Paint Texture

Paint texture is not a thing most collectors of Original Finish models give a lot of thought to - unless there’s something wrong with it. If the paint doesn’t feel right - it’s rough, sticky or uneven in some way - it’s usually a good indication that the model has either been altered one way or another, or is not even Original Finish at all.

That assumption is generally correct. Whether a model is Gloss, Matte, or something in between, the paint itself should feel smooth to the touch. There are a few exceptions to that rule. The Gloss finishes on early Western Horses, Ponies, and Old Molds are often uneven, and may even have drips and runs. On more recent models with more complex masked markings, you might feel a raised edge on masked markings, especially if the paint job itself involved multiple layers of paint.

A couple of recent additions to my herd have complicated the issue a little further. The first you might already be familiar with - it’s the Sample of the Tunbridge Wells I found last year:

The second is another Sample - this one of the Reissue Azhar - that I picked up at BreyerFest this year:

The texture is not immediately visible, but it is noticeable once you pick them up: they’re both very slightly rough to the touch. It’s not unpleasant - trust me, I’ve picked up a few models I wish I never had - but it’s definitely not what I was used to, or expecting. It's like an extremely fine grit sandpaper.

With the Tunbridge Wells, I thought at first that it might have been a feature of the paint job itself - it’s a Roan, after all - but I wasn’t 100 percent sure, and it felt kind of weird asking people to touch their horses for me. So I waited until BreyerFest this year, when I could grope the models in question to my heart’s content.

They were all smooth, or at least much smoother than mine.

I didn’t get a chance to fully unwrap the Azhar down in Kentucky, so I wasn’t aware of his texture until I came home. I don’t have one of the Reissues or the original to compare it to, but the texture is almost identical to the Sample Tunbridge Wells.

He is also very slightly metallic - the same level/quality of sparkliness seen on some of the more recent Gloss Finishes such as the Glossy Mariah’s Boons from a few BreyerFests back, something that I dubbed "The Tinkerbell Effect".

I have no idea if it is a feature on all of the Production Run and/or Reissue Azhars or not. The original Azhar wasn’t on my radar, and I’ve been trying to be good about not buying all of the Reissues (I will cave in and buy a Smoky, eventually.)

Both pieces are undeniably authentic. I still have the bags and wraps they came in, straight from the NPOD, itself. I have several other Samples, including one of another Reissue, and I can't recall feeling anything out of the ordinary.

So anyway, now we have to add more exceptions and more qualifiers to deal with when authenticating things.