Misty - Test Color

(Breyer History Diva, 2009.)

My hand-airbrushed Misty: she’s one test color that’s definitely staying put. Isn’t she lovely?


There’s more to my attachment than the fact that she appears to be a preproduction, pre-mask test piece: I found her on eBay last year, and I needed something rare, beautiful and tangible in my life at that very moment. I had to have her: price wasn’t really an object.

In Nancy Young’s book there’s a mention, and a photo, of a similar piece: a hand-airbrushed San Domingo. He had been up for auction - and sold for an outrageous price - not long before the Misty turned up. That probably influenced my decision, too. It wasn’t necessarily proof of her authenticity, but it didn’t hurt, either.

You don’t see too many hand-airbrushed, unmasked pintos in the regular run Breyer line. They’re labor-intensive, hard to keep consistent, and easy to mess up. A couple notable exceptions would be the ever-popular chestnut pinto Indian Pony, and early versions of Jasper, the Market Hog. On the early Jaspers, you can even see that they "drew" the outline of his spot first before filling the rest of it in.

In other words, what I’m trying to say is that hand-airbrushing is generally a good indicator of something being either a very early, or very rare. (And occasionally, both.) It’s a good thing to look out for, if you’re looking for something special.