Horses for larger dolls

Well rats @Rosslyn , that's a bummer. :-/ Was looking through the older part of the thread, did you finish painting your Battat you mentioned making into a buckskin grullo? If so, do you have any photos to share?

 

Yes! The horse is a good size for MSDs, but barely a short pony for an SD. I guess if you made one nice and shaggy it could be a little icelandic horse or moor pony for a bigger doll.

 

Wow, with the wild grasses he really does look like he is riding across the fields. That's fantastic!!

 

Thanks! This was my backyard before I got rid of all the timothy and foxtail and put in a lawn. The lawn is better for mah feets but admittedly nowhere near as photogenic.

 

That really is a beautiful setting for photos! Looks like you're out on the open plain with fields of grain. It's amusing that it was your backyard!

 

Thank you!

 

Hello everyone, this theme is old, but I hope i still can help somebody, who is still looking for... As I see, most of companies are already closed... In Russia, in Moscow toy store I found a Gullever's plush horse, in my opinion it's perfect for SD10\13 sized dolls like not really big kob type horse

 

He indeed does look a very sweet horse!

I customized an antique "Ohrdrufer Schaukelpferd":

https://denofangels.com/threads/friesian-stallion-tackmaking-chamfron-done.720093/

He is really lovely and even fits my big men.

It is a bit sad that need so much space...otherwise maybe there would be some more in our household...

 

@Ipledreamer Your project journal was amazing! Such a fun look into all th behind the scenes work.

 

You have to do a foam core with a clay shell. Like floral foam. I have one started, just keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the project list.

 

Yeah, but it still needs to be strong enough to support the weight of a doll on it. Some clays may work with a foam armature, but some may not. I would probably build a heavy duty wire skeleton into it, or at least a wooden dowel through the back.

 

oh you'd be surprised what some kinds of foam will hold. Most film sets are built primarily from foam, among other things.

 

Sure, but floral foam?

 

The brown kind used for dry floral arranging is pretty dense. I worked at a floral shop and the green is best used for fresh flower arrangements as you soak it in water. I have used the green for little projects as a base to be covered with paper mache or air dry clay, but the brown is meant for silk flowers and I pretty sturdy. It would need a good coat of something over it, but I think it could hold up the wight of a doll. The best foam to use would be the white compressed kind, like the stuff you get for packaging electronics. I know it comes in sheets and blocks, is easy to carve, but really, really messy! Hope this helps. Best part with styrofoam is it is lightweight.

 

Oh white foam would be the softest thing I'd use! And no, definitely not floral foam that's designed to disintegrate. There's this type of foam that is sold as "Great Stuff" Gap Filler in cans. It is a sort of liquidy variety of polystyrene that cures over about 24 hours to very, very hard. It's super sticky fluff straight out of the can but once it's no longer tacky you can carve it- once it's fully cured you kind of need power tools or a very sharp pick to make more than a dent in it. I work with it a lot on film sets and you can make nearly anything with it.

 

@Rosslyn thank you for the tip on "Great Stuff". I'd never heard of it, sounds perfect for lightweight construction. I have used both types of floral foam, ugh, nasty dusty stuff! Used what I had, but not recommended. I'll add this to my list of useful sculpting materials.

 

Oh, okay, I could definitely see that spray foam stuff working, and making the whole project lightweight too. Do water-based clays like Paperclay stick to it?

 

I can see it being a little difficult to control though. What do you do? Make a container to blow it into? Maybe a plastic bag sealed in the general shape? Very interesting to hear that's what you use on sets. I tried to use similar spray foam around 1000 years ago when I was studying at school. I was trying to make a cave like atmosphere, LOL. the wire wasn't dense enough (chicken wire) so I left it as chicken wire instead, LOL. So I'd be very interested in knowing what the technique is if you care to share

 

Generally you need a framework to spray it onto, or a shape you want to make, and then you can carve it later to get better shapes. You can also make hollow shapes and fill them with it, as long as you leave room for it to expand. If I was going to make a cave out of it, for example, I'd build the cave of wire and paper, then bulk it out and add texture with the foam.
I think to make a horse out of this stuff you'd want to start with a frame and build around that, or with flat cardboard shapes you build bulk onto and then joint together and add more bulk, then carving and shaping.
What's getting me is that I could easily build such a horse, but getting it reproduced in some lightweight material in a cost effective manner would be really difficult...

 

That really sounds like it'd be fun. Maybe some day, but at the moment, I have neither the time nor space for such a project But you never know! One must keep busy in life!