PERSPECTIVES IN MINIATURE: The Second Day

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the words of Wilbur Smith "War is the game played by old men with the lives of the young". The pawn in this game is the combat soldier, represented by the miniature toy soldier; an insignificant being on the battlefield. Combat is the most intense moment of war, where life and death balances on a knife's edge. The results are terrifying and reveal the worst part of our human nature. Conversely, there are moments when it exudes the best of our human spirit. Most of the miniatures you see here are diligently researched from historical sources and handcrafted between scales of 1/35 to 1/16 (approx 50mm to 120mm). The intricate rendition of human expression and fine details not only demonstrates the level of craftsmanship but also serves as a reminder of the fragile nature of human life. I represent no political bias though my miniature creations. My aim is to portray humanity through the chronicles of military history and thus it is my pleasure that I present to you my weblog Perspectives in Miniature.

Calvin Tan

WWII GERMAN UNIFORMS - PERSONAL MIXES BY CALVIN TAN

In conjunction with AK Interactive, this exclusive Gen 3 acrylic paint set is specially composed with the essential colours that I use to render WWII German Uniforms. It contains 18 colours and a small pamphlet with my personal colour mixes. If you are keen to acquire all the colours on my palette to paint a field grey tunic, a splinter pattern zeltbahn, an oak-leaf pattern smock or the Kharkov anorak, look no further, this is the set for you to get started.

CALVIN TAN'S BASIC GUIDE TO FIGURE PAINTING

This instructional DVD published by Model Art magazine was primarily developed for the beginner armour and diorama modeller in mind. The video presentation will feature a variety of easy to master techniques used to render a 1/35 scale plastic injected moulded figure.Topics include proper paint application techniques, choice of brushes as well as some little tricks for painting fine detail. It is fundamentally a showcase of some of my methods and techniques for painting military figures and I am certain it will prove beneficial for any modeller who wishes to improve on figure painting. It is currently available in both Japanese and English.

CALVIN TAN'S GUIDE TO CONVERTING AND PAINTING FIGURES

In this third instalment, I will share my techniques and materials to customize and detail an inexpensive stock plastic figure. Watch as I take you through the steps on how I modify a pose, model details such as hands, belts and webbing and insignias. Learn about working effectively with epoxy putty as well as plastic styrene and paper. As a continuation from my first two DVDs, I will demonstrate how to model and paint a simple groundwork as well as an alternate approach using a monochromatic underpainting to render both a field grey tunic and the World War 2 German Splinter Camouflage pattern on a helmet cover. If you have enjoyed and benefitted from those previous titles, this edition will be a welcome addition to your journey in scale figure modelling – regardless of your current skill level. It is my sincere hope that this could inspire you to embark on your own creative adventure in this fantastic hobby. .

Saturday 5 July 2008

The Second Day

Labels: Model Shows - WE 2008 Girona Spain Posted by CALVIN TAN at 20:40

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

3 comments:

Dani Serrano said...: Hola amigo!!

How was the trip back home? I hope everything was ok!

I guess that the After the Battle bust was painted by J. Martin, not Jose Palomares ;); 13 July 2008 at 08:01
Muteki said...: Any idea if the Sniper painted by Julio Cabos is available to buy?

Why was it critisized?; 23 August 2008 at 12:46
CALVIN TAN said...: You can check out more comments and information about the figure here

Calvin; 25 August 2008 at 23:31