Michael Jackson was a part of my childhood. I vividly remember the time I was around 8 or 9, lying in front of my radio listening to his album Dangerous (borrowed from a friend), while closely examining the details on the CD cover (I think CDs just came out at the time, plus the details of the cover intrigued me...). I remember sitting in the basement of my home watching the movie Moonwalker on LD on my home karaoke system.... I remember staying up late, even though I was sleepy, just to watch the television premier of Ghost.....

Sure he was slightly crazy. I suppose from the release of Bad onwards he was already going down the drain. After You Rock My World, I guess that's when things started crashing to the ground....

Yet somehow, when I heard of his death, there was merely a slight feeling of surprise. There was no feeling of grief, or shock (as I felt when I heard Steve Irwin had passed on). I guess, I felt like.... I was throwing out the old smelly pillow I used to hug as a kid, that I dug up from the attic after God Knows how many years. There was nostalgia, there was a certain sadness... but there was no grief.

Finally, it's complete. My first Gundam using proper modelling techniques, made out of box. Incidentally, the original ver 1 kit of the same gundam was my very very first Ban Dai kit.

Not perfect, though I did learn a lot from this one kit... For example, turpentine, oil and enamel based paints will destroy a Ban Dai kit. Yeah.... not fun when bits and pieces starts falling off and parts start cracking in inconvenient places to repair.

I'll probably work on the Freedom Gundam Reina gave me or the Greyhound I got from Japan next. Will try to finish it before Sem 3 starts.....

(click on picture if it's too small to see...)

Wow... it's been like... a month since I last posted...

Well, basically, holidays have been mostly three things, modelling, tuition and music, so yeah, even though it sounds pretty uneventful, I hardly have time for much else...

I'm finally done with my StuG III, well, at least, I'm satisfied enough with it. A model is never complete until you're satisfied with it. I thought it was shitty at first, but after some weathering, it turned out pretty ok... I might have overweathered a little though, which is a bad habit i have to kick.

I'm also about done with my gundam. It's not complete as I haven't started weathering, but it's complete enough to show.

Workmanship wise, I think the gundam was better than my tank. Well, as far as modelling goes, I'm still a nub and I can only get better.... I would like to try my hand at competitions though.... It's a shame that Singapore hardly has any Gundam competitions now. Even when they do, it's clearly a sales gimmick by some shopping centre organised to promote the latest line of gundam kits, which is sad for old school fans like me... oh well....

Modelling is really something I wish I had more time to do... It's really addictive. You start work and you simply don't want to stop because, firstly, you wanna perfect what you're working on and secondly, clearing up is damn sian.

I did buy two more tanks while in Japan (which is seriously model heaven - modelling stuff there is super super cheap).

And on top of that, Fiona's host family gave me a gundam :3 :3 :3

(they're really nice people, especially reina :) )

This Gundam is probably going to be my first MSV (mobile suit variation). The theme will be on Robert Oppenheimer's "I am become death" quote. I'll probably give it back to reina if she's coming to Singapore for arts fest and if I can finish it by the time she arrives.

This means that the number of unmade kits I currently have is 6.

I'm developing the symptoms of a hardcore modeller already. I'm starting to hoard models. More models than I have time to finish making... bleah....