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

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

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

The Big Day!

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The day got off to a good start for me as I was awaken to the smell of freshly baked croissants and butter rolls.

A picture of the kitchenette in the dining hall of the Hotel Margarit, notice in far center the oven where the fresh croissants and rolls are made, ahhhhh........

A shot of the medieval city Girona in the morning on the way towards the exhibition/contest halls.

I must say right from the start, the show was very well organized.(Possibly the best I've ever attended). Though the expected long wait in the queue for registration, it was however made enjoyable by the wonderful company of friends whom I've not met for a long time. And despite a fee of 30 Euros, every participant was entitled to an environmentally friendly shopping bag, a discount voucher from Corte Inglés (a nice touch to keep the wives and girlfriends busy ) and a voucher to redeem a souvenir item commemorating the show. I picked the Raul Latorre figure as I did not want to cough out another 20 euros for the fantasy piece. Goodies aside, because most of the registration was done via the internet, upon arrival at the registration station, all contestants received an envelope containing the show pass (with the flag of their representing countries), a printed list of their contest entries accompanied by two sets of bar-coded stickers ; one attached to the contest entry and the other retained by the contestant for retrieval purposes towards the end of the show.

The show pass and envelope with my registration number and entry particulars.

The contingent from Singapore and Malaysia at the entrance of the show.

Lunch buffet at a Chinese diner 5 minutes walk away from the convention center.

Friends from today's show:

Together with Quang and Anemie from Pilipili Miniatures

Marijn Van Gils

Here are some of my favorite picks from part of the judges' display:

Bill Horan

 The Cannone Brothers

Diego Ruina

Adrian Bay

Gianfranco Speranza

Marijn van Gils

Mike Blank

Pepe Gallardo

The show closed at 8pm and as we left the convention halls, we made plans with Bernard Lutsig and a couple of other guys to meet again later for dinner and drinks somewhere in the town center.

Hasta Mañana,

Calvin