Cleaned Horse is Clean

Hello! Here I am, continuing my project of repaiting my Barbie horse. So far, I have done several things, and learned a lot: I was able to clean the horse, the saddle, and to remove the old painting. here is a pic of the progress done:

Cleaned horse, with mane and tail tied.

But, since I haven't seen many step-by-step projects like this, I will write out everything I did and what I have found out in this first step.

Cremello McJonnas. Pic from Solaris Sport Horses.

First of all, it has a name and a gender! I decided it will be a "he" and I will call him Morning Star. I have been doing a little research about horses (I'm totally lost in that matter) and found out he can be something like a Cremello. You can see a pic I found at Solaris Sport Horses, of McJonnas (that is the stallion's name).

I will talk about the hair in the next update, I believe. Now it is time to talk about the cleaning process I did. It seams that the cream colour is an acrilic over the plastic, and since I didn't want it out, I decided to go on easy on the cleaning.

What I did was to prepare a rectangular bowl, fill it with clean water, and stand the horse in the water. I started cleaning it with soap and some cotton. I rubbed the cotton over the soap, and then over the horse, being carefull to not let his hair get wet. Since it was rather dirty, it was a necessary to change the water several times.

One done, I used an acetone-free nail-polish-remover to get the old brushing out. Using more cotton, I tried to go as fast as I could, and not let the product to remain in the plastic for much time, since it can be a little agressive. I was still using the bowl with water, and the process was like this:

1. Put the remover on a cotton.
2. Fast remove the paint.
3. Clean with water the area where I removed the brushing.
4. Repeat.

At the beginning, I tested the remover on a leg, and once I got used to work with it, I went for the face brushing. I like him a lot more now, since It looks more realistic to me.

When I was done, I toweled it off, trying not to mess with his hair. Once he was dry, I combed his mane, and tied it with some non agressives hair barrettes (the silver ones you can see on the first pic). I had to un-tie the tail, and then comb it several times.

All of that procces took me around 2 hours, of really calm job.

Finally, I have some comparison shots, with a 30cm measure, and a 40cm measure, to get an idea of how it will look with a doll. I believe it is rather short for a mini, but we'll see. It all depends on the angle of the shot ;)

Horse with a 30cm measure. Very appropiate.

With a 40cm measure. I believe it is too short.

That is all for today. I will get back to you soon with some improvements on the hair cut, or in the saddle, I have to decide yet on what to do next. Oh! And some Kitty shots will be popping up this week, finally!!

Musume