First off you need a body. Any Breyer mold will do provided it has all its parts. Eartips can be fixed after bleaching the paint off. Put the mold into a bucket of bleach and water. Make it as strong as you can. My garbage can (yes garbage can...) full of bleach and water is about 95% bleach right now. Once the mold has been bleached out you can scrub any extra paint off with a hard toothbrush or denture brush. If you do not get all the paint off the tail or mane, don't worry. Dip the toothbrush into some full strength acetone from a hardware store and scrub the mane and tail. If you get streaks of old paint on the body of the mold, don't worry. The main parts you absolutely need white are the mane, tail and legs. Once you have all the old paint off you can dry the mold. Make sure to drain the water out of the mold through the nose hole. If you need to make the nose hole bigger, use a small regular screwdriver. You can fill the hole with Martin Carbone Epoxy later. Replace any broken off parts such as ear tips. Fill in the drain hole you made and let it stand for a day. Sand the seams if you wish and always sand the epoxy in case you left a finger print in it. Now you are ready to paint. The charcoals I have seen have been painted in several different styles. Some have almost no white except on their tails, manes, legs and bald face. In other words you don't have to worry too much about shading with this paint job. To mix the charcoal I use black, yellow ochre and burnt sienna. It usually takes me about 5 tries before I get it right, sometimes even more, so don't be discouraged. Just add more of whatever it is YOU think it needs. Make sure you write it down so you can refer back to it later. I usually mix up a large batch of the popular colors so I have them on hand in case I need them. The first thing I do when I am painting a mold that I do NOT need to shade is to "prime" it with a coat of the color I am going to end it with. In this case I water down my charcoal color and use a good paint brush to put it on the mold. Do not put any on the tail, mane, front of the face or the lower legs. These parts will be white in the end product. If you are a clumsy painter (like I am) you can use masking tape to cover the areas you want to keep white or use some of the masking products on the market. If you do not want to do that you can always clean off the paint from the white with water, a toothbrush and/or cloth. I let this first "coat" dry. Meanwhile I am getting the paint even thinner to use in my airbrush. I let mine get watery enough so that it looks like skim milk. It takes longer to paint the horse, but you don't have as many problems with your airbrush gunking up and the shading (if you ARE doing it) looks fabulous if you use more coats. Once the mold is dry from the first coat of paint (which can be applied by an airbrush if you wish), I get my airbrush fired up and start to paint. I take my time and am very careful to only touch the places I am not painting. I shade the body first, as that is where the color will be the deepest. Remember this is a Breyer look alike paint job. We are NOT into reality when we are doing this. Just a warning! Shade the legs taking care not to go too far down. You want to leave enough white to make the high socks this paint job needs. Keep shading getting the paint as deep as you can. Let it dry between coats or cheat and just blow air on it from the airbrush. If you have a single-action airbrush you can't cheat. You can also use a hairdryer if you want to. Once you have a few coats on, let it set and you relax. Make sure you empty out your airbrush and clean it. I use Badger airbrush cleaner but you can use plain water if you wish. This will give you time to think about how high you want the socks, if you want a wide bald face or just a thin one and it will give your hands a rest. Once the first few coats have dried, check out the mold and make sure there is no charcoal where you do not want it. Check the mane, tail and legs for any stray charcoal marks from your hands or the airbrush. Wipe this off immediately. Once you have decided your final "look, fire up that airbrush again and go to town finishing it. Shade the legs, face and around the tail and mane just like a real Breyer paint job. You want the paint to sort of fade away gradually into the white. It may take a while to get this, but once you do it looks great. Once you are satisfied with the paint job let it sit and dry for about an hour. This will give you time to clean up and put the airbrush away. . One important hint... Do not throw away the paint until you have finished sealing the horse completely. Take it from me (who has done this), the minute you throw away that mixture of paint the darn thing will fall over and you will have to start all over again. Been there, done that. Learn from my mistake. When the mold has dried, you must seal it to protect it. I use Illinois Bronze Triple Gloss sealant by Sherwin-Williams for super gloss or Krylon Clear Coat for a less shiny gloss. I spray the underside of the mold first. I hold it by the head (dangerous I know...) and spray the entire body. Then I put the mold down and spray the head. If using Illinois Bronze, I let this first coat dry about six hours and then do a second coat for extra protection. If using Krylon Clear Coat I do not have to wait as long. Always follow the directions on the back of the can and be very careful with this stuff. It's toxic and can make you sick. Once this is done, I let the horse sit for about a few days before I ship it off. I don't know if this is really necessary but this way I get to look at it a while before I mail it off.