By now you might have heard of NaMoPaiMo, if not at least in brief passing. But what is it?

​It is a very special, international event held every February and now in it's third year. Short for National Model Painting Month, It's the brainchild of Jennifer Buxton of Braymere Custom Saddlery blog and was meant to bring together customizers around the world in the spirit of sharing and learning. 

Apoxie Sculpt and other brands of two-part epoxy clay is the heart and soul of model horse customizing and a great air-dry clay. For this post, I'm featuring a great tutorial video by Darynn Bednarczyk of DeeJayBe model horse customs to get you started in all things apoxie. Be sure to visit the video on YouTube and click on the description since she has a TON of great resources and tools listed there.

The second video in the tutorial series is my own personal recipe for painting bays, complete with application steps. Just in time for NaMoPaiMo 2019!

A couple weeks ago, I asked my Instagram followers what sort of tutorials they would like to see from me. Video tutorials won the majority for preferred format, so I figured it was time to actually do something with that channel I set up a while ago. Many people wanted to see sculpting and painting tutorials, so I'm taking advantage of a long Christmas stay-cation to record some of those videos, starting with how I sculpt ears. That video is live now.
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It's probably the thing that bugs me the most and THE NUMBER ONE REASON why most horses don't win...bad prepping/priming or, worse, none at all. With every show I attend, more horses seem to lack prepping.

For those who might not have heard, #NaMoPaiMo is National Model Painting Month, an international painting challenge in February between model horse hobbyists. It was founded and is run by Jennifer Buxton and is a fun online (and sometimes in-person) gathering of sharing progress, tips and fun.

Now in its second year, I will be participating again with another stablemate custom. I've chosen a Breyer G1 Thoroughbred mare who I am transforming into an Arabian mare. My January month will be spent finishing her sculpting and prepping her for next month's painting.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd walk you through her major changes, which I also thought would be a great insight for those wanting to know how to make great little stablemate customs.

After the prior article on craftsmanship, I thought it would be great to have a super short but super illustrated look into why craftsmanship is so important to prepping. Consider this a mini tutorial for sanding.

Before I sprayed my NaMoPaiMo mare with primer, I honestly thought this girl was super smooth. But look! The first coat of primer showed that I couldn't have been more wrong. While not bad for the first pass of primer, clearly she needs more sanding, especially around the areas where I added epoxy.

Originally published February 17, 2018.

"Why doesn't mine look as good as that horse?"
"Why didn't mine win?"

Do questions like these sound familiar? While a number of factors affect the answer (especially to the question, "Why didn't I win?"), I am going to share with you one of the biggest factors I almost always see that distinguishes great customs from sub-par and winners from those that just placed. It's a little secret my art professors drilled into me, so it will help you in other areas of art too.

The secret is excellent craftsmanship.