Drawings by Khor Seow Hooi

Saw this book on sale at Books Kinokuniya. Drawings by Khor Seow Hooi
There are some really nice watercolour renderings of rustic scenes (the cover is indicative of what to expect inside) from malaysia, singapore and china.

Trex Mech gear

Here's a quick peek at the latest progress for the Trex Mech project. I've attached the 2 bedrolls I created in a previous post. You can see the resin cast belt buckles and the nicely painted straps. I used Leukoplast elastic adhesive tape which is a rubberised fabric tape meant for first aid purposes. The fabric pattern is an excellent representation of webbing material in 1/6 scale. Of course I had to paint and weather it first.
You can see that I've also added some extra gear around the bedrolls. These are loose WW2 German 1/6 scale accessories - a gasmask canister, bread bag and mess tin. I've attached them temporarily to see how it would look, I still have to paint these guys.

alien is a tiger?

Part 3 of my alien bust Gha Nachkt. This time I've brush painted in the details using vallejo model color acrylic vinylic paints for the head and Tamiya acrylics for the shirt. It seems I've failed to replicate my reference image from the previous post. Instead, I've ended up with something that looks like a tiger!? well, hopefully the subsequent shading and highliting will fix this, fingers crossed. As for the shirt, I've rough semi dry-brushed on blue and field blue to get a brush painted texture look that is the signature of the Clone Wars TV series. The shirt also still needs shading and highliting, but glossiness aside, I do feel the shirt is coming along better than the head.

Diecast Totoro Bus

I got a wonderful treat from a friend of mine last week. He gave me a miniature diecast replica of the commuter bus from the Miyazaki animated movie Totoro purchased from the Ghibli museum. Awesome! Click on the highlited words to find out more about this movie. Meanwhile, the miniature bus comes with a bus stop sign and 2 ultra mini totoros.The bus itself features a simple interior (no passengers or driver), rubber tires and clear plastic windows. The box also comes with a small picture (printed on cardboard) of the scene from the movie where the girls are waiting for their father to come home on the bus at night just after the rain.
Now the gears in my mind started a churning - a potential project! How about nice little shadow box diorama of the scene complete with driver and passengers, lit lamp post, rain effect and of course scratchbuilt figs of the girls, totoro and the umbrella? Would be nice, but I guess this will be anothe one of those ideas filed away in the back of the long list of projects. We'll see, we'll see.

Merry Christmas!

Ooh, a Merry Christmas to one and all!

Bedrolls for Trex Mech

One of the first things I have ever learned to do in terms modelling my own accessories is how to make my own bedrolls from scratch. I learned this from the book "How to Build Dioramas"by Sheperd Paine. If you are ever going to buy only 1 book on modeling in your lifetime then this is the book I would recommend bar none!

So for my Trex Mech project, I wanted to load it up with a bunch of accessories to give it a lived in look. And bedrolls is our first stop. It's a very simple thing really. I take a piece of wet towel, the kind you get from restaurants, and cut this to twice the width of my bedrolls and long enough to give it some bulk when rolled up. I fold in the sides to make it look thicker and then roll it up. I use a bit of white glue at the end. I then tied it up with some thick dental floss cause I couldnt find any string at home. The larger of the 2 bedrolls had some synthetic foam filler rolled inside to bulk it up.
When the dry, they were painted with acrylic paints. In hind site, I could have sealed it with some white glue or primer before painting to get a smoother paint surface. In the picture you can see some resin buckles I've cast for the straps that will secure the bedrolls to the mech. I really like how they turned out and will one more bigger and longer tarp to hang onto the side of the mech.

dolls for dudes

Another one of my virtual hangouts added to the links section, this time its a forum site dedicated to 1/6 scale action figures: www.onesixthwarriors.com
It's a good source for up to date news about the world of 12 inch dolls and occasionally you'll come across some awesome custom builds.

art books anyone?

One of my favourite pass times is browsing the local comic book shop. Tonight I came across some art books that might be interesting:

As usual, it's overpriced here compared to Amazon prices. As for the Dangerous Curves book, it seems to be even cheaper from the Alibris online store.

alien has a name

Part 2 of the alien bust sculpt project. Gha Nachkt is the name of this character, as you can see from the wookieepedia link. I've started painting the sculpt and you can see the current progress pics below:I hand brushed a Tamiya flat black acrylic paint basecoat. Then airbrushed flat white to preshade the bust. A final basecolor of copper mixed with orange was airbrushed on for the head and a field blue mixed with a little flat green for the shirt. Next step is to brush paint the texture details. Not entirely satisfied with the original textures for the character used on the show. It lacked lizard-like detail that would look awesome on a painted 3d bust. So I looked around the internet to find some lizard pics to usea as reference. I saw a cool pic of a forest crested lizard from the flying kiwi web page. Its the 4th picture down on the first right hand column.

Whoever designed Gha Nachkt must have been inpired by the J.F. Sebastian character in Blade Runner! This was played by actor William Sanderson. Check out the collar ;)

Where the Plush Things Are

At www.sukisuki.nl that's where. Got a pleasant surprise today when I found out that a uni batchmate of mine had been creating (and selling) her own line of designer plush creatures.Do check out her etsy shop and flickr page if you're (into) soft and cuddly (designer toys). Next stop - Vinylville...

WoW - cinematic art book

I was trawling around Borders half a feature film ago where lo and behold - The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King - greeted me with open arms. Enticing me with red and yellow label of S$44 instead of the usual S$58. Hmmmmm...I was a tad disappointed with the art book that came with my WarCraft III collectors box from 6 years ago. So once bitten twice shy. I am hoping I can find some reviews of this new book on the web. Anyone? please post a comment or drop me an email if you've got something to say about this book:

Make mine a Ma.K

Maschinen Krueger (Ma.K for short) is a sci-fi universe created by famous Japanese designer Kow Yokoyama. It's been around for more than 2 decades now but still very popular among sci-fi and military modelers. It is one of the biggest influence when I designed the trex mech.So without further ado, I share with you a sampling of my favorite Ma.K related links in a new column on my side bar Ma.K Attack! enjoy! Plus a bonus link to an inspiring sci-fi modeler Fitchen Foo.

gary choo gallery link

added - see creative buddies link list on the right side panel
This is one talented dude!

He sculpts he paints.

Ghazghkull Rising

This version of Games Worshop's Ghazghkull white metal figure came out in sometime mid-2000. Part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the half ork half machine warlord was the scourge of the imperium. This awesome sculpt by Brian Nelson is loaded with lots of deliciously tiny details. It's just to good to resist painting.
So I reckon I got mine around the time it came out - about 8 years ago. Kept it in the box until 2006 when I took it out and assembled it. Early 2008 is when I got the courage to paint it. I got to about 80% finished before procrastination set in. In the meantime, I had thought about incorporating the fig in vignette to show the fierceness of this creature. The image below shows Ghazghkul's current painted stated and the mockup for the vignette.
The human figure is converted from a 1/48 scale aircraft carrier crewman and he will be holding some sort of blaster weapon pointed at our green and red dude.

alien bust sculpt w.i.p.

Here's another one of my many ongoing projects. Its a 2 inch high bust of an alien villain character from a current popular animated TV series. I sculpted it during my spare time and finished the sculpt more than a year ago. I've procrastinated till now on casting it so that I can finally paint it. But a few weeks ago, I finally got off my butt, whipped up some latex and courage. After 3 weeks and 5 coats, I got my one piece mould sorted. I quickly made a resin cast so as to procrastinate on procrastinating. As you can see from the photo below, the cast came out fine with the exception of a few airbubbles. The bigger ones on the pocket and eye brow were filled with magic sculpt while the smaller ones on the tip of the teeth was filled with 5 minute epoxy.
All in all not too bad for a month's worth of on and off work. I've got him up to an initial brushed on tamiya acrylic flat black basecoat. Next step after some mini-procrastination is to airbrush on the base colors for skin and shirt. Holidays are coming up, so I foresee having some time to finishe this before the year ends.

forest of cranes

Our taxi driver tonight took the not so oft traveled path right smack in the heart of the Marina Bay's IR construction site. I suddenly found myself in this surreal landscape, it seems I am in a forest too close to see the trees, metal crane trees that is.

A Few Magical Clicks

Woohoo, after several years of hard work, Singapore finally gets to see the fruits of our labor! George Lucas' The Clone Wars TV series is finally showing on Singapore MediaCorp's Channel 5. The first episode will be aired at 9pm on the 6th of December.
But I'm a tad pi**ed off. Yesterday I saw a piece of video clip which aired in the local TV channel. If media is the source of infallible truth, then my job is reduced to nothing more than just performing a few magical clicks of the mouse. It seems that I'm over paid for spending more than 8 hours a day for the past 3 years just doing a few magical clicks here and there. I wonder how our accountants can justify the budget for the entry under magical key clickers. I need to get my name card reprinted and a new t-shirt made. Grrr, if I see that Mr. DL, I'll give him a few magical clicks he won't forget.
Oh well, enough b****ing. I hope you guys enjoy the show!

Virtual Hangouts

I've added a bunch of links to my blog. First off is a list of blogs by friends of mine who are into toys, graphic arts and animation. I call it my creative buddies list. The second is a list of my virtual hangouts - sites that I regularly check to feed my insatiable appetite for toy and model related news and discussion topics. Its where I get my daily fix of inspiration! I've got tons more, but it will take time to sort it all out.

Trex Mech w. i. p.

Here's a project I started in July 2008. As part of a maquette building workshop. I chopped up a 10 inch blank Trexi and hot glued bits of wire, lego, straw tubing, a chopped up water pistol and some parts from cheap plastic toys. I am currently calling it a Trex Mech for lack of a better term. The 'pilot' is an old 12inch action figure that needs some clothing S:|

Although it looks finished, I am still planning to add some bedrolls and duffel bags. Also plan to layer more weathering onto the paint job. But obviously my fickle interests prevents me from finishing it once and for all. Here's my excuse, I needed to make some buckles for the bedrolls that I want to add on. So I've made a mould based on a Dragon 12 inch figure's buckle. I've only got one of these and I need at least 4 hence the need to cast duplicates. I've also included some mech details on the mould as you can see below:
And finally, I just got this mag from a friend of mine. I normally don't read Art's Projects mag but this one's devoted to character and toy design. Hmmmm...very interesting. I'll be reading this on the bus and possibly the loo for the next week or so. If it's compelling enough I'll post a review on it, stay tuned.

Second Post

Yay! I made it to my second post. The thing with me is that I have a bit of a short attention span. My mind flutters freely from one project to the next. It is a wonder that I can finish a project at all. Part of the goal of this blog is for me to document the progress of my various projects. Hopefully this will help me focus on each piece and finish it within a reasonable amount of time. Really, 3 years is way too long to build a 2 inch long model of a jeep.

Tear off the shrink wrap!

Hi my name is Sonny, I've been into scale modeling for some 20+ years or so. I'd like to write about some of my experiences in this fantastic plastic world of miniatures.

I'm based in this tropical modeling paradise called Singapore.

I'd recently won some vouchers thanks to the generous sponsors for the recently concluded MCON 2008 here in Singapore. So I spoiled myself even though I decided 6 months ago that there is definitely no more room for loot in the stash. Here's what I got:Not bad if I do say so myself. If you are a keen modeler you'd recognize that that's a lot of 1/72 scale kits in there. I have to confess, I'm a braille scaler.
Here's a bit of a sample from a SAS Jeep build feature I wrote for Armorama recently. That little jeep is responsible for half the loot in the pics above.
The other half came from this tiny scene I built.
p.s. it really should say Marder III instead of Marder II - my bad :(

It's getting late I need to wake up 7 hours from now if I want to...