Not one, but two Chalky Hwins!
The weekend has come and gone, and I’m still not sure which one I want to keep. Do I go with the darker one with the nicely executed polka-dot dapples, or the lighter and more Matte-finished one with the seriously askew dappling?
You’d think it would be a relatively easy decision, but it’s not. Well, not for me!
Unlike the rest of the hobby, I do not have a reflexive dislike of the newer, hand-airbrushed dappling technique. The ratio of good to bad to meh isn’t really all that different from the random resist dappling technique that was the norm prior.
You had beautiful ones. Terrible ones. Weird ones. You had lacy dapples, cornflake dapples, dapples in the mane and tail. Some were beautiful, some were awful, and some were just weird. But most of them were simply unmemorable.
A few years ago when they had some leftover Aintrees – the Dappled Rose Gray Cigar – in the Ninja Pit at BreyerFest, I almost purchased one that had to have been one of the worst hand-dappling jobs ever.
It was so bad it almost touched the philosophical definition of sublime. I am terrible at doing dapples and not all that handy with an airbrush, and even I could have done a better job. In the dark. Wearing oven mitts. It almost looked like a piece that was done to show the painters what not to do.
Terrible, yet still memorable: every now and again I’ll walk past the Aintree I did buy in the NPOD that year – a gorgeous Sample with subtle dappling and handpainted gray hooves – and lament that I didn’t rescue his terrifying yet strangely compelling brother.
Hence, my hesitation at leaving the second Hwin behind. She’s not quite as terrible as that Aintree was, but the combination of being a scarce Chalky variation with bad dappling is giving me serious pause.
I don’t think I can afford to keep both, though. I planned on listing a bunch of stuff in various places over the next few weeks, so I’ll see if it’s possible to make room for them both.
5 comments:
Those two Hwins are like night and day! I would be tempted to keep both also. That Aintree sounds like the Versailles I got that year at BF-her dapples were so bad they were even mottled in places but so cool I had to keep her! So I sympathize with you.
I love that you pasted yesterday and today. I love to read your blog so much.
Hwin was the only thing I got excited about at Tractor Supply this year. I bought three of them!
The first one I bought was not chalky, except for a little bit on her face. Has anyone else seen a non-chalky Hwin with a chalky face? I think that supports the idea that they are spraying them to cover something up. Anyway, she's okay but I only bought her because I didn't know there would be chalkies coming. Then the chalkies came and I bought two more! I LOVE the chalkies, especially the lighter one you posted a picture of. My two chalkies are sort of inbetween the two you posted, not quite as dark as the one on the left but not quite as light as the one on the right.
I am thinking of using the first one I bought as a body. But I have a hard time sacrificing anything with hand painted dapples. I remember when you could only get hand painted dapples on customs. So I still think it's novel idea on an OF!
My theory is that the Chalky Hwins - like the Chalky Jesses - were made from flawed models made earlier in the year that were painted over and reused. And for some reason, TSC is the one to get these special chalkies!
Your description leaves me wanting a picture of the Aintree with the surrealist dapples. :)
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