USMC BAR Gunner - Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, 1950

I took advantage of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday to finish my figure commission. This 1/16 scale sculpture was created by John Rosengrant, based on an illustration by Ron Volstad. It is not for commercial sale and only 25 copies were made. This particular copy is numbered 6/25. I used AK Interactive Gen 3 and Abt 502 acrylics to paint it, and I created the snow effects with glass powder made by crushing microscope glass slides with the bottom of a beer bottle in a glass bowl.

This was an incredibly enjoyable project and it was one of John Rosengrant's best works in recent years. The pose, attitude, and attention to detail make this an incredibly captivating piece. I would like to give a special thanks to Huang Zhongwen for the opportunity to paint this fantastic piece.

Cheers,

Calvin

USMC BAR Gunner - Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, 1950

 A little more progress on the painting. 

Cheers,

Calvin

USMC BAR Gunner - Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, 1950

A Happy New Year to all. This is a WIP of a special commission job of a 1/16 scale sculpt by John Rosengrant for a collector depicting a US Marine at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. From what I currently know this is not a commercial kit but a limited run of copies for a closed group of aficionados.  

Cheers,

Calvin

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 191, Ostfront 1944

Looks like I managed to keep on track to hammer this figure out before the end of 2022. 

Here's wishing everyone a happy new year!

Calvin

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 191, Ostfront 1944

I am working on a classic Tamiya figure, sculpted by Yoshitaka Hirano, which is part of the Strumtiger kit. I have had a fondness for this figure since I saw Stefan Muller-Herdmertens' rendition of it in Tony Greenland's book Panzer Modelling Masterclass in the early 1990s. To enhance the figure, I swapped the head with another from Tamiya's Wehrmacht tank crew set (35354) and used a hand from Royal Model to hold the mallet. Additionally, I sharpened the lapels and left hand with a scalpel and added the insignias after the tunic was painted. I am hopeful that I can complete this project by the end of 2022 or make it the first figure of 2023.

Cheers,

Calvin

A Round Up of 2022

This is a round up of  almost all the projects I managed to complete throughout this year.  As you can see, I have been a rather industrious.  The reason being that I have completely overhauled my painting and modelling technique to work faster and more efficiently. I would also like to thank long time partners (Alpine Miniatures and Young Miniatures) and new collaborators(Royal Model, HD Model) for allowing me to paint their box illustrations. Last but not least, I would also like to extend my appreciation to AK Interactive for their generous support in this journey. Here's looking forward to another good year ahead for 2023. 

Cheers,

Calvin

Unternehmen Greif - Einhelt Steilau, December 1944

I am so glad to get this shelve queen completed before the end of the year. To refresh your memory, this piece was the subject of three YouTube video demos. 

It languished on my shelve for more than two years and until last week when I got over the doldrums and got it completed over this Christmas weekend. As a twist, I decided to portray a German commando from Otto Skozeny's Einhelt Stteilau during Operation Greif - and hence the blue scarf. My apologies to the fans of the Band of Brothers drama series but my impression of this bust is that of British thespian Damien Lewis in a G.I. costume. On a light-hearted note, do consider this as a mash-up of Band of Brothers and Homeland. 

Cheers,

Calvin