Mustang - my first repaint

Originally, he was one of the few horses from the Sunshine Beauties series from 2006. Personally, I have not had any contact with these models, although I have probably passed them in stores more than once. However, my goddaughter has more or less the emotional relationship with this model as I did with Sun Runner, it was the horse that she played with in her childhood.

I found the Mustang in the south of Poland on one of the advertising portals. Well, then he was just a brown Sunshine Beauty - I noticed him, mostly because of Dorothy. He came to me June 10, 2021, in a package with two other horses - Farben II and Fake vel. Boomerang - both are still ongoing projects.

Coming back to the Mustang - as you can see in the picture above, taken from the advertisement, it was in a very "playful" condition. He had no equipment, no mane and no tail either. I expected this mold to be a bit smaller than Barbie Arabians. He first appeared in 2002, in a similar series of three horses, each of a different color. The series also had a similar name - Blossom Beauties.

After taking him out of the package, I immediately noticed the hooves and socks - the photos do not reflect it, but I like it very much - the painting is very precise. The color of the horse is quite strange, metallic, brown-red-orange. Another thing that charmed me were the eyes.

I also noticed that this mold has very small ears that seem to be sunk in the head. The muzzle is quite nice though.

He is quite slim compared to the Arabians.

Although I felt sorry for this precise painting, the horse was damaged - it cannot be hidden. Apart from the remains of the mane and tail, he was practically all scratched and had a lot of abrasions. Dorothy decided to make him a Mustang inspired by the movie - Spirit - stallion of the Cimarron.

Even though the Mustang came to Warsaw, its transformation took place far from the city - on vacation, in the countryside - the perfect birthplace for a Mustang.

It was not easy, although after many attempts, we finally managed to open this Sunshine Beauty. We got rid of remains of the tail and mane to prepare the horse for primer painting.

After opening, it was also possible to photograph the signing of the mold:

Dorothy started painting, she chose the color of the paint - I was not convinced of such a dark shade, but she had a different vision, she did not want the Mustang to become similar to Henia.

While shopping, we found an interesting hair ornament - this time not one, but many small braids. The hair was quite long and shaded - blonde to dark brown. We agreed that the dark part would be perfect for the Mustang.

I prepared a new mane base and started creating new hair for the Mustang.

And although I try to document each step - I forgot to take pictures of the new mane and tail before plugging it into the mold.

Meanwhile, Dorothy painted the body of the Mustang.

After drying, I clipped the new mane and tail into their places and we put the Mustang together.

It was not easy to disassemble, but it was also not easy to assemble. In addition, the opening was not without wounds, so I had to put on a few stitches. Then it was time to sand them.

The new tail is a bit thinner than the old one, I had to do a little hole correction.

After securing the hair, the Mustang was ready for the next, longest, stage of its metamorphosis - powdering with pastels. At this stage, it turned out that I would have to deal with it myself. I was a little scared, but I took up the challenge - until you try something, you will not find out if you are actually unable to do it.

Powdering was a really long and tedious process, all because the foundation was dark and the horse was supposed to be fairly light. I will not hide that I really got tired. It lasted almost a month, consuming about 3 cans of varnish. The photos below show the effects after fixing with varnish, there were so many layers that I only captured selected moments.

The horse looked different in the daylight, but for me it was still too dark, so I kept fighting.

Two photos below show a powdered Mustang before fixing with varnish.

After fixing with varnish, the shades become darker. Below is the moment when I found that there are enough pastels ... Then I applied another layer.

The day finally arrived and the Mustang's hair was released from the cocoon of the containment tape. The forehead fringe didn't really want to stick to it, so at first I pressed it with a hair elastic.

The Mustang also got new eyes.

This is how my repainted horses looked when we were leaving the countryside. Henia was already fully transformed, and the Mustang had to have his hair cut and the hooves painted.