Awhile ago my younger friend Sarah and I got together to put an older model of the visible horse together. A friend of her grandmother's had a set they had held onto for years and gave it to the her since they heard their granddaughter was completely horse crazy. I was asked to help since my friend's grandmother was there when I purchased my own set at the horse expo.
So with a bottle of gel superglue (get the gel kind, it doesn't melt everywhere), a nail file, and an unconstructed translucent pony of bones and innards we went to town! And about 3-4 hours later we had this.
But in those 3-4 hours we had bodyparts everywhere. And also the instructions... You remember how I threw aside the instructions before? Predictably that came back to kick me in the ass. USE INSTRUCTIONS. Learn from my hubris.
First thing to do. Put the head and brain together again because this is the most fun, and (honestly easiest) part.
:Insert bad Godfather joke here:
Next, check out the heart. This model has much more fine detail than the one I have. That's because this model was created around the 70's or 80's. Since mine is newer, the molds have eroded some of the fine details away with every casting. Oh the things you learn about horse-shaped-object molds from having friends in the model horse world. (Looking at you Heather and Blab)
:Insert bad Titanic theme joke here:
Another easy part to find was the tongue. And although it does snap together quite nicely, use the glue. Otherwise it will have a tongue similar to a thestral's.
After that we found the neck. And the neck bones are admittedly flatter than anatomically correct on the model than in real life, but that's a nit pick.
You can now have your in-construction model look like the LochNess Monster.
Fun fact. This model is based off the anatomy of a male racing thoroughbred. The average horse's heart is 6 lbs. The average racing fit thoroughbred's heart is 8 lbs. If this model was based off of the famous race horse Secretariat (in stud condition, not even racing fit), the heart would be 275% larger than you see here (22 lbs!). Yah, almost three times bigger than this because of the X-Factor mutation that causes enlarged hearts founded in the famous stallion Eclipse. For a better comparison for how large a normal horse heart is on its own, check out this screen capture from Inside Nature's Giants with anatomist Joy Reidenburg holding a horse heart. (Warning: Graphic.)After that was all taken care of, we moved on to the digestive system. I'm showing these images also in case anyone attempting to make this gets as confused as we were as to how this section goes together. The kidney bean looking thing is not a kidney, but the stomach. There is the spleen and the liver, since we didn't bother painting anything it all admittedly looks like a giant pink mass.
I'm also showing these images in case anyone attempting to make this gets as confused as we were as to how this section goes together. There are strangely multiple wrong ways to put this section together that fit and could almost work.
This is the finished digestive system with a huge pile o'intestines. Since horses are grazers and lack a multi chambered stomach, this is a large percentage of their internal organs.
And yes, the bulgy part in the back is the colon.
Now to connect the lungs and heart sammich' with the spaghetti like innards... Maybe I shouldn't use food as comparisons to their appearance.
These are separated by the diaphragm, and the model structurally fits them together with the aorta connected to the kidneys. They are laced through a section of the diaphragm. And this is the weakest most ill fitting part of the entire model.
Why is it the weakest part? Because you need to put a square peg into a round hole.
Square peg...
...Meet round hole.
We can attempt to make this work with counseling.
To be continued until next time. Will the aorta and the heart beat as one? Will the skeleton prove more complicated than necessary? And has Liz been reading too many comic books to end a post like this? All this and maybe, possibly, sorta more in Part III of Visible Horse Impressions!
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Bonus bad cellphone pic. Brave came out recently and Heather and I were able to see it. Angus is a very cool 3D modeled shire. I just wish he was in the movie more. I came across a Disney doll of their latest princess Merida. I love her design, but boy did they screw up her doll.
Merida, quirky red head bad-ass.
Pixar had to make a program from scratch just to animate her hair.
Merida's doll, with hours in makeup, a flat iron, and plastic surgery.
Angus is also a solid piece of cheap painted plastic. Le sigh.
He also should be at least twice his size to be in scale to the movie. :P
I'll be honest though. If I was 7 I would still want it just for the horse.
Until next time!
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