The 'Pelt'

The indentifying and sorting of Hong Kong produced small-scale 'hollow-horses' is not an easy science (well it's not a science at all, it's a nerdy, farty, research-based hobby/pastime!), given the number of different horses produced by an unknown - but probably nearly equal - number of manufacturers.

This is a tool I've developed to help in the process, as it allows for any number of horses with or without their figures to be bagged together once they've been positively identified (or as 'provisional's' - with a suitable note), either with other samples of the same or similar horses, or as a stand-alone sample. The 'pelt' can be annotated to reflect the stamped marks or machine-tool markings or other identifying variations in the moulding, as a ready reference.

It has morphed over time from a simple sketch (1) on a post-it note or scrap of card which can be thrown into a bag with the horses and any figures or other accessories (which I still do with all minor samples), through the 'bullet' (2) which only allowed for the top of the cavity, to the Art Deco stylised graphic version (3) which I used for a few years.

But I'd drawn the legs as if from above, so it became confusing sometimes and I decided to draw a more realistic version (4) which is the one I use all the time now, and which was used in the later of the original series of Giant...or What? articles in One Inch Warrior magazine.

Basically it is meant to represent a generic Hong Kong small-scale hollow-horse, as seen from underneath, as if it had been cut down the four corners of the body cavity walls and spread out like an upside-down, colonial hunter's tiger-skin rug, head to the left, tail to the right.

Feel free to download this, you can arrange 6 on an A4 sheet (I have one prepared if you eMail me) and then print them off as needed. I use a lot of them, as some samples will have different markings for every cavity on the mould tool, while with someone like Giant - for instance - the markings vary over time, but all the mounted Cowboys & Indians with that group of horses end up in the same bag, needing as many as 10 of the pelt diagrams, all filled out with different markings . . .

. . . as can be seen here, the upper shot are late (possibly post-Giant) examples, and the pelts tell a very different story from say the Giant [definite] bag (lower shot), where they are mostly the HONG over KONG, with GIANT and the (P), but reading in several different configurations - ignore the letters, they tie into photographs when we get to that post. The pelts are not perfect but they give you an instant idea of what you're looking for on the actual horse/s.

There are seven diagrams completed in the first shot, but when you take into account the 'some', 'either one or other' and 'or' you can see that in the bag these belong to are ten horse types in three sizes and two poses, with the figures that belong to them . . . it will all become clear as the Blog develops (I hope!). While the second shot is for five clear variations of one ['Smoothie'] pose.

When I fill them in by hand I tend to use a red pen to highlight the differences (note the reinforcing on the insides of the legs of some), but if I'm doing it in Fireworks or Picasa I may use other colours, which also allows for combining more than one horse-type on the one pelt as I have with the inaugural post on this Blog . . .

. . . with the Big Ears pelt. This was done entirely in Picasa with letter o's and full-stops, pulled out with the sizing tool and coloured for the two horse types, while the ridge of flash running round the body and the limits of the cavity top were produced with underlines and underscores and the curved/ogee end of the cavity is done with parenthesis and dashes.

Normally I don't worry too much about the positioning of the holes for receiving the rider's locating studs as they are simply 'there', so I just throw them on the pelt vaguely where they should be and without much of a nod to the size or position, but sometimes (as in this case where they intersect the flash-line) they need to be positioned more carefully and/or a note added that they are particularly large or small, forward or rearward, high or low.

What I'm saying is that the pelts I will show on this Blog are only a guide (note: I haven't designed a separate one for the Mexican horse - even though it's legs are in different positions), it's still not quite how I'd like it to be, yet it needs to be (and is) 'generic', and whether the post has a old hand-drawn pelt scanned-in or a CAD-annotated one, it will only ever be an 'aid' to identification of the type under discussion in that post and if you want to ID all your horses, you may wish to design you own - better - horse-skin!

How it works - This is the old drawing scanned as per the original 1"W article (I annotated it in black as the magazine was B&W in those days) compared to the other constant of future articles on these horses, the cut body - I hasten to add: posts will only have cut bodies when my sample is large enough to allow the sacrifice! But is does make photographing them easier.

You can see that what looks like a sketched '101' is actually a bump feature in the underside of the cavity (basically where the saddle is the other side, but - other horse types don't have it), along with an approximation of the HONG KONG mark, hand drawn by yours truly. You can also see how I've carelessly placed the holes a bit far forward by comparing the pelt with the photograph!

Hand drawn marks tend to be a tad better than CAD'ed ones as there are few fonts that equate to 'engineers stamp', and while there are one or two (the DIN type stamps are available as fonts), there are many more variations of actual stamps, so again; only a guide . . . practice will teach.

It's real help comes when a new mixed sample comes in, and you can spread the pelts out in front of their bags (or whatever storage you use) to glance at as you go through the new acquisitions, rather than constantly having to pick-up the actual horses and peer at them with a pen torch and eye-glass . . . although you will be doing that with the new ones - it halves the effort!