How to Make a Welded Low Poly Horse Sculpture: Full Body or Head
To make a welded low poly horse in metal, decide first between the full body and the head, because that choice sets everything else. A full rearing horse is 2300 mm tall and a garden or shopfront piece; a horse head is 400 mm and goes on a wall. Both are built the same way: cut the panels from 1,5–2 mm steel, fold them to the angle sheet, tack the whole shell, then weld. This post walks through both.
Full body or head: which horse should you build?
Both files are drawn to the same standard, so the difference is size, time and where the horse will live.
- Full body (Horse Welding, €120): a rearing horse, 2300 mm tall, 2050 mm long, 505 mm deep as drawn. A free-standing piece for a garden, an entrance or a shopfront. It needs a base, more sheet, more cutting and a lot more welding.
- Head (Horse Head Welding, €40): a wall-mounted head with an arched neck, 400 mm tall, 434 mm wide and only 153 mm deep. It hangs close to the wall like a trophy and is a realistic first welded build.
If you have never welded a low poly piece, start with the head. If you already have and a customer wants something people stop for on the street, build the full horse.
The whole build in seven steps
- Choose full body or head, and the size, before you cut. The thickness follows the size.
- Have the nested DXF cut from 1,5–2 mm sheet. Laser is cleanest, plasma works.
- Deburr every edge and lay the panels out by number.
- Fold each panel to the angle on the bending sheet: mountain or valley, in degrees.
- Tack the panels together in the numbered order until the shell is closed. Do not weld yet.
- Weld the seams in short stitches, moving around the piece.
- Grind and finish, then fit a wall bracket (head) or anchor it to a base (full body).
What sheet thickness does a metal horse need?
At the drawn sizes, 1,5–2 mm steel is the standard for both. It folds on a bench without a press brake and holds the shape once welded. For a full horse that will stand outdoors, or anything you scale up, we work at 2,5–3 mm.
Do not scale the DXF yourself and cut it from thicker sheet. The flat pattern is compensated for one thickness (the bend allowance), so a scaled-up horse cut from thicker steel no longer closes. Tell us the size before you order and we confirm what changes. The full reasoning is in What steel thickness for a low poly metal sculpture.
How do you cut and fold the panels?
Send the nested DXF to a laser cutting shop: every panel is laid out 1:1 and packed tight, so the shop can quote it straight away. A welded design has no rivet holes and no tabs. The panels meet edge to edge, so a plasma-cut edge works too; plan on more grinding. How to price the cutting before you commit is worked through in What it actually costs to build a low poly metal sculpture. The short version: the cutting shop quotes by sheet area and cutting length, so the full horse costs many times what the head does, not twice.
Fold all the panels as a batch before you join anything. At 1,5–2 mm a bench vice with a straight bar clamped along the fold line is enough. Fold in one motion: bending the same line back and forth work-hardens the steel and it cracks.
In which order do you assemble a horse?
Follow the numbered assembly order in the pack and tack, do not weld. Two or three small tacks per seam hold a panel. A low poly horse is a closed shell: weld one seam too early and the panels that follow can no longer be adjusted.
- Head: start at the muzzle and work back towards the neck. The ears are the thinnest parts and warp first: tack them with the lowest heat that holds and weld them last.
- Full body: the horse stands on two hind legs, so those legs carry everything. Close the body and legs on tacks, stand it up, and check it from the front and both sides before any seam is welded. A rearing horse that leans a few degrees reads as falling.
TIG, MIG or laser welding?
Both files work with all three. TIG gives the cleanest seams on thin stainless and the least grinding, the usual choice when seams stay visible. MIG is faster on mild steel and more forgiving on a first build. Laser welding, if your shop has it, gives almost no distortion. Whichever you use, weld in short stitches and move around the piece. One long seam on 1,5 mm sheet pulls the panels and opens the next joint.
How do you finish, hang or stand it?
Grind the seams flush for a clean faceted look or leave them for a raw workshop look. On mild steel: degrease, prime, then paint or clear-coat. On stainless: brush or polish and clean off the grinding dust so it does not rust-stain.
Head: weld a flat plate with a keyhole slot inside the back of the neck, at the centre of gravity, and hang it before the final finish to check it sits straight. Full body: it needs a base. The Brazilian horse above stands on a plinth. Anchor the hind legs to a steel base plate, and for a piece in a public place, have the fixing checked by someone qualified for your site.
That shopfront horse is the kind of job that moves a maker from selling small pieces to individuals to selling statement pieces to businesses. The file is the same; the customer changes.
Which horse file to start with
If this is your first welded build, or your first file from us, start with the head: €40, a wall piece you can finish and hang, and the same nesting, angle sheet and numbering as the full horse. If you already weld and have a place for a 2,3 m horse, go straight to the full body.
Never built a low poly sculpture at all? Read the step-by-step guide first. Another wall head built the same way is in How to make a low poly deer head in metal, and more welded animals are in the welded templates.
Questions we get
Can I make the horse bigger or smaller?
Yes, but tell us the size before you order. A different size usually needs a different sheet thickness, and the flat pattern has to be redrawn for it. Scaling the DXF alone does not work.
Is there a riveted horse for builders without a welder?
Not in the shop at the moment. These two horse files are for welding only: a welding file has no rivet holes and cannot be riveted. If you have no welder, read How to build a metal sculpture without a welder and look at the riveted templates, or ask us for a custom model.
Is this about a welding horse, the stand?
No. A "welding horse" is also a workshop stand for holding pipe and parts. This post is about horse sculptures made by welding sheet steel.
Sources, checked 20 October 2026
- Dimensions, prices, thickness range and welding methods: the Horse Welding and Horse Head Welding product files as drawn and as listed in the shop
- Thickness by size and bend allowance: our own drawing standard, see the thickness post linked above
- Brazil photo: sent by the customer who built it from the Horse Welding file