Its officially 31st December today in Malaysia and come tomorrow, the new year begins. 2010 has been a hell of a roller coaster ride for me and I'm sure for others as well, but it does have its moments. Far be it for me to reminence on what transpired in 2010 cause to me, what's done is done, period, finitto. Now its time to look ahead to 2011, face whatever challenge that comes my way, and pray real hard this new year will be better than the last. And my prayer to all my viewers as well for 2011
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful year ahead, with lots of health, wealth and blah blah blah .. you know, the usual season greetings. And since this is a scale modeler blog, I also wish that many of you will be able to get those kits you were vying for, build them ... and let me highlight them here .. HAHAHA!
In case any of you are wondering, 2011 is the year of the Bunnies .... no, no, not those Bunnies
This one. Its Rabbit year. The year to get cuddly and cute.
2010 has come and pass and as we bid farewell to a year which saw lousy economy almost throughout the whole world over, and weird weather to make matter worse, we also bid our final farewells to celebrities that have passed on that year. These are stars I either grew up watching, or became fond of in the later years. They will be missed. I believe there are more celebrities that has died in the list but I'm only putting those I can relate with here, and as a sign of respect and my way of saying thank you for keeping all of us entertained.
Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia in Discovery's Reality Show "Deadliest Catch".
He was 53 and passed on after suffering from a massive stroke on 9 Feb.
Corey Haim, 80's teen idol with films like "Lucas", "Lost Boys".
Died of prescription overdose on 18 May. He was 38
Dennis Hopper, starred in many movies. Passed on at 74 on 29 May of Prostate Cancer
Eddie Fisher, musician and father to Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)
Passed on at 82 on 22 Sept
Frances Reid, who played Alice Horton in "Days of Our Lives, passed on at 95 on Feb 3
Gary Coleman from Different Strokes. His trademark "whatcha talking about, Willis?"
became a household icon. Passed on at 42 on 28 May of intracranial hemorrhage
Jill Clayburgh. I remembered her from the movie "An Unmarried Woman",
lost her battle with Cancer at 66 on 5 Nov
John Forsythe, the voice of Charlie in Charlie's Angels, and also Dynasty.
Many doesn't know this, but he was the mysterious Robin Masters in Magnum PI as well.
Passed on at 93 on 1st April
Leslie Nielsen, an icon for slapstick comedy such as Airplane and Naked Gun.
Passed away from pneumonia at 84 on 28 Nov. Shirley he will be missed.
Lynn Redgrave, starred in many movies. Passed on at 67 on 2 May
Peter Graves. He made Mission Impossible what it is today.
Passed on at 83 on 14 March
Rue McClanahan, best known for her role as maneater/southern belle Blanche Devereaux on
"The Golden Girls, passed on at 76 on 3 June
Tom Bosley who played Mr. Cunningham in Happy Days.
He was 83 when he died on 19 October
Tony Lee Curtis. His dashing good looks and quippy smart aleck remarks sets him apart from others.
He was 85 when he died on 29 Sept
May all of you rest in peace under the arms of the Almighty.
Or at least I believe this one is cause I haven't seen any others yet that are done up this well. I can't remember who build this as I found these images under my generic BSG image folder, but I do know the builder had put up his work on eBay. If you know who build this, do let me know and I'll assign the credits to him/her.
Some of the accessories on his diorama do look familiar (yeah, I've highlighted the Viper's ladder and Tool Cart before but I believe these were scratch build ... I could be wrong too) but the hangar bay set up does look nice. I'm not sure if this one is 100% accurate, but this guy was the first to come up with one, and a nice one at that too. Congrats on such a nice build up.
There were also other accessories done up for a hangar bay diorama but I haven't heard any updates from these, nor do I remember who was building them. They're still great to look at and can serve as a reference material for others who wants to emulate them. The ladder below do not look like the same one done up by Larson Designs, so I really don't know who the creator for these are. Drop me a note if you do and I'll again give them due credit.
As for the rest of us (including me) who are still planning of creating a hangar bay diorama for the new Galactica, let these be an inspiration to get cracking soon. So Say We All!!!
I have always been fascinated with Japanese Scale Modelers as they always seem to come up with the best stuff. A lot of kits we have seen in Japan either from magazines or the net have at most times blew our minds away, especially when you scrutinize the level of details and modifications done to their kits. Another area that many have been impressed with are their paint work given to their kits - always superbly done up with an almost zero mistake tolerance - excellent.
I remembered there was one build up of the Venator class Star Destroyer done up with lights last year, and the builder modified the kit to include detailed hangar bay docks with miniature fighters and troop carriers. The kit was displayed in an event with a lot of its hangar bay open, revealing a busy destroyer in the midst of a shake down cruise, and the best part was that the miniatures themselves was so beautifully crafted to near perfection. I'm not sure if a 3D printer was used but it sure looks like it cause I still can't figure out how this guy got them so neat. The kit caught so many attention from everyone else all over the world as I see quite a few highlights of her. Unfortunately I can't find images of this build at the moment nor do I know who built it (sorry, can't read Japanese) but I'll add them here later when I do find them.
One such scale modeler that I know of goes by the nick Adamada2010 from the Starship Modeler forum. Adamada hails from Osaka, Japan, and his written English is quite good. I say this cause I have a few Japanese friends in Malaysia and they can speak well, but not write well. Adamada does not modify much of the original kit but he still does an excellent build up. I dare say his forte is really lighting up his kits.
I first saw his fantastic build up of Fine Molds 1/144 scale Millenium Falcon (the smaller kit, not that 1/72 scale humongous one) and how he applied lighting to his kit. The end result was simply mind boggling - it looks almost like a studio model. He had inserted a total of 24 LEDs into the kit, specifically at the Engine exhaust, the cockpit, gun turrets, the Falcon's undercarriage, headlights (if that is what those are called) and the landing gear bays. Impressive.
Next up is his version of Moebius Galactica. Overall paint job was simple but effective, and by providing lights to this beauty, he literally brought the Galactica to life. Abet some of the lights are not where they are suppose to be, but they do give out the desired effects. 25 LEDs were used lighting up the landing bays on the flight pods, the red lights at the recess area, the turrets and several cabin lights throughout the ship. Check out his streaming lights on the flight pod. Lights are not suppose to be there but the effects were great.
And lastly this is his work done up on the Classic Cylon Raider. Using a toy's LED circuit, he bounces of flashing lights (left to right and back) for the guns, added in a red light on the left wing tip and green light on the right. Engine exhaust are all flared up in bright blue with a twist of ingenuity of adding on a set of of ION engines (those 2 red lights at the rear end of the fighter)
I'll have to admit that this guy's work is good. Given time, he is going to come up with another masterpiece yet. I was browsing through his photo album and saw these couple of pictures, and if its a prelude of things to come, I'm definitely keeping my eyes on this guy's build.
