d.i.y.: zombie skeleton horse

I love Halloween. I don't actual love scary things, no scary movies for me! But I had an inspiration while cleaning out my shed, and finding a box labeled "Horse Hospital." These old guys were well loved, broken legs, all scuffed and beat up (they did "fight" when I played with them as a kid!).

old guy, seen better days

I was going to donate them, but thought: I can make projects out of these! First up: running black appaloosa, but with broken leg and lots of scuff marks. He is "vintage," but of no value in his sad condition! You can make your own skeleton out of an Breyer, or any horse model from the thrift store (I see Barbie horses there all the time.)

I had a popsicle stick taped on his broken leg!

new leg, from Sculpey clay

First I had to fix his leg. I used some Sculpey clay I had (it only dries when you bake it, so you can work it a long time). I modeled the leg (pretty roughly) around a piece of wire. When it was done I sanded it to better shape, and drilled a small hole in the model leg. A bit of epoxy and some paint, good as new! (now this is not a perfect fix, but good enough worked for me!)

pretty simple supplies

I thought about painting the whole model flat black, but I liked the original finish, scuffs and all. I found a horse skeleton graphic online and printed it as reference. A pencil, some craft paints and small brushes, that's all that is needed.

draw, in pencil, rough skeleton

see, rough, not accurate!

I penciled in the skeleton roughly, this is not anatomically accurate, just close enough. The pencil lines can be covered with paint or erased later if needed. I did not take photos while painting, because it was pretty straight forward: apply paint inside pencil lines. I ended up doing two coats to get a solid color, and my color was white with a bit of black and brown to down it down just a bit.

accented with a bit of red

I did paint his eye red after I decided he was a zombie horse. Also a little red in his flaring nostrils, and that was it. 

final zombie horse, I love him!

He'll sit on my dining table with the warty pumpkin for the season, I think he is super fun (and easy)! Do you have any horsey Halloween decorations? If not, make this guy!