Heisler Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) From a gaming standpoint we paint horses just fine, because they are often just the after thought and we only care about the rider. Most of us tend to shade and highlight horses' hair like its a skintone and that's fine it gets the job done. However, depending on what breed you are painting, horses are often darker on the top and lighter underneath and we miss that. Its not that we would don't shade and highlight correctly but our color placement is often wrong. From a judging standpoint I would never downgrade anyone for how they paint a horse if its painted well unless we were only painting horses. That's why I but "wrong" in quotes not to mention that some of the subtleties of a horse's coat are completely lost at the scale we typically paint at, but if you are doing something in 54mm or larger then I would expect the horse to get a lot more attention. Edited January 8, 2016 by Heisler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheprera Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Hoofs As I recall, Appaloosas (bred for the hind quarter blanket of spots by the Nez Pierce Native Americans) have striped hoofs. Horse of the Americas (similar to Appaloosas) have spots all over, like a dalmation. Not all hoofs are black. Often a greyish/brown-grey color but can vary depending on coat and skin color. Yes, coat color can depend on what the underlaying skin color is. I used to have a lot of Horse and Rider magazines that detailed this. Might still have some. And there are differences, too, between such like Piebalds and Paints; which is what is the primary color and which is the secondary. Eyes, also, vary depending on coloring (and did you know a horse's pupil is square?). Mane and tail length vary depending on breed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisler Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I'm pulling my Vallejo colors together that I use for horses. I'll sit down with these and see if I can figure out Reaper equivalents for these. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheprera Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Here's an article that details what I recall reading eons ago about hoof color. Pretty basic. Also, google image search is your friend. Look for Silver Buckskin and Akhal-Teke for some truly stunning colors. Also look at Fresian/Appaloosa and Dapple Paints (dapple greys with white, solid splotches). There are some spectacular colorings. Some of ny favorites are roans (blue and red) and brindles. Akhal-Teke is a breed that tends to have a near metallic sheen to it's coat. Tall and slender like Arabians. Absolutely beautiful animals. Also horse eyes tend to be brown though some have blue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmiles Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Also, google image search is your friend. Look for Silver Buckskin and Akhal-Teke for some truly stunning colors. Also look at Fresian/Appaloosa and Dapple Paints (dapple greys with white, solid splotches). There are some spectacular colorings. Some of ny favorites are roans (blue and red) and brindles. Akhal-Teke is a breed that tends to have a near metallic sheen to it's coat. Tall and slender like Arabians. Absolutely beautiful animals. Those are nice. I should have used one of those for Lady Devona instead of a Rocky Mountain Horse. Vincente's had to be a Percheron. It's the closest living relative to the horses the French used as 'warhorses,' as far as I can tell. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheprera Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Those are nice. I should have used one of those for Lady Devona instead of a Rocky Mountain Horse. Vincente's had to be a Percheron. It's the closest living relative to the horses the French used as 'warhorses,' as far as I can tell. You are correct. The heavy draft horses (Percherons, Shires, Clydesdales, etc) are the remnants of what were once warhorses carrying heavy armored knights. They had the build and strength to carry knights in armor. Been face to face with about a 18-20hh Shire at Owens Spring Creek Farm back in the 70s. I swear its head was as long as I was tall, though the memory is likely far exaggerated. Biggest horse I've ever seen and still was beautiful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisler Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 (edited) Not sure if there is still interest but I managed to bring together the Vallejo Model Color paints that I use on horses. There are 14 colors in the "set" and it pretty much covers everything from Bays and Chestnuts to White and Greys. Hull Red (985/146) Black(950/169) Cavalry Brown (982/137) Light Brown (929/129) Neutral Grey (992/160) Light Grey (990/155) White (951/1) Beige Brown (875/135) Tan Yellow (912/122) Sky Grey (989/154) Light Grey (990/155) Old Rose (944/39) Flat Flesh (955/18) Ochre Brown (856/127) Vallejo has a weird numbering system. The first three numbers are the last digits in the catalog/sku number of the paint. If you need to order it that's the number you use. The digits after the slash is the paint's location in a Vallejo Model Color rack. You need this number of you are trying to find the color in a Vallejo Model Color paint rack. At some point I'll try and match these up with Reaper Colors, but that takes some experimentation. Edited February 5, 2016 by Heisler 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Sundseth Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 You are correct. The heavy draft horses (Percherons, Shires, Clydesdales, etc) are the remnants of what were once warhorses carrying heavy armored knights. They had the build and strength to carry knights in armor. Not really. Draft horses are the descendants of draft horses. Chargers were smaller, more athletic, and faster. Best examples of warhorses extant are probably Lipizzaners. For horse color references the links in the Wikipedia Equine Coat Color page and Equusite are pretty good, especially if you're looking for the more exotic colors like grulla. IME, miniatures painters tend to be weakest when painting hooves, stockings, noses, and frogs and most people don't represent the color shifts caused by the changing directions that hair grows, especially near joints. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extrabio47 Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 (edited) Consider buying "The Color of Horses" from Amazon. The book consists of full color paintings, and is a primary source used by breeders here in the Bluegrass. Inexpensive and highly recommended. Edited February 7, 2016 by Extrabio47 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guildenstern Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 You are correct. The heavy draft horses (Percherons, Shires, Clydesdales, etc) are the remnants of what were once warhorses carrying heavy armored knights. They had the build and strength to carry knights in armor. Not really. Draft horses are the descendants of draft horses. Chargers were smaller, more athletic, and faster. Best examples of warhorses extant are probably Lipizzaners. For horse color references the links in the Wikipedia Equine Coat Color page and Equusite are pretty good, especially if you're looking for the more exotic colors like grulla. IME, miniatures painters tend to be weakest when painting hooves, stockings, noses, and frogs and most people don't represent the color shifts caused by the changing directions that hair grows, especially near joints. Sometimes I think scale is our enemy :( you just can't quite get it to always look right because the area in question is so small. Kind of like the way most people do eyes, it's an exaggeration generally. Anyway one of my (many) personal painting goals is to find a way to represent - or at least suggest - the ridges on the hooves. The variation in colour and texture that makes them up, especially the lighter more tan coloured ones, that'd really be awesome imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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