because of exaggerated amount of muscle and mane. That's not bad, really. Some of my dolls can handle such horses.

 

Wonder what's coming next? I personally hope that I could at least post something soon enough.