Props Making an Early 19th Century Hussar and His Horse

I have a character named Parzival who is a cavalry captain.

I need to make him a horse scaled to 70cm and I need French hussar uniform and tack.

Parzival is either a Pygmalion Robin head on a LLT ballerino body or a Neil on the ballerino body, depends which head speaks to me more when he comes in. Got one more layaway payment on that. And Julia said they'd ship by June 2020. I am basing his uniform off of French hussars despite his Germanic name, but the hussar outfit is similar across other cavalry forces.... French was just easy to find tons of pictures for. He doesn't really have a ton of story beyond being the son of a formerly rich family down on its luck so he joined the military because he couldn't afford to be a rich idiot with no day job, but he personally isn't very patriotic and just likes horses and ballet.

The horse is going first because I can judge against my SSDF body which has similar measurements. I don't want to start the clothing until the doll body gets here because I have had dolls with very similar measurements wear clothes completely differently and a hussar outfit includes like 200 buttons and I am not sewing 200 buttons only to realize the fit isn't quite right....

The horse will be an average to slightly above average size horse scaled to my character who is 6 feet tall. I've seen people suggest a horse that is like 15 to 17 hands tall for 6 foot tall people, so 60-69" to his 72" so scaled down, 28" tall doll gets 24"-26" horse.

horseplanning by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Current plan is to sew the horse with wire armature and worbla hooves and hand painted glass eyes. Currently undecided what I want for the mane. I originally wanted real horsehair, but apparently horse tail extensions are both a thing and expensive. Might end up going with synthetic.

I want maybe a little bit of posing ability, but given the weight of a 70cm doll and the weight of a big horse, I might be limited. Using medium stiff 9 gauge wire. Might include wooden dowels in the legs, not sure.

I am gonna sew it with cheap felt to work out the pattern, then sew a minky "skin" around the felt version and sew on any additional minky covered foam padding to get more sculptural detail on it.

The horse will be palomino because I just like that color. Velvet/velveteen is probably more accurate to horse fur than minky lengthwise, but minky is easier to hide stitches with. One of my friends says to just call it a "winter coat" and leave it at that lol.

20190923_195605 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Kind of glad that the saddles were typically covered by a shabrack and sheepskin so that I don't need to do too much leather detailing.

I bought toddler sized stirrup irons from a carousel and rocking horse restoration website.

They are a smidge larger than I'd like, but in the acceptable range. or more, I am not picky enough to learn how to cast metal....

stirrupirons by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Some time ago I bought a saber letter opener and made a scabbard..... but it's both a US saber and the wrong style of scabbard so I might need to buy a different sword or at least make a new scabbard.

Saber by Kaxen6, on Flickr

.....and this is the monstrously complicated idea I have talked myself into....

 

Sheesh I am bad at staying in target with projects.

Well, my LLT Neil came so I can measure against him. He is basically the same height at SSDF, just less noodly.

The wire just wasn't stable enough to my satisfaction, so unfortunately I ditched most of the poseability and attached wooden dowels for the back and legs. The neck and head will probably stay poaseable since that's not as structurally important to making sure my doll doesn't face plant onto the floor.

The hooves are worbla and weighted down with glass pebbles. I plan on adding some anti-skid material cut into horseshoe shapes. It kind of slides around at the moment. Starting to pad up the interior before sewing the more expensive minky to the outside.

WIP by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Okay, it can officially hold a doll, but I think the back legs needs some further reinforcement, they are definitely the less stable pair of legs. Still need to add yet more padding so the horse isn't overly skinny and the doll can sit more nicely on it.

20200907_113629 (1) by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Okay..... so I decided the leg stance was too inaccurate and he stood more like a cat than a horse and had some proportion issues, broke the legs and put it back together

Still not done with the body..

horse progress by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Parzival got a new wig because while researching hussars, I liked the longer ponytail hairstyle, and kind of had a hankering for a long-haired boy because I haven't done that in a long time because my style fixations have skewed towards short-haired scenarios for the past decade or more. So it's long haired boy time.

Ordered a hackle, will need to trim the wire because it's meant for a human wearing a glengarry. Just glad I don't need to glue my own hackle together. I really hate working with glue. =_= All the strong glues eventually glue the cap to the bottle but it never feels "worth it" to buy glue in tiny tiny portions.

Mocked up the shako. Currently 3D printing a hat form to shape the felt over for a semi-realistic stiff shako. I really really hate flimsy hats... No matter how good an outfit looks, if you top it with a sad floppy hat it cheapens the whole look. Like I'm pretty sure I am going to 3D print more hat forms because it is nigh impossible to find a true felt fedora in doll-size. The sewn ones are always glorified bucket hats... I hate that gross internet men "ruined" the fedora. I just really like fedoras. the fedora was originally a woman's hat so it's time to reclaim it I guess. this has been a stupid tangent. I have a lot of feelings about good felt hats.

Mock up for shako by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Originally I was going to be a little more farb-y/"polyester soldier" but talked myself into more authentic fabrics and getting nice soutache and thinking about the costs....

Do you ever embark on an expensive project and suddenly question all your life choices?

I'm suddenly amazed hussar style uniforms got so popular in 18th-19th century Europe since like 80% of the buttons are merely decorative and it takes an insane about of braid. Pinsent tailoring did a hussar style outfit and remarked he used 150 meters of braid.

By my current estimation, my hussar needs at least 11 yards because he is not the most blinged out possible design since he is not the top of the command, but it is still a lot.... There is a way to cheat and avoid handsewing all that braid for human-scale, but I am not perfectly sure if my sewing machine can handle the tighter turns for doll scale.... so I might have to sew 11 yards of braid... by hand.... like the old days.... and somehow not die. This is not the historical reenactment I desire. lol

$30/yd red wool fabric
$30/yd blue wool fabric (might need two yards depending on how easily I can pattern tetris the trousers plus the pelisse)
$11/fat quarter black wool felt
$12 wide flat gold braid
$98 gold soutache (to be fair, it's a 25 yard roll.... the company doesn't sell smaller portions and I wanted nice military style braid rather than rayon or the really cheap fake-y metallic stuff that loses its luster if you rub against it too hard)
$20 black leather so I don't need to spend time painting all my white leather black lol
$8 hackle
$35/15lbs glass beads for the horse to not flip over (I think I could have ordered less though.... I have filled 3/4 of the legs and halve like half left over)
????? 150 1/4" buttons.

I think I might switch his saber to a 3D printed one because then it won't weigh as much and be hard to pose and I can print the exact french saber model I want.

And I will probably 3D print a musket because the only gun I can find in the right ball park is 1/3 scale Kentucky rifle and like... one, that's not even French, and two, it's $70 and three, 70cm dolls have larger hands than 1/3 scale dolls so I'm worried about fit and I don't want to blow $70 on something that is neither 100% what I want nor 100% sure to fit.

And I will 3D print some pistols.

$25/kg 3D printing fluid for all his weapons. Probably won't use the whole kg based on what I have experienced so far.

I received my wool swatches and I do definitely like the feel of wool over the polyester I was thinking about using.

 

Hat form finished printing successfully, so tomorrow I stick it together (printed in halves to fit on the build plate) and form the felt on it.

hatform print by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Hat forming worked, but I think I may need some hat stiffener additives to further strengthen the form because it's still a little bit more floppy than I would like and I need to steam it again because part of the bottom deformed a little when I pulled it off the form which is why it is not 100% symmetrical looking

But it can hold the hackle without flopping down so at least it is on the right track.

20201218_095154 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Oh and I forgot to post the character sheet of all his stuff for commissioning artwork and to keep track for this project...... it's a lot....

Parzival Character sheet by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Between my chronic inability to stay on track with anything I can't finish in one sitting and the cost of all the supplies, yes indeed....

After finishing out padding the body so it's not looking like a starved horse, I am trying to draft a good pattern for the head.

 

Today I learned that hollow prints are no match for humongous chungus binder clips, so I guess next time I do hat things printing solid might be better.

But the leather for the top of the shako has been formed. A little dents on the sides, but that will be covered when I add the hooks that hold the braid on the front.

20201223_120859 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

I get why the 1/6 guy who made a shako tutorial just did all the stitching beforehand and just glued it on....

It's fine since I am gluing on gold trim that will cover it, but will probably machine stitch for the band around the bottom and then glue to save myself some messiness. Added some cardboard to the interior for added stiffness. I think it's stiff enough to survive and even after squishing it a little while stitching it bounced back to the original size but it does act a bit more flimsy than a real-life shako.

20201225_134134 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Gave him a slight trim and braided up his hair... though with his wavy hair it's kind of hard to see the braids. Need to pick up thinner ribbon at some point.

20201225_164954 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

@Ipledreamer
A shako is better than going bareheaded, but it's still mostly stiffened thick felt, so it is pretty limited as both a riding helmet and military helmet. And it's not good in rainy weather so oilcloth shako covers were needed.

For some noise while working, I turned on a show about reenacting Waterloo for the 200th anniversary and for whatever reason they spent a lot of time throwing shade at reenactors who were bad at horseback riding. I was 50% baffled guys were like "I am gonna buy a $1000 reenactment uniform, fly to Waterloo, rent a horse, but I have only taken like one riding lesson" and 50% realizing how much it stresses me out watching inexperienced people not have a helmet in a somewhat chaotic situation (some of the horses were pretty stressed out by the whole affair). Of the times I have fallen off a horse, I hit my leg and my shoulder rather than my head but still......

@cthulhu
Yeah the wool I am getting is thin enough to not look overly bulky. It's like about 1mm thick.

My two 40gal rubbermaids full of fabric are a bit "stop buying stuff you saw because it looked nice" lol. I really need to pound through a cutesy clothes marathon at some point with all these cute prints I can't remember why I bought. My poor pear-body dolls need more clothes that fits all that junk in the trunk.

Thanks for the tip on soutache!

 

More padding.... still undecided on the ideal horse head pattern. Can maaaaybbbeeee start covering the body with the final color soon. But maybe I should do the horse head first.

Using viscose for the mane and tail because I wanted it to be unreasonably glossy, though something more coarse would probably look more horsehair like. I had half a thought to buy a horse tail extension but they're rather expensive. Horsehair for crafts I have seen aren't super glossy.

Parz is sitting a little scrunched up, but the saddle will lift him higher and I can scream about correct horsemanship when he has stirrups to put his feet into while on the horse.....

Parz is naked because I have still not made him suitable pants. Drafting pants will probably be faster than like.....everything about his upper half.

20201229_164919 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

When the horse was looking like a starved nag I thought the back legs were too thick and now that it's more proportional it's like.... aw frick I probably didn't need to thin that seam...

You make a good point about it needing to look good while sitting down.

I suppose a second reason I want to make sure he will ride with a straighter leg is the gold arrow-ish shape thingies on the trousers because they would be very easy in any leg position if they stopped before the bend in the leg, but they go past the crotch and the more he bends at the hip joint the more it's gonna crumple up the design.

Gotta ride at maximum stylish

 

Really? It seemed kind of comparable to a lot of the horse photos I was looking at. The croup might be a little high, though.

 

Experimenting with 3D printing and painting buckles. Metal buckles are more sturdy but 3D printing means I can have whatever weird finnicky size I want. Not sure which way I want to go. But the bridle is still a ways off.

20210102_125207 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Started mocking up the saddle tree. It is a little too wide/big (*waves from the Land of What Is Measuring*) so it doesn't quite stay on the back quite right and his sitting position is still a little off because of it. The saddle tree will probably be worbla. I don't like woodworking enough to make a wooden saddle tree like it's supposed to be. That and the shabrack will cover 90% of the saddle anyhow.

20201230_132913 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Still can't make up my mind on the head.... Kind of flipping back and forth between building up the head with foam kind of like fursuit style (like this) or doing it the needle felting way like Havra did in her project journal.

Horse heads have some shapes that are a little troublesome to do in straight plush because stuffing just wanting to puff outwards is why a lot of horse plushies have an overly peanut-y or pill-y shaped head (searching for realistic horse plush examples is a really goose chase). Hansa has some realistic horse plush offerings but some of them come off super weeeeiiirrrddd

If I do plush and needle sculpting I'd probably have to contrive to hide all the knots inside the mouth or something.

......I have a feeling I will be making a lot of dud heads in trying to decide on what I want.

I want a semi-functional mouth to put the bit into so the horse can switch between war time and casual time.

.......does it need teeth...... probably... maybe.... i don't know lol

 

3D sculpting and printing a form to glue the fabric on is probably the most easily symmetrical option. Zbrush ctrl+z is a lot easier than real life lol. While looking at some of my horse toys I noticed one of them is extremely lopsided.

Hopefully this won't need to be printed in too many pieces. My 3D printer has the build area roughly equivalent to a smartphone and 6 inches upwards (which is why I didn't go the 100% 3D printed way because the number of pieces would be enough separate pieces to be structurally difficult). I'll be happy if I can manage the head with around 6 days or printing.

Horse head to the withers is around 1:2.5 ratio so it's currently 26 inches at the withers so the horse head will need to be printed out around 10 inches long? And a horse head to a human head relative ratio is around 1:2.5 to 1:3 and Parzival's head is 3.5" so that's 8.75" to 10.5."

I am going to sculpt the head in two pieces because I want jaw movement to be possible. The ears I can probably do 100% in sewing because it doesn't need the same rigidity to them. Planning on using glass eyes, either painting some cabochons or maybe taxidermy eyes. Guess it depends on how the size fits for the final print.

Screen Shot 2021-01-03 at 11.12.45 AM by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

My fish tail trouser pattern pieces disappeared so working from scratch.... And I forgot about how the trousers are fall front so it's like you gotta sew two symmetrical slits. klsaerhgskjfdghjfgdl I hate sewing that sort of thing. My favorite modern wear is baggy sweatpants lol. And the gold trim has to go around the openings nicely. aaahhh

It took me 3 tries to get in the right ballpark of what I wanted. >_> Sometimes BJDs having dongs that aren't squishy is a really impediment. The first two did not give him enough space for his manhood.

20210103_150451 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Did the visor for the shako. Need to cut the band down to size. My sewing machine is on the weak side and can barely handle leather >_<

20210103_140925 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Driving myself crazy sourcing materials because apparently the zigzag design flat braid I liked is spectacularly hard to find in its thicker variant. =_= I have 6mm but want some wider accents. I think I finally found some but it's from France so it will take a while.

....maybe I should have gone with a basic diagonal design or masonic braid, but I'm stubborn.

And I ordered a 25 yard roll of soutache and today the seller said Disney cleaned out their stock and it will be about 4 weeks until they will have more. What are you working on Disney

But I got some star molds because my 3D slicer kept saying what I wanted wouldn't print right and cast some resin with gold mica. The gold color is okay. Might end up spray painting it. The stars are for the sides of the shako so he can hang his braid. Need to use my hand drill to make a hole for the wire which the braid will hook around.

20210107_102043 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

As long as it's faster than Dollshe production times lol

It's been a weird time where some stuff comes at normal speeds and some stuff just can't find a plane to get on.

But I haven't even started drafting the dolman and pelisse so I'm not in a particular rush.

 

Some more horse sculpting while I wait for supplies in the mail and feel pointlessly fretful about finally gluing down his visor.

Screen Shot 2021-01-11 at 10.14.17 AM by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Finally got the thicker trim in. Matches really well. Was a little worried because the seller had a terrible blurry photo.

20210116_140344 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

The mica powder stars match the trim pretty well. Guess I won't need to spray paint them.

Did a mock-up of the star hook thingies that hold the shako cords.

20210116_150921 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

The mock-up for the brim looked okay but despite trimming it keeps looking kind of long on the final brim. =_=

I haven't found the cord I want to use for the shako cord yet, yarn as place holder. Still need to set up how the hackle is held in place. Haven't decided if I want to just do a cockade by itself or print out a shako plate.

20210117_142051 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

After a very cold and rainy week, finally started printing the horse head form. It's 6 pieces that are 5-10 hour prints (I don't print overnight due to resin preferring warmer temperatures) so it's gonna take almost a week, more if I have a print fail.

20210131_155118 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

My 3D printer's screen and/or motherboard decided to give up on life? I was hoping something just got bonked loose but that doesn't seem to be the issue. Started customer service talk with Elegoo since it's still under warranty at least and hoping whatever replacement parts I need get out of China before Chinese New Year.

Finally stopped fudging with the brim of the shako. Cut it a bit shorter and I feel like it looks better proportionally now.

20210204_213304 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

I had only printed out the nose so far.... and I didn't add enough drainage holes so some moisture inside the hollowed parts cracked it open from curing unevenly.

I read it is good to blow dry hollowed parts so I will make sure to do that whenever I get going on printing the head again.

 

I've been considering getting a FDM printer to use for the prints that resin printers are weaker at and bigger prints, but haven't decided if I have enough use for it at the moment. My engineering-major friend tried to talk me back into a more ambitious 3D printed pose-able skeleton for the horse.... Ahh.... maybe later if I talk myself into making a whole horse army and get stronger at 3D modelling. While researching history, I decided Louis-Francois Lejeune is my new fave historical figure and have been going what if one more doll and one more hussar-style outfit. But that's on the back-burner.

The older versions of the Mars printers aren't as troublesome to get replacement parts for, but partly thanks to Covid or some other supply chain thing, the replacement parts for the newer Mars 2 Pro are a bit more scarce from US-based sellers at the moment.

Guess I will finish the pants fitting, tacking down the trim on the shako, and working up the nerve to chop up the black boots for the hessian boot style. I bought a second pair from AC but the maker switched to a way more glossy plasticky shoe sole that I kinda hate.

 

After getting back from their new year break, Elegoo sent out a new part for my printer. I hope it doesn't languish in customs or the airport too long.

Progress on the shako.

The shako cord is a place holder. The color doesn't really satisfy me but I haven't made up my mind on what cord I want to buy. The little hooks for holding the shako cord are a little long right now. I'm not sure if the final cord will be heavier or not so not sure if I want to double up the wire or leave it as is yet.

20210224_171017 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

My 3D printer part is trapped in limbo for over a week, either customs or waiting to get put on a plane, not really sure.

Tried a different cord.

20210311_140118 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

I like the thicker cord because shako cords look kind of chunky, but bah the color is a little more orange-toned than I want. Not sure how I want to deal with that.

 

Got a thinner round cord and dyed it today. I like this better.

20210324_160920 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

After the Chinese New Year Delay and Vague Mail Limbo, I got the replacement screen for my printer this morning. And now to torture test it with the horse head lol

Snoot 2.0 now with more drainage holes so hopefully this one won't crack open from residual moisture.

20210327_165922 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Printed out the lower jaw last night and finished curing it this morning.

Not the most perfect snug fit, but will not really be noticeable once it's covered in fur and foam.


20210328_100635 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

The next print for the top of the head is 10 hours.