Saturday 17 March 2007

One for the SAF


Hi Guys,
after weeks of radio silence, I can finally unveil the second project that I was working along side the Manga figure master. Commissioned by the General Staff of the Singapore Armed Forces, it's a 1/15 scale miniature portrait of the out-going Chief of Army, Major General Desmond Kuek posed on a "fictional" variant of our army's newly acquired Leopard 2 A4 tank. Quite a challenging project considering it's my first miniature portraiture and completed in a record time (for me at least) of three weeks, from sculpting to painting. Plenty of photo references of the subject was provided by the General Staff which made the sculpting proceed much smoother than expected. Due to the tight deadline imposed, I was fortunate to be able to drag an old modeller friend of mine, Juilan Yap from impending retirement from this hobby to assist in the modification and construction of the 1/15 scale Leopard tank. The base kit as most might know is the 1/15 Tamiya Leopard 2A6 remote control tank which Julian has deftly back dated it to what remotely resembles an A4 version. Call it a "Hollywood" version of the A4 if you must, the only justification for such a measure is due to security issues within the military as information pertaining to the design of the actual tank is still kept under key and lock.


The completed model was placed on a gloss lacquered teak wood base and presented to Major General Kuek last night by the head of General Staff during special ceremony cum happy hour. Wah piang eh! Everyone there all had "crabs" on their shoulders. It was like a nite out at Jumbo Seafood man! I saw quite a number of familiar faces too like my ex-CO and RSMs from my stint as an enlistee at 46 SAR. I also never knew you could indent Laksa, Poh Piah, roast beef, scallops and prawns in marinara sauce from SFI! Plus it was the first time I tasted SAF wine too! This 3rd Generation SAF really know how to enjoy man!

And in case some of you might be wondering.....NO...I'm not exempted from reservist and IPPT. No such luck....yet!

Calvin



9 comments:

Julian Yap said...

Hi Calvin, glad the project turned out well. Fantastic work on the general; love the saf boots. Bet the general was pleased.

I was more than happy to work on the project. Mind you, I'm no where near retired from the hobby... In fact I'm all fired up ever since building the leopard. Been doing up some models that are sitting on the dust shelf, tinkering some ideas for them. Getting back into the game was good too as I can suffer burn outs from cg modeling.

Let me know when something comes up. I had a blast working on the project.

Julian

Canopicdoll said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Canopicdoll said...

Hiya, I saw in the papers today a picture of Gen. Desmond Kuek. Though he was wearing specs in the photo but I must say you sculpted the face spot on. The details are amazing & you even polish the boots to a good shine! Great Job both you & Julian. You guys do us Singaporeans proud.

CALVIN TAN said...

Hi Julian,

great to be working with you on this project, just like old times! I'll keep you posted should there be more project like this in the near future.

Calvin

Our Mother Busy Days said...

Good work with the General Calvin.

The pose is very natural and the paint job is top notch.

One of these days I gotta meet you when I visit Singapore.

Ben.

CALVIN TAN said...

Hi Ang,
thanks for the kind words. Hope to see more of your stuff down at the M Workshop.

cheers,

Calvin

CALVIN TAN said...

Hi Ben,
do drop me an email whenever you decide to visit.

Calvin

Anonymous said...

eh, beret wrong colour

Anonymous said...

So wat is the correct colour?