Many of us are visual learners. You can learn so much from watching a video on painting model horses that an article just doesn't quite compare. It helps techniques click when you can see it in real-time. Which is why I'm so grateful to other hobbyists who took the time out of their day to make video tutorials, and why I make my own. And, since it's NaMoPaiMo time, I've collected some of my favorite tutorials from YouTube, along with a few of mine, just for painting model horses. Maybe there's something in here you'd like to try on your 2020 NaMoPaiMo horse?

My second week of preparing for National Model Painting Month in February entailed sculpting and prepping a lot of mini scale goodness. Plus, a really fluffy, adorable draft horse.

I don't normally have this many awesome projects in my studio at once, but due to circumstances, I have some time that I am taking advantage of. It's also the perfect time to get ready for NaMoPaiMo, painting my mini resin collection, and pumping out sales horses.

I have a few weeks before National Model Painting Month begins in February, and this week was spent prepping a ton of possible horses that might become my official entry horse, as well bonus side-projects. There's a bunch of minis, artist resins, customs, traditionals and classics all in this mix. Take a look for yourself and see what I worked on this week.

Today's NaMoPaiMo post talks about prepping and priming your horses for next month's National Model Painting Month. The video covers seven tips to make prepping easier and more fun, as well as how to work in the cold (since for most of us, February is a wintry month). In today's blog post, I'll also cover tools, supplies and how to troubleshoot common primer issues.

An overview of my three official horses from National Model Painting Month 2017, 2018 and 2019 with progress footage showing how I created them. ​

Today's video blog is a short and sweet review of my model horse customs and my hobby adventures, as well as the one year anniversary of my YouTube channel and all the model horse customizing video tutorials I have created since last December.

A visual story of how I transformed the old Breyer Lady Phase into a floating trot Criollo mare.

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!

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.