It's finally done! Or done enough that I'm putting it on the display shelf for a while until I have any further bright ideas. The pictures aren't great - normally I don't photograph models under the regular fluorescent lights in my garage, but it wouldn't fit on my workbench! My modeling workbench, anyway. There are still some things I want to do, like scratchbuild some more luggage and cargo, but for now, it's a wrap. Not a moment too soon, either. I feel like having a beer!The base is a pine board, stained and varnished, and covered with Celluclay and small rocks I screened out of my dry wash. The tufts of grass are actual horse hair - clippings off one of my wife's horse's mane, actually. I thought the horse hair was much easier to use than the Woodland Scenics stuff I've bought in the past, and the real horse hair is a better color too. And it's free. I kind of ran out and couldn't lay on as much grass as I would have liked, but now my wife knows to save the clippings and soon I'll have more "grass" than I'll know what to do with. Maybe I'll sell it on eBay for a buck a bag.
The only part of the kit that I didn't use - couldn't use, really - was the heavy black vinyl (?) stuff they supplied for reins. It was far too thick and burly, so I made replacement reins out of doubled black electrical tape. It's much thinner, I could cut the reins to a smaller overall size, and they were much more flexible, easy to work, and thread through the driver's hands. It was a little tedious, all that careful snipping with a pair of scissors, but definitely worth it.
I read somewhere that many of these kits had been shipped without all of the required harness parts. I must have lucked out because mine contained a full set. As far as I can remember, the kit was only missing one part, and there's every chance that I lost it myself (many of the harness parts had fallen off the trees while still in the plastic bag, and I probably threw away the plastic bag before making sure I'd recovered every last part.
So what's the final analysis? The subject is unique, the figures were pretty good, and the rest of the kit could be made presentable with a little work. The reins were unusable and the horses required a mountain of work. The whole project was a LOT of work, and to be perfectly truthful there's more work to be done. So. Not a beginner's kit, not a weekend kit, not a kit for those who aren't comfortable with a lot of filing and sanding. But very worthwhile in the long run; where else are you going to find something like this?
