u/TheWingedArmadillo

Brownie was originally going to be part of a pair with a near-mirror sculpt: For some reason, Schleich re-used the general pose she's in from a previous stallion. As a result, there were originally going to be two near-matching ones. However, (like with all of my repaints), she developed her own identity while I was working with her. In this case, a confident, stacked-shoe-free strider heading off... Somewhere or another.

You know how there is a narrow pool of stock dinosaurs in media? Well... This poor Dilophosaurus wound up being drafted into advertising a not-so-tasty (to him) salad because he's a "well-known" species. And the floppy fake frill's not helping! That marketing executive is going to be so, so dead later...

This piece was originally inspired by an article about herbivorous dinosaurs and how they grew so large... Which had a carnivore as the thumbnail for some reason!

Humans aren't the only creatures watching the partial eclipse right now: I've been following this seagull (and briefly, a partner) as he watched it from the chimney-top across the road from me.

The lighting during an eclipse is unique, and I don't think I'll get a chance to photograph birds like this again for a very long time!

This Maiasaura mother hasn't seen a camera before, and isn't sure what to make of it... Her son on the other hand is just vibing!

Have you ever seen a Triceratops mum and baby with sprinkle feature scales, ice cream bodies, and wafer roll horns? Now you have!

Have you ever had a model that you love, but scratches even when you aren't handling it? That's what happened to Diego here: I originally bought him to repaint, but fell in love with the way he looked. Sadly, 2020s Schleich paint isn't so good at staying on, so I needed to repaint him for practical reasons rather than creative reasons. So, he's now a warm black like Lucy rather than a cool black. However, he looks very different thanks to the absence of markings to dilute the black coat, as well as the shading blending in better.

Although he looks pretty similar visually to his original self, I don't think he's the exact same due to the way his markings wound up looking, and the fact that the mix I use for pink noses looks sunburned on black horses... So he's now a proud member of the sunburned nose club alongside her.

And if they do, follow the lead of this Spinosaurus and bite their heads off! (Maybe not literally...)

This is Harrington, or a 2015 Falabella stallion that I got in a bundle of various Schleich horses. When I got him, he'd been scribbled on with permanent marker, and so he made a great base for customisation. In this case, he went from the standard look to a cute chestnut overo based on a real Shetland pony that conveniently had photos of him on both sides, making it much easier to get the white patches to look nice. It's not the same breed, but the proportions were close enough for this to work.

Although in some ways, working on a smaller scale than normal was easier, in others, it was very tricky. For example, how do you convey in photos that he's small? In this case, framing him alongside the other customised horses in my collection was the best approach because it highlighted the size difference, and let me play around with a variety of set-ups and scenarios.

How do you frame your repainted Schleich horses for photographs?

Sometimes, it's not the size of the catch that matters, but the species: How DID that giant goldfish cracker get into the Late Cretaceous? And why is there even one that size to begin with?

The 2023 Paso Peruano mare is one of those Schleich horses that have an OK underlying sculpt, but are hampered by their paint job: The one I picked up in a bundle bothered me a lot because I couldn't find a way to display her with the others. That's probably down to the original paint job and the less detailed sculpt, which also contributed to her name. Luckily, I've learned to repaint models, and she fits in a lot better with the repaint herd now. She's also a pretty good representation of my childhood dream horse, which was a palomino mare with a blaze.

However, what I didn't know was that palomino is among the hardest colours (if not the absolute hardest colour) to get right: V1 of the paint was very yellow because the tutorial I tried following as a base was an absolute flop! Still, I'm pleased with the result after a couple of tries, and would love to hear what you think of her as well.

Sometimes, happiness is stored in the Mononykus. At other times however, it can be found in a bag of gummy worms. And it can definitely be found in a Mononykus eating said bag of gummy worms.

This is Lucy, or a black blanket Appaloosa on the 2019 Knabstrupper mare sculpt. She looks pretty good, and the sculpt looks better than it did back when I first got her: The paint job let her down a fair bit, which is sad. However, she's had about a week's worth of planning and work, and I'm pleased with her. Was picking a black horse as a base for the appaloosa colours a good idea? The answer is possibly not, but she came out pretty good for a first go at it.

What do you think of her as a second ever custom?

Meet Buster, aka a 2007 Arabian stallion that I had as a child, which unfortunately ended up getting chewed by a dog. Such are the perils of taking your favourite models out places... Luckily, I acquired a duplicate of his model at some point, which made it much easier to stick him back together with some new clay ears and a bit of foot to go with it.

He was originally going to be an exact copy of a gorgeous bay Arabian stallion I found on Pinterest, but he really became his own unique character as time went by and I discovered where my limits were. What do you think of him?

This blue Plateosaurus started as a pun on "plate-o-saurus", and ended up evolving into this blue china-inspired design. Is it conventional? Nope. Is it unique? Yes!

Brachiosaurus are very difficult to separate from their supper... In fact, they'll probably take it with them!

Inspired by classic sci-fi aliens abducting cows, and the sheer amount of food a sauropod as big as a Brachiosaurus would need to pack away every day, as well as how attached they could probably get to it.

It's hot where I am, so it's time to take a leaf out of this fellow's book and take it easy. Dreaming of a big hunk of meat is optional though...

These herring gulls hail from the far flung place of... Across the road from me, on a chimney top. Both of the chicks seem to be doing well, and their parents are doing their best. However, the chicks look a lot like dust bunnies on legs at this stage.