Guess What I'm Trying To Learn

It involves some difficult knot tying...

If this were full-size, I'd need about 20ft of rope...

Cowboys used to be paid a good sum of money to tie one of the knots in this.

Grand Opening of the Long Road Home Ranch

I honestly have no idea how to begin this, but I'll give it a shot.

The Long Road Home Ranch is a model horse ranch, not a real horse ranch, but nontheless, I'll try to keep people updated on the goings-on of the Long Road Home.

First and foremost, Long Road Home operates on a shoestring budget. The owner hasn't bought a new horse in almost two years, and most of the horses at the Long Road Home are body-box rescues.

This is a pretty common thing at the Model Horse Fun Club (forums here), where we photo show our previously loved models in a way that's fair to minty models and old scuffed ones alike. If you haven't already checked it out, I really recommend it. The Open Division is very competitive, with a lot of entries, and I think I'll be holding off on moving out of the Novices as long as I can, since I'm new to model horse showing. The MHFC only offers halter classes and racing, both for free, and there are no performance classes, which makes it even more wallet friendly to the shoestring budget shower.

I've tried to put in my entries for the Novice Division for August, so if I did it right, hopefully I'll be participating in my first ever photo show in just a couple of days. I don't think I'm going to win, I have a horrible camera, but it's the taking part that's important!

Here's the pictures I entered for August:

LRH Heza Custom Blend entered in Novice Division OF Breyer

LRH Rum Runner entered in Novice Division OF Breyer

LRH Nighthawke entered in Novice Division Custom-Resin-China

LRH Astor entered in Novice Division Animals

LRH Xiwang entered in Novice Division Custom-Resin-China

In addition to photo showing, the Long Road Home occasionally makes customs, ranging from the very simple repaint, to quite drastic customs using parts from many models to create just one. While I'm working on customs, I'll try to keep a record of my work, because I think it's fun to teach others what little I know.

The Long Road Home makes some tack, too, mostly simple strap goods, like halters, or blankets of all kinds. I have tried to make saddles, but that was an absolute disaster, and I'm not ready to try that again any time soon. Next on my list of things to try is making boots. They may be small and fiddly, but that's the stuff I'm turning out to be quite good at.

On occasion, I might make a diorama or two as well. I won't be sharing so many of my trade secrets here, they were hard-earned in the war-gaming hobby, and I'd like to keep a few tricks up my sleeve so I have dioramas I can sell to other hobbyists.

Well, that's it for now!