Rebel in the Making - Part 10 (sculpting braids!)

I put on the full-length BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and got to work on this boy...

I checked to make sure the magnets would grab the buried magnets, so far so good! 

I had to do a bit more epoxy to smooth over the area, let cure, and sand again. 
On to the braids!

A thin noodle of epoxy down the crest. 

Smoothed in as best I could with my fingers on one side with a little water. 
I tend to overwork the epoxy with water too early. It will start to break apart and become crumbly.

Use the bare minimum of moisture possible to get it smoothed. Once cured, I'll sand it smooth as needed being careful not to remove the newly added mane. 

Smoothing and flattening on the side where the braids will go. 

Using a sculpting tool, I carve off the extra length of epoxy.

A little more fine-tuning so that visually the length of braids will be flattering on his neck. 

Using a little water on a soft pointed tool, I cleaned up the extra epoxy off the neck. 

This is one of my favorite unconventional sculpting tools. It's a broken airbrush needle that has a tiny hook on the end. I use the thicker part of the needle to separate the braids. Since I'm going for hunter braids, I am aiming for 30+ tiny braids.

Using the same tool, I clean up the bottom of each braid my using the little hook to make the end of each braid a bit triangular and pull away the extra epoxy. The ends will get rounded later in the process.

Same tool is used to draw hair lines all along the crest.

Now I use the hook to make indentions on one side of each braid all the way down the neck. 

Repeat on the other side to form the braids.

Then using a soft silicone tip, I clean up each braid. Remove any little bits, round the ends, flatten, add hair detail, whatever you think they need. Sometimes it helps to let the epoxy cure a bit and then come back and work on them some more. 

Another noodle of epoxy is used to create the bridle path and forelock.

The same steps are repeated to create the bridle path (using hair lines) and the forelock braid. 

I dcided he needed another braid on each end. Hoping that covering the magnets with more epoxy won't cause issues when I make his other manes and tails! 

I gave him a mud knot after all. I buried a couple magnets in it as well. I really didn't want a bald horse under the exchangeable manes and tails, but I still don't know if this is going to work or not!