We started Esther and David on miniatures painting with some larger models, first, which are horses from the Empire Pistoliers/Outriders set. The horses are less detailed and larger, easier for the beginners.
After assembly before painting:
Esther painting her horse white:
David painting his horse beige:
Here is the completed Boromir by YowCH.
Look Joseph can wink:
Refering back to an earlier post on 28 Aug 2011, you can see that the children are very happy with the “O”, ie hole-in-the-wall at Block 38.
After playing the rather low cost “Tribal” training guitar for almost 2 years, YowCH got a new “Ibanez” guitar on 9 Sept 2011. The new guitar (black) sounds much better, has nice neck and closer frets and a built-in pick-up with tuner. It is slightly longer than the Tribal and weights more, but sounds much brighter.
Games Bunker is a new table-top gaming shop opened in Funan centre recently, selling mostly Games Workshop products. After a long contemplation, and seeing that Esther is interested in miniatures painting while David is interested in the wargames, YowCH took out his old paints, brushes, miniatures and tools to restart this hobby again. Sadly, lead miniatures are mostly discontinued as lead is poisonous. The current ones are cast in resin, not as detailed, lighter and not so easy to modify the pose.
Here are 4 Space Marines painted about 20 years ago when YowCH was only 17:
And here is the current workspace, started on 7 Sept 2011:
The first try-out was with the Lord of The Rings set from Citadel Miniature of Games Workshop:
The following photos shows the last 4 of the 5 basic steps:
0. Cut the models out of the sprue, trim and assemble with plastic glue and file-off to detail.
1. The models of Gimli and Legolas after assembly.
2. White washed as the undercoat.
3. Base coat of colours.
4. Detailed first by deep shading the dark areas, then dry-brushing the highlights, followed by washing and blending, and finally details like the faces, weapons, clothes, etc.
This is a closer view of Gimli, Gandalf and Legolas (Gandalf was the first figure in the set to be painted, can be seen on the workspace photo above).
Currently, Baromir and Aragorn are being worked on, base coat done:
We enjoyed Saturday morning with a hike at Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve with some eFG friends. Click on the photos to go to the page.
Esther, David and Joseph performed two songs in church last Sunday for Workers’ Appreciation Day.
Today is Hari Raya holiday, and church organised an outing to the Botanic Garden, and this is the eFG canvas:
That’s Joseph and Miriam across a rock with a hole like Gnomeo and Juliet:
This photo is about the church group photo:
And here is eFG (except Quincy, Wynn and Jonah who left earlier):
After the outing, we had lunch at Rumah Tinggi Goldhill Chicken Rice:
The children had fun running about after lunch, and a neighbour boy joined them.
YowCH’s parents are in town for Yan’s new baby girl. We had a dinner on Saturday evening at Linda’s (Hakka food) at Telok Ayer Street with Grace’s parents and sister, and YowCH’s brother-in-law Ping Quen and nephew Siu Hei. The restaurant is very homely and the food tasty.
Yan and Si Wan (less than a week old) is of course absent.
As we walked home, Joseph visited the favourite hole-in-the-wall at Block 38, and his pose was really cool, just like Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man:
The baby girl of my sister, Yong Si Wan 杨思昀 (yáng sī yún), was born today (22 Aug 2011) at about 10:30am. She is the sister of Siu Hei and a new cousin of Esther, David and Joseph.
That’s us visiting the new baby at Mount Alvernia Hospital:
After thirteen years, to a few days, YowCH got himself a new watch. Still a Seiko automatic, also black-faced and running Seiko’s 7S26 movement on 21 jewels. The “5″ in the “Seiko 5″ series reflects the five essential features of the watch, namely shock resistant, water resistant, automatic, and day/date display.
The much loved old watch was starting to run a few minutes slower everyday, and sometimes stops in the night even with it being worn at almost all times (including sleep, shower and swim). Servicing is recommended every 5 to 8 years to change lubricating oil and re-calibrate the watch, and at 13 years most certainly needed. However, at almost half the price of a new watch, better to buy a new one :).
We visited Alexandra Canal Park again on Saturday 20 Aug, this time with Grace, too, and on the Tanglin side (last week was River Valley side). Lots of fun running around.
The gardeners had just cut the reeds and left them on the walkway, so the children had fun waving them around (they did not pluck the plants).
For dinner, we went with Yan, PQ and Siu Hei for Japanese pasta at Marina Bay Link. Very nice food to enjoy with Yan who’ll be delivering her daughter coming Monday.
