Thursday 31 July 2008

Alpine Miniatures - 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division

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Just a quick preview of the first figure after a week of intermittent painting. There are still some areas that require some attention which hopefully could be resolved before the week closes.


Cheers,

Calvin



Friday 25 July 2008

Alpine Miniatures - 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division


Thank you all for your fervent interest, generous comments and numerous emails with regards to the WIP painting of the ACU digital camouflage. Unfortunately, due to the pressing issue of an impending deadline, I apologize for not being able to provide a more detailed documentation of the painting process at this point in time.

Another key issue here is that this is my first attempt at painting such a "complex" camouflage scheme. I'm currently in the process of finding a more straight-forward approach to this challenge. The last week was plagued with blotches and blunders and what you saw in the previous post was actually two days worth of clean-up work. Sounds nasty? Yes, it was..... Just take a look at the back and you'll know what I mean by the mess.

Putting it across as parable, it would be like asking a cook what he had put into the salad to make it so delicious and his reply," I don't know. I used whatever I could find around the kitchen and mixed them according to what I thought might taste good. I'm glad you liked it though"

So please bear with me until I get a handle on this and hopefully present it in bite-sized portions which would not put a damper on your urge to paint this set of figures.

That aside, I managed to get the face and the MOLLE straps painted this afternoon. Looks like more work needs to be done judging from the photos :(




Calvin



Tuesday 22 July 2008

Alpine Miniatures - 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division

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It has been more than a week since I've returned and it's back to work again on the workbench. First up on the pipeline of works are a pair of Stryker armored vehicle crews from Alpine Miniatures; sculpted by the boss man himself Taesung Harmms. As usual, the quality of the figures are predictably awesome which makes me wonder if Taesung himself is capable of any bad sculpts :P
That aside, judging by the amount of details on the figure, I can say that a lot of work was diligently invested in creating these two magnificent works of miniature art. It is definitely a very challenging piece to paint especially with the ACU camouflage scheme. I'm seeing pixels writing this whilst taking a short breather from the work bench! Here's the work done so far on the first figure after just three days of painting plus time's running out. Stay tune for the next update when my eyes start to looks like Guru Tugginmypudha and I need to blow of some steam from the painting.



Calvin



Tuesday 8 July 2008

The Final Day....

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We met Marijn and Pinar for chocolate and churros that morning near the La Rambles area. Unfortunately the shop that Jaume recommended was closed for a month due to renovations and thus we settled for another cafe just a few doors before. It was obviously still good nonetheless..


The thick cup of molten chocolate and the crispy, cinnamon powdered churros.


It was an unexpected surprise for us to chance upon the legendary Shepard Paine at a cafe near the Sagrada Familia. Despite the short time we had together, we all had a very inspiring talk with Shepard Paine over some tapas and drinks.


If you ask me, this was probably the most wonderful experience I've ever gained from any trip. And now it's time to save up for the next World Expo in 2011. (there goes my lunch money again)

Calvin



Sunday 6 July 2008

The Third Day

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Here are some excerpts from yesterday's night Medieval Dinner hosted right in a large courtyard somewhere near the cathedral. Situated on a high ground overlooking the city, it took us quite getting there as we navigated through the narrow alleys Girona's medieval town section. We were fortunate to have got there just in time and shared the table together with Douglas Lee and a friend of his and together with Marijn and his lovely wife, Pinar. I can't say that all of the food served there was agreeable to our taste and thank heavens we had Bernard brought a stash of the Bak Kwa to make it more palatable. Well done Bernard!
After dinner, came a dueling performance of medieval knights at a tournament. It was like going to a WWE match with lots of sword-swinging action. I think our Cosplay guys in Singapore could learn a thing or two from watching this.





Together with Marijn and Pinar.

Going around in circles last night made us realized that Girona would be a beautiful place to see in the day and thus this morning, we all made a little effort to get up a little earlier to take another walk through the medieval section. The weather was cool, the air was fresh, the streets were tranquil making it a very pleasant morning stroll for us all.







More friends from the show:

Dani Serrano

Samuel Perez

Dider Monge

Laurent Borget busy snapping pictures at the Masters Open Display.

Here are some close-ups pictures of Adam Wilder's awesomely rendered Panther F. This is certainly one of the best piece of scale armor work I've seen in recent years.

Crister Grönberg and Magnus Fagerberg (Sweden)

Kostas Kariotellis's surreal self-portrait

Best of Show for Historical Figures by Mariano Numitone and Danillo Cartacci


The accompanying part to the diorama:


More pictures of the exhibits:


The last night in Girona before we head to Barcelona tomorrow morning. I think Kevin and Jaume had one too many drinks at the back :P



Calvin



Saturday 5 July 2008

The Second Day


Yesterday's dinner was fantastic, great food, nice wine and wonderful company. Though the Bacalao (Cod) Bernard recommended tasted fantastic, the grilled steak ordered by some of the other guys looked even more delicious and had somehow rattled my carnivorous instincts. I guess I was so caught up in the eating that I forgot to snap a picture of the food :(

Anyway, this morning's atmosphere was not as tense and busy as that of yesterday as most of the contest registrations were done. I did notice that some of the party animals that partied till 5am this morning started to appear about noon. This was probably the reason I had more time to socialize and personally meet some people whose names I've known from emails and forums.

Mario Eens and Ivan Cocker

 

Gianfranco Speranza sampling Bak Kwa (BBQ Pork) from Singapore. Yes, I know, we brought Bak Kwa to Girona, win oredi.

Andrea Tesserini

Phillipe Gengembre

Douglas Lee and Alessandro Bruschi 

Some personal picks from today's show:

 Outstanding collaboration between Jaume Ortiz and Diego Fortes

From one of my favorite artist John Rosengrant

Maltese painter Ray Farrugia's rendition of a Larrucia classic.

Fresh from the Tulsa Show, Rick Rutter's fine rendition of a Japanese pilot bust sculpted by Mike Good.

The latest diorama from Douglas Lee, the only other Asian modeller we met in Girona.

Jesús Martín's superb paintwork on the "After the Battle" bust from Andrea Miniatures. You can check out his SBS on this piece HERE. Thanks Dani for pointing that out.

A very captivating scene from The Battle of Stalingrad by Andrea Tesserini. A misconception was made that they were from DML which in fact are from Blues Miniatures sculpted by the very talented Nino Pizzichemi. Molto Bello!!!

Wonderful marriage of story-telling, animation, style and presentation by husband and wife duo, Alan Ball and Marion Ebensperger.

 
From the creative paint brush of Julio Cabos of Andrea Miniatures. Not sure who did the sculpt and amidst some criticisms, I must say that it's a show stopper for me.

That's all for today's rambling and I'm off now to see what the Medieval Dinner is all about now. Hopefully it's not something inspired from Pulp Fiction :P

Calvin