Saarlooswolfhound custom projects! An old mascot

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I did these as part of the STS May Model Painting Month event and thought I could share here too. I have always loved wild canines and have slowly been working to add new species to my collection if I can find a good "victim" to mildly customize (remoulding, I am still practicing at it) or repaint. I have not sealed them yet as I may still fiddle with them... but they are essentially done. 3 variations of African wild dog coats!



















And a family portrait.

[bmathison1972]

Oh wow, absolutely stunning work! And nice to see the different varieties! Well done!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thank you Blaine.

Looking at my group photo... I have noticed I have a lot of twins for this group. Lots of variations for this great species! I will update this section with some other photos of my old customizations too... I have a bushdog, Mexican wolves, a Tibetan wolf, and some other non canine figures.

[Isidro]

That's very nice, the repaint on the last figurine looks like a clownfish hehe

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thank you! Now that you mention it... it does look a bit like a clownfish.  Maybe I will nickname that one Nemo.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Some new stuff. Back in late 2020 I started repainting a couple of Schleich donkey jennies into wild ass species... little did I know what an obsession it would create. Now I look for any chinamal donkey to repaint and have gotten pretty decent herds for my collection IMO.

The new stuff: adolescent versions of wild equids.



Now with their families!

African wild ass herd; a stud or jack, jenny, and an adolescent foal.



Onagers; a jack, jenny, adolescent, and new foal.



Kiangs; a jack, jenny, adolescent, foal, and mini.



I hope you like them as much as I do! These aren't great photos and this isn't my best work... I am so out of practice. But luckily it comes back- albeit a bit slowly.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

A special update! This was my very first customization job for someone other than myself; first commission! Being the overthinker that I am, I experienced a lot of emotions in the progress of this entire venture but in the end I think they turned out great, and to boot, my patron says he loves them! So here goes.

The commissioner had some unique requests and supplied their own figures for the project. 2 old safari ducks, a VW wolf and modern sculpt Safari wolf, an old Safari zebra, a Breyer cougar, and an old Safari (or AAA? I forget...) rubber constrictor snake. These were to be turned into a Labrador duck, a pink-headed duck, a pair of dholes, a quagga, a marozi (a cryptid class lion), and a rainbow boa. These were ALL challenging (in a good way) for different reasons. Either reference material was difficult to find (for the extinct or as of yet to be proven species) or the pattern/colors/methods to use. I did get too nervous about painting rubber as I couldn't figure out to ensure that it would stick properly and not flake over time; I did buy a pair of cheap bootleg Safari boas to use one model instead. The only ones that were a piece of a cake were of course, the canines. :lol:

But enough of my chatter, let's get into photos! I am evidently TERRIBLE at documenting my painting projects because I get too excited... but here are the ones that were in focus/good images.

white wash


I REALLY struggled to find a color that wasn't too cheddar yellow but not tan either.


So MANY spots!




But eventually he got all dressed.


Quaggas are perhaps my least favorite species to do so far as I get too obssessive over symmetry for stripes.


I fell in love with the face and ears of this guy though.


Couple of sadly gone ducks.


I tried to do a darker version and a paler coat to have some distinction.


And then the snake was the most fun/rewarding! I have a fondness for metallics now and will be looking for excuses to use them more often. *pictured is the actual Safari, with the now repainted bootleg version of it*






Aaaaand after a break from doing this one, I am 100% gonna have to make one for myself! 


And of course, I always try to do underside details even if there is only a flat surface to use.



And everyone all together and completed!


I hope you all enjoy this project, its been a wild ride from start to finish. A good friend on STS is now the proud owner of the only commissioned models from myself. :cheers:

[Sim]

These repaints are extremely impressive!  Are the ducks repaints of this figure?: https://toyanimalwiki.mywikis.wiki/wiki/Safari_233229_Duck

[Saarlooswolfhound]

That's the one! Thank you. 

[Sim]

Thanks!  I've just purchased one!  It's amazing it was first made in 1999!  It's the most appealing duck figure I've seen, keeping in mind that I don't want figures that have permanently attached bases.  I actually saw and fed some mallards today, I'm happy to be getting a figure of one!

[Isidro]

Wow, I'm absolutely impressed by the rainbow boa!!! How do you do the iridescence?

[Saarlooswolfhound]

SO glad you found a mallard for your collection Sim! That might be one of the longest lived figures still for sale(?).

I used a variety of metallic paints, did some practice runs so I could learn how to do a good gradient, and them wallah! It turned out pretty nice if I say so myself.

[bmathison1972]

You are very talented Paige; I have some figures I need repainted I might commission you to do them when you get settled back here in Utah  !

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thank you Blaine!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I just got this guy done for the STS painting month. A generic canine turned into a dhole (I kept one of the models I have acquired original for comparison).

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I finally got my repainting desk space set up and set out to use it. Before I moved I had a few models I had started but not yet completed. I got a few of them redone today!

First up is a prehistoric- Came across this giant polybag wild republic figure years ago and finally repainted it. The goal here was to present an Ailurarctos to the collection- I think the sculpt looks just "off" enough to pass as "not quite a giant panda". I think it turned out pretty well. Funnily enough, despite the bicolor palette I chose, this was a difficult pattern to come up with and make it satisfactory to me. What do you think? I wanted it to hint at the descent of this animal, but be unique from the giant panda we know today.







Then two birds who needed a redo of their first redo. These are chinamal copies of the Schleich birds. I repainted them 3 or 4 years ago and put a clear coat on them. I am unsure of what exactly happened with these two but the coating became incredibly sticky and a pain. It took a long time to repaint over this coat and get the paint layer to soak into and dry the coating, and then get the base paint coat to apply evenly so I could repaint them again. But I got em done pre-move and gave them time to see if they truly did dry out finally (they did). Now I have given a fresher coat of paint and think they turned out even better than the originals I did. I may still change the toucan's eye color as I am unsure I like how this shade dried but... they're complete at long last.

military macaw and white-throated toucan

[AnimalToyForum]

Great work! The toucan's eye colour looks fine to me.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thank you Adam!

Another recent larger figure finished up!




Tigers are not my favorite animal but they were my university's mascot so being a "bengal" is a special to me. I wanted to practice some stripes (like a masochist) and this one really worked my OCD temptation over... I won though by finishing an UNEVEN and unique striped pattern. I think it looks nice anyway...

[MudpupWaterdog]

That repaint is absolutely beautiful! Goes to show you how much of a difference a good paint job can make to an alright sculpt.

[bmathison1972]

Wow that tiger is super nice!