Embrace the Extreme!

Drastic Stablemates Customizing

By Jennifer O'Donnell Danza

Like the results of extreme remaking, but are afraid to try it yourself? Don’t be afraid of the extreme! Just jump in and have fun.

Extreme remakes on Stablemates are my favorite types of customizations because they are small and the plastic is easy to cut. Several horses can be used to make a brand new model and if I mess up there isn’t much of a financial loss. Extreme Stablemates can be finished in a quarter of the time a larger remake would take.

Stablemates ready for the "chopping block!"

This time around I had the urge to create a bucking horse from the Breyer Stablemates Warmblood. I began by chopping off his head and tail with a hand held hacksaw. This step could also be achieved with a Dremel drill.

Use a manual hacksaw or dremel tool to begin making your cuts. A vice grip is helpful for holding the model in place.

Next, I found a tail from another Stablemates model, the Rearing Arabian, to use on my new horse. If another horse has the part you need, why sculpt it? Just lop it off and use it! The Rearing Arabian offered the very best tail for this project because when flipped upside down it had a beautiful curve to it, so I lopped it off right at the base.

Removing the tail from the Rearing Arabian model.

The Warmblood body was then chopped in half slightly. I left just a bit of plastic near the spine so I could push and pull the form a bit. I wanted to capture that “bucking” motion where the spine twists just slightly as the legs are kicked backward. This step left a gaping hold in the belly. Most extreme steps will render your Stablemates “ugly,” like this gaping hole in the belly, for a short spell.

At a certain stage the chopped up horse has to be visually inspected. I do this by placing all the pieces on a blank sheet of paper and arranging them. At this stage, I can really see my vision coming to fruition. If all looks well on paper I start gluing pieces together.

There are many different types of glue one can use for this step, but my glue of choice is Zap A Gap glue. I have recently started using a glue accelerator called “Zip Kicker” to help speed the drying process. Just a few spritzes dries the glue right where I need it instantly.

Begin gluing pieces together to create your final form. Make adjustments as necessary.

Sometimes, at this stage, other parts of the horse start to look “odd” and need adjustment. On this model it was the back leg that looked “off,” so I chopped into it a bit then ran the heat gun in the area to move it.

The back leg broke during chopping, but I worked around the mistake and it actually helped when I had to readjust the leg. If anything breaks during your process, just go with it, reglue and don’t worry about the mistakes. All mistakes can be fixed. 

After all the cut pieces were secure and the piece had been re-measured for accuracy, I applied Aves Apoxie to fill the holes and gaps. The Apoxie needs to dry for 24 hours. After that initial “filling” stage, you can add more Apoxie and add details like muscles or a mane. It’s best to work in stages, since the Apoxie needs to completely set and doing this at one time is nearly impossible.

I continued to use the Apoxie to fill in my gaps and sculpt the rest of the horse's form. Once dry, the horse was then sanded down fully. A sandable white gesso was added to the entire horse. Areas that looked odd after the Apoxie had been added were sanded down. Gesso and primer will help you see mistakes, which you can then correct before painting.

Holes and gaps filled with Apoxie. Once he's sanded and primed, this horse is ready for paint!

After the primer or gesso dried fully and everything looked good, it was time to paint the new stallion. A few more hours adding a pretty bay tobiano color to him was the perfect ending to this "extreme" adventure!

The finished product!

 Recommended Supply List:

• Stablemates model(s)
• Handheld hacksaw or dremel tool
• Zap-a-Gap glue
• Zip Kicker by Zap-a-Gap
• Aves Apoxie Sculpt
• Sandpaper
• Gesso or sandable white primer