What's in a Name - Personality Collection Fifteen (2022)

 The theme for this year was "flowers in songs from the 90s". I was listening to a lot of music while painting; I prefer audio books while I'm working, but when the air compressor for the airbrush kicks on, you end up losing whole paragraphs in a story, so music is better at that time.

Look Alikes - Mellow Cremellows

 There are some Magpies which are harder to tell apart than others. Today we present to you the vintage Cremello Arabians of Magpie.

 The first cremello was the Newsletter Special "Cremello Arab", which was available from March through June in 1991. According to a later newsletter, only 27 of these models ended up being made. 

Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of this model yet and have to rely on the description provided in the newsletter advert: "A pearly cream with flaxen mane and tail and blue eyes"

What's In A Name - Personality Collection Fourteen (2021)

 This year, the Welsh pony model dictated the name theme. I had decided years ago when planning my set of Fjords, that I wanted to name them all after birds; the chestnut dun was to be Mallard. I tried several bird themed names for the other two models, but they didn't feel right. So, I went with the other Mallard - the steam locomotive. 

 That's right, the theme for P14 is "steam trains"

What's In A Name - Personality Collection Thirteen (2020)

Despite all the chaos of 2020, this collection was actually the one which gave me the least amount of grief. The airbrush and weather both cooperated, the colours turned out the way I imagined, and there were no disasters. The theme for this year was "dysfunctional relationships" and was inspired by the Dave Matthews Band song "The Best of What's Around". There's a line in the song "Whatever tears at us" which always sounds like "Galatea" to me, so I started with that and fit the other names around hers. 

What's In A Name - Personality Collection Twelve (2019)

With my third Personality Collection, Collection Twelve, I was starting to feel a little braver and branched out into some more complicated colours. Some difficulties arose as, by the time I had finished painting, the summer had turned incredibly humid, so humid that I could not spray the clear coat without it clouding, so I had to brush it on in the house. Getting it to go on evenly and keeping it hair free was a major challenge with the amount of shedding done by me and the cats around here. 

  The theme for this year was "literary characters".

What's In A Name - Personality Collection Eleven (2018)

Personality Collection Eleven was my second collection and was released in 2018. 

Producing this collection was a little less fraught than the first. Instead of trying to make thirty models in each colour, I scaled it back to ten of each. I switched from enamel to latex paint, which was easier to source, store, mix, spray, and clean. Since the viscose worked out so well with P10, I decided to stick with it and ditch the nylon completely. Lastly, I went with the closed-shell production method which meant the models were all glued together before painting, which made life so much easier. 

 Unlike the previous and subsequent collections, there was no naming theme for this one. 

What's In A Name - Personality Collection Ten (2017)

 Personality Collection Ten was released in 2017 and was the first collection released by myself as the new owner of Magpie. The colours were fairly simple as I was still coming to grips with the airbrush and enamel paint.

With this first collection, I stuck to the instructions provided in the big Magpie binders written by Emma Kelley, the first owner of Magpie. The models were painted with Humbrol enamels and sprayed in two halves. They were then detailed, haired and finally, assembled - a hair-raising process as any excess glue would take the paint right off. 

Half of the models were haired with nylon wigging (hair sewn into strips and pre-cut to length) and half with viscose, which was much easier to work with and became the standard for later releases.

The models in the P10 collection all had names relating to Angus county.

Announcing Personality Collection Fourteen

Does anyone have any guesses as to the naming theme of this year's Personality Collection? 

 

What's In a Name - Personality Collections Ten - Thirteen

With the upcoming release of Personality Collection Fourteen, I thought it would be fun to revisit the previous collections. If you've met me you know that besides making terrible puns and painful dad-jokes, I love a theme. With that in mind, would anyone care to have a guess in the comment section at the themes of Personality Collections 10 - 13?

Personality Collection Ten: Ghost of Glamis, Lunan Bey, Kirriemuir Skirlie & Neep

Introducing Personality Collection Thirteen!

After a bit of a delay due to the plague, Personality Thirteen is set to be released Sunday, October 18th, 2020. As usual, it consists of three models - Hunter, Arabian, Welsh Pony - in unique colours. Ten of  each model has been produced and is individually numbered and comes with a certificate of registration.

Introducing Personality Collection Twelve!