Stuff from Miniature Hobby

I know that its very late in the year and I should not be going for this project. And not only that, I actually do not have a set of paints or even an airbrush, let alone a simple paint brush. And this project in question is actually Starship Modeller's Starfighter's contest.

In my mind, there were already two ship designs which I wanted was more or less confirmed. One would be THE design for the contest while the other is to be the backup design, just in case. And so, I decided to go to Miniature Hobby to get some models that day since Hobby HQ do not open on Sundays. Although the models costs quite a bit, but with the current 40% discount, it was quite reasonable.

Trumpeteer's Modern US Army CH-47D Crew & Infantry.
I was advised to be wary of this brand because it has a lot of hits and misses. On one model, you would have a very accurate and quality molding while another would be so awful that words cannot describe the whole mess that came in the box. This was because, (I cannot verify this) there were various teams working on different models simultaneously. However, this does not mean the price would reflect the quality of the model.

Anyway, what attracted me to this were the five figures, which was more or less the ones I had in mind for my project. The figures comprised of two pilots in sitting posture while the third crew would be

The box art looks quite promising and with the white
background, your eyes quickly focus to the five figures

It is very suprising to get so much sprues from just
that small box. So, it is value for money.

Why did I say that? This is because the figures are
nicely moulded and it has a lot of parts, including
separate shoes.

Because I was only interested in just the figures alone,
this translated to a lot of excess parts or items, which
will be great of I need to kit bash something.

So, if I need helmets, pouches, guns, etc. its all there,
unused on the sprue.

Remember the two soldies in the box art? Well these are
their bodies but the material is very hard vinyl/rubber.
What I liked about this kit is that for the Helicopter crews,
Trumpeteer has included a small helicopter diorama too.

Trumpeteer's 1/32 Mikoyan Gurevich Mig-3
I spotted this kit when I was looking for a decent 1/32 WWII fighter and I was amazed a the price they displayed. Sure, they are bigger and has more details but I am only looking for the basic shape of the fighter. And so, after looking all over the shelves, I found this kit for a very very good price. And although it was not some 'famous' fighter like the P-51D or a P-38, nevertheless, it fit my requirements.

The second kit I got was the 1/32 Mikoyan Gurevich Mig-3
fighter. And for a 1/32 kit, this is huge. Initially, I wanted a
P-51D Mustang of the same scale but because of the price
difference, I chose this instead, which is about 1/4 of the
P-51D, I think

Again, the parts are overwehlmingly generous for a
stingy person like me.

And what's more, they even have photo-etched parts for
when you want to move the aelerons.

This is some of the cockpit detail which I interests
me a lot. I mean, for a custom fighter, and being a
lazy person like me, the basic flooring being there
is a bonus.

Unfortunately, after calculating the time available and
the necessary cash to get tools such as an air-brush, I
had to shelf the project for future because to be honest,
I do not have any modeling tools anymore save for a
plastic sprue-cutter when I was R&D on the Moebius
Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk II kit.

Sticking out your tongue

I forgot why but at that moment in time,
the photo was very meaningful.

And... Kenneth came back

Well, he did. And we're so looking forward to meeting him. Not. Ha ha ha ha! This time, he's bringing his months old kid as well. They got lucky because his Wife had a job in UK due to them needing ore accountants to 'sync' with the American accounting systems.

To get into the proper mood, we need a conducive
surrounding and what better than Toys r Us. I
know its weird but we all used to hang out at these
places for years. Luckily there were no chairs or
we would be there for hours. Which, is not a good
thing because that's where his Wife can find him

Sharing an underground joke in Subway.

Kit showing everyone the wonders of iPad.
That's when the bug bit me harder, then
the first time when sh showed it to me,
weeks before.

KFC for the Hols

Today is, I think, Thaipusam. But I still have to work. So, this means its not a Holiday for me. Boo-hoo. But since all our customers are also on Holiday, I am literally free.

And so, I used the time to reorganise my table and clear all the unwanted pieces of paper. There were a lot of documents that needs to be file and archived. By the time I finished one file, it was already lunch-time. And for lunch, Boss treated everyone for some KFC. Yeah!

Because I am not so particular with drinks and
choice of chicken, etc. I just ate what was 'left'
from the distributed boxes. It's free and I still
cannot understand why the rest of the staff
have to be so choosy between spicy and original.

And so, I got spicy since most people here do not eat
spicy stuff. This is so weird.

There you go, my 1980's original KFC Burger
before they implemented it a few years ago.

And again, I got more coleslaw than my own share
because not many people liked them. Yum-yum.

Trip to Putrajaya

Today is my first time to Putrajaya. Although I have heard of this place for years, but I have never thought of going there. Well, not in this lifetime, I guess.

And the best part is, I really do need the GPS to go there. What really made my day was that the Nokia's OVI Maps is quite decent now, compared to the Garmin XT which for the past few months, hang the phone a lot. I know my Nokia 5800 is cacat (going nuts) already and this did not help the situation.

Anyway, when I reached Putrajaya, all I can say was, "Wow"

Yeah, "Wow"

Its like you have just stumbled onto some rich bloke's private pool. But for the non-patriotic minds, they would be saying, "Whoa! What a perfect place for carpet bombing!". Every building belongs to a Ministry (or will be, when everyone moves in here) and when you enter each one of them, its like a Hotel. Which pretty much sums up everything in Putrajaya.

After meeting with the person, I decided to
have a look around and this is a very
interesting display of a crop which could
or, supplement the tobacco. Its called
kenaf. And its fibres are very useful.

For one, it can be made into consumer
grade cloth.

And this is a very environmentally friendly and
healthy product of the tobacco. Just as long as
you do not chew it, with glue, leaves and all ....

Products of rubber wood. I kind of like our
rubber wood because it is abundant and not
only that, its tropicalised to our weather. But
if you were to ask me about its characteristics,
I am not so sure except that it won't bounce
about if you throw it around...

Man, I am so tempted to take this bottle
home with me...

I forgot what it was but damn, its beautiful.

Also, the place was promoting cocoa too. And here is
one of the ways, which is to get you to buy the recipe
book which tells you how to incorporate them into
your favourite dish. Personally, I prefer them in
bite-size chocs.

Did you know that, in order to make those
chocolates with fillings, you need a mold?

Fried Butter Prawns with Cornflakes and Cocoa

Chocolate herbal Vegetable Rice

Cocoa Chick Pea Rice

See what I mean? There are places where you can sit
and relax, just like a Hotel except that there is no buffet

The road is wonderful. In fact, I am not surprised
if there are drag races here at night in the very
near future once the whole Rakyat knows about it

Tron Deluxe Identity Disk

I am getting more and more desperate because I really
want the tron Deluxe identity Disk and here I am, like
a fool, visiting toys R Us almost weekly to see if they
stock them and the movie starts in 2 weeks time, which
is very close if i really want to take one apart to modify.

[Later on, they do not stock them because the toys
were licensed to Spindrift, which is unheard of with
the local importers here. So, Toys R U are not going
to bring them in despite their American shops did.]

An afternoon at MATRADE

A few years ago, when I was based in Kepong, I usually pass by this building very frequently in the morning. And this building has a very interesting story to it. If you want to know more, Google is your best friend. It is very easy to spot this building because of its arches. And when you get near to it, it is very impressive. Just remember not to stare at it when you're driving.

Being there really opened my eyes about the government and also, as a Nation, what Malaysia can really do.

Here is a model of the building where the entrance is
at the rear. There is a very large parking area in the
lower left of the model but it was always 'blocked'.

During the moment of my visit, MATRADE was having
an Art Expo. But I was too preoccupied with staring at
the building's interiors to take much interest.

That was not until I star to take some photos did I
notice the significance of the Expo. I mean, how else
would a Hello Kitty model show up of all things?

And with something from Andy Warhol, this Expo
must be very very important. But in my usual self,
"Who cares?"

It was that on one of these floors, the displays
attracted me. This floor showcases what our
local boys can do.

There were rows and rows of displays which
highlights a lot of impressive products. Some
things which I have never imagined Malaysia
could come up.

And at every bottom shelf is a drawer which one
can pull out for brochures and name cards.

Some local tile manufacturers can even produce silver
ones which has mirror finish. Wow.

And some of the furniture design which I have
never seen except from some European or
Oversseas catalogues

How they managed to get the Alza in, is not important.
What is more important was, how Perodua got in and
Proton did not. Ha ha ha ha.

Yes, we do manufacture condoms as rubber is still
one of Malaysia's commodity. I was about to be
convinced of this brand's product as it was all over
the counters in Malaysia, especially at 7-11....

That is, until I saw their back-up product,
which is baby bottles and stuff. Its like them
saying, in case our product failed....

And now, what really made me happy were these.
To the normal eye, they're just some yellowish
clear chess pieces.

But to those in the know, these are made from those
RM100K over 3D printers. For there is no way one
can reproduce the spiralling staircase using normal
plastic injection or casting process. I was hunting
for this service for years and its still too expensive.

And the latest in technology is that the 3D printers
can now create your models with colours. This is a
very important step. And in a few more years, if
everything is OK, almost anyone can make a 3D
model for hobby, work, etc. All they need is to
download a 3D file fro the Internet. Its like a low
level Star Trek replicator. Unfortunately, like the
photocopier and bank notes, everyone would be
trying to make 3D guns and weapons as well.

Going to Mid-Valley

So, I rushed back after the accident and not wanting to spoil the mood for everyone, I kept the news from my Wife until after the shopping trip. We needed to go to Mid-Valley because there were some last minute shopping to do for the girl's up coming School Concert.

Because Deepavali was around the corner, the
beautiful Kolams were everywhere.

Like ants to sugar, so were clumsy fools to Kolams

One of the nice things was that we had dinner
at Pizza Hut and well, I am starting to like the
spaghetti...

Later, my Wife lamented that things like this always happens when she calls me to go home as soon as possible. The problem came the next day: Because my Bengmobile is about to celebrate its 14th Birthday, the Insurance Agent advised me to just take the money from the Chinese and repair it myself instead of lodging the Police report. This was because I had a very nice NCB and also, if I did claim it, I would still get the money but I would be 'blacklisted' by a lot of Insurance companies. This would mean a very difficult situation when i want to renew the car's insurance in the coming year.

Sigh. With my current financial situation, this is going to be very difficult and we still need about a year more to clear some things.

Being sodomised

Maybe I should have titled: Accidentally sodomised. Or maybe, The Rear Fender Bender. Anything goes but it still does not change the fact that I was hit from behind.

And I really hate things like this.

It all happened on my way home. Where everyone was stuck in the jam on Jalan Desa towards Mid-Valley/Federal Highway. So, it was just a bumper to bumper crawl where, nothing exciting will ever happen. But no, in my case, regardless of any situation, things will happen.

So, there I was, moving and stopping until for some unknown reason, I looked something made me look up into my rear view mirror. what I saw was a silver car, coming towards me at a very fast speed. from experience, I know what will happen so, I quickly shift to first gear but by reflex, I engaged the handbrake and stomped on the brakes very hard. And braced for impact. Why did I do that? I do not know either. But later on, I realised that if I actually did that, I would not have enough time and that car would still hit me, which in return, I would hit the car in the front. More than that, I could have caused another accident IF some stupid driver happen to be using the emergency lane as well.

Bang.

And that was it.

Out came some two young chaps to see what happened leaving the two young girls to stay in the car. First bad news was that he is Chinese, as in "Made in China" Chinese which complicate things more. Luckily, he can speak a bit of English. And the second bad news was, this was not his car. Coming from China, I know that this he is not familiar with the cars here and I guessed that he stepped on the accelerator instead of the brakes.

So, I just told him to make a Police Report after we exchanged info. And that's it. I was not prepared to deal with it and talk things out because there was other urgent matters to take care of.

And so, my Bengmobile was sodomised. Not much
damage except that I would need to replace the rear
bumper and also repair the dents.

The Chinese guy's car was not so lucky. The damage was
quite severe eventhough this photo showed otherwise. If
I took it from another angle, you would have seen that the
whole front had actually caved in. This was caused by the
strong metal square beam at the rear of my Bengmobile.

Getting rusty

Damn!

I am getting rusty. Just less than 10 months out, I am starting to forget basic programs. Here, I am asking why an extension that was allowed to call Mobile Phones was actually barred. And I was stumped for half an hour until I realised that the codes I was following in the customer's notes was wrong. In fact, Class 1 was actually supposed to begin with code 103 and not 101.

This is one of the problems when you deal with your former customers with your new job. I just happened to be there when I was discussing about their diaries. And I am not supposed to be doing phones.

Sorry for the tech-speak. I just needed that. I think I still miss this job. Sigh.