Young Miniatures - 506PIR, 101st Airborne, Bastogne 1944

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Finally after two weeks into the year 2009, here's my built-up review of Young Miniatures bust of an US Soldier sculpted by Hiroyuki Ishii. This marks Ishii-San's most recent collaboration with Young Miniatures and in my opinion one of his finest work to date.

The kit consists of ten components packed in a sponge cushioned sturdy black box. Upon closer examination, one can fully appreciate the high level of Ishii's workmanship testified by the intricate motifs on the buttons, the fine lining of the fabric seams and the smooth and flawless finish. It's also interesting to note that the sculpting has a stylized and precise quality to it as shown by the rendering of the creases and the treatment of the webbing's texture.

Removing the molding plugs was made much easier by first softening them slightly with a heat gun/hot air blower and slicing them off with a sharp blade.Thus as far as common knowledge goes, I would advice against using this approach for thinner items.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the face was painted at a "live" demo workshop during M Con. In favor of atmosphere and feel, I opted to paint the face in cooler tones by incorporating a little Prussian Blue to the shade colours.

The texture of the wool coat was depicted by carefully stippling various colour mixes of US Field Drab, Wood, Beige Brown, US Olive Drab and SS Camo Black Brown(owing to the degree of illumination on the surface's relief) until a dense appearance is achieved.

Other effects such as the wooden stock of the M1 Garand and the leather straps was painted with artists' oils. A light blow from the hairdryer helped to manipulate the resin strap to appear taut when slung over the shoulder.

Calvin

M CON - A Resounding Success!!!!!

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After many months of anticipation and planning, the premier scale modelling event in Singapore has finally came to a successful conclusion over the last weekend. Expectations of crowd turn-out and entries far superseded everyone's expectation(mine included) as from what I understood a major Gundam modelling contest held in the vicinity as well.
Nonetheless, great displays provided by both the contestants and jury; coupled with the central location downtown still made it irresistible for some to sneak a long lunch break during the week days to soak up the wonderful atmosphere here.

Apart from being entrusted with the key role of judging the contest entries in a panel of top notch local modellers; I was also scheduled to conduct a painting demo workshop and sculpting presentation last Friday night and co-chaired a talk/presentation on armor modelling with Dinesh on the following day.

Though I've taken privy to post some pictures taken from my camera, do also check out the additional reports and pictures for both event and contest entries as well as the modelling scene in Singapore over at SprueCutters and Plamo Forum.

The view of the exhibition hall from the front entrance.

Dinesh, John and Leslie judging the aircraft category.

Siew Keong and I judging the ships category.

The turn-out on Sunday afternoon for the awards ceremony.

The folks from the M Workshop who formed part of the organizing and staff committee of M Con 2008.

As an afterthought, I must express that it was a great privilege to have been a part of this premier scale modelling event. Though it was the first ever event managed by the organizing and staff committee, everyone clearly knew their roles and when necessary, eagerly chipped in to get matters resolved.Well done folks!

Despite the humble number of entries, the judges still took pains to go through each submitted entry as to ensure the rewards were fairly meted out .

The visitor turn-out was also surprising good. I noticed a lot of interaction and sharing of concepts techniques and ideas amongst the modellers themselves. I wished I could have more time to mingle more but alas like most shows, time was limited. Nonetheless, there's always the opportunity to meet up at the M Workshop to pick up where the conversation last stopped.

Finally, here's a snapshot of the 1/9 scale bust sculpted by Hiroyuki Ishii-Sensei sponsored by Young Miniatures which was the subject of my "live" demo workshop last Friday night. He looks happier here than on the box art; perhaps getting pulled back from the foxhole to get some hot chow. More on that soon and especially on rendering of the wool texture.

cheers,

Calvin